Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants

Make sure you get both of those on the way in. They're back there. Those of you who were here last night. Steve Willis is with us from Southern Seminary, a very influential professor for Ben and myself. And we're walking through what's called physical theology, following the redemptive promises, redemptive history. true, and faithful, and righteous. Glad you all made it, and the traffic, and football games, and everything else, right? So, all right, the handout, we'll get right away, because our time always eludes us, right? So it always runs away. The second handout, right, the whole larger theme is, in some sense, how the Old and New Testament fit together, and with Galatians 3 and 4 is where we're moving to, right? So we're laying the pieces to understand Galatians 3 and 4, because Galatians 3 and 4, we said last night, really gives you a summary, in some sense. It's not total, but it's a kind of summary of Old and New Testament. A summary of God's promises from the old, reaching fulfillment in Christ, and Paul's argument there against the Judaizers. So, the second handout we'll be really picking up on, we're looking at the covenants. We introduced that last night. Just at the beginning here, the idea of promise. Promise is a really wonderful word, isn't it? When someone promises to another, right? Think of a wedding, think of friendship, right? The words promise, and the doing of promise, the action of promise, sometimes we call this speech acts, right? Various speech acts, right? At a wedding, right, somebody says, I promise, right? That's powerful, because in that context of a wedding ceremony, one is enacting an entire new relationship, a whole covenant relationship. And promises are tied, they're not just empty words, they're tied to a person's character. So when someone says, I promise, they're putting their entire person behind that. That's why, right, when people break their promises, it really hurts. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That's just not true, is it? Probably better to have sticks and stones than people to break their words and break their promises. So when you think of promises in scripture, it automatically takes you to covenants. And it takes you to the God who makes promises. That's another way of looking at covenants. God is the promise maker. And thankfully, he's the promise keeper. image bearers and his redeemed people were to be like him in the sense that we keep our promises, right? But he thankfully is the one who keeps his promises through and through. And in Scripture, God's promises are always, always, always tied to covenants, right? It makes sense because at the heart of the covenant is God is in relationship with us, right? The creator of the universe, has created us for himself, he makes promises, there's obligations that we are to fulfill, and we make promises back to him, right? And so you have the entire covenant relationship, and we spoke about that a little bit last night, just introducing the term, the idea of covenants, right? Now, covenants, we said, are not sort of window dressing in the Bible, right? They're not even, I would say, just a theme of the Bible, right? You can get a lot of themes that run through the Bible. Covenants are more significant than that, right? Covenants are not only how God relates to us, but the unfolding of the covenants reveal His plan, right? So His plan that He has had from all eternity gets enacted in time, right? So creation is the beginning of that plan being enacted, right? We often speak of creation as the stage that God creates to enact his plan, the stage of human history, right? The theater of his glory. That's a term from John Kelvin, right? So he has an eternal plan. He creates a stage. And we're part of that unfolding drama, right? Unfolding revelation. And the covenants really unpack God's plan. So it's really trying to encourage you, as you put Old and New Testament together, as we think of the covenants, They're not just there, oh, here's just an arbitrary covenant. They're part of one plan, right? A plan from eternity that reaches an end point, right? Christ, and ultimately, the consummation of all things, the new heavens, new earth. So we move from creation to new creation, and we see something, each of those covenants are giving us more and more and more about God's plan, right? This is the notion of progress of revelation, right? So God has not given everything of his plan all at once. He's chosen to do it over time, right? Could he have done differently? Sure, but he didn't. And there's a lot of elapsing of time throughout the Bible, isn't there, right? There's a lot of waiting. That's part of trusting God. Think of even in the Old Testament, people of God as they had to look forward to the coming of Christ and so on. So we trace out God's plan through the covenants. I like to call the covenants the backbone of the Bible storyline. So it's the means by which the revelation of God unfolds to us. So that's why the covenants will have a very, very strong revelation sense to them, but also the Bible will speak of in terms of a prophetic sense to them. They're prophesying, they're revealing, they're pointing forward, they're speaking of something greater. that when you get to the New Testament, that greater than comes, right? And it comes in Christ and it's now bringing a new age and a new era and so on that everything from the old was looking forward to. Now, as we said, as we worked through scripture, right, given that it's a progress of revelation, we need to read in terms of three contexts, right? So book, you can start anywhere in the Bible. So just pick any book you want. You have to start somewhere. So you pick any book you want, but as you read that book, you read it in its immediate context. You're asking, what does the author say? What kind of literature is this? How's the whole book put together? So you're reading Isaiah, you read Isaiah as a whole book. You read Romans, you read it as a whole book, and so on. But then the second context is you're always having to say, because no book comes to you in a vacuum. It's building on something previous. So Isaiah. How do I understand Isaiah in light of what has already been given? How do I understand the New Testament in terms of the entire Old Testament? So this is the idea of the progress of revelation. And third context, ultimately, is now we have a closed canon. That's very, very important in our reading of Scripture, interpretation of Scripture. We now, I like to say to people, we are in the second best place in all of history. The best place is when Jesus comes again. The second best place is where we are right now, right? Why is that? Because we live in light of the fulfillment of all of God's promises from the Old Testament. They still will be fulfilled in the future, yet we now see things more clearly than any Old Testament prophet ever saw, right? Even John the Baptist, old John the Baptist, right? Think of him, forerunner of Jesus, but he never sees the cross, does he? He never sees the resurrection. He gets his head chopped off before ever that happens, right? He's looking forward to it, but we now live after. That's why Jesus can say, we who are least in the kingdom are greater than John. Why are we greater than John? Because John, right, only pointed to Christ. We now live in light of Christ, right? So all of history is centered ultimately in the coming of the Lord Jesus and his promises and so on. Now when we think of these contexts, this is why I drew this up here, we're working through, if we can see here, the covenants. We said there are six, there's all kinds of covenants in scripture, but six major ones, right? And we spoke a bit last night about creation and Adam and a covenant relationship that's established in creation that's foundational to the entire storyline of scripture. There's the Noahic, mentioned just a little bit. are really linked together because they're dealing with the context of a creation context. It's pretty hard to miss, you know, it's pretty hard to miss that, right? Because Adam is the head of creation. God wipes away everybody in the flood and he starts with another Adam, right? So that's why Noah looks a lot like Adam, right? When he comes out of the ark, he's given the same mandate. Be fruitful. multiply, replenish, just like Adam of old, yet, yet, yet, yet, it's a post-fall situation. So it's not exactly this is pre-fall, this is post-fall, and you have a number of things going on with Noahic that are very, very important, but here's the universal in some sense, right? God's purposes from the beginning is for humans to rule over the world, right, and to have ultimately all of creation. Now, eventually, in fulfillment, that's where we go. Christ now brings a new creation. Yet it will be narrowed from creation through, then, specific covenants and people. God's promise will unfold now through one man, nation, culminating in Christ that brings benefit to all nations. So you move, in some sense, from universal to universal. And this is not universalism, right? But universal in the sense of God's creation focus, right? He's not just, it's very important, he's saving individuals, but he's not just saving individuals, ultimately he's making a new heavens and earth, right? He's making a creation that we will then rule over. We will not be floating on clouds of heaven, right? We will live in a new heavens, a new earth, and so on, where Eden will be now the universe, right? That's how Revelation 21 and 22 presents that. But it gets narrowed then through the particular covenants, right? And we said the issue of promise is given post fall, Genesis 3, 15. And in this context, right, the promise is very important, right? Because God is saying, I will provide one who will restore what was lost, right? So you have this focus of ultimately sin will be overturned. The curse will be removed. I mean, that's the larger, and that certainly gets picked up as you work through scripture. Now, as we look at the covenants unfolding, right? This is supposed to represent, this is one plan. This isn't multiple plans of God. But each plan, this is why I have each covenant, this is why I have lines here, right? Come in a certain context, right? So creation, we can say, pre-fall, post-fall takes you through Genesis 1 to 5. Noahic takes you through Genesis 6 through 9. Abraham and Noahic, I mean, then there's six through nine, and then 10 with the nations, and the Tower of Babel, 11. And then here is 12 through 50, right? So these are the patriarchs. Then we see the rise of the Mosaic Covenant, right? So God frees the nation out of Egypt, and Exodus 19, 20, enters into covenant relationship with them. And this runs, in some sense, all the way through till the coming of Christ, right? The nation of Israel is under that old covenant. And then the Davidic Covenant. right, now comes out of the mosaic. The prophets, right, the prophets, major prophets, minor prophets, we'll come back to that, are all writing post-Davidic. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, the minor prophets. And they then, the prophets, all of them speak of the future. And the future is bound up with a new covenant. So they're building off of these previous covenants, They look future, which the New Testament then says has now come, right? So the New Covenant now gets ratified in the coming of the Lord Jesus uniquely in his cross, right? In his resurrection and so on, but his whole life, the whole coming of Christ is presented as the dawning of the last Adam, right? The bringing of the new creation and so on, right? The virgin conception, right, is all creation imagery. His resurrection body is the new creation. So in all these areas that Jesus is the first man of the new creation, right? He's more than a man, but he's the first man of the new creation, right? So this is how all of the covenants will then reach fulfillment. So here is where the whole Bible is going, right? So one plan, so the arrows here represent, right? So we read each of these covenants in context. That's the first context. Yet, right, they're building on one another. So Noahic builds on what is previous. Abrahamic can't be understood apart from what's previous. So Genesis 12 through 50, right, that just doesn't come out of nowhere. So the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 builds off of what's earlier. And this is how you understand, well, what's Abraham's role in the world? Well, he's to bring, ultimately, the promise of a new heavens and earth. The Mosaic, we'll see, builds off the Abrahamic, but it comes after. So it's not, right, you don't have the Mosaic over here, it comes here, right? And this will be very, very important for Paul's argument in Galatians 3 and 4, right? So as you're working from the promise of Genesis 3.15 through Abrahamic, particularly, right, the Mosaic comes 430 years later. Now, it's very, very important in the plan, but it's building. It's having a purpose, right? To lay out the promise, but also to do many other things, right? And then the Davidic. The Davidic, right? David comes under Israel's covenant, but there's features of the Davidic covenant that are unfolding the promise. And then the prophets then look to the future. Here's what's coming in a new covenant. It'll not be like, particularly it can contrast it with the Mosaic, but it will bring a new age tied to the coming of Christ, the Redeemer, the Davidic King, and so on, right? So that's how, so as we read, right, we read each in context to look at what they're building on would be the second context. And then we have to always keep relating them to the canonical context. So how does creation, Adam, Noah fit with Christ? How does Abraham fit with Christ? How does the Mosaic fit with Christ? So we funnel everything for us through the new covenant, right? So as we read the Old Testament, the whole Old Testament applies to us in and through its fulfillment, right? So you don't follow Leviticus by doing what they did under the Old Covenant because that now has come to fulfillment, right? And the same principle applies. So the Old Testament applies to us But we have to make sure then that we're not just taking it out of context, but we're actually seeing how it's brought to fulfillment in Christ. Then it applies to us. So the whole Bible applies in and through what has happened now in terms of Christ. So that's how we are to put a whole Bible eventually together. So let's turn to Abrahamic. And of course, Abraham in Galatians 3 and 4 Right? He's going to focus, Paul's going to focus particularly on the Abrahamic relationship to the Mosaic. And of course, it's going to be fulfilled in Christ, so he's assuming the new. I mentioned last night that there's going to be a mention of David, at least implicitly, and I think that's picked up with this language that Jesus is the Christ. Christ is another word for Messiah. That uniquely in the prophets gets picked up in the Davidic King, right? So there's some sense of reference to David, right? So what we wanna do in 45 minutes here is think through Abrahamic, some key features of it, Mosaic, and link these three together. And then after break, see what the prophets are saying. And it's fulfillment of Christ and then go back, then come to Galatians 3 and 4 and see this is how Paul's laying out his argument. So the Abrahamic covenant, this is on your page one. Genesis 12 through 50 really is the whole patriarchal age. Patriarchs meaning Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. Nothing to do with patriarchalism or something. Just simply the fathers, right, in that sense. Key covenant texts. So everything's important, but the key covenant texts, 12, 15, 17, 22, those are just, as the narrative unfolds, those are crucial, and they build on one another. Even in Abraham's life, right, there is an unfolding of the promise, and more details given, and tests that are given. I mean, it's all revelation, but it's one covenant. Under the Abrahamic, turn to Genesis 12, right? We will get into all kinds of debates, right? But I would say there's one covenant given. Some people try to talk about two Abrahamic covenants. I don't think that works. So there's one covenant given. As we turn to Genesis 12, right, the first thing to ask, this is the context by which we're looking at the Abrahamic covenant, but what does it build on, right? So there's where, right, we say, what is before it? So that's wrestling with the second context, right? So the immediate context would be Genesis 12 through 50, but what's it building on, right? Abraham's promise in Genesis 12 just doesn't come out of nowhere. It's built on, and this seems obvious, but it's often neglected, it builds on Genesis 1 to 11, doesn't it? So that we read in chapter 12, verse one, the Lord said to Abram, Leave your country, and of course we know from Joshua and other, Abraham's just a pagan. There's nothing righteous about Abraham. He is only saved by grace. So Joshua 24 speaks about him with the idolaters, but God saves him, he elects him, so the whole theme of election is everywhere. He calls him out of his country, leave your country, your people, your father's household, go to the land I will show you. And then what does God say to him? Here's the promises. I will make you into a great nation. The Hebrew word is goy. A number of words that are used in terms of nation, people. Normally Israel's called the people. But here a very specific term is used of nation. Nation carries the idea of a political entity, a kingdom. So this is where, in the Old Testament, you don't have many references at all to kingdom of God. Everything in the Gospels is kingdom of God. But where's the notion of kingdom found? Well, right here. It's found in creation, with Adam. But it's also, I'll make you a mighty kingdom, a mighty nation. Now eventually, we know that's fulfilled first in Israel, isn't it? Exodus 19 will pick this up. What's Israel? They're a mighty goy, a mighty nation. So first you have the promise to Abraham that will be then picked up in the nation of Israel. I will bless you. I'll make your name great. Now, of course, the name is already contrasted with chapter 11. Chapter 11 is Tower of Babel. There's a lot that could be said there, right? Tower of Babel basically is Genesis 3 all over again. It's humans now, instead of spreading themselves out It's really statism, right? They come together. We're gonna set up our own, you know, sort of regime type of thing. And what do people try to do? They try to make their name great. God scatters them and says, I'm gonna make your name great, Abraham. It's a direct contrast to Babel, right? So God is going to make the name of Abraham great. He's gonna bless him. I will bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you, I will curse. And notice, though, the universal. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Again, not universalism, but this is picking up, right, ultimately creation, right? There is, it's not just that God, and this is very important, right? God didn't choose Abraham just because he was better and greater and he had a certain ethnicity, ah, nothing to do with that. This is by grace in order to bring blessing to the world, right, to bring blessing to the nations. Christ coming, the seed of Abraham, and so on, right? The church is comprised of every tribe, nation, people, tongue, and so on. That's the universal, right? So here, God says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless your name. I will make your name great. And through you will come blessing to the world. Now, when we put this in the context of Genesis 1 to 11, this promise isn't just free-floating. It has to be. tied to Genesis 3.15. So when we tie it to Genesis 3.15, then we now see the unbelievable significance of Abraham. Through this man and his offspring, he is going to bring a restoration to the world. That's why he's really, really important. So God is choosing now one man, out of all the peoples, right? So in the Noahic Covenant, he's keeping all the peoples there. And out of one man, he is going to work through him to bring blessing to the world. But he is the means, Abraham and the seed is the means by which Genesis 3.15 will take place. So what is God gonna do? I, through Abraham, will provide a Redeemer. I mean, that's the idea here, right? So Genesis 12, So Abraham is the hope of the world, right? That's why there's incredible tension first in getting Isaac, right? He can't be the hope of the world if he doesn't have an offspring. So you have all of the drama in terms of getting Isaac, right? And Abraham does everything he can to get a seed. He first suggests Eliezer to be the seed, and then he has Hagar, and he has all kinds of things going on, yet God says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'll provide, I'll provide, I'll provide. You gotta wait, you gotta trust, and so on. But ultimately it's tied back to Genesis 3.15. And of course in Genesis 22, when he's then told to put him as a burnt offering, a sacrifice, then you begin to think, how is this gonna work? If the hope of the world is found in this offspring, and he's dead, there's no hope. And so that's how the drama unfolds, right? So Genesis 12, crucial. And in this context then, if we put Abraham in terms of creation, he's going to have a great name. He's going to have a kingdom. He's going to have a rule. You cannot help but see Abraham as another Adam. Why is he another Adam? Because Adam's role is to rule the world. Adam's role is to bring dominion. Well, in some sense, that's what Abraham is supposed to be doing. Yet it's now through an individual, through a family, and so on, right? So here is, I think, the context by which we understand Genesis 12. Now Genesis 12, the promise will be very, very important in Galatians 3. Paul doesn't pick up in Galatians 3 everything that it's building on, but it's assuming it, right? So the 12th promise can't just be isolated. It has to be understood in terms of what has preceded it, right? Abraham is the hope. of the world. Now, there's some other aspects as well. I have three other important truths taught in the Abrahamic Covenant. This is part of the revelation of the promise. And these features, right, are there that then get developed, picked up in later covenants, and so on. First, we mentioned even last night, comment in terms of Genesis 15. So if you go to Genesis 15, right, there is a unambiguous emphasis that God unilaterally will keep his promise. And that's a glorious truth, right? That goes all the way back to Genesis 3.15, I will do it, I will do it, I will do it. Well, you have this very, very, very clearly revealed in Genesis 15. Many people call the Abrahamic covenant an unconditional covenant, or a unilateral covenant type of thing. And where they're getting that from is in Genesis 15, Abraham still doesn't have a seed. God is still promising him one. And he's looking up at the heavens, verse two, Genesis 15. But Abraham said, oh, sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless? I mean, I don't have the promise here. And God says to him, ultimately, I will provide and so on. And what does Abraham do? Genesis 15, six is crucial. Right? Abraham takes God's word, right? He takes God's promise and he believes it. And that passage now becomes over and over and over again in the New Testament, the ground ultimately of how are we right with God? We're right with God, as it says in Genesis 15, 6, because Abraham, he says, believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, right? Salvation is by grace through faith in the promises of God. But notice these promises here are promises ultimately tied to a coming Redeemer, right? This is why we'd say the promise ultimately is Christological, right? It's not just promise and promise. It's the promise that I will provide a seed for you, that this seed will bring restoration, that it's a Christological. Now, he doesn't maybe know all the, you know, this is Jesus Christ type of thing. but he's believing that God will provide, right? You will provide the Redeemer. So he believes God, first in terms of believing that he will provide a son, and then ultimately this son will bring the rule of the world type of thing, right? Now, as he says in verse eight, he says, O sovereign Lord, how do I know? And then there's promises of land and so on that are given. How do I know I'm gonna possess the land? How do I know these promises are good? And then you have in verse 10, And following, you have a covenant arrangement, right? So he arranges animals. This is just covenant ratification. He puts animals on both sides. They would have been cut in half, and eventually both God and Abraham are supposed to walk through the pieces. That's how the covenant's ratified. But Abraham is asleep, right? So if you look at 12 through following, the only one who goes through the pieces is God. Now that is so important, right? God is basically saying, I'm gonna take all the promises on myself. That doesn't mean that there has to be no provision of a Redeemer. Don't ignore that. He's gonna take all the promises on himself, yet all the way from Genesis 3 and so on, God's promises are in the giving of a Redeemer, a giving of a seed of the woman. you have a strong unilateral focus, right? God will provide Christ, ultimately. God will provide redeem. So in the entire Old Testament, the promise of God is always centered in what will come in Jesus and the New Covenant, ultimately. This, again, will be what the Judaizers don't fully see. So you have this strong unilateral emphasis, yet Abraham is still to obey. All creatures are to obey. It's not as if this eliminates his obedience. Yet that creates a tension. And tensions in the Bible are very, very important. Don't cut them, right? You want to let them sit there, and then they see how they get fulfilled. And the tension is this, is God will provide a Redeemer. He demands from each one of us obedience, perfect obedience. But no one obeys. Even Abraham isn't fully obedient. I mean, he's sort of a rascal in the patriarchal narratives, right? He's willing to let his wife go, He's willing to make sort of different arrangements. He's a man of faith, but he's certainly not a perfect man. So God will provide, but it's going to be through Abraham, through Isaac, yet even these two will never save you. So that's a tension that builds throughout. Now Genesis 17 is a crucial text as well. And a lot could be said here. This also functions in the Judaizers' argument. Because this is in Genesis 17, where you have circumcision introduced. Circumcision then becomes the sign of the covenant that is given to Abraham, but also gets picked up in the Mosaic covenant as well. That just continues, right? So to be God's people, you had to have the male child circumcised. That was evidence that they were part of the covenant community and so on, right? So circumcision is introduced, but there's more going on here as well, right? Look at verse six of Genesis 17, right? So God is making more promises. Promises ultimately in terms of the coming of a seed, but notice that out of Abraham, verse six, I will make you very fruitful. Sounds just like Adam, right? Be fruitful multiple, I'll make you fruitful, right? I will make nations of you, that goes back to Genesis 12, Right? And kings will come from you. Adam, in many ways, is a kind of king, but he's not officially a king. He's a kind of ruler, right? But all the way through the Old Testament, and you see it here, God is setting you up for kings. That just runs through the Old Testament. Here you see an example of it. Out of you, Abraham, coming kings. First and foremost, that happens at David. So already there's a kind of anticipation, we know later, of the Davidic covenant. You also will see this in the Old Testament, right? Genesis 49, right? When Jacob is sort of blessing his sons, most of them are curses, right? You would want most of those things out of you. But he does say of Judah, right? Out of you, Judah, will come a ruler, all right? And then eventually you get to Numbers 23 and 24. Balaam, that pagan prophet, speaks about, long before there's ever kings, he speaks about Israel having a king. And then when you read Deuteronomy 17, Moses is preparing the nation to go into the land, and he says, when you go into the land, you're gonna ask for a king, and this is what the king's supposed to look like. Well, what's that telling you? God is setting up for a king. Now, where does that come? It comes in the Davidic covenant. This is really, really important as you read Samuel, right? The contrast between Saul and David is really, really important, isn't it, right? Why is Samuel so upset that they want a king? He shouldn't be, right? Out of you, Abraham will come kings. Genesis 49, Numbers 23, 24, Deuteronomy 17. So Samuel being upset that they want a king is not because they want a king. He's upset because they want the wrong kind of king. And of course, Saul is from Benjamin. Nothing good comes out of Benjamin in scripture, right? Eventually, right, they want a world's king. That's why Saul is presented as tall and handsome and so on. He looks just like the kings of the world. Eventually, what God provides is a king after his heart, right? And that's David. There's a foil that's created between Saul and David, setting you up for the coming of the king. And ultimately, that reaches fulfillment in Christ, right? Christ is the true king. So here, just simply Deuteronomy or Genesis 17 gives you this notion of kings. Circumcision is established, right? Verse seven, I'll establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between you and your children and so on, the whole land of Canaan. Verse nine, you must keep my covenant. There's the strong emphasis on obedience. So even though God will keep his promise, you are still to obey, right? You'll keep my, and then he says in verse 10, every male among you shall be circumcised. This is the sign of the covenant. Now, a lot to be said here. I give you just four areas of circumcision that are really, really important. And this functions in Paul's argument in Galatians 3 and 4, right? Just some quick observations here. This is Paul's argument from Romans 4. Notice in the Abrahamic narrative, that circumcision comes in Genesis 17 after Genesis 15. Now why is that important? Because Abraham in Genesis 15 is declared to be right with God on believing the promise. Circumcision doesn't make him right with God. Circumcision comes after. He's already right, right, justified. Circumcision is added later. Now it functions in a whole host of ways. It's a sign that they are separated from the world. It is a priestly sign. It's a whole number of things, but it's not part of his justification. That's Paul's argument in Romans 4. Now that'll be crucial in Paul arguing against the Judaizers. The Judaizers want to make Gentiles circumcised. Paul's saying that wasn't even true of Abraham, right? Abraham was already declared by faith in the one to come He was already declared just long before circumcision. Circumcision plays a role in the covenants, but it doesn't justify people. This is why, eventually, circumcision, Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 7, now that Christ has come is nothing. How is circumcision nothing? It seems to be quite important in the Old Testament. Moses, right, he didn't circumcise his children. He comes in as a kind of redeemer for the nation of Israel, and he's almost put to death for it. So it's really, really significant, yet it's not part of justification in Abraham's life, and Abraham becomes the pattern, ultimately, of Jew, Gentile, and so on, right? So that's the first thing to note. That's a Romans 4 argument. I just throw that out there, but Paul doesn't develop that in Galatians 3 and 4, but he's assuming it. He's assuming that circumcision, as important as it is, functions in a temporary fashion. It's not permanent, right? It points to something greater, right? And there's other elements here in terms of circumcision. It also is, I have on your notes here, so 15 precedes 17. Further details, 17 of the promise, we mentioned that. It also, circumcision in scripture, as it gets picked up, right, is a covenant sign that sets apart the people, yet it points to something. even by the time you get out of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 30 particularly. Circumcision was also revelatory, it was a command to be obeyed, but it was also trying to teach Israel something. And primarily it was teaching them that you need more than the physical circumcision, you need a new heart, right? So that runs through the entire Bible, right? So circumcision leads us to a new heart and so on. Of course, that gets picked up in the New Covenant. Israel was circumcised physically, at least the males, yet that pointed to something, a need for something greater. So circumcision is very important and circumcision also functions in various debates among Christians today as to the relationship between circumcision and baptism. Many of our Reformed Presbyterian folks will tie circumcision to baptism. The problem with that is the Bible never does that. The Bible ties circumcision to circumcision of heart, right? So it speaks of what you need. Baptism speaks about what has happened to you. Two different things, right? So you're inflating apples and oranges at that point, right? Now, there are some areas, Genesis 17, important, setting you up for what's future. Circumcision now is introduced. It's not tied to Abraham's justification, yet it functions as a covenant sign that's very, very significant. Even when we think of Abraham's seed, I think I have a note on that as well, Abraham's seed. When we think of Abraham's seed in scripture, it's complicated, right? He has a physical seed that can be Ishmael, Isaac, sons of Keturah down the road, right? He can have a promise or the unique seed, which is Isaac, and then that's through Jacob, and eventually that culminates in Christ. All right, so there's a typological sense to the seed, but there's also a spiritual sense to the seed. All those who have the faith of Abraham are his children, and Paul will pick that up as well, right? And Abraham then becomes the paradigm of those of the one who believes God and is justified by grace through faith and so on, right? Now, Genesis 22, let me just make a comment here, because we have to move on to these other areas. Genesis 22 is also very important, right? Genesis 22 is a great test of faith. So Abraham, unbelievably, he trusts God. I mean, this is a test of faith. So it functions in that way, but there's also a lesson being taught that runs through the entire Bible. And the lesson is ultimately God must provide someone in place of Isaac. Isaac is the means by which salvation will come to the world, but Isaac can't save you. God must provide another one in placement of Isaac. That's the typical. So Isaac is a type of Christ, but in the end, Isaac, if all you have is Isaac, you're doomed. He needs a redeemer. So the Lord must provide. And even the language that's given or commanded here of Abraham is significant, right? Look at verse two. Abraham, again, you have to think of the importance of Isaac. Isaac is the hope of the world. So now God says to him, take your son, your only son, and I think the only son there is just picking up the idea this is the promised one. This isn't Ishmael. This is Isaac, the hope of the world. Whom you love, go to the region of Moriah and notice what he commands of him. He doesn't say murder him. He says sacrifice him. Any Jew reading this, right? The Jews would be in the wilderness reading this. What's already in place? The entire sacrificial system. Abraham is functioning as a priest. Here is in some sense, right, eventually under the sacrificial system, right, you have the high priests who offer a sacrifice and so on on behalf of the people. Well, here now, Abraham is functioning as a priest. And notice what he says here, you make him a burnt offering. That comes right out of Leviticus as well. So you sacrifice him. This isn't murder him. This is tied to ultimately, right, the plan of redemption, right? There needs to be a sacrifice. There needs to be atonement. Now as the story unfolds, right, eventually, right, it's not Isaac. God forbids all human sacrifice. But eventually there has to be a human sacrifice. It won't be Isaac. It won't be your child or anyone else. It'll ultimately be the son of God, right? So as the whole drama unfolds, they go up the mountain. You can talk about Isaac, you know, being a teenager and his father being old and all that. It's irrelevant. The point is, he's now taking the child of promise. The hope of the world is now at stake. Hebrews 11 tells you that Abraham is thinking, he's going to raise him from the dead. It has to be the case. Even he says, we'll come back to you. There's a reference here where He says in verse 5, we will come back to you. It's almost, you know, like, well, he can't be dead, even if I sacrifice him. So, I mean, really a huge test of faith. But in the end, the important point is Isaac's not the one. Just as the promise of the seed is not Noah, it's not Isaac, it's not Jacob, they point to it. But ultimately, God is going to have to provide the seed That's ultimately a son. And of course, this idea of priest and sacrifice and so on gets picked up in Passover. It gets picked up in the sacrificial system. And Isaiah 53 is very important here, isn't it? Isaiah 53 is the one place in the Old Testament where you actually have the Lord sacrificing a human. It's forbidden everywhere else, but there has to eventually be one who stands on your behalf. That notion of substitution is everywhere. So now what do you have here in the Abrahamic Covenant? God will provide a seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman will ultimately have to die. That seed of the woman will have to be a redeemer who will have to stand in our place. Now you have to put all these things in place, but you have a sort of hint of that that's mentioned already. So we can already see here in the Abrahamic Covenant built off of the promise, right? The Abrahamic covenant, in some sense, has priority, right? I mean, the promise is everything centered in the coming of Christ, right? So now, when you add the Old Covenant to it, it's going to be related to the Abrahamic, but the Old Covenant isn't going to overturn the promise. The Old Covenant is undergirded by, ultimately, the promise. But then we then have to ask, what is the Old Covenant doing in its place in the Old Testament? So that leads to then the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant, we call it the Old Covenant because of the new, but it's Mosaic Covenant, Israel's covenant. Really, it's really to the nation of Israel. Moses is just the mediator of it, right? But the Old Covenant is very, very important, right? So what comes before it? It's built off of Abraham, right? So everywhere in the Old Testament, because of the promises to the patriarchs, I enter into a relationship with you, right? because of my love to the fathers, that I love you, and so on, right? So they're intimately related, right? And we also know, if you turn to Exodus 19, 6, of course we have the reference to the nation of Israel, which comes right out of the Abrahamic covenant, right? You will be for me a holy nation, right? So who's fulfilling the promise to Abraham? It's Israel. The nation of Israel. They're that nation. I'm going to make you a nation. Well, here's the nation. Now, eventually, as we run through redemptive history, it ties to the church as well. But here, and then notice what he's going to do. He's going to make them a kingdom of priests. The whole nation are priests. Why are they priests? Well, we said last night, a priest, first and foremost, is one who dwells before God. And the kingdom of priests is picking up endemic language, picking up The holy nation is picking up kingdom. I'm going to make you a kingdom. I'm going to make you the ones who dwell before me. And of course, the land is part of that, right? I mean, the land is a holy place. That's where God dwells. Now, he's omnipresent, yet he dwells with the people, the kingdom of priests. Now, what's going to be very, very interesting, though, in the old covenant is eventually this kingdom of priests are going to need priests, right? The whole establishment of the high priests, Levitical system. This kingdom of priests can't dwell before God. The only way they can dwell before God is God provides atonement for them. And even then, it's limited. This gets threatened at the golden calf incident. The golden calf incident, right? Less than 40 days after they've sworn allegiance to the Lord, we will follow you. In less than 40 days, the covenant is smashed. And what does God threaten? I won't dwell with you. And then by sheer grace, he restores them. But eventually, how is that sheer grace ultimately worked out? Well, eventually, you're going to have to have the coming of a Redeemer. So I mean, these are crucial, crucial points. So it's building off the patriarchs. Israel is the nation that fulfills the promise. So Israel then will bring about the seed of the woman promise through them. Now, it's pretty broad here. It's going to be narrowed now through the king. But Israel is a nation. is to, and Israel also functions in the Old Testament. They function as another atom in some sense, a corporate atom. What is Israel supposed to reveal to the nations? What humans are supposed to look like? I mean, they're supposed to live in the land, and part of the covenant is to show what it means to love God a neighbor, right? Now, they do a pretty awful job of it. But that's, they're supposed to do that. They're called, right, to obey God, to love God a neighbor, to show to the nations what it means to be an image bearer, and so on. Yet, over and over and over again, they fail, they fail, they fail, right? This is why, I think I said last night, Israel, in some sense, is a microcosm of Adam. Adam is given a law in Genesis 2. Well, Israel's given a law. Israel is to be any kind of another Adam to the world. They are a microcosm of the world, right? Eventually, what happens to Israel is in some sense true of what happens to everybody, right? But they are given more specificity. They are given more revelation. There's more responsibility that comes to them, and they fail, right? Just as Adam failed, they fail, and so on and so on and so on. I mean, those themes run through the Old Testament, right? So that they are this unique people. Now, notice also, that in Exodus 4, so Exodus 19 and then Exodus 4, what is Israel called? Well, they're called the Son of God. That's very significant, right? So remember when God says to Moses, you go tell Pharaoh, let my firstborn son go, a reference to Israel. Or later on in Hosea, out of Egypt, I called my son. Israel, as a corporate people, is the Son of God. Now, Son of God language just goes all the way back to image. Image and likeness, right? It's endemic language. Sons in the Bible can mean a number of things, but Son of God in this sense means that we are to represent God. We are to be like God. We are to be image bearers and so on. So Israel is a Son of God, and they're called to obedience, just as Adam was called to obedience, and all of us are called to obedience. That's why the Old Covenant is so much tied to obedience, obedience, obedience. Yet it's undergirded by promise, isn't it? Through Israel will come the promise. So it's not as if it's totally obedience. I mean, there's that strong element. But eventually, God will, through Israel, bring his promise, right? So that's why, even here, you have unilateral emphasis. God will keep his promise through the nation. But the nation itself is functioning as a means by which Christ comes, but also functioning as another example of Adam who is given law and fails. Now, other important observations of the Old Covenant, and I mentioned this on the bottom of page one, top of page two, is, we could develop this, but the Old Covenant is a package. It's a whole covenant relationship. People love to just hack it up. Oh, we got Ten Commandments, and we got civil, we got ceremony, we got, you can do that, that's fine. But eventually, it's a whole covenant relationship. It's a whole covenant relationship that functions in its place in redemptive history, right? Eventually, right, the author of Hebrews will say that you can't even have the old covenant without the priesthood. The priesthood undergirds it, right? So that's telling you the whole sacrificial system is bound up with the covenant. The covenant and the priesthood are tied together. When there's a change of priesthood, there's a change of covenant, the author of Hebrews argues, right? It's a one unit. It's one unit. Don't just simply divide it into all different parts and say, well, this part applies to me and this part doesn't. The whole thing is a unit that needs to be seen in terms of its fulfillment in Christ. There's also, this is the prophetic element of it, right? Often we think of the old covenant as just a bunch of bag of laws. Well, it is law, but it's revelatory. You have to see its revelatory features, right? I just give you some of these here, right? Out of, how does the nation of Israel first called out? Through a mighty exodus. Well, that mighty exodus, becomes an entire typological structure. It points for the need for a greater redemption, right? That's taught in the Old Covenant. Or you have, as I already mentioned before, they're a kingdom of priests, yet they need priests. That is really, really important, right? They're a kingdom of priests that are to dwell before God, but they're sinners, right? So they need priests within priests, right? And that's the whole function of the sacrificial system and so on, right? Or you have the Passover. The Passover is So crucial, right? That sets you up for not only the priesthood and so on, right? Or Moses, you know, his role as mediator or the anticipation of the king. I've already mentioned that. That even in the Deuteronomy 17 and so on, they're anticipating a king, a king, a king, a king who is coming. So it's already setting you up for later covenants and so on. The promise of land, land. built off of creation and looking forward to a new heavens and earth. I mean, all of this is part of the Old Covenant. So the Old Covenant makes a demand. There's a primary focus of the Old Covenant, right? Obey. They don't obey, so death comes to them. Yet that very covenant also points beyond itself. It's prophetic. It's revelatory. It is never intended to say, but it points to the one who is. it saves, right? So that's why the third area of the covenant is that in Scripture, and this particularly is the argument of Galatians 3 and 4 that we'll see, is the old covenant comes at a particular place in redemptive history built off of that which is preceding it, yet in the end it points forward to the coming of the new covenant, which that means that that covenant as a covenant is temporary. It's never, ever, ever intended to be that which is eternal. It has a point in redemptive history that points beyond itself to that which is to come. And once Christ comes as a covenant, it's no longer in force. The old covenant isn't still operational. It's done, it's fulfilled. All of its aspects are now fulfilled in the new covenant. So that's a crucial, crucial point that we'll see in Galatians 3 and 4, it's temporary. So that does raise the question, and Paul will raise this in Galatians 3, why then the covenant? Why then the law? And the primary, there's many things he could say, but at the heart of it, it was to reveal even more so human need, right? It was to reveal sin. They became a kind of microcosm of the world and they were given more revelation. And that revelation, what did it do to them? It ultimately brought death to them. Yet that very same covenant anticipated something more, something more, something more. So that's how the covenant functions as an end to itself. It's prophetic, it's revelatory, it also makes huge demand. Now, let me just mention 2 Samuel 7. And then we'll take our break. 2 Samuel 7 is where you have the establishment of the Davidic. And a number of things here is crucial. I want to argue that this covenant, the Davidic, in some sense is what we'll say here is the epitome of everything up to this point in time. And what I mean by that is, in the kink Right? The role of Israel is now individualized. Right? So Israel is a mighty nation, kingdom of priests. They're the son of God. But notice in 2 Samuel 7, 14, what is the king called? Right? Well, the father-son relationship is developed. Right? The Lord, so you see it in 7, 14. Right? I will be his father. God speaking, I will be the father to the king. And what is the king called? He's called the son of God. That's not accidental. Israel was the son of God. The king now is Israel. But he's Israel in the sense of an individual. So in some sense, right, Son of God language also goes back to Adam, right? So Adam is an individual. Out of Adam, right, out of the human race will come a seed of the woman, an individual. It shows itself in a nation that goes back to an individual, right? The Davidic king is true Israel. He is, in some sense, true Adam, right? But he's true Israel. He takes on the role of Israel. Now, in royalty, I mean, you can see this, right? The royal family in England isn't much these days. But, you know, when they were at their heights, you know, the king could say or the queen could say, I'm England, right? I represent England, right? Well, that kind of corporate individual, right? Well, the same thing is going on here. So in the king is Israel, right? He's the one who's bringing Israel to pass and so on, right? And so God is gonna make a father-son relationship, and then the promises here in verse 15 is your house will last forever and ever and ever and ever. I mean, it's very, very strong language, right? So it's the king who will have, right, out of the mighty nation of Israel will come the king who will have a kingdom forever, right? Now, how does David understand this? Is this only to be understood for the nation of Israel and not the world. Is the Davidic king presented in scripture merely as a local king? Or is the Davidic king to take on these creation notions, these ruling notions? And the answer is, it's the latter, right? So look at 2 Samuel 7, 19. David, after giving these promises, how does he understand the covenant? Well, he's amazed of God's grace. He says, who am I, O Sovereign Lord? What is my family that you brought me this far? As if it were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign Lord, you've spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Now, some of our translations, ESV's the best translation on this. I have NIV here. NIV says, is your usual way of dealing with man, a question mark. That's not quite right. ESV is better, where David, he says, you've spoken about the future of the house of Israel, And then what he says is, this is, and then he uses the word Torah, right? This is the law. This is the charter that will govern all humanity. So David understands that this promise of his dynasty, he knows it's not going to be him because it's going to be his offspring, right? This promise of a dynasty will ultimately affect humanity. The world, the king will rule the world. That's the promise here. Now, is that picked up in the Old Testament? Yeah, you better believe it. We'll finish here with Psalm 72, right? It's interesting here that we'll see this in the prophets, right? The hope of the Davidic king to rule the world is everywhere in the prophets and in the book of Psalms, right? Psalm 2, we won't look at that one, but Psalm 2, right? The nations rage against the Lord and the Messiah. And what are the nations supposed to do? Bow to the Messiah. The nations, not just Israel, but the world. But you see this most clearly in Psalm 72, and you also see in Psalm 72 how it gets tied to previous covenants. So Psalm 72 is at the end of book two in the Psalter, where it's the Psalm of Solomon, right? And notice how it begins in verse one, endow the king With your justice, O God, the royal son, with your righteousness. In Hebrew, right, in poetry, Hebrew poetry, parallel lines are important, right? So in English, it's rhyme. Hebrew doesn't care about rhyme, they care about parallel lines, right? So the first line and the second line play off one another, right? So that's why endow the king. Who's the king? Your son, right? There's the son language, right? The king is the son of God, right? And then it says in verse two, this king will judge your people. So clearly the king will rule over Israel. He'll judge with righteousness. He'll afflict the ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity. Here's a kind of promise to Israel. This king will rule over Israel. But is it only Israel? No, it's way bigger than that. This is a worldwide rule, right? So we read in verse five, this king will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, Long as the generations are, already it's extravagant. Because eventually in Israel's history, right? I mean, you have a king who dies, and a new king, and a new king, and a new king, and a new king. How does he last forever? Well, eventually, the only way you can last forever is a king comes who lasts forever. Of course, that's what happens in Christ, right? But this king will last for generations and so on. But notice in verse eight, how extensive is his rule? Is it only over the land of Israel? No. He will rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. And then it mentions the desert tribes and the kings of Tarshish. And then notice verse 11, all kings will bow down to him. All nations will serve him, right? I mean, this picks up, out of Abraham will come a seed that will bring blessing to all nations and he'll have a name and so on. Already alluding back to some of those things that makes it more explicit. But this isn't just a local petty king. This is a king who rules the world. And then when you read in verse 17, notice how it's tied automatically to the Abrahamic. May his name endure forever, right? What did God promise Abraham? I'll make you a great name. I'll make you a great name. Now the king has the name. And it'll endure forever. It may continue as long as the sun. And then clearly, this is Abrahamic, the next phrase, all nations will be blessed through him. They will call him blessed. That's just Genesis 12. Praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. So this is why I argue that the Davidic covenant, as you walk through the covenants, the Davidic king is everything after the rise of David, coming ultimately of the prophets and so on. The Davidic king is the one who brings the hope of the world. The Davidic king, right, in scripture is the one who will bring a universal rule. He will, in some ways, be the fulfillment of Adam, right? So by the time you get to the Davidic king, the seed of the woman will come, yes, through Noah, will be Abrahamic. It'll come through Isaac, but Isaac's not the one. It'll come through Israel, but Israel ultimately, you know, is not the one. It'll come through the king, the king in some sense rules the nation of Israel. He's corporate Israel, individual of the corporate, yet ultimately is anticipation of the king who will rule forever and ever and ever. Now, the problem in Old Testament history is the Davidic kings are colossal disasters. This is what sets you up for the prophets. You have all of these promises. David says, right, he even sees his progeny as ruling the world, but what happens after David? Even David is a checkered man, isn't he? I mean, he's the man after God's own heart, but he's a rascal. Solomon, he builds the temple, and he's almost as if, wow, maybe the promises are found in Solomon. Even all the nations are streaming to him, the Queen of Sheba and so on, right? He's got wealth, he's got power, you know, but what happens? After Solomon, what happened to the nation of Israel? It's never united, it's divided. 10 northern tribes, gone under the Assyrians. The two southern tribes that we eventually identify as Israel and Judah, maybe in terms of the kings, Judah's kings, right? Maybe there's three or four that are half decent. Israel, all of the kings of the north, none of them are good. That's your confidence in political leadership. Don't trust them. I mean, none of these guys are good. And then you have in the South, maybe a few. But in the end, what happens? They're exiled. So what happens to the rule of the Davidic king? It's nowhere, right? How does the Old Testament end? The end of kings, the end of chronicles, parallel with one another. Eventually, the Davidic king is just sitting in an under-reformed territory. The Davidic king doesn't rule anything. But, but, but, but, he's supposed to. And this is why the prophets will eventually say, there's coming a king, there's coming a king, there's coming a king, there's coming a king, right? That's why even in the Psalter, you're gonna have this idea that, well, there's still a king who's coming, right? That's why people are lamenting in the Psalter and saying, how long, O Lord? How long, O Lord? Where's the king, right? I mean, everything of the Old Testament is saying, what happened, what happened, what happened, right? The nation of Israel in exile said, where's your promises? And even when they get back to the land, in some sense, God's keeping his promise. But there's got to be much more than that. And that's where the prophets pick up. So in our next time, we'll pick up the prophets. And what do the prophets now say? A new covenant. But the new covenant now, a new king, a new priest. The fulfillment of all these promises and so on. Now coming in Christ, the one who pours out the Spirit and so on and so on and so on, right? And that's where the Old Testament is leading us to, right? So the mosaic through David back to Abraham is leading you to Christ. And of course, that's what Paul's going to say to the Judaizers. You've got to understand where the whole Old Testament's going, right? You've got to understand that these covenants are placed in a certain place in redemptive history to lead you to him. Now that Christ has come, don't go back to the old. The old is leading you to him, right? That's eventually what he's going to argue here, that salvation is by grace through faith and the promise of God, this promise has now come, and it's him that you believe in, not returning to the shadows and the prophetic elements and the structures of the old, because those very structures were pointing you forward to Christ. Question A, right? For a few minutes. Okay. Questions on that before we take our break. So I've just tried to link these three together. Goal is to say they're interrelated to one another, but they each contribute something in the plan, right? They're not just isolated. They're all part of one plan, but they're building. They're revealing, right? They're anticipating, right? And that's the crucial point to see of how they are interrelated, how earlier ones anticipate later ones, later ones are building on earlier ones, and it eventually now is epitomized, I would argue, in the King. That's why David is so, so important. Sometimes we think Moses is important, yeah, but Moses gets way eclipsed by David. That's why Matthew 1 begins. Who is Jesus? He's the son of David. the son of Abraham. We're picking up those two figures. So questions on just that.