Memory Text: 'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah' (Jeremiah 31:31, NIV).
Although the Bible speaks of covenants in the plural (Rom. 9:4, Gal. 4:24), there is only one basic covenant, the covenant of grace, in which God bestows salvation upon fallen beings who claim it by faith. The idea of plural covenants arises from the various ways God has restated the essential covenant promise in order to meet the needs of His people in different times and settings.
But whether it's the Adamic covenant (Gen. 3:15), the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3, Gal. 3:6-9), the Sinaitic covenant (Exod. 20:2), the Davidic covenant (Ezek. 37:24-27), or the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), the idea is the same. The salvation God provides is a gift, unmerited and undeserved, and the human response to that gift-in a sense, humanity's holding up its side of the deal-is faithfulness and obedience.
The first mention of the New Covenant is in Jeremiah, in the context of Israel's return from exile and the blessings that God would grant them. Even amid calamity and trouble, the Lord extends to His wayward people the offer of hope and restoration.
We look at how bad the world is today; that is, we see all the evil in it, and yet God still bears with us. Thus, we can only imagine just how bad things must have been in order for the Lord to destroy the whole world with a flood. God had given men His commandments as a rule of life, but His law was transgressed, and every conceivable sin was the result. The wickedness of men was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven.-Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 91.
Read Genesis 9:1-17. What covenant was made between God and humanity, and how does it reflect God's grace toward the creation?
The covenant God expressed to Noah was the most universal among the biblical covenants; it was with all humanity, and it included the animals and nature too (Gen. 9:12). Also, this was a one-sided arrangement: the Lord didn't impose any requirements or stipulations upon those with whom He was establishing the covenant. He simply was not going to destroy the earth with water again, period. Unlike other covenants, nothing was conditional about it.
God then sealed His covenant with a visible sign, that of a rainbow, which symbolizes the covenant promise that the earth will never be destroyed by a flood again. So, anytime we see a rainbow, the mere fact that we are here to see it is, in its own way, a vindication of this ancient covenant promise. (After all, if we had been wiped out in a universal flood, we wouldn't be here to see the rainbow!) Amid the constant sin and evil here on earth, at times we are blessed with the beauty of the rainbow, a sign of God's grace toward the whole world. We can look up at it and draw hope, not only from just how beautiful it is in and of itself, but also because we know that it's a message from God, a message of His love toward our wretched planet.
Dwell upon the grandeur and beauty of a rainbow. Especially in light of what the Bible tells us about the rainbow, in what ways can it draw us toward God, toward transcendence, toward something greater than what this mere earth itself offers?
Although the Bible speaks of covenants in the plural (Rom. 9:4, Gal. 4:24), there is only one basic covenant, the covenant of grace, in which God bestows salvation upon fallen beings who claim it by faith. The idea of plural covenants arises from the various ways God has restated the essential covenant promise in order to meet the needs of His people in different times and settings.
But whether it's the Adamic covenant (Gen. 3:15), the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3, Gal. 3:6-9), the Sinaitic covenant (Exod. 20:2), the Davidic covenant (Ezek. 37:24-27), or the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), the idea is the same. The salvation God provides is a gift, unmerited and undeserved, and the human response to that gift-in a sense, humanity's holding up its side of the deal-is faithfulness and obedience.
The first mention of the New Covenant is in Jeremiah, in the context of Israel's return from exile and the blessings that God would grant them. Even amid calamity and trouble, the Lord extends to His wayward people the offer of hope and restoration.
We look at how bad the world is today; that is, we see all the evil in it, and yet God still bears with us. Thus, we can only imagine just how bad things must have been in order for the Lord to destroy the whole world with a flood. God had given men His commandments as a rule of life, but His law was transgressed, and every conceivable sin was the result. The wickedness of men was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven.-Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 91.
Read Genesis 9:1-17. What covenant was made between God and humanity, and how does it reflect God's grace toward the creation?
The covenant God expressed to Noah was the most universal among the biblical covenants; it was with all humanity, and it included the animals and nature too (Gen. 9:12). Also, this was a one-sided arrangement: the Lord didn't impose any requirements or stipulations upon those with whom He was establishing the covenant. He simply was not going to destroy the earth with water again, period. Unlike other covenants, nothing was conditional about it.
God then sealed His covenant with a visible sign, that of a rainbow, which symbolizes the covenant promise that the earth will never be destroyed by a flood again. So, anytime we see a rainbow, the mere fact that we are here to see it is, in its own way, a vindication of this ancient covenant promise. (After all, if we had been wiped out in a universal flood, we wouldn't be here to see the rainbow!) Amid the constant sin and evil here on earth, at times we are blessed with the beauty of the rainbow, a sign of God's grace toward the whole world. We can look up at it and draw hope, not only from just how beautiful it is in and of itself, but also because we know that it's a message from God, a message of His love toward our wretched planet.
Dwell upon the grandeur and beauty of a rainbow. Especially in light of what the Bible tells us about the rainbow, in what ways can it draw us toward God, toward transcendence, toward something greater than what this mere earth itself offers?