OCG BS 1 - Covenant: The Very Gate of Heaven [Chap 2 to 5]

Chapter 2 – I Can Be Secure
- God’s covenant promises are unfailing and therefore to be believed and embraced by His people. [Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26]

---> Covenant made with David: David's descendants will rule over Abraham's descendants [Jeremiah 33:25-26, Galatians 3:6-7]
25 "Thus says the LORD, 'If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established,
26 then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them." [Jeremiah 33:19-26]

Chapter 3 – I Can Trust Him Completely
- First occurrence of the word covenant in the Word of God: Genesis 6:18
18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark--you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you. [Genesis 6:18]

- God obligated Himself to preserve man in the midst of judgment [Chap 3, page 200 - 23]
· Wickedness of man was rampant
· The Lord was grieved in His heart and decided to blot out all mankind on the face of the earth [Genesis 6:5-6]
· He found Noah to be only one who is righteous & blameless [Genesis 6:9]
· He made a covenant with Noah and everything under his care and instructed him to build the ark
· The Judgment of the Flood came
· When the Flood ended, Noah built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed a soothing aroma to God
· God will never curse the ground on account of man, for man’s heart is evil from his youth
· God made an unconditional promise to Noah [Genesis 9:9-11]
· He set a bow in the clouds to as a sign of the covenant to remember the covenant He has made with Noah [Genesis 9:12-16]

--> The Lord made a covenant with Noah: Never again to destroy all living creatures with a flood [Genesis 9:11]
11 "I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." [Genesis 9:11]

Thoughts to ponder:
a) Seeing the rainbow in the sky, what does it mean to you?
b) Do you think that the rainbow is meant for God to remember or for us to remember?

Chapter 4 – I Am Loved Unconditionally
--> The Lord made a covenant with Abraham: His descendants will be given land [Genesis 15:18]
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates [Genesis 15:18]

- When Abraham asked God how he would know that he would possess the land, God asked Abraham to bring Him sacrifices, and God Himself was the one who was cutting the covenant [Genesis 15:9-21, Chap 4, page 29-33]

- Made a covenant => karath beriyth in Herbrew
· It is a solemn, binding agreement made by passing through the pieces of flesh
· When the word beriyth [covenant] is used between God and man, it is a covenant accompanied by signs, sacrifices, and a solemn oath that sealed the relationship with promise of blessing for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking it.
· When God enters into a covenantal relationship with men, he sovereignly institutes a life-and-death bond.
· A covenant is a bond in blood, or a bond of life and death, sovereginly administered.

· Noticed that there is shedding of blood.

- In the Old Testament/covenant, the one passing through the pieces pledged his faithfulness to the covenant. If that faithfulness was broken, he called death upon himself, or the same fate, which befell the animals.

Chapter 5 – His Promises Will Never Fail
- A new covenant, that offered an exchange of death for life, had began at the Lord’s supper. [Genesis 26:26-28]
· That promised covenant would change forever the awful consequence of the wages of sins – death

- Covenant => diatheke in Greek is used in New Testament/covenant
· Not the usual Greek word for covenant
· It is a testament or an agreement
· Denotes disposition – which is a settlement of one’s property and possessions at death
· It is like the word grace. It means a bond between unequal partners.

- Covenant => suntheke in Greek, which is a more ordinary word to be used
· Suntheke which denotes agreement, was based on such an extent on the legal equality of the parties, that it could not be incorporated in the Scripture system of thought. The idea that the priority belongs to God in the establishment of covenant and that He sovereignly imposes His covenant on man was absent from this word

- A covenant can refer to 2 equal parties or a disposition between 2 unequal parties. The crux is who are the parties concerned.

- In this context, the parties concerned are God and man, which are unequal parties. Therefore God is the Sovereign who stipulates His demands and vouchsafes His promises and we assume the duties imposed upon us voluntarily and thus inherit the blessings.

Thoughts to ponder:
a) Do you feel secure after knowing that God has made a covenant with you? Share your thoughts, quoting from the book or scripture.
b) What areas of my life do I feel/know that I’ll need to trust God more?
c) In your opinion, did God make the right choice to come down to earth and cut the new covenant of grace with man? Share your thoughts.
d) Honestly speaking, do we deserve God’s grace and unconditional love?

Exhortation: We must remember what the Lord has done for us on the Cross, because in the end times, it will be very evil as in the days of Noah.