Summary: Today, we know that God has established the church, and that our bodies have become His holy temple! Why did God do all this? That we may be reconciled with Him and draw near to Him. Each time we come to church, each time we pray to Him, there is always a purpose - that we may draw near to God. A key idea about this holy covenant, is that we must return to God and be reconciled to Him! Let us not forget the salvation that God has given to us. Let us be reminded about the significance and meaning of this holy covenant.

Hymn 332: The Love of God

We are all familiar with covenants. For students, sometimes we sign contracts when we need a loan for school feeds. When we buy a house, if we need to take a loan, we have to sign a contract. Contracts have certain conditions that we have to perform.

To me, I think the best contract/covenant for man is the marriage covenant. Both parties promise to sacrifice and give, rather than to seek of each other. In this marriage covenant, there is this very important element of love. Other contracts are for one party’s gain, i.e. if you want me to loan you money to pay for the house, then you have to pay me interest. These are the contracts/covenants we see in the world.

However, the one in the Bible is different. Why do we call it a holy covenant? This is a covenant established between the holy God and man. Why would He establish such a covenant with man? Of course, God has a purpose. If Adam and Eve had not sinned against God, this covenant would not have been necessary. Because of the fall of man, sin entered into the world. Man needs salvation. On His own initiative, God established this covenant with man.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

In this covenant, there is this very important element of salvation, which was proclaimed right from the start after the fall of man. After man sinned against God, although God has to execute His justice in righteousness, we must also see the love of God, especially when we read Genesis. We can see that God has proclaimed that the seed of the woman will destroy the work of the devil. Under the temptation of the serpent, man sinned against God.

At different times, in different generations, God established covenants with various people. His purpose? To fulfil what He has spoken right from the start in Genesis. In this long history of man, we can see how God has implemented His salvation plan.

Another covenant in the Bible is the one which God established with Noah. Some regard that God established a covenant with Adam too, because of Hosea 6:7 which mentions how Adam broke a covenant. Nevertheless, God, in Genesis, has initiated salvation. After man sinned against God, this sin was tremendous. The evil was so great that God had to use the flood to destroy the generation of man. Noah entered into the ark and after coming out, it was a new world. In this new world, God established a covenant with this family of 8.

Genesis 9:9-10, 13
“And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.
I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

After Noah came out of the ark, God told Noah that He wanted to establish a covenant with them. Why? That God, on His part, will not destroy the world with water again! Though God destroyed those who were evil, there was sorrow in His heart.

Genesis 8:21
And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

God says He will never curse the ground on account of man. The heart of man is evil from his youth. God is aware of the evil of man, as sin has entered into the world. From youth, man has evil in his heart. Yet, this holy God wanted to establish His covenant with Noah!

Man is so unworthy, yet God was willing to fulfill what He declared to Adam and Eve, that through the descendant of man He will bring about salvation for man. This is the covenant of salvation; a covenant of reconciliation between God and man; a covenant of life; a covenant of grace (because man is unworthy!).

In this salvation plan of God, we can see that God has foreseen the need for man to be saved. Look at the world today, do we not see all kinds of evil in the hearts of man today?

I was visiting a church member last Tuesday, who has a helper from Myanmar. I asked her about the situation in Myanmar. She shared that some have been arrested, were returned, but as dead bodies. From the top of their chest to the bottom, their bodies have been sown back. Why was this the case? When the bodies were returned, they opened the bodies and realised all the organs were taken away. There are people who salvage the organs to sell for money. This was really shocking to us. On top of killing someone, you sell their organs to earn a profit?

What is most frightening is that for the sake of earning money by harvesting organs, humans have created a machine that ends the life of man (or at least makes them brain dead), but keeps their organs alive. They put people on a platform and tie them up while alive. The machine is placed besides the person’s head, and exerts an exact force to cause the person to be brain dead but still alive. Then, the organs are sustained and can be sold for more money. Think about it, why should people even invent such a machine? How much effort, experiments, trials, that were carried out to be able to make such a machine? We can see how cruel man can be.

This is why Jesus has said that from within the hearts of man come evil.

Yet, despite all this, God was still willing to establish this covenant with Noah! The purpose was to save man who is doomed to hell.

Genesis 15:18
On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

God has to carry out His plan continuously. And so, after the generation of Noah, Abraham (one of Noah’s descendants), was chosen by God. He was taken out of the land of Ur and God established a covenant with Him. There are many promises in this covenant - land, descendants, kingdom, and that the people of this world will be blessed through Him.

How did God fulfill this promise? It was through a Seed.

Galatians 3:16-17
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

Remember what God spoke to Adam and Eve regarding her seed? This seed is referring to a descendant of Abraham - Jesus! The covenant has the promise of God’s salvation to man. This is also a Gospel of salvation. The “Gospel” appears in the Old Testament as well, as explained by Paul.

Galatians 3:8
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”

To Paul, what God has given to Abraham was the Gospel! That through this Descendant, the promised salvation will be fulfilled!

430 years later, God chose Moses to lead the people into the Promised Land. But even before they entered into the Promised Land, God established the covenant with them!

Exodus 19:5-6
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

The covenant on Mount Sinai was established by God’s own initiative, that these people can become His people! They shall be to Him a kingdom of priests. The people becoming a holy nation of priests is an Old Testament idea! Priests are able to draw near to God and serve Him. The priests must be holy! The Old Testament tell us that God is holy, so we must be holy.

Deuteronomy 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,

Through time, God continually tells us of the coming of this Saviour. God promised that He will raise for them a prophet like Moses. This is referring to the coming of Jesus Christ.

John 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

When Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael, and Philip came to recognise the Lord, he told Nathanael that he found the one that Moses spoke of in the law. The covenant at Mount Sinai already tell us of the coming of the Messiah.

The Old and New Testament reinforce each other.

2 Samuel 7:16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

When they entered into the time of the kings, God established His covenant with David, that His kingdom shall be established forever. This descendant (mentioned earlier in Genesis), is now specifically the descendant of David! We can see that the progress of the promise and Covenant of God.

However, the kingdom split. The Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria. The Southern Kingdom lasted for a hundred more years, before it was destroyed. It seemed as though the promise of the Holy Covenant could no longer be fulfilled. The kingdoms have been destroyed and none of the descendants of David can continue to be king! However, the promise of God will never become void.

After the fall of Jerusalem, none of the descendants of David were able to become king. None of them could wear any crown.

Matthew 27:29
When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

However, in the New Testament, there was a descendant of David. And He could put on this crown - a crown of thorns.

After His arrest, when He was about to be nailed on the cross, the soldiers put a scarlet robe on Him and gave Him a crown of thorns. They mocked Him, saying He was the King of the Jews. This was in fact true, though He was king of all mankind and not just the Jews. However, what He put on was a crown of thorns.

In the New Testament, the Bible continues to remind us that Jesus is the Messiah. A lot of the disciples, before the resurrection of Christ, were not so clear about this concept yet. But for us today, we are able to see this clearly. We have received a greater grace!

Luke 24:21, 25-27 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

The disciples felt that Jesus was no longer with them. They followed Him as they thought He would redeem Israel, but they did not truly understand the prophecies in the Bible. In verses 26 and 27, He appeared to them and explained it clearly to them.

Verse 27 is important. In other words, Jesus is to fulfill the work of salvation! From the time of Genesis all the way until now, everything is to tell us that Jesus is the fulfilment of this salvation! He is to fulfill His part to reconcile man with God! The Holy Covenant entails salvation. He not only wants to die for sinners, but to also help us sinners become holy! We are definitely not worthy, and in fact, we were not the first group chosen i.e. the Jews!

Ephesians 2:12
that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Paul explains here that we are gentiles. We often call those not in church gentiles. In reality, we are gentiles too! In the past, we had no relationship with God too. We were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, excluded from the covenant of God. We had no hope in this world, no concept of the true God.

However, the grace of the Lord has come upon us. We who believe in Christ have a covenant with Him! This is because the Lord Jesus Christ has died for us, that we may be included in this grace of the covenant. Though we are not worthy to receive the grace of the covenant, yet God is willing to accept those who believe in Him and follow His word.

We who are Christians in the New Testament have entered into this holy covenant. The blood of Christ on the cross has freed us from the curse of sin. We have already been reconciled with God!

However, let us remember the significance of being in a covenant - we also have to do our part!

One particular significance of the covenant that I would like to stress would be the covenant of the rainbow. God says in Genesis that He will bow in the cloud (KJV/ESV uses ‘bow’ rather than ‘rainbow’). In fact, original text does mention bow! Why? We know that the rainbow is a sign of peace, because God will not destroy the earth with waters again. Rainbow has some significance in the Bible. Let us look at a few places.

Ezekiel 1:28
Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

Ezekiel has already been taken captive to Babylon, in the second deportation. Ezekiel was by the River Chebar when he saw this vision. The vision was about the four living creatures, etc. but all this was to tell us the glory of God. Why did God let him see the glory of God? To the Israelites, their country has been destroyed. They have become slaves in a foreign land. They have been taken away and have nothing. They will question - are we still the children of God? Isn’t God a God of mighty power?

If we were in the same situation today, will we continue to believe in this God? One would say, very humanly, that God is no longer with us. We can no longer see His might and glory. But through this vision, God wanted Ezekiel to understand. The rainbow was to remind them about the faithfulness and glory of God. God had already made a covenant with them, yet they have sinned (i.e. not fulfill their end of the covenant) and hence being taken captive is what they deserved.

Ezekiel 16:60, 62-63
“Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

God could have abandoned them, could have allowed them to perish, but God is one who keeps His covenant. Through the visions, God wanted them to understand that He has not abandoned them. Their sin was what caused them to be separated from God! God punished them, but had not forsaken them. In fact, God wants to continue to establish His covenant with them! After 70 years, they were able to return to the Promised Land!

Faithfulness is one aspect of His glory. Unfaithfulness is one aspect of man’s shame.

Man established a covenant with God, yet man broke the covenant. Punishment was what we deserved. The rainbow tells us about the faithfulness of God, that He keeps His covenant.

What is another significance of the rainbow?

Habakkuk 3:9
Your bow was made quite ready;
Oaths were sworn over Your arrows.
You divided the earth with rivers.

In the original language, ‘bow’ and ‘rainbow’ are the same words. The bow is a tool that God uses to punish people. It tells us of the might of God. When the kings went out to battle, they used the bow to shoot arrows to kill the enemies. When the arrows strike their enemies, they will put their bow horizontally and keep it, symbolic of peace.

When a bow is placed horizontally, it has the shape of a rainbow. Hence, the original text having the same word meaning ‘bow’ and ‘rainbow’ is quite meaningful. To the family of Noah, when they see the rainbow, it’s a sign of how the floods are over, and that now it is a time of peace. It is a time for God to continue with His covenant to save them.

God had not forget the sinners though they have sinned against Him. Through the family of Noah, He bestows the grace upon man. In times of such peace, God is willing to give sinners an opportunity to be saved. The rainbow is now set in the skies, that whenever man looks at the sky to see the rainbow, man is reminded of the covenant that God has made with them, especially to Noah and his family. Today, when we look at the rainbow, we must also be reminded that God has established a covenant with man in the past.

God does not need the rainbow to be reminded that He needs to keep His covenant, because He is a God who will keep His covenant. The issue is, for us today. We have established this covenant with God today. Let us not forget that God has given us this salvation. If we do not cherish this covenant and break it, although God will not destroy the world with water, the New Testament tells us that He will use His fire to judge man. Let us remember His covenant of reconciliation.

This covenant was established with the blood of Jesus. Through His blood, our sins have been washed away! At baptism, we establish this covenant with God. We must always be reminded about the covenant of life. This is why we have to come to partake the Holy Communion to be reminded of God’s love, to remind ourselves that He has broken His body and shed His precious blood for us. Only then do we have this hope of salvation.

Through the cross we are saved, but those who reject the cross, the cross will judge them. We must learn how to repay God’s love, especially in difficult times. Let us remember that this covenant is about salvation, for us to return to God!

Let us look through all the covenants made in the Old Testament, which we discussed earlier. Notice that each time a covenant is made, an object is involved. For instance, for Noah, God saved them through the ark. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He used the tabernacle, a place for God to meet with man. In the time of David, God through Solomon built the temple, that man can come near to God and worship Him.

Today, we know that God has established the church, and that our bodies have become His holy temple! Why did God do all this? That we may be reconciled with Him and draw near to Him. Each time we come to church, each time we pray to Him, there is always a purpose - that we may draw near to God. A key idea about this holy covenant, is that we must return to God and be reconciled to Him!

Let us not forget the salvation that God has given to us. Let us be reminded about the significance and meaning of this holy covenant.

Hymn 345: O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus