Four Key Passages that Unify the Entire Bible - Part 1
Genesis 12.
Exodus 19-24.
2 Samuel 7.
Jeremiah 31.
“You need to remember those passages,” instructed my sagely Old Testament professor. These four passages are the key places in Scripture where the LORD reveals His covenant with His people.
This blog series has been all about how to synthesize and make sense of the big storyline of the Bible. If you can grasp the central claims of these four passages, you will be well on your way to understanding how the 66 books of the Bible work together as a unified whole. In a sense, these covenants form the skeleton that the rest of the Bible will flesh out.
But let’s back up for a moment and start here: what is a covenant? A covenant is a commitment of the highest order. In ancient times, covenants were often initiated in blood, communicating the deadly consequences of failing to live up to the commitments of the covenant. In the Bible, these covenants are expressed as a series of promises from the LORD to His people. Yahweh, the God of Israel, binds himself to His people through a series of promises in the form of covenants.
In this post, I’m going to offer a brief summary of the first two of the major covenants that are listed above–the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with Israel at Sinai.
God’s Covenant with Abraham - Genesis 12.
After the fall of humanity in Genesis 3 and the subsequent violence and chaos that ensues in chapters 4-11, the story of the Bible takes a significant turn in Genesis 12. These first 11 chapters of the Bible force readers to confront the question: how will God bring healing and redemption to a broken and sinful world?
The answer to this question begins to be revealed in God’s covenant with Abraham. From this point on in the story, the Bible zooms in on God’s special dealing with one human family–Abraham and his descendents. God makes a series of promises to this one human family that will bring about His plan of redemption to the rest of humanity. Here is the key text:
Genesis 12:1-3
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God makes three promises to Abraham here:
God will make Abram into a great nation. The famous challenge with this promise was that Abram and his wife, Sarai, had no children and they were past the years of childbearing. Nevertheless, the God who created the heavens and the earth has promised to make them into a great nation with descendants as numerous as the sand on the shore of the sea (Genesis 22:17).
God promises to give the descendents of Abraham his special blessing. God will bless those who bless Abraham and His descendants and will curse those who dishonor them. God is committing himself to this people as their God who helps them and fights for them.
God promises that all the families of the earth will be blessed through the family of Abraham. Why did God single out one human family among all the families of the earth? God’s covenant with Abraham tells us why–in order that He might bring blessing to all the nations of the earth.
The rest of Genesis tells the story of God being faithful to these covenant promises, working out his plan and purpose in the world to redeem the nations through the descendents of Abraham.
By the time you get to Exodus, we read:
“But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7).
What started out as a barren family in their old age with Abraham and Sarah has become a multiplying and fruitful nation in Egypt. This brings us to the next covenant.
God’s Covenant with Israel at Sinai - Exodus 19-24
The growing family of Abraham was oppressed and enslaved in Egypt. God promised Abraham that he would curse anyone who dishonored them, so readers of the Bible should already be anticipating that God will not deal kindly with a nation that is violently oppressing His people. God raised up Moses to deliver the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from Egyptian slavery and they are led by God up to Mount Sinai.
The key text here is Exodus 19:3-8:
3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
This passage begins with God describing the deliverance that He accomplished on behalf of Israel (v.4) and then turns to calling the nation to obey and keep the terms of God’s covenant with them (v.5). God promises that He will keep Israel as his “treasured possession among all peoples” and that the people, through their faithful obedience to the terms of the covenant, are to serve Yahweh as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Note how the promises made in Genesis 12 to Abraham take a step forward in this passage. God is going to continue to place his special blessing on His people while still having the other nations of the earth in view. Israel is to be a “kingdom of priests”–a corporate bridge or intermediary between the other peoples of the earth and the LORD. To be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation means that their unique relationship with God would serve as a witness to the other nations and peoples of the earth.
After this passage, God gives his people the terms of the covenant in the form of the law. Famously, He gives them 10 commandments that express his will for their worship and ethics. He also gives them a series of laws about how they are to live and function as a people in a way that honors him.
God promises that if the people remain faithful to the covenant, He will bless them and that life will flourish for them. He also promises that if they disobey and turn their hearts to worship idols, that they will experience cursing (see Deuteronomy 11:26-28).
As you think about the big storyline of the Bible, remember these two important covenants:
(1) Abrahamic Covenant: God is going to redeem all the nations of the Earth through the nation (Israel) that comes from the descendants of Abraham.
(2) Sinai Covenant: The nation of Israel is given the law for how they are to live and worship the LORD in a way that sets them apart from the other nations of the earth.
The rest of the Old Testament is going to demonstrate how the people of God turned their hearts away from Him more often than they were able to remain faithful to Him. The Law itself was good–it revealed God’s will for Israel and showed them the way that leads to blessing. However, the law was insufficient to heal their hearts that have been corrupted because of sin.
In the next post, we’re going to complete our Bible skeleton by exploring God’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7 and the new covenant in Jeremiah 31.
