Chapter 4 - Promises and Covenants
When God makes a promise, as recorded in the Bible, we are able to see a tremendously important attribute of His, namely, He delights in keeping His promises (see 1 Kings 8:56; Psalm 119:160; Hebrews 6:13-14). The Bible also reminds us that, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19, ESV) God made several promises in the Bible, some are identified as covenants (Hebrew ‘beriyt’,[1] Greek ‘diathēkēs’,[2] to be set out in order, a testament) referring to what we might call today, “a pledge.” And since we know that God cannot lie nor change His mind (see Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Psalm 89:34; Malachi 3:6; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18; James 1:17), then we can also know with certainly, that each and every one of His promises will be fulfilled. So, if they have not yet been fulfilled, then we know that they will be fulfilled in the future.
Conditional Versus Unconditional
There are two basic types of promises in the Bible: 1) those that are unconditional, a promise given without any requirement from the one who receives or benefits from the promise; and 2) those that are indeed conditional, something is expected in return. For example, when God made a covenant with Abraham (often called the “Abrahamic Covenant,” see Genesis 12:1-4; 13:14-17; 15:1-20; 17:1-8; 26:2-5; 28:1-4, 12-15), the promise had no expectations of obedience or any other condition required for fulfillment. Then later we see God making a covenant with Moses that does contain conditions (referred to as the Mosaic Covenant, see Exodus 19:4-31:18), which was violated and the covenant was broken.
Regarding a promise, a covenant, or even a prophecy, how do we know where to put the peg? How do we know if a covenant is fulfilled? On the surface, this may sound like a simple question, but the correct response is not. As discussed earlier, we need to examine Scripture to find the answers to our questions. For example, I am going to use one example of a misinterpretation to illustrate. Since it is known that the Bible is about Jesus, many scholars use verses like, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 1:20-22) to state they believe that Jesus has fulfilled all of the covenants. This is not true, not all covenants pertain directly to Jesus. Paul is simply stating that the many promises that pointed to, provided timing of, and otherwise described the coming Messiah, were fulfilled by Jesus. According to the prophet Jeremiah, the covenant that Jesus replaced was the conditional covenant given to Moses, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-32) By believing Jesus fulfilled every covenant would put the wrong ‘peg’ in fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant hole on the ‘pegboard’. Sadly, this is an example of how some theologians attempt to remove Israel from eschatology.
Regarding the Abrahamic Covenant, since we know that the covenant has yet to be fully fulfilled, we can expect God to fulfill, in His perfect timing, that covenant in the future. In other words, there will need to be a time period where those promises will happen. Many theologians choose to skip over these eschatological issues (ignore periods such as the tribulation or millennium) or try to ‘fit’ them in some other point in history (creating gap theories, etc.) Are you starting to see how vital understanding the whole Word of God is? We cannot interpret the Bible properly by ignoring or allegorizing parts of it to fit a certain paradigm or presupposition.
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[1] Strong’s Hebrew 1285.
[2] Strong’s Greek 1242.