Broadlands Bible Church
December 28, 2022
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Thesis: The first of "the covenants of The Promise", under the overarching Abrahamic Covenant, is The Palestinian Covenant found in
Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20.
Introduction: So far in our studies of Developing a Biblical Perspective, we have seen that God's words to men have been in accord with two major issues: the way men were created (body, spirit, soul); and the issues of the relational universe. Simultaneous to the physical creation of the material universe was the creation of a relational universe in which the issues of "Life" were paramount. God created man to be His personal representatives in the material universe by being relationally linked together with Him. As soon as the records of the creation of the material universe were recorded, we read that God addressed the issue of man's need to be relationally linked to Him in Love and Faith. The issue was raised by God's prohibition regarding the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (
Genesis 2:16-17).
The background of this prohibition was the previous rebellion of a group of angelic persons who determined to contradict the most fundamental aspects of the relational linkage that was to exist between God and His personal creatures. This was a frontal attack upon the principles involved in a relational universe that could operate in harmony. In other words, it was a frontal aggression against The Kingdom of Heaven with the intention of destroying it and replacing it with a Kingdom of Death.
Consequently, the Kingdom of This World was attacked by The Serpent by means of temptation; to seek to break the harmony of the relational link between God and man. He was successful. For this reason, the plans of the Kingdom of Heaven were temporarily set aside so that there could be a reestablishment in man of the twin principles of the Love and Faith that undergird the Kingdom of Heaven. The process has, at this time, taken up a bit over 6,000 years of human history and yet has at least another 1,000 years to go.
At the heart of the recovery program is God's dealings with man according to the issues of his "fall" into the Death of The Kingdom of Death. Those issues involve the three areas of man as he was created and the consequent three problems those areas have produced: the appetites of The Flesh; the dissatisfied longings of the eyes; and the deceitfulness of man's arrogant confidence in his abilities to perceive and defeat his "nefarious" Creator (his confidence in the "wisdom" that the fruit of the forbidden tree was to give him).
God's answer to man's "fall" was "The Promise" by which the temptations of body, soul, and spirit could be overcome. Thus, we have "the Covenants of The Promise". The initial phase of this "answer from God" to the deceits of the Kingdom of Death was what we know as The Abrahamic Covenant. Beneath this Covenant are three subsequent, supporting, covenants: The Land Covenant; the Seed Covenant; and the New Covenant.
This evening we are going to begin a consideration of those supporting covenants. We will begin with "The Land Covenant".
- I. The First Major Issue Of The Deceit And God's Exposure Of It.
- A. God first formed man out of the dust of the ground.
- 1. This automatically created a "need" in man for a replenishing of the components of that dust as they were transformed from usefulness for the physical life of man into waste.
- 2. This need was designed to be met by a detailed process of man regaining the losses by eating foods that were generated by plants which exist to take up the nutrients of the dust and make them available to men by their "fruits".
- 3. Thus, God planted a garden and filled it with plants which would produce what the body needs for life to be sustained and placed man there.
- B. The first element of the temptation was to generate a contradiction to God's warning that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was "death producing".
- 1. This contradiction was blatant and without any visible form of validation.
- 2. Yet it produced the likelihood that its "fruit" was "life producing".
- 3. Once the other aspects of the temptation were in place, Eve "saw" that the tree "was good for food".
- C. Thus, when God's warning of "Death" became an imposition of death, the divine exposure was plain, after the fact (the immediate reaction of man to the sound of the approach of God in the garden showed beyond doubt that "Death" had entered the relational universe).
- II. The First Aspect Of God's "Reclamation" Plan Was The Promise Of A Land That Would Supply Man's Physical Need For Food.
- A. God's first requirement upon Abraham was that he "leave" his land and believe that He would provide him with a sufficiently nourishing land that would provide his body with what it needed.
- B. This issue of "believing" in God's supply of a good land was eventually addressed with a specific "covenant" that would provide a "good land".
- C. The biblical record of this "supporting covenant".
- 1. As a "supporting covenant" it was like unto Hebrews 6:13-18.
- 2. The main text: Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20.
- a. It is distinguished from the Covenant of the Law: 29:1.
- b. It is rooted in two realities.
- 1) The experiences of the Israelites through forty years of wandering: 29:2-3.
- 2) The reality that, thus far, "the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear": 29:4.
- c. It is established by the physical facts: 29:5-9.
- d. It is made between Yahweh your Elohim, and all of Israel (both those present and those to come): 29:10-15.
- e. It contains an horrific curse for any whose heart turns to idolatry: 29:16-21.
- f. It predicts a gross failure of the nation: 29:22-29.
- g. It predicts a future return to the land: 30:1-5.
- h. It predicts a divine provision for that future return to endure: 30:6-10.
- i. It summons those present to embrace this covenant: 30:11-20.
- D. The essentials of this covenant will endure even into the New Heavens and New Earth.
