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The Covenants with Israel
RO145-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1988)
We are studying Romans 11:11-12. Our subject is "Israel has a Future." This is segment number two.
The Abrahamic Covenant
The Jewish people, as you probably know, began with a man named Abraham, who was a descendant of Noah's son Shem. God called Abraham to leave his ancestral home in the
city of Ur on the Euphrates River in the Babylonian empire, and to settle in the territory of Canaan on the Mediterranean Sea. His call was accompanied by an
unconditional covenant from God, which promised to the people, which would be descended from this Abraham, the eternal possession of a land; the eternal possession of a
seed; and, the eternal possession of a blessing. This Abrahamic Covenant we have looked at in Genesis 12:1-3. These three basic eternal promises from God ensured the
permanent existence of the Jewish people as separate from gentiles. The promises of the Abrahamic Covenant to the Jewish people were never transferred to the gentiles
or to Christians. The Jewish way of life, which was laid out in the Mosaic Law, cannot be applied, as such, to the gentiles or the Christians. Judaism applies only to the
Jews.
Paul, in Romans 11:11, asks the question whether God has permanently abandoned the Jews as a nation, and he firmly declares that He has not. That firm declaration by
the apostle Paul is the death knell to amillennialism, which is the position that leaves no future for the Jews, and no earthly kingdom for the Jewish people.
Other Covenants with the Jewish People
So, God has a future plan for the Jews as a nations, and it is based on these eternal promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Jews are, indeed, now under national
discipline during the church age, while God is building the body of Christ. But when the church, as the body of Christ, is completed, it will be removed to heaven, and
God will resume His eternal plan for the Jewish nation. Paul's certainty, that, while the Jews have stumbled over Jesus Christ, they are not permanently fallen from
God's favor, is based on these on these eternal promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. And that's why it is important for you to know the Abrahamic Covenant. Furthermore,
it is important for you to know how the three basic promises of the Abraham Covenant have been further expanded in three other testament, to reinforce that God meant
what He said. These are Covenants which were made for the Jews as a nation, and to no one else.
The Palestinian Covenant
We looked at one of those relative to the promise to Abraham – that his descendants would have a land all of their own forever. That was the Palestinian Covenant,
which we found in Deuteronomy 30:1-8. The Promised Land that we found there is to be the eternal possession of the Jewish nation, including that Promised Land after the
earth has been renovated, and new earth has been created by God.
The Davidic Covenant
So, now there are two other very important unconditional covenants which reinforce and expand the promises of Abraham the Covenant. The next one we will look at is called
the Davidic Covenant. You might call this the Christmas Covenant, because this is the event that we celebrate at Christmas in the birth of Jesus Christ, the greater Son
of King David. That was the fulfillment, ultimately, of this Davidic Kingdom promise. This promise has to do with the seed element in the Abraham Covenant. Remember that
God said to Abraham, "I'm going to promise to give you eternally a land. I'm also going to promise to give you eternally a seed;" that is, a posterity. This promise of
the Davidic Covenant was given to say that about 1000 B.C. This covenant provides for qualified Savior to come through a virgin birth in the line of King David, to
deliver the Jews forever.
Without Jesus Christ, this covenant to David could never be fulfilled. That is the point of the Davidic Covenant: "I am going to send you a God-Man who will be born of
a virgin, so that he will be preserved form the sin nature, and then he will rule as King of the Jews over the Jewish People forever. David was a great king, as you know.
And he was also one of the all-time great generals. He was a great military man. At the time that the Davidic Covenant was instituted, David was at peace. He had been a
very powerful warrior. But the warrior had done its job. Things had quieted down. It was an era of peace in the Jewish nation.
So, David's mind turned to other areas that interested him, and the world concerned him in. One of these was the fact that there were still worshiping God in that old
tent. It had been built way back there in the time of Moses – the tabernacle that they took with them through the wilderness wanderings. And David said, "That's
really not the way that things should be. So, he looks around him, and he sees a beautiful palace that he lived in, and the other houses he had, and he said, "This isn't
right. I, a human being, live in a structure like this, and my God is out there in a tent?
The Temple
So, he decided that he wanted to build a permanent temple structure. He consulted with God's prophet Nathan. And Nathan said, "That's a good idea. Go with it." But
Nathan was too hasty. Nathan had slipped up in giving David this advice. God tells Nathan that he is mistaken in the confirmation that he gave David. So, Nathan
immediately realized that, while this was a good idea, perhaps, it was an idea that was being executed on human enthusiasm, without consulting with God first, on the
procedure by which it was to be done. This was a characteristic of human failing. We often want to do a good thing in the wrong way.
So, God said, "David, instead of you building the house for Me, I am going to build a house for you." And what He is referring to is the dynasty of kings. He said, I am
going to build, not a material house for you, but I'm going to build you a house where there will be royal line of kings. And you'll go from one to the other, until,
suddenly, down here at the end, you will come to a king who will be the greatest of all, because He will not only be human, but He will be divine. He will be a God-King.
And He will be the ultimate and eternal king of the Jews.
We have this covenant laid out in in 2 Samuel 7:12-15.
. . .
The New Covenant
The New Covenant to Israel amplifies the blessing piece. When Nicodemus began to have some serious doubts that his colleagues were correct in rejecting Jesus Christ, he
had a night visit with Jesus Christ. And Jesus talked to him about the core issue of a human being's relationship to God. You come into the human race with a dead
human spirit. That cuts you off completely from God. Until you are born again, and your human spirit is brought back to life, you are headed for the lake of fire. The
most important that confronts a human being is coming alive spiritually. So, Jesus said, "That's like being born again."
Nicodemus said, "I don't understand that. I can't go back into my mother's womb and come back out again." Then Jesus said, "You don't know what it means to be born
again? You should have known that." What Jesus was referring to was this New Covenant. That's where Nicodemus should have discovered that God put a new spirit to replace
that dead spirit. He should have understood that the way God does that is that the regeneration process causes a person to be born again.
We have that Covenant recorded in Jeremiah 31:31-34.
. . .
This is another unconditional covenant, reinforcing a promise of blessing in the Abrahamic Covenant.
. . .
I want to close with reading Hebrews 10:16-20, on the New Covenant to the Jewish people, in fulfillment of the blessing promised to Abraham: "'This is the covenant that
I will make with them after those days', saith the Lord." This is the New Covenant that we look at in detail in Jeremiah: "I will put My laws into their hearts, and in
their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil; that is to say,
through His flesh."
As you came into God's presence in the Old Testament tabernacle, by going around that veil (and only the high priest could do that once a year, into the holy of holies),
so now, the veil has been torn apart, we, in Christ, walk into the very presence of God. . . Verse 16 speaks of the covenant that God will make with them – putting
it into their minds. This is the New Covenant. Verses 17-18 say that God is going to forgive their sin so that all will be provided that is necessary for their salvation.
And there is no more offering for sin.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1988
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