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God’s covenants with man is a very special and important line in the Bible. Ever since man was created, God has stood on the ground of a covenant in His dealings with man; these covenants with man are written in the Bible. The Bible, which has sixty-six books, is a record of God’s covenants with man. Therefore, the Bible is also referred to as the Old and New Testaments, or the old and new covenants, which shows the importance of God’s covenants in the Bible.
It is quite extraordinary that other religious writings are not called a covenant; only the Christian Bible is called a covenant. Other religious writings talk about religious teachings, religious rules, and religious regulations, but only the Bible is a covenant made by God with man. Unlike common religious writings, which center on teachings, rules, and regulations, the Holy Bible is centered on covenants, covering all the covenants that God has made with man.
The words that we normally speak are not considered a covenant, but once words are formalized on a legal basis and bound by law, the words are called a contract or a covenant. For example, when we discuss some matters with others in a casual way, our words are merely words that cannot be regarded as a covenant. However, if we are engaging in important business, we must put our words, the terms and conditions, and all the details into formal writing based on law and restricted by law. Then these words become a contract, a covenant, between us and the other party. A covenant is a set of words that are more than just ordinary words; they are formal words with a legal basis and that are bound by law.
We make contracts because we want to strengthen our credibility. Ordinary words may be unreliable and questionable, but when they are turned into a contract or a covenant, they are more trustworthy. The Chinese word for contract or covenant also means “binding”; in other words, a contract is something that binds people. Once we put our words into a contract, we are bound by the words, and we must fulfill the terms of the contract.
In the Bible all of God’s covenants with man reveal His desire toward man. Every covenant fully discloses what man’s position is in relation to God’s desire, what God is doing in man, what God expects of man, and even the things that God has done for man. God’s desire toward man becomes a covenant because He swears by a solemn oath and explains His desire to man in very formal words. This may be likened to the negotiation between two persons. When two parties negotiate about a certain matter, they do not speak to one another in a common, casual, and light manner. Rather, they speak formally and solemnly in relation to their legal standing so that there is a legal basis and the binding of law. Consequently, they have a responsibility to fulfill what they have spoken. Likewise, God expresses His desire toward man in a covenant as a way to provide a guarantee to man and to establish His credibility so that man would trust in Him and be at peace.
Please remember that the Bible is a book of the revelation of God’s desire toward man; it is full of God’s words, and these words fully explain God’s desire toward man. When God spoke, however, He did not speak with ordinary words but with covenanting words. He spoke with His own immovable faithfulness as the guarantee. These words became covenants under the binding of law, being bound by His faithfulness.
Since the Bible is a book of God’s covenants with man, these covenants are a great and central line in the Bible. In order to understand the Bible, we must find the line of these covenants. In this overview there are nine obvious covenants in the Bible, and among these there are two especially great ones, commonly known as the old covenant and the new covenant. Of course, these do not refer to the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible but to the two great covenants shown in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is so named because it contains a great covenant, which was a previous covenant that became old and has been abolished. Likewise, the New Testament is so named because it particularly speaks of a new covenant. Although one covenant has passed away, another covenant still exists. The former covenant is considered an old covenant, and the current covenant is considered a new covenant. This is a great subject, but we can only touch upon it briefly.
Of these nine covenants, some are clearly pointed out in the Bible as covenants, but some are not pointed out so clearly. For example, God made a covenant with Noah twice, and the Bible plainly states that God made a covenant with Noah in both instances. But there are other instances where the covenants are not plainly identified, even though they are God’s covenants with man in every aspect. For example, in 2 Samuel 7 the covenant God made with David is not spoken of as a covenant. It was not until long afterward, during the captivity of the children of Israel, when someone wrote Psalm 89, recalling the incident of God’s speaking to David in 2 Samuel 7, that it is referred to as a covenant with David. Although it was not plainly called a covenant at the time, it later was recognized as a covenant. The words to David were very formal, based on law and bound by law, so they also were a covenant with man. Now that we have clearly defined this principle, we can find nine instances in the Bible where God spoke to man in such a formal way; in other words, God made nine covenants with man.
The covenant God made with man is recorded in Genesis 1:28-29. God made man in His own image so that man would represent Him and express His glory on the earth. After God made man, He came and spoke to man. We should realize that the words God spoke were not ordinary words but extremely solemn and formal words. Therefore, the words in these two verses are a covenant that God made with man. Now we will briefly touch the main points of this covenant.
This covenant shows that God’s desire is that man would be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. First, we know that the human race has been fruitful and has multiplied and is filling the earth. This is because God has fulfilled the first covenant He made with man. Any attempt to reduce the multiplication of the human race is against this covenant of God.
Second, God wants man to subdue the earth. God gave man authority to rule over the earth. God wanted man to have dominion over the earth, to conquer the earth, and to recover the earth because Satan’s intention is to engage in rebellious activities against God on the earth. Almost all of Satan’s rebellions against God are concentrated on the earth. This point has also been fulfilled. Today, regardless of how far man has fallen, the earth is still under his ruling.
Third, God wanted man to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. Not only did God put the earth under man’s dominion, He also put all the creatures under man’s dominion so that man would be the head of all the creatures in the sea, on the land, and in heaven. In this way man could be God’s authority on the earth, reigning for God and expressing God’s glory in all these things.
Fourth, God wanted man to take herbs and all kinds of fruit as food. Here God took care of the matter of man’s sustenance. All the food for man’s sustenance were vegetables, not meat; the food was only from plants, not animals. At this time there was not a problem with sin, so there was no need to kill animals for the shedding of blood for expiation; there was only a need for the sustenance of life.
Fifth, there was no need for man to wear clothes. Man did not have the problem of clothing. Since there was not a problem with sin in the beginning, man did not need a covering, an outward justification.
Sixth, the covenant God made with man was later fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. This covenant was made immediately after man was made, and in this covenant God did not ask man to fulfill any requirement; it only revealed God’s desire toward man. But shortly afterward, due to man’s fall, man lost his position in this covenant. It is marvelous, however, that God speaks of this covenant again in Psalm 8. God spoke of this covenant because even though the created man failed due to the fall and lost his position in the covenant, God determined that He Himself would come to be the second man. His coming to be the second man was connected with the first man. The second man was the Lord Jesus. His coming to be a man was connected with the first Adam, and in His coming He also assumed the position of the first man. The covenant God made with the first man was inherited by the second man. Therefore, in Psalm 8 God repeats this covenant with man. Hebrews 2 clearly points out to us that the man spoken of in Psalm 8 is not the first man but Christ. Christ is the second man, and the covenant God made with the first man was inherited by the second man. The Bible shows us that the first covenant God made with man eventually was applied to the Lord Jesus and was completely fulfilled in Him. In the end the Lord Jesus has become the Head of creation to rule over the earth as God’s authority for the expression of His glory.
The previous covenant was a covenant God made with man; at that time Adam had not fallen. After Adam fell, God came and made a second covenant with him. At the time of Genesis 3:8-21 man was deceived by Satan and followed him. Adam was unrighteous toward God and fearful of Him, so he turned from the presence of God and hid himself in a secret place, afraid to see God. In these circumstances God came to seek him, and once He found him, God made a covenant with man.
Even though this biblical record contains only a few words, God’s speaking was very solemn and formal. The words He spoke were guaranteed by God’s faithfulness; therefore, they should be considered as the words of a covenant with man. We will consider the main points.
The spiritual significance of this word is that Satan’s move is limited to the earth. Satan brought God’s curse upon himself because of his deception of man, and so the sphere of his activity is limited to the earth. Satan’s activity in the universe cannot go beyond the earth.
The spiritual meaning of this word is that Satan’s food is the man who has been made of dust. Whenever man lives by the created life, he is earthy and is Satan’s food. If man lives by the divine life, however, he avoids being devoured by Satan.
The principle in the Bible is to use a proper woman as a figure of those who belong to God. The enmity between the serpent and the woman denotes the enmity between Satan and all who belong to God. According to this covenant, whenever we stand on God’s side, we will surely encounter the enmity of Satan.
The seed of the serpent is a particular expression. If the serpent spoken of here referred only to one serpent, God would not have spoken of “the seed of the serpent.” Since God spoke of “the seed of the serpent,” the serpent here refers not only to a serpent but also to Satan, symbolized by the serpent. The seed of the serpent refers also to those who belong to Satan.
Ever since God spoke this word, there have been two seeds among the descendants of Adam. One is the seed of the serpent, and the other one is the seed of the woman. Cain and his descendants were the seed of the serpent and belonged to Satan, whereas people such as Abel were the seed of the woman and belonged to God. The ultimate or the most faithful seed of the woman is our Lord Jesus. At His birth, according to the flesh, He was the seed of the woman; spiritually, He is also the seed of the woman. He was truly born of a woman, and He stands on God’s side as well. All who belong to Satan are at enmity with Him.
Beginning from Abel all those who have been on God’s side throughout the generations are the seed of the woman, just as all who have been against God are the seed of Satan. These two seeds are at enmity with each other, and this enmity began in Genesis 4.
The seed of the woman will deal a deathblow to Satan through suffering. Serpents are most vulnerable to a blow on the head; if one receives a blow on the head, it receives a fatal injury. In bruising the head of the serpent, the seed of the woman would also be bruised on the heel by the serpent. This figurative expression refers to the Lord Jesus coming as the seed of the woman and through His death on the cross destroying the devil who has the might of death, thereby bruising the serpent on the head. When He went to the cross to bruise the devil in this way, He was also bruised by Satan on the cross. However, the bruise that Satan inflicted on Him was not a fatal wound but only a suffering. Although His suffering was very great, it could not destroy His life. This covenant symbolically tells us that God determined that the Lord Jesus would become a man for the purpose of destroying Satan through death.
To this day the pain of childbearing has not been removed from women. However, 1 Timothy 2:15 does indicate that childbearing can be a salvation to women if they remain in holiness with sobriety, keeping their place before God and living a godly life. God’s arrangement for women to suffer in childbearing is a salvation to them. It does not benefit human beings, who have a sinful nature, to be too comfortable; this causes them to fall deeper into sin. Therefore, God uses sufferings to restrict human beings from committing many sins. Suffering is a cure and a salvation.
The trend in modern society stresses the equality of man and woman. You may think that I am merely a brother who is advocating the superiority of men and the inferiority of women so that men can rule over women. Honestly, I really wish that I were a sister. We need to see that this position is according to the order arranged by God between the male and the female after the fall of man. The New Testament also says that the man is the head and that the woman should cover her head (1 Cor. 11:3-5), which is according to the order in God’s creation because Adam was created first and Eve second. Therefore, in God’s ordained order in His creation and in His order after man’s fall, it is not possible for both man and woman to be first or even for both to be second; one must be first and the other second. Strictly speaking, there is not equality between man and woman.
I believed in the Lord before I was twenty. At one time I read an essay in a newspaper analyzing the equality of man and woman. It said that even in France, a country that very much values equality, a married woman still has to take the last name of her husband. If the man and the woman are equal, why would a woman take the last name of the man? How about a man taking the last name of a woman? It made another point by saying that while taking the last name of the man does not show equality, neither would taking the last name of the woman. There would be equality only if the two names are combined. But as it was analyzed further, it raised the question of whether the man’s last name should precede the woman’s or whether the woman’s last name should precede the man’s. There would not be equality either way. After all the analysis it came to the conclusion that there would always be one who is first and one who is second. This is God’s ordained principle, and it cannot be overturned.
Brothers and sisters, according to the order of creation, men should be first and women second, and according to the sequence of the fall, women even more should be ruled over by men because the first one to be deceived was Eve, not Adam (1 Tim. 2:14). In creation Eve was second, but in committing sin, Eve was first; therefore, God said that the woman would be ruled by the man. This is God’s ordination.
The earth was under man’s rule, and man was the head and representative of the earth. Therefore, after man sinned, the ground was involved and suffered God’s curse (Gen. 3:17). The thorns and thistles that the ground brings forth are the sign of being cursed, signifying that all creation under man and ruled by man is cursed because of his sin. Romans 8 says that all creation is under the slavery of corruption, groaning and travailing in pain (vv. 21-22), not of its own choice; it was implicated by Adam because Adam was its representative.
God determined that man would suffer in toil and labor, eating bread only by the sweat of his face. Today all those who desire comfort, who desire to live an easy life, and who desire to have food without labor are against God’s principle. Regardless of whether we are a man or a woman, we all need some hardship for our salvation and protection. Man should labor day and night; ease involves danger.
Please forgive me for saying this: Some countries in the West put great emphasis on comfort and ease. They work five days a week and eight hours per day at most. Some even demand to work only six hours per day. The rest of the time they seek as much entertainment as possible and commit many sins as a result. The weekend is a time for them to greatly indulge in their lusts. The first day of the week should be the day for people to worship God in His presence, yet it has become the time for people to engage in entertainment and sins. From God’s perspective man should not be at ease, because sinful mankind with his sinful nature must toil to be saved from many sins. God has ordained that man should suffer in labor; this is for his salvation.
The length of man’s life is limited—just as he came from dust, he will return to dust (Gen. 3:19).
In His creation God did not make coats of skin to clothe man. When skins were needed, there was a slaughter and the shedding of the blood of an animal. This must have been a sheepskin, not a thick cowhide. There must have been a lamb that died and bled for man. When man sinned, he felt ashamed and sewed fig leaves together to make a loincloth to cover his body, but the loincloth could not cover him. After God made coats of skin to cover him, man could stand before God and not see his own shamefulness.
In this covenant God determined that a substitute had to die and shed its blood for man. This became man’s righteousness before God so that he could be accepted by God. The coat of skin signifies the Lord Jesus as our righteousness for us to put on so that we can stand before God, be accepted by God, and be justified by God. We can put on the Lord Jesus as our righteousness because He has become the Lamb of God; He died for us on the cross, shed His blood, and redeemed us from our sins. Therefore, this covenant also details how God accomplishes redemption. He became the seed of the woman and the Lamb who was slain to deal with our enemy, Satan, and to solve our problem before God. This covenant concerns the living and righteous solution for sinful people who have the sinful nature.
The Lord Jesus has a particular position in this covenant. The center of this covenant is the seed of the woman, and the seed of the woman comprises all who belong to God with the Lord Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary, as the central figure. Both physically and spiritually, the Lord Jesus is the seed of the woman. He was born of a woman, and He bruised Satan’s head through His death on the cross. By shedding His blood, He solved the problem of our sins, and He has become our righteousness for us to put on before God so that we may be accepted by God.
Genesis 6:18—7:5 gives a record of the covenant God made with Noah when He was about to destroy mankind with a flood. First, when God decided to destroy mankind with the flood, He charged Noah and his family of eight to enter into the ark in order to preserve their lives. God wanted to destroy all the earth and preserve Noah and his family, but they had to enter into the ark. Second, God told Noah to bring some of every living thing into the ark to be kept alive. Third, God told Noah also to bring some of every kind of food into the ark to sustain them for a period of time. Fourth, once they did this, God was able to preserve their lives and the lives of the living things that were with them when He flooded the earth. This is the covenant God made with Noah and all living things. It was possible for man and every living thing to continue to propagate because of this covenant.
After Noah was saved through the ark, God made another covenant with him, which is recorded in Genesis 8:20—9:17.
First, this covenant was based on the shedding of the blood of burnt offerings. After Noah came out of the ark, he took of every clean animal and offered burnt offerings to God. When God smelled the fragrance, He was satisfied and made a covenant with Noah.
Second, the particular sign of this covenant was a rainbow. When it rains and a rainbow appears, we know that the sky will soon clear up because the sign of this covenant is the rainbow. Even in Revelation 4 there is still a rainbow around God as a sign, indicating that the universe exists today because God has kept this covenant with His might.
Third, God promised not to curse the ground again. God did not say that He would remove the curse from the ground but that He would not add to the curse on the ground.
Fourth, God promised that mankind and every living thing would never again be destroyed. Even though Noah and his family were saved and came out of the ark, they probably could not have slept very peacefully at night without such a covenant. They would have been concerned that if they did something wrong they might provoke God into sending another flood. So God made a covenant with Noah, guaranteeing that the earth would not be cursed again and that mankind and all living things would not be destroyed again by a flood. Whenever there is a heavy rain and a rainbow suddenly appears, we know that we are safe. This is a sign of God’s covenant.
Fifth, God promised that all the seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night would maintain their cycles without ceasing (Gen. 8:22). God guaranteed that the order in the universe would be properly maintained unceasingly. This covenant ensures the existence of the universe and the growth of every living thing. If the earth were a little closer to the sun, all living things on earth would be burned to death; if the earth were a little farther from the sun, the earth would become a great freezer, and everything would freeze to death. The temperature on the earth today is so suitable because of this covenant.
Sixth, God reiterated that man should be fruitful and multiply. He still wanted man to be fruitful and multiply on the earth as Adam had done before the fall.
Seventh, God again gave man authority to rule over every creature in heaven, on the land, and in the sea. In this covenant God still ordained man as the head over all things.
Eighth, God ordained that the food for man’s living would no longer be limited to plants but would also include animals, and also that man could eat meat, because man needed to be redeemed. Man cannot live before God if he eats only vegetables; he must eat meat. Eating vegetables means that man relies only on his own works; eating meat means that man relies on the shedding of blood for his redemption. In order to live before God, man must eat meat; there must be the killing of the animal and the shedding of its blood.
Ninth, God gave man the authority to rule over others. God said, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, / By man shall his blood be shed” (9:6). This means that people would have authority to rule over and punish lawless, murderous persons. From this time forth, God gave man authority to rule over others. Some Bible readers say that another age—the age of human government—began at this point because man had the authority to rule over others.
Tenth, God ordained that Noah’s three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—would become the ancestors of the three races of humankind on the earth. Shem, in particular, had a relationship with Jehovah God, because God was called Jehovah, the God of Shem (v. 26). Shem would become the people of central Asia; Abraham and the children of Israel were all descendants of Shem, the people of God. Second, Ham’s son would be a servant of servants (v. 25). The descendants of Ham particularly refer to the people in the region of Africa. Third, Japheth would be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem (v. 27). Japheth was the forefather of the Europeans; his descendants were especially prosperous. The Caucasian people have been enlarged and have spread everywhere because this is God’s ordination.
This is the covenant God made with man after the flood destroyed the world and Noah came out of the ark to live a new life in a new land. In this covenant God made arrangements concerning the order of the universe, the position of man on the earth, and the living that man should have before Him. To this day these regulations remain and continue to operate.
In this covenant the Lord Jesus also has a particular position. The burnt offerings signify the Lord Jesus. God was able to enact this covenant with the new human race because in His eyes He saw His Son Christ as the burnt offering. This made it possible for God to accept man and to keep the universe in which man exists. To this day order in the universe is kept, seeds and plants grow, man continues to live on the earth, and the natural laws on the earth are maintained because the Lord Jesus shed His blood before God as a burnt offering for our acceptance by God.
All the words spoken in the following portions of the Word are the content of the covenant God made with Abraham, the called one: Genesis 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17; 15:1-21; 17:1-21; 21:12; and 22:16-18. This is an orthodox covenant, a covenant of grace; it is joined to the new covenant, and it is the basis of the new covenant. This covenant can be explained in seven points.
God wanted to gain the kingdom, a great nation, through Abraham. This kingdom, this great nation, is the nation of Israel in the Old Testament age, the church in the New Testament age, the millennial kingdom in the coming age, and the new heaven and the new earth in eternity. In other words, the past nation of Israel, the present church, the future millennial kingdom, and the new heaven and the new earth in eternity are all components of God’s kingdom, which God wanted to gain through Abraham.
This blessing includes the blessing of God’s creation and the blessing of God’s redemption. God’s creation is for created man, and God’s redemption is for fallen man. There are blessings in both God’s creation and redemption, and God wanted to give every blessing to Abraham. The content of this blessing includes every blessing that God wants to give to man. It includes God Himself and everything that belongs to Him; it includes everything heavenly and earthly; and it also includes everything in this age and in the next. We need to understand nation as something great, and we need to understand blessing also as something great.
A nation is a matter of dominion, and a blessing is a matter of life. We are able to enjoy the blessings of God’s creation and redemption because God has given us His Spirit so that we may have His life. Galatians 3 says that the blessing God gave to Abraham has come to us through the Lord Jesus by believing in Him. As the Spirit, the Lord Jesus came into man to be man’s life and to enable man to receive every blessing that belongs to God in the heavens, on the earth, in this age, and in the next age, including God Himself.
While the center of these blessings is God as life, the ultimate result for those who receive this blessing is that they will have the image of God. A nation is a matter of dominion, and a blessing is a matter of image. Therefore, both nation and blessing are related to image and dominion, which is spoken of at the beginning of Genesis.
According to Galatians 3:16, the seed refers to Christ Himself. Through Christ, God blesses all the families of the earth. In other words, God wants all the people on the earth, through Christ, to have the opportunity to receive His life and enter into His kingdom, that is, to express His image and to be under His ruling.
The above three items are the gospel. Galatians 3:8 says that the gospel we hear today was preached to Abraham in Genesis 12.
God has always kept this promise. None who have mistreated the Jews have had a good ending; the same is true for those who mistreat the church. The Jews are the earthly descendants of Abraham, while the church is the heavenly descendant of Abraham. During World War II Hitler treated the Jews cruelly, and we know of how his life ended. Today countries in the communist world are very unfriendly toward the Israelis, and they are also doing their best to persecute the church, so we can conclude that their ending will be met with God’s curse. This is because God said that He would bless those who bless His people and curse those who curse His people.
Galatians 3:16 says that this covenant is focused on the Lord Jesus Himself. When the Lord Jesus comes again, this promise will be utterly fulfilled. At that time He will officially inherit the land of Canaan, using the land of Canaan as the center of His administration to rule over the whole world.
Of the two seeds God promised to Abraham, one is earthly, and the other is heavenly. All those who are saved are Abraham’s descendants through faith; they are as numerous as the stars of the heavens and are heavenly. All those who are Abraham’s descendants in the flesh are his earthly descendants; they are as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
The sign of God’s covenant with Noah was a rainbow; the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham is circumcision. The focus of circumcision is not on an outward ritual but on its inward spiritual significance. This spiritual significance involves the cutting off of the flesh. In order for the blessings of this covenant to come to the people of God, they need to deal with the flesh of the old creation, putting to death the life of the old creation.
The Lord Jesus occupies a particular place in this covenant. The Lord Jesus is the seed God promised to Abraham; He is the One in whom all the families of the earth are blessed and the One who received the inheritance God promised to Abraham.
This same covenant was spoken of by God to Isaac in Genesis 26:2-6 and to Jacob in 28:13-15. This shows that God desired to extend this covenant to the descendants of Abraham.
The record of this covenant is quite long; it is found in Exodus 19 through Leviticus 27, Deuteronomy 5:1-4, and Hebrews 9:1-7. On the one hand, Old Testament commonly refers to the Old Testament portion of the Holy Bible, but on the other hand, it also refers to the old covenant God made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. This covenant is not a covenant in the orthodox line; it was inserted on the way. The orthodox covenant began with Abraham. The covenants before Abraham were also included in the orthodox line because the covenants God made with man were in a continuous line. Every covenant made along this line has been necessary with the only exception being the covenant made at Mount Sinai. This covenant entered alongside and is not related to the orthodox covenants (Rom. 5:20). There are too many items in this covenant; therefore, we can look at only two aspects of it in a general way.
In this covenant the first aspect is the law. The Ten Commandments are the general principles of the law. We usually consider the Ten Commandments as being representative of the law; when we refer to the Ten Commandments, we are speaking about the law. The Ten Commandments, however, are not the entire law. Beginning in Exodus 21 many statutes and ordinances concerning the details in the living of God’s people are also included in the law.
Romans 10:5 says, “The man who does them shall live by them.” Galatians 3:10 says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law to do them.” With respect to the law, there is righteousness but no grace. In principle, the law requires man to do God’s commandments by himself.
In this covenant there are also many ordinances, all of which are related to ritualistic matters, not to moral matters. The law, which is moral in nature, concerns the Ten Commandments, statutes, and regulations; the ordinances, which are ritualistic in nature, concern the tabernacle, the priests, and the offerings.
If we study this covenant through the entire Bible, we will realize that God intended to use the law to prove man’s weakness and impotence, to prove that man could not be justified by God through his own works, and thus, to cause man to fall to the ground. Furthermore, God prepared the ordinances so that through the tabernacle, the priests, and the offerings man could still live in His presence, draw near to Him, and have fellowship with Him. According to the law, man cannot draw near to God and live in His presence; instead, man deserves only to be cursed, to fall, and to die before God. However, according to the ordinances, man can approach God, fellowship with Him, be accepted by Him, and live in His presence through the tabernacle, the priests, and the offerings. Both aspects of this covenant are absolute. According to the law, man absolutely cannot live in God’s presence; but according to the ordinances, man absolutely can live in His presence through the tabernacle, the priests, and the offerings. The tabernacle, the priests, and the offerings all refer to Christ. According to the law, we cannot live in God’s presence; however, in Christ (that is, in the tabernacle), by Christ (that is, by the priests), and through Christ (that is, through the offerings) we can approach God and live in His presence. Therefore, the Lord Jesus has a very particular position in this covenant.
The relationship between the Lord Jesus and the law can be explained in the following five points. First, according to Galatians 4:4, the Lord Jesus was born under the law. Second, the Lord Jesus fully kept the law. From His birth all the way to His death, He lived His human life on the earth fully according to the law in matters both great and small. He was circumcised on the eighth day of His birth, presented to God according to the law, and brought to the temple for the keeping of the feasts. He fully kept every moral regulation in the law. This is clearly seen throughout the Gospels. Third, according to Galatians 3:10-13, the Lord Jesus bore the curse of the law on our behalf. No one has fully borne the curse of the law like the Lord Jesus. The curse of the law fell on the Lord Jesus because He bore our sins and stood in our place, not because He had any sin. Fourth, according to Galatians 4:5, He redeemed us from under the law. Fifth, according to Matthew 5:17, He fulfilled the law. The Lord Jesus did not break the law nor abolish the law; rather, He fulfilled the law by keeping the law Himself, being cursed on our behalf, and redeeming us from under the law. Therefore, in this covenant the Lord Jesus has a particular position with respect to this aspect of the law.
According to the aspect of the ordinances, the reality of every ordinance is the Lord Himself. The tabernacle, including every part of the tabernacle, denotes the Lord Himself; the priests, including the garments, breastplate, and shoulder pieces worn by the priests and all the other items, denote the Lord Himself. All the offerings, including the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and all the other offerings, also denote the Lord Himself. We must have this realization when we read the ordinances.
In this covenant, in the aspect of the law, the Lord Jesus has fulfilled for us what we never could keep in ourselves. In the aspect of the ordinances, He has become the very means by which we approach God.
After the children of Israel came out of Egypt to the foot of Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with them. This is the old covenant. When the journey of the children of Israel in the wilderness came to an end, God made another covenant with them in the land of Moab before they entered Canaan. This is recorded in Deuteronomy 28 through 30. Deuteronomy 29:1 explicitly says that this covenant was not included in the covenant enacted at Mount Horeb, which is Mount Sinai; it was a covenant alongside of the covenant that He made with them at Mount Horeb. This covenant can be summed up in three points.
First, God said that the children of Israel would be blessed if they did according to God’s law. They would be blessed in their coming in, and they would be blessed in their going out. They would be blessed in their eating, and they would be blessed in their clothing. They would be blessed in their dwellings, and they would be blessed in their journeys. They would be blessed in the city, and they would be blessed outside the city. They would be blessed everywhere and in everything, and they would be able to overcome all enemies and dwell peacefully in the good land, Canaan, which God promised to their fathers.
Second, God said that they would be cursed if they disobeyed His law, forsook Him, and followed the customs of the nations, going after their idols. They would be cursed in their coming in, and they would be cursed in their going out. They would be cursed everywhere and in everything, and they would be overcome by their enemies and carried away to all the nations.
Third, He said that if they would repent and turn back to Him after they had been carried away to the nations, He would gather them and bring them back from the nations, causing them to multiply in number, and bless them.
This covenant is not related to us; it altogether concerns whether or not the Israelites would live peacefully in the land of Canaan.
This covenant, recorded in 2 Samuel 7:5-16 and Psalm 89:19-37, is an orthodox covenant and is included in the covenant God made with Abraham. This covenant is a supplement to Abraham’s covenant, particularly in the kingdom aspect. We will look at four points.
God’s promise to make a house for David relates to David having a seed. There is a background for this covenant that God made with David. At first David wanted to build a house for God. After he was king, having conquered most of the enemies around the borders, David built a palace in which to dwell. However, he did not feel peaceful inwardly because even though he had settled down, the Ark of God, which is God Himself, did not have a dwelling place. Therefore, he wanted to build a temple for God, to build a house for God. His desire pleased God, but God would not let him do so because God first needed to make a house for David so that David could then build a house for God. God did not want David to act before Him. David also frequently went to war, shed blood abundantly, and some of his enemies were not yet conquered. Therefore, God seemed to be saying, “You are a man of war and are not fit for building My house. After I have built a house for you and you have begotten a seed from that house, that seed will build Me a house.”
Not only did God make David a house, He also promised to enlarge this house into a kingdom that would be an eternal kingdom, which would extend all the way to the Lord Jesus.
God promised David that He would never take the throne of the kingdom away from his seed; He would keep this throne and the kingship for the seed of David forever. We know that this throne and kingship extended all the way to the Lord Jesus. The beginning of the Gospel of Luke tells us that the One who was both God and man, who was born of Mary, would inherit the throne and the kingship of David because the Lord Jesus was the seed of David.
This covenant has four items: the house, the kingdom, the throne, and the temple. The kingdom is for God’s reign, the temple is for God’s presence, and the house is for the mingling of God and man. From this house a man is born, who is the seed of David. He sits on the throne, reigning for God and bringing in God’s presence.
In this covenant the Lord Jesus has a very particular position. Every point of this covenant refers to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the real seed of David; He is the Son of David. He is the true Solomon. He is the One who is the mingling of God and man; He is Emmanuel brought forth through God’s entering into man and becoming flesh (Matt. 1:23). He inherited the throne of David His father. He brought in the kingdom of God and reigned for God; and He built the temple of God so that God could be with man and dwell with man. These points are clearly spoken of in the following Scriptures: Micah 5:2 Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16; Luke 1:31-33 and Acts 2:29-36.
The ultimate, highest, greatest, and most beautiful covenant in the Bible is what we commonly refer to as the new covenant. The Lord Jesus came and accomplished redemption for us, and based on this, God made the new covenant with us.
The Bible speaks of this covenant in many places. In Matthew 26:27-28, when the Lord Jesus established His table, He said that it was a new covenant established in His blood. First Corinthians 11:25 says the same thing. Hebrews 8:6-13 says that God consummated a new covenant with His people. Hebrews 7:22 says that this covenant is a better covenant. Hebrews 13:20 says that this covenant is an eternal covenant.
The Lord Jesus shed His blood for redemption on the cross, and in this blood He established a new covenant with God.
The establishment of the new covenant is based not only on the blood of the Lord Jesus; the Lord Jesus Himself is the Mediator of this covenant. To be a mediator means that one bears the responsibility of both parties; as the Mediator, Christ bears responsibility on God’s side and on man’s side. In other words, as the Mediator, He is the One who executes the covenant to make it a reality. The Lord Jesus established this new covenant in His own blood, and He also executes this covenant through His incorruptible life.
The law of the old covenant was outward and in letter; it was engraved on tablets of stone and kept by man’s strength. The law of the new covenant is inward and in life; it is inscribed on the tablets of man’s heart and kept by man from within through its spontaneous power. The center of the new covenant is the law of life.
Since God has put the law of life within man, man has the capability to spontaneously know God. This knowing is not related to the teaching of knowledge; it comes out of the sense of life. Consequently, anyone who has a part in this covenant, from the little one to the great one, has no need for anyone to teach him. Instead, he is able to know God by himself.
For example, even though a newborn infant does not know what is bitter and what is sweet, he will spew out anything that is bitter. But he will quickly eat some honey when it is fed to him. Although he has no knowledge of bitter and sweet in his brain, the knowledge of life within causes him to spew out the bitter and eat the sweet. Today everyone who has been saved has the life of God, and this life within is a law with a natural capacity for us to know God. This is a particular characteristic of the new covenant.
The prophecy in Jeremiah 31 is the covenant God made with the Israelites and is concerning the time in the future after they have been restored and saved by God. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and made the old covenant with them at Mount Sinai. In the coming millennial kingdom, God will call them out of all the nations again, and at that time God will enact this new covenant with them. Thank God that He has applied this covenant in advance to us, the believers, because the Lord Jesus shed the blood of the covenant, resurrected from the dead, and became the Executor of this covenant in the resurrection life. God has given us a foretaste of the blessing of the new covenant because of the Lord Jesus and His redemption.
Hence, according to God’s ordination, the time of the new covenant has not yet fully arrived; the new covenant still involves something related to the future, but based on the fact that the Lord Jesus shed His blood, was resurrected, and now dwells in us in life, God can apply the function of the new covenant to us who believe so that we may have a foretaste of the blessing of the new covenant. In the future the Israelites will all participate in the blessing of the new covenant; this is revealed in Jeremiah 31 and Romans 11:25-27.
These nine covenants are a history of the dealings between God and man. All the dealings between God and man are included in these nine covenants. The first divine name Elohim means “a strong and powerful One who binds Himself with an oath.” This includes God covenanting with man by His faithfulness after He created all things and human beings with His might. God is a God who keeps His word and abides by His covenants. We will briefly go over all the covenants again, from the first to the ninth.
Immediately after God created man, He came and made the first covenant with man, wanting man to be fruitful and multiply and to have dominion over all the creatures of the sea, the land, and in heaven. He ordained that man would be sustained by the plant life. God came in to make a second covenant because man fell.
In the second covenant God promised man that a seed of the woman would come and deal with the enemy who had damaged him; at the same time, He ordained that Satan, who had damaged man, would be forever at enmity with the woman and the seed of the woman. God also ordained that the woman with such a fallen and sinful nature would suffer pain in childbearing and that man would toil in labor. He also ordained a proper order for the man and the woman after the fall. In this covenant He showed forth the salvation that He would accomplish for man; that is, He clothed man with the skin of a sacrifice to cover his shame. Therefore, even though man fell, he still had a standing before God in this covenant. On the one hand, man could be justified and stand before God through the substitution of the sacrifice, and on the other hand, he could overcome the enemy through the coming of the seed of the woman. Man also needed to learn to accept the sufferings arranged by God for his salvation, keeping his place to live on the earth. In this covenant God also ordained that man would suffer physical death. From that time until today, this covenant has not changed.
When man became filled with evil and violence, God wanted to destroy the earth. But He set apart a group of people from among those He intended to destroy and made a third covenant. God commanded them to enter into the ark and to bring some of the living things with them to preserve their lives. After the flood was over, Noah and his family came out of the ark and offered sacrifices to God on the new land. When God smelled the satisfying fragrance, He immediately made another covenant with the new human race. In this covenant and because of the fragrance of the offerings, God promised that He would keep order in the universe as is fitting for the existence of human beings and all other living things. God also promised to never again destroy the earth with a flood, giving them a rainbow as a sign. In this covenant God also ordained three ancestors of the new human race, who were divided into three races. Finally, in this covenant God restated that man should be fruitful and multiply and rule over everything.
However, these people soon fell into a rebellious condition and began to build a tower in Babel whose top was to reach the heavens, thus declaring their rebellion against God. Therefore, God judged them. After the judgment, God believed that the created race had fallen beyond hope, and He initiated a new beginning by calling out Abraham, the father of the called race.
God made an extraordinarily great covenant with Abraham, which is called the covenant of promise or the covenant of grace. This covenant is full of God’s promise; everything in this covenant is grace. This covenant contains the kingdom and the blessings. We can participate in all of God’s blessings only if we receive the life of God. The blessings of God’s creation, the blessings of His redemption, the blessings in heaven, the blessings on earth, the blessings of this age, and the blessings of the next age, everything of God Himself and everything outside of God that can be counted as blessings, all have come to us. The kingdom is a matter of authority, and blessings are a matter of life. The kingdom is for God’s reigning, while the blessings are for God’s expression. Moreover, the kingdom and the blessings, through the seed of Abraham, will extend to all the nations so that all people will be blessed. This is the covenant God made with Abraham.
In addition, God also promised Abraham countless descendants—the descendants of faith are heavenly and are as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and the descendants in the flesh are earthly and are as numerous as the sand on the seashore. God also promised Abraham and his seed a land, the land of Canaan, that they might dwell in it and that He would establish His throne among them, gain His dwelling place, exercise His authority, and express Himself.
God made this covenant with Abraham, and God restated this covenant with Isaac and Jacob. God also extended this covenant to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God desired that their descendants would become the seed promised in this covenant to inherit the land of Canaan and become a nation, having the temple of God and the throne of God, so that on the one hand, they would be full of God’s presence, and on the other hand, they would have the ruling of God. This is God’s intention.
However, they fell into Egypt. By His grace God delivered them out of Egypt. God’s giving of the passover was grace; God’s use of His mighty hand to bring them out of Egypt was grace; God’s bringing them to the wilderness, as an eagle bearing its young, was grace. God hoped that they would know themselves and know grace, but they did not know themselves. They proudly said to God that they would listen to Him and keep His words, that is, that they would do all the words which God had spoken. Because they did not know themselves, God was forced to insert a covenant, the covenant of law.
When God made this covenant with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, His attitude was altogether different. When God spoke to them previously, He was like an eagle bearing its young and a loving mother talking to her child. However, because they did not know themselves, the scene at Mount Sinai changed completely; thunder and lightning were present. It was altogether solemn, holy, and righteous. The solemnity was so dreadful that the Israelites trembled and said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak with us, so we do not die” (Exo. 20:19).
In this kind of condition God decreed the law. The law includes the Ten Commandments and various statutes and ordinances. While the Ten Commandments were being written on the mountain, the children of Israel were violating all of them down at the foot of Mount Sinai. When Moses came down with the Ten Commandments and saw the condition of the transgression of the children of Israel, he burned with anger and threw the tablets, shattering them. This signified that the law had been utterly and completely broken by the Israelites.
But thank God, He did not just decree the law, He also included some ordinances. God knew that the children of Israel could not live in His presence if they only had the law; so, along with the law, He also gave them the ordinances and instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, prepare priests, and prepare offerings because only through these could the children of Israel approach Him. Even before they broke the law, God prepared the ordinances pertaining to the tabernacle, the priests, and the offerings on Mount Sinai. So even though the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf, God allowed them to live on account of the offerings. He also gave them the law again so that they would live under the old covenant.
On the one hand, the children of Israel were Abraham’s sons of promise according to the covenant God made with Abraham; on the other hand, they lived under the old covenant that entered alongside because they did not know themselves. These two covenants were separated by four hundred and thirty years. Whereas the earlier covenant was altogether according to grace, the covenant that entered alongside was altogether according to law. On the one hand, they were people of promise under grace; on the other hand, they foolishly put themselves under the law because they did not know themselves. Today we are also like this at times. According to God’s ordination, He wants us to live under grace, but because we do not know ourselves, we foolishly put ourselves under the law.
However, when man is tested, he can only fail under the law. Due to the weakness of man’s flesh the law cannot accomplish anything except to condemn man, manifest man’s impotence, and bring man to the point of needing grace in Christ. Even though it may have seemed that grace was cut off after a period of four hundred and thirty years, God’s promise of grace was not abolished by this covenant, which came alongside four hundred and thirty years later; the covenant of grace was still in effect. The diagram below illustrates this matter.
At the foot of Mount Sinai the children of Israel seemingly came under the law, but in reality they were still under grace; God prepared the ordinances for them, which are in the principle of grace. They had the temple, the priests, and the offerings in their midst. David was a godly man, a man of God, but he committed murder and took another man’s wife, committing a great sin; he utterly broke the law. According to the law, he could not live before God. However, Psalm 51 shows us that he could approach God through the offerings, the temple, and the priests of God. Even though the Israelites were under the law, they still lived in the promise of grace; they were still connected to grace.
God then made a covenant with David, His anointed, to build him a house, produce a kingdom from this house, and bring forth a seed out of this house who would build a temple for God to bring in God’s presence and who would reign for God. This strengthens the aspect of the kingdom in the promise of grace that God made to Abraham.
This covenant and the preceding covenant it supplemented extend all the way to the new covenant. All the main points in Abraham’s covenant and David’s covenant were fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus came and shed His blood as the price to meet the requirements of the old covenant, and He resurrected from the dead to carry out the new covenant in us by the power of His resurrection life. Now He is executing this covenant so that we can be before God, have God’s life, receive every blessing that God has given us, become God’s kingdom, be built into the dwelling place of God in this ruling realm, and have God’s presence.
When these conditions are brought together and extended, the ultimate result will be the manifestation of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem includes all these things. It includes the house, the kingdom, the temple, the throne of authority, God’s presence, God’s life, the heavenly and earthly blessings, and many other kinds of blessings. At that time God will fulfill everything according to the covenants He made in His dealings with man throughout the ages and dwell with man eternally.
Finally, there are a few points Bible readers should know concerning the covenants. In God’s covenants a great part of them involve promises. For example, in the first covenant He promised that man would be fruitful and multiply; in the second covenant He promised the seed of the woman; in Abraham’s covenant He promised many descendants.
However, the covenants do not merely contain promises; they also contain facts. For instance, in the new covenant, God said that He would forgive our sins and take away our unrighteousnesses; this is not a promise but an accomplished fact. Today our sins are forgiven not because God promised to forgive us but because He has forgiven us already. To be saved is to accept the fact of being forgiven. In the new covenant the taking away of man’s sins is not a promise but a fact. Long ago the Lord Jesus accomplished the taking away of man’s sins; therefore, God put this fact into the new covenant to assure man that he only needs to accept what has been accomplished already.
In Greek covenant and testament are the same word. The new covenant that God made with us is a covenant and a testament. Hebrews 9:15 speaks of the Lord Jesus being the Mediator of the new covenant, and verse 16 also speaks of the Lord being the One who made the testament. Here, covenant and testament are the same word in Greek. What is a covenant, and what is a testament? The emphasis of covenant is on promises, and the emphasis of testament is on facts. The covenant was established with us by God, and the testament was accomplished for us by the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, as far as a covenant is concerned, promises are adequate; no facts are necessary. But a testament must have facts. So from the perspective of the testament, the Lord Jesus had to die. If the Lord Jesus had not died, none of the facts would have been accomplished; they would merely be promises in a covenant. But thank the Lord that He died for us and resurrected and ascended. He is now seated on the throne and is our High Priest and our Head. Every fact has been accomplished. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the testament, having accomplished all that was written down and then bequeathed them to us. God made a covenant with us concerning all these things, and every fact that the Lord Jesus accomplished is a portion for us to enjoy.
