Thy Kingdom Come, page 5
I like what Paul told the Romans: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20). Though this hasn’t happened yet, you’re still dealing with a defeated enemy. Christ is already victor over Satan because of the cross. If you are a child of God, Satan should not be stepping on you anymore. He should be dust under your feet.
How could that be possible? Because “God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:27). He has chosen to take weak bundles of human flesh like us and put us up against the mightiest of the angels, Satan, to demonstrate what He can do with a lesser creature who will obey Him.
God has chosen to do things this way because He gets the greater glory when we conquer sin and Satan in His power. And we give God all the glory because we know it was “‘not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).
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PROPHECY AND THE COVENANTS
If you have ever signed a contract to buy a house or a car, or if you have said “I do” with the confirmation of a minister, then you have the basic biblical concept of a covenant. The history of the Bible is linked together by covenants, as we will see in this chapter. In fact, one of the key ways to identify the unfolding of Bible prophecy is through the covenants God makes with people.
A covenant is a relationship or agreement between God and His people in terms of the plan of action God is going to follow to carry out His program. In short, I define a covenant as a spiritually binding relationship between God and you inclusive of certain agreements, conditions, benefits, responsibilities, and effects.
All of the biblical covenants that are important for prophecy were initiated by God, and in the sense that they are God’s statements of what He is going to do, they were prophetic or predictive at the time they were made.
It’s also important to mention up front that whenever God makes a covenant, we can rest assured that He will fulfill His word. A covenant is only as good as the people making it. When God enters into a covenant, He brings to it His perfect character. In fact, the Bible often refers to God as a God who keeps His promises or His covenants (Deut. 7:9; Heb. 10:23).
Before we get into the major covenants and their relationship to the unfolding of prophecy, let me briefly point out several examples of biblical covenants. The Mosaic Law referred to a “covenant of salt” (Num. 18:19; see Lev. 2:13) in relation to Israel’s grain offerings.
There is no indication of any formal agreement process in this covenant. The sprinkling of salt on the sacrifices suggested permanence and preservation, the qualities of salt. The grain thus salted was also preserved for the Levites as their part of the offerings.
An example of a covenant between two people is found in Ruth 4:7–9, where Boaz accepted the sandal of his relative as a sign that this man was handing over to Boaz the right to redeem the inheritance of Elimelech, who had died, and the right to marry Ruth. The sandal was the equivalent of a signed contract.
The most serious covenant of all is the covenant ratified by blood, of which there are several examples in Scripture. The earliest of these covenants is the Adamic covenant, in which God killed animals in order to cover Adam and Eve and then promised that a future Redeemer would come to crush Satan (Gen. 3:15).
THE COVENANT WITH NOAH
In the previous chapter, we looked at the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the next step in the battle between the seed of God and the seed of Satan (Gen. 4:1–8).
This act of violence set a tone of evil that escalated the battle until wickedness dominated the earth. God moved decisively to deal with this intolerable situation, and in the process of bringing worldwide judgment He also established a covenant with Noah that is still in effect.
The Domination of Evil
The “sons of God,” a group of the fallen angels who followed Satan in his rebellion, infiltrated the human race by using unrighteous men to have illicit sexual relationships with women and producing a demonic seed (Gen. 6:1–4). This pollution of the race was enough to bring God’s judgment, so we read this declaration:
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created … for I am sorry that I have made them.” (vv. 5–7)
God determined to judge mankind with the flood because the human race was contaminated by this demonic seed produced through the unrighteous. However, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (v. 8). Noah was a righteous man, and he became the one through whom God would continue the human race and preserve the righteous seed.
So God sent the flood to cover the earth, with only Noah and his family being saved. For our purposes here, we need to look at what happened after the flood when Noah left the ark. The first thing he did was build an altar to worship the Lord (Gen. 8:20).
The Promise of the Covenant
God smelled the “soothing aroma” of Noah’s sacrifice and made an unconditional, unilateral promise—or covenant—never to destroy the entire earth by water again (Gen. 8:21–22). God also made some other promises and stipulations in this covenant He was making with Noah. Specifically, God promised ample provisions for Noah. And He established the principle of the sacredness of human life by requiring the death penalty for anyone who committed murder.
Then God ratified the covenant by saying, “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you” (Gen. 9:9). Again, God said, “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” (v. 11).
Then God gave Noah a sign of the covenant, which was the rainbow that we can still see today. Every time you see a rainbow, it is a reminder of God’s promise that there will never again be a worldwide flood to destroy the earth. The Noahic covenant is an “everlasting covenant,” by the way (v. 16). It is still in effect, and will be as long as the earth remains.
In His covenant with Noah, God instituted human government for the first time. That’s implied in the commandment to carry out capital punishment for murder. Noah and his descendants were charged with establishing righteousness in civilization through government, which was a new thing on the earth.
God also commanded Noah, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1), which is the same command He gave to Adam. God decided to start over with Noah, with the difference that instead of administering justice directly from above, God would deliver justice to the human race through the institution we call government. From then on, people would be responsible for the execution of God’s righteousness on earth. This is why Paul called duly constituted government “a minister of God to you for good” (Rom. 13:4).
But mankind soon corrupted God’s program as Nimrod led the world in rebellion against God at Babel (Gen. 10:8–10; 11:1–9), with the result that God judged the people and scattered them over the face of the earth.
Instead of sending another flood, which He had promised not to do, God confused people’s language and set the stage for the introduction of what we know as “nationalism.” That is, God set boundaries around the nations so they could no longer come together and seek unity independently of Him (Acts 17:26–27).
THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
The rebellion of the nations at Babel produced a major shift in God’s program. Whereas God had been dealing with mankind in general, beginning in the last portion of Genesis 11, He turned His attention to one man. And whereas God had been dealing with all the nations, He would now turn His attention to one special nation that would come from the seed of this one man, Abraham.
Through Abraham, God would raise up a special people, a unique nation He would call His own. And God began doing this when Abraham was a pagan man living in a pagan nation called “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gen. 11:28). God called Abraham out of Ur and sent him to Canaan, where God would establish with him the foundational covenant in all the Bible.
God didn’t ignore the other covenants, but the Abrahamic covenant became the central mechanism by which the rest of God’s program would unfold and be measured.
The Covenant Promised
Genesis 11:31–32 records the beginning of Abraham’s trek from Ur to Canaan. Evidently God had already called him to leave home and go to Canaan before we read about it in Genesis 12:1.
Abraham obeyed, but only partially, because the family settled in Haran. Abraham didn’t receive the blessing or the covenant until he had fully obeyed and started out for Canaan. My point is that to enjoy the benefits of God’s covenant, you can’t stay in the old world, the old life.
God did not call Abraham to enter the promised land until his father, Terah, had died in Haran. God would not let Abraham take the old life into the new. It appears that Abraham clung to the old way of life while living in Haran as long as Terah was alive. He had to break with the old life in order to enter into the new life. We have to do the same today.
Once Terah had died, God called Abraham and gave him some incredible promises:
Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Gen. 12:1–3)
God gave Abraham both personal and national promises that would later be ratified by God in a covenant ceremony. First of all, look at the personal promises. Abraham (still Abram at this time) would have a great name and great blessing from God. In fact, his new name (Gen. 17:5) was a witness to the blessings God had in store for him.
God also made the promise that Abraham would become the father of a great nation. This promise was restated at a later time, but here is the first prophecy of the birth of the nation of Israel, who would become God’s chosen people.
This is important because the rest of human history, and prophetic history, would rotate around the axis of this nation that occupies a narrow strip of land in the Middle East. That’s still happening today. History will find its culmination in the Middle East. If you want to know what God is doing from a prophetic standpoint, keep your eyes on Israel. Whenever disruptions occur in Israel, it draws the attention of the entire world, and for good reason.
Not too long ago, I was set to lead a tour of a thousand guests to visit Israel. We had tirelessly made plans over the course of the previous year and looked with great anticipation toward the trip. I had planned to preach at the various biblical sites, and I couldn’t wait to fellowship with a thousand of our dear ministry friends traveling with us to Israel.
But war broke out only a few weeks before we were set to depart. As you might imagine, all eyes were on Israel. Country after country lit up their cities and state houses in blue and white to show solidarity. The news channels relayed the events in Israel almost nonstop. Even though Israel is a relatively small nation on the global scale, roughly the size of New Jersey, when war happens in Israel—it captures the attention of the world.
Sadly, yet understandably, we had to cancel our tour of the Holy Land as airlines began canceling their flights both into and out of the country. But our prayers remained fervent for those who were there and wanting to return to their home nations, as well as for those who lived there. Israel draws the hearts, minds, and thoughts of the world like no other nation has ever done before. Understanding prophecy helps explain why.
One reason is that Abraham’s blessings go far beyond Abraham. His blessing even reaches international proportions, because God said that all the peoples of earth would be blessed through Abraham. You can see why the Abrahamic covenant is the foundational covenant of Scripture, and why so many people are interested in what happens in Israel. This covenant’s ultimate fulfillment is in Jesus Christ, which also makes it crucial.
At this point, Abraham probably didn’t know what all of this meant or how all of it was going to be fulfilled. He was merely a converted pagan who had acted in faith and traveled to a barren, dusty land where he lived in tents.
This reminds us of the way God often works. He will not always tell you everything He’s doing at the beginning of wherever He’s taking you. He may give you a little bit now and a little bit later, and then a little more after that. That’s why the Bible says, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
Abraham only received the promises after he stepped out in faith at God’s command. He had to leave his home and his relatives. He could not simply sit in his home in Ur and say, “I trust You, Lord.” He had to get up and leave.
So here we have this great man Abraham with these great promises. God repeated His covenant promises to Abraham time and again. One of these was in the very next chapter, Genesis 13. After Abraham had separated from his nephew Lot, allowing Lot to take the better-looking land, God said to Abraham:
Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. (Gen. 13:14–16)
Here was an important restatement of God’s covenant promise at a critical point in Abraham’s life, when it looked as if he had come out on the short end of the deal.
Another restatement of the promise comes in Genesis 17, which we’ll mention here even though it takes us out of the biblical sequence. God said to Abraham:
I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.… My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.… I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. (vv. 2, 4, 8)
The Covenant Ratified
Now we come to Genesis 15 and the actual ceremony by which God ratified His covenant with Abraham. Abraham had just defeated the federation of kings who had kidnapped Lot and his family. “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great’” (v. 1).
In other words, “Keep trusting Me, Abraham.” Don’t just look for the signs or other things God gives; look for God. He is your reward, not anything else.
But Abraham saw a problem. “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless?” (v. 2). That’s a definite problem for a man who is supposed to have so many descendants they can’t be counted.
Why would God promise to make a great nation out of an old man with a wife who couldn’t have children (see Gen. 16:1)? When God wants to do something out of the ordinary, He often chooses the least likely candidate so He can get the greater glory.
This was the case with Abraham and Sarah. It seemed impossible for them to have a child. But God restated His promise. He took Abraham outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.… So shall your descendants be” (Gen. 15:5). At that point, Abraham believed God and was justified by his faith.
Then Abraham asked God, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” (v. 8). God’s answer was the covenant ratification ceremony we read about in the rest of Genesis 15.
God instructed Abraham to bring certain animals and prepare them for the ceremony by cutting them in half and laying the two sides on the ground opposite each other (vv. 9–10). Abraham prepared everything and then sat down to wait for God to show up for the ceremony.
But as time passed, Abraham fell into a deep sleep (v. 12). God was preparing Abraham for the ratification ceremony, but Abraham would not be part of the process except as a witness to the event.
With Abraham watching and listening, God gave him a prophetic summary of Israel’s future bondage in Egypt and deliverance in the Exodus under Moses, and also of Abraham’s future (Gen. 15:13–16). And then God did something very important.
It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. 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” (vv. 17–18).
A Unilateral Agreement
We call this manifestation of God the shekinah, the glory of God, His visible presence. God passed between the pieces of the animals by Himself, not with Abraham, as the act of covenant ratification.
Normally, when two parties cut animals in half to make a blood covenant, both parties walked between the pieces to seal their pledge to keep the covenant. But God did something unique here. He took the walk between the animals by Himself, signifying that this covenant would be totally dependent upon Him, not upon Abraham. God was saying, “Abraham, I’m going to fulfill this covenant through you and with you. But this is My covenant, and I am going to fulfill it without any conditions. I am going to do this by Myself.”
