The Covenant Maker

The Covenant Maker

The Gospel of King Jesus

Covenant• “Agreement

between two parties”• It was the work

of kings to make treaties with other nations

Treaties in the Bible

Fragment of an ancient Sumerian treaty

“And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them” (Joshua 9:15).



“Let there be a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” (1 Kings 15:19)



And Ben-hadad said to him, “The cities that my father took from your father I will restore, and you may establish bazaars for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” And Ahab said, “I will let you go on these terms.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go. (1 Kings 20:34)

The Treaty of the Great King

• God offered to enter into covenant with Israel - Exodus 6:2-8; 19:2-6• God explained the terms

of the covenant – Exodus 20-23• God ratified the covenant

with blood and a meal – Exodus 24:1-11

“I will be your God, and you will be My people.”

Treaty of the Great King

Powerful Kings in the ancient world

made treaties/covenants with lesser nations

Piece from the Kadesh Treaty Between the Hittites and Egypt

1269 BC

Kings and Covenants

Preamble

These are the words of the Sun Mursilis, the great king, the king of the Hattiland, the valiant , the favourite of the Storm-god, the son of Suppiluliumas , the great king, the king of the Hattiland, the valiant .

Kings and Covenants

Historical Introduction

Aziras was the grandfather of you, Duppi-Tessub. He rebelled against my father , but submitted again to my father . When the kings of Nuhassiland and the kings of Kinza rebelled against my father , Aziras did not rebel. As he was bound by treaty, he remained bound by treaty…

Kings and CovenantsGeneral Principles

. . . So honour the oath (of loyalty) to the king and the king's kin… But you, Duppi-Tessub remain loyal towards the king of the Hattiland. Do not turn your eyes to anyone else.

Kings and Covenants

Specific Stipulations

With my friend you shall be friend, and with my enemy you shall be enemy . . .

As I, the Sun, am loyal toward you, do you extend military help to the Sun and the Hattiland. . .

Kings and Covenants

Curses and Blessings

The words of the treaty and the oath that are inscribed on this tablet - should Duppi-Tessub not honour these words of the treaty and the oath, may these gods of the oath destroy Duppi-Tessub together with his person, his wife , his son, his grandson, his house, his land, and together with everything that he owns . But if Duppi-Tessub honours these words of the treaty and the oath…

Kings and Covenants

Witnesses

The gods and goddesses of the Hattiland, the gods and goddesses of Amurruland, all the olden gods, Naras, Napsaras , Minki, Tuhusi , Ammunki , Ammizadu, Allalu, Anu, Antu, Apantu, Allil, Ninlil, the mountains , the rivers, the springs, the great Sea, heaven and earth, the winds and the clouds - let these be witnesses to this treaty and to the oath.

The Treaty of the Great King•Deuteronomy follows the pattern of

ancient treaties• Preamble (1:1-5)• Historical Background (1:6-3:29)• Stipulations (4-26)• General principles (4-11)• Specific regulations (12-26)

• Blessings and Cursings (27-30)•Witnesses (31-34)

Where Is God’s Throne?

So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. (1 Sam. 4:4, similar language found 7 times)

Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! (Ps. 9:11)

Promises of a New Covenant

• The Lord will circumcise your heart.

Deuteronomy 301“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you…6 the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live…

Deuteronomy 30

11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”


• The Lord will circumcise your heart .• I will put my law within

them and write it on their hearts.

Jeremiah 3131 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”


• The Lord will circumcise your heart .• I will put my law within

them and write it on their hearts.• I will give you a new heart

and place new spirit in you.

Ezekiel 3625 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 3726 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jesus and the New Covenant (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:19-20)

• Jesus’ death is the means by which God is making the new covenant• Connections with Exodus 24:• “Blood of the covenant” (M 26:28)• Meal eaten

• Connections with Jeremiah 31:• “New covenant” (L 22:20)• “For the forgiveness of sins”

(M 26:28)

Jesus and the New Covenant

• Jesus made this new covenant as part of His kingly work.

Zechariah 99 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem;and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations;his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Jesus and the New Covenant

• Jesus made this new covenant as part of His kingly work.• Jesus made this new covenant as more

than just a king…• God > The Twelve Tribes > Passover• Jesus > The Twelve Apostles > My body, my

blood

“I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David” (Isaiah 55:3)

What About the Inner Change?• Through Christ’s sacrifice we are cleansed

inwardly.

Hebrews 9

13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant…

Hebrews 924 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.


inwardly.• Through faith in Christ from the heart we

become members of the covenant.

Mouth and Heart• “But the word is very

near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” Deut. 30:14

• “Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Rom. 10:9-10


inwardly.• Through faith in Christ from the heart we

become members of the covenant.• Through the Spirit God is transforming us

to be like Christ.

2 Corinthians 31 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 34 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 315 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

We are blessed to be God’s people!

Revelation 211 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

1 Peter 29 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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The Covenant Maker