Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “God and the Covenant”. Let me start this thought with my opinion. Here we have in our lesson study this week, a golden opportunity to come to grips with “God and the Covenant”. To really dig and see the major, major differences (life and death differences) between them all. The quarterly starts out well with an overview of “The Idea of the Covenant” in Sunday’s lesson. But I believe the quarterly misrepresents the differences between them all by stating in Monday’s lesson, “Each consecutive covenant serves to expound and deepen our understanding of the everlasting covenant of love”. In actuality, Paul illuminates the vital differences between the “Old Covenant” and the “New Covenant” (which is actually a re-stating of the original “everlasting Covenant” to Abraham) in great detail in almost all his epistles, especially in Galatians. Paul shows us that the Children of Israel were only making consecutive “covenants” that led them farther and farther from “love” and deeper and deeper into self-focused performance. So, so far from God that the most religious and dedicated people on the planet, those who made a life-work of studying and obeying the Scriptures (Pharisees) rejected God and rejected “love” as the fulfilling of Scripture. This is not “expound(ing) and deepen(ing) our understanding of the covenant of love” (quoted above).
In last week’s “thought” titled “Promises, promises”, I hoped to show the difference between the covenant in Nehemiah 9 & 10 and the true “Everlasting Covenant” given to Abraham, repeated in Exodus 19: 5-6, Jeremiah 31: 31-34, repeated by Christ (as in Mark 14: 22-26 ), plus repeatedly referenced by Paul throughout his epistles. The difference between the Old and New Covenants is in the promises… who makes the promises. The Everlasting Covenant (the New Covenant) is based on “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). The Everlasting/New Covenant is based on God’s promises, not man’s promises. And here is the crux of my issue with this week’s lesson. It misses the chance to show that difference. This life and death difference.
This is not just theology or philosophy. The grand story behind all Scripture is the revelation of God’s love and man’s sinful perspective of God that leads to misunderstanding Him. And this misunderstanding is the basis for making ourselves god. If we have a God we cannot trust, then I must be my own god… which appeals to our pride and our self-sufficiency… and leads us to make human promises. In Nehemiah 9 & 10, we see a people repeating the same promises and making the same human mistakes as their ancestors at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Yet our quarterly in this week’s study leads us to believe that “Each consecutive covenant serves to expound and deepen our understanding of the everlasting covenant of love” (as quoted above). This is only true by contrast. As each consecutive human covenant/promise shows us man’s futile attempts to fulfill what God only can do. And shows us by contrast, how these consecutive human covenant/promises leads people farther and farther from love. Perhaps it is in this contrasting way that we see how a religion of works and human promises is so opposed to God’s Everlasting Covenant of love.
Human history is strewn with violence, murder and destruction by those who hold a covenant of works… who hold an “Old Covenant” view of God. Who have failed to see our Law-giver as a God of Love. Our Seventh-day Adventist history long ago came to grips with this difference. Of note is E.J. Waggoner’s treatise on the book of Galatians entitled “The Glad Tidings”, and his incomparable book “The Everlasting Covenant”. Both written over 100 years ago. Since then, we as a denomination have fully realized the extreme differences between the covenants. We have been foremost in explaining our God to others and the differences between our sand-like promises versus God’s bedrock promises.
Going forward, each of us needs to be confident of our God. A confidence that comes from knowing Him as He truly is. We need to know the frailty of our own promises and the strength of His promises. We need to trace the workings of each through Biblical history, secular history and in our own lives. Only thus, can we have something personal and to the point to say, to witness to others. We must not mislead. Other’s lives (and our own) hang on this knowledge... and true faith... in His Covenant of Love.
With brotherly love,
Jim