This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 2: “Covenant Primer”
This week’s lesson mentions God’s covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the new covenant. The point of this lesson is that God made an agreement with these people, but the author’s goal is to convince the readers that each of these covenants was actually a restatement of one overarching covenant that culminated on the cross.
In fact, this claim is not biblical. God did make these covenants, but they were all separate covenants with specific promises and conditions.
First, God’s covenant with Noah was also with the whole earth: He promised never to destroy it with a flood again. Genesis 9:8–17 articulates God’s covenant with Noah:
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth” (Genesis 9:8–17).
There are two kinds of covenants in the Bible: conditional and unconditional. The conditional ones depend upon bilateral promises between God and man; the Mosaic covenant with Israel was a conditional covenant. The Noahic, Abrahamic, and new covenants are all UNCONDITIONAL. In other words, God made unilateral promises in these three covenants that required no response or participation from those to whom He made them.
Israel’s Mosaic covenant was two-way; God promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience; Israel responded that they would do all God promised. When God made a covenant with Abraham, however, He put Abraham into a deep sleep. Abraham wasn’t even able to make promises. God then moved among the sacrificial animals and covenanted that He would give Abraham seed, land, and blessings—and these promises were unconditional. God would do what God promised, and Abraham was not required to respond nor promise nor even to obey in order for God to keep His word. (See Genesis 15.) In Genesis 17 God gave Abraham the sign of His covenant with him: circumcision.
God’s promise to Noah was similar. He unilaterally, with no participation from Noah, promised that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood, and He gave the rainbow as a sign.
In Jeremiah 31 God again delivered an unconditional covenant: the new covenant. He made this promise to Judah and Israel, and He promised that this covenant would not be like the one He made with their fathers (on Sinai). This one did not require any response or obedience as the first one did. This covenant promises that in His time, God will give them new hearts and write His law in their hearts. (Paul is clear in 1 Corinthians and Galatians that this law is not the Decalogue; it is the Law of Christ—a completely different law than the covenant with Israel.)
This covenant is a further fulfillment of God’s unconditional covenant to Abraham, and we learn in Romans and Galatians that believing gentiles are grafted into this unconditional covenant and receive the blessings God promised to Abraham and his descendants as well.
Not Just One Covenant
The lesson teaches what Adventism has always taught: that each covenant in Scripture is a new expression of God’s eternal covenant. This idea is not found in Scripture. The Bible clearly teaches that God made different covenants with different people, and they are different covenants with different promises and signs.
Adventism teaches this “one covenant” idea because they must retain the Mosaic covenant in order to have the proof texts they use to prop up their doctrines. Nevertheless, the Mosaic covenant is the one, the only covenant God made that is actually CONDITIONAL and thus TEMPORARY. In fact, Galatians 3:17–19 states that the Mosaic covenant was instituted 430 years AFTER Abraham and lasted UNTIL THE SEED, Christ, had come. When Jesus fulfilled all the requirements and terms of the law, the law became obsolete (Heb. 8:13), and to go back to it would be the same as going back to paganism (Gal. 5:8–11).
Much material already exists explaining these covenants in more detail. Following are some links that will be helpful as you peruse the subject of the covenants. Understanding this subject is necessary in order to know how the Sabbath functions post-cross, and understanding this subject is necessary in order to understand the new birth and our new relationship to God as believers in the risen Lord.
This video from the 2019 FAF Conference will help you understand how the covenants are related to each other and how they are distinct from each other: The Covenant Of The Pure Gospel
This podcasts discusses the biblical covenants: Covenants that last and One That Ended
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