“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’”(Genesis 12:1-3).

Let us review the covenants we have learned about so far:

1. God’s Covenant with Adam – a conditional, or works-based, covenant. Adam broke the covenant and introduced sin into the world.
2. God’s Covenant with Noah – God’s unconditional, or grace-based, covenant with Noah and his descendants (in other words: all of us) whereby he dealt with corruption caused by sin and promised never to destroy the earth by flood again.

Later in Genesis, we find God making another unconditional covenant of grace with Abraham. In this covenant, as given in Genesis 12, God promised to bless the world through one family and through one Son from that family. This covenant gave Abraham many descendants, a good land, and a great name.

All of this came at God’s initiative; God chose Abraham and announced to him what he would do for him. In Genesis 15:17-18 we read of a sacred ceremony called a blood covenant where God covenanted to fulfil this promise. This ceremony was how the culture of the day sealed their contracts. Typically, both parties to the agreement passed between the carcasses. In this case, only God had to pass. In essence, God was covenanting with Himself to make and keep this promise to Abraham and his descendants. And “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

Both Paul in his letters to the Romans and Galatians, and James in his letter, recall this verse from Genesis 15:6 to emphasize that we are we are ultimately declared righteous because the obedience of Christ is imputed to us through faith in Him alone. In other words, we are saved by the work of Jesus—his obedience. The passage from James goes on to say that faith without works is dead. He is not saying that our works save us, but he is saying that our works are a demonstration of our faith just as Abraham showed his faith by seeking to obey God and repenting when he fell short (James 2:14-26).

This covenant frames up much of what transpires in the remainder of the Old Testament as the people of Israel seek to live in relationship with God; how they cycle through obedience, complacency, disaster, repentance, obedience, and so on. If you are anything like me, it should sound familiar. And what is so beautiful, is that God never walks away. He is always there, keeping his part of the covenant, ready to greet them/us with open arms when we decide to return to him.

This Abrahamic covenant has far-reaching power, and Abraham was considered a great man of faith because  ^“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going….And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:8, 12).

What exactly is faith? “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). We can have this confidence because our God does not change and He keeps his promises. “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).

This Hebrews Hall of Fame of Faith sums it up by saying “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40).

Abraham looked forward to God’s salvation; we look back on it since Jesus has come. As we said before, all of God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. According to Got Questions, “Five times in Genesis 12, as God is giving the Abrahamic Covenant, He says, “I will.” Clearly, God takes the onus of keeping the covenant upon Himself. The covenant is unconditional. One day, Israel will repent, be forgiven, and be restored to God’s favor (Zechariah 12:10–14; Romans 11:25–27). One day, the nation of Israel will possess the entire territory promised to them. One day, the Messiah will return to set up His throne, and through His righteous rule the whole world will be blessed with an abundance of peace, pleasure, and prosperity.”

How does this promise relate to us today? “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29).

This is one in a series on the Promises of God which started on January 4, 2023. In subsequent Chaplain’s Corners, we will continue to look at these promises and with them, the nature of our awesome God.

In Christ,

Judy

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter1:3-4).

This year we are focusing on God’s Promises. As stated in the Chaplain’s Corner last week, there are two types of promises, or covenants: Conditional and Unconditional. Another way of stating these two types is Works-Based and Grace-Based. A conditional–or works-based covenant–requires both parties (God and Man) to perform. An unconditional–or grace-based covenant–requires only one party (God) to perform). All of the covenants that come after the works-based conditional covenant with Adam are grace-based. In today’s Chaplain’s Corner we will focus on the first of several grace-based covenants – the covenant with Noah.

In last week’s devotional we learned that because of Adam’s disobedience, the works-based covenant that God had made with him in the Garden of Eden was broken, and Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden.  By Genesis 6, just nine generations after Adam, we find that outside the Garden, the earth filled with corruption “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence” (Genesis 6:11). So, God determined to “…put an end to all the people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth” (Genesis 6:13).

However,God had observed in Genesis 6:9 that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” God gave Noah instructions for building an ark, and then said to him, “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you” (Genesis 6:18). God also instructed him to take representative animals along with food for all. “And Noah did everything just as God commanded him” Genesis 6:22). Note that even here, God is establishing the covenant by his grace, not on the condition that Noah had been and would be obedient, even though Noah did obey.

The rain came, and it was a catastrophic flood. “And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds…. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. (Genesis 7:12-17).

It was truly a global catastrophe: “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:22-24).

One year after Noah and his family entered the ark, they were finally able to come out of the ark onto dry land. “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even thoughevery inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease’” (Genesis 8:20-21).

“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.’” (Genesis 9:8-13).

I know this is a lot of Scripture, but the words of God are so significant. Noah was a righteous man and he obeyed God in the building of the ark. However, never did God say, “if you will be righteous, then I will make this covenant with you.” Rather, God said “I will now establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you” to never destroy the earth with a flood.

He also promised the stability of day and night and the regularity of the seasons. Think about it, we can count on the fact that the sun will come up in every morning, and spring/seedtime will always follow winter just as autumn/harvest will follow summer, without fail, because God has promised this. God will preserve the world as he works toward keeping his promise to rescue humanity and creation.

Furthermore, every time you see a rainbow, it represents this “covenant between me and the earth.” This covenant is between God and each of us, because we are all descendants of Noah, and it is based on the righteousness of God Himself. The rainbow is the sign of this Noahic covenant with us.

Bottom Line: As we said before, all of God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. According to Got Questions, the lesson to us is that when we see a rainbow we should always be reminded of God’s faithfulness and His amazing grace. We should also be reminded that our God is a holy and righteous God who has a holy hatred for sin and who will not allow sin to go unpunished forever. Also, just as God provided a way for Noah and his family to be saved in the ark, He also has provided a way for us to be saved through Jesus Christ. Noah and his family were saved from the wrath of God that came in the flood, just as those who are in Christ are saved from the “wrath to come.”

This is one in a series on the Promises of God which started on January 4, 2023. In subsequent Chaplain’s Corners, we will continue to look at these promises and with them, the nature of our awesome God.

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10 KJV).

In Christ,

Judy

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter1:3-4).

Look closely at the last part of the passage above: “the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” Do you ever wonder why people in the world must endure such devastating hardship: wars and disease; in fact from genocide to weeds in the garden and everything in between?

Last week, we started a series on God’s Promises. As stated last week, there are basically two types of promises, or covenants: Conditional and Unconditional. Another way of stating these two types is Works-Based and Grace-Based. A conditional, or works-based covenant, requires both parties (God and Man) to perform. An unconditional, or grace-based covenant, requires only one party (God) to perform).

Today’s devotional will focus on a works-based covenant between God and Man. In the beginning, God created the world, planted the Garden of Eden, and placed man in it. (Genesis 1:26-31). Then, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” (Genesis1:15-17). In other words, God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden and told him he could have anything he wanted, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If he ate of that tree, then he would die. This covenant was works-based because it required Adam’s obedience for his eternal life. And we know what happened. Eve, then Adam, ate fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and as a result, God banished them from the Garden of Eden and invoked several curses:

• (v.14) So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life….
• (v.16) To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
• (vv.17-19) To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:14,16-19).

So how is this also a covenant with us today? The thing is, Adam was the representative of all mankind. So, when he sinned by disobeying God and breaking his part of the covenant, sin entered the world and corrupted all subsequent generations as well as the earth itself. Left to ourselves, our only end is death. That is why we say we are born with a sin nature. We suffer all kinds of problems with disease, weather, disasters, wars, crime, etc., and it all happened because Adam, in his disobedience, broke this conditional, works-based covenant. Adam did not keep his part of the covenant, but God kept his part.

And now for the good part. Remember from last week that God made an ultimate redemptive covenant. It is expressed in Genesis 3:15 (the missing verse from the Genesis passage above) – “I (God) am declaring war between you (Serpent/Satan) and the Woman (Eve), between your offspring and hers (Jesus). He (Jesus) will wound your head, you (Satan)will wound his heel (Jesus).” This is the first prophecy we read about in the Bible of a Savior, of God’s ultimate redemptive plan. And we know that Jesus fulfilled the terms of this works-based covenant, on our behalf, with when he consented to come to earth in human form, live a perfect sinless life, give his life as a sacrifice for our sin. As the last Adam, Jesus renders the perfect obedience God demanded of the first Adam (and each of us), and He atones for the sin of His people (you and me), removing God’s wrath. Even though Satan will get his darts in (“wound his heel”), ultimately, Jesus, because of His obedience to God’s will, defeated Satan (“wound your head”) and brought about God’s perfect plan.

That’s right—past tense. Jesus’ work is done, and we (you and me) are now living in the fulfilled promise. As the opening passage begins: “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.” We will see that all of God’s promises and covenants, conditional and unconditional, works-based and grace-based, have been fulfilled in Jesus’ work on the cross. Praise Jesus!!!

This is one in a series on the Promises of God which started on January 4, 2023. In subsequent Chaplain’s Corners, we will continue to look at these promises and with them, the nature of our awesome God.

“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18-19).

In Christ,

Judy