Broadlands Bible Church
January 11, 2023
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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: Last week we considered some preliminary issues involved in God's establishing a different covenant with Israel than the one given at Mount Sinai and we did not actually get into the details of that different covenant, which is known as "The Palestinian Covenant", or "The Land Covenant".
We did note that this "different covenant" was positioned by the progress of revelation "under" the Abrahamic Covenant's command/promise regarding a "land" which was to be abandoned and a "land" to which Abraham was to go and receive from God as the replacement for the original "land".
This evening we are also going to look into the issues regarding the promise of a "land flowing with milk and honey" and it's place in the final state of things.
- 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..
- 1. A measure of the deceit existed in the fact that Eve did not drop dead after eating of the forbidden fruit.
- 2. 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 and was the root of the eventual physical death of the body.
- 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 difficult reality is 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: 29:5-8 and resulted in an exhortation to live under the terms of this covenant (29:9).
- 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. [Note Deuteronomy 11:26-29 and 27:13-26 and 28:15-46].
- 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.
- 1. This strongly implies that there is an on-going need in "created beings" for replenishment of the issues of energy and function within the context of eternal life.
- 2. There is fruit on the Tree of Life, and leaves also, for this on-going reality.
