Israel and the Covenants

Here the whole plan begins. God binds Himself to Abram with an unconditional covenant, promising a nation, a name, and a blessing, and He fixes the standing verdict over the nations: I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. That word has never been repealed.

The land is named to Abram's seed, not to Abram in the abstract: unto thy seed will I give this land. The grant is territorial and it is generational.

God tells Abram to look north, south, east, and west, for all the land he sees is given to him and to his seed for ever. A gift measured in every direction and stamped with for ever is not a lease that lapses.

God brings Abram outside and points to the stars: so shall thy seed be. The promise of a countless physical seed is sealed before the covenant is cut.

God foretells the sojourn in Egypt and the return in the fourth generation, waiting until the iniquity of the Amorites is full. Even the delay is scheduled, and the land is kept in reserve for the seed.

In the same day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram and named its borders, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates. God alone passed between the pieces, so the grant of the land rests on His faithfulness, not Israel's performance.

Twice God calls it everlasting: an everlasting covenant to be a God to Abraham's seed, and all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. The literal words rule out any reading in which the promise quietly expires or moves to another people.

God narrows the covenant line: I will establish my covenant with Isaac for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. The promise runs through the chosen line, not through Ishmael.

After the offering of Isaac God swears by Himself to multiply the seed and bless all nations through it. The covenant is now under oath, the strongest bond heaven can give.

The oath sworn to Abraham is confirmed personally to Isaac, the same land, the same countless seed, the same blessing to the nations. God renews the covenant to each patriarch by name.

At Bethel God confirms the covenant to Jacob and adds a promise of preservation: I am with thee, and will keep thee, and will bring thee again into this land. The line and the land are guaranteed to the third patriarch.

God renames Jacob Israel and restates the covenant: a nation and a company of nations shall come of him, and the land given to Abraham and Isaac is given to his seed. The name Israel and the covenant are bound together from the start.

On his deathbed Jacob repeats God's word to Joseph: I will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. The patriarch dies clinging to the land promise as still future and still sure.

Jacob prophesies that the sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. The royal line that will crown in the Davidic covenant is marked out here, running to the Messiah and the gathering of the peoples to Him.

God heard the groaning of Israel and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. The Exodus itself is set in motion by the covenant, not by Israel's merit.

God grounds the redemption from Egypt in the covenant to give the land of Canaan, and pledges seven times over, I will. He will bring them in unto the land concerning which He lifted up His hand to swear.

At Sinai God sets Israel apart as a peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. This national election is a standing calling, and Peter's later use of the words for the church does not erase Israel's own.

After the golden calf Moses pleads not Israel's goodness but God's oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to multiply the seed and give the land for ever. Even at the nation's worst, the covenant is the ground of mercy.

After a chapter of threatened exile God draws the line He will not cross: yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant. Discipline is real, but final rejection is impossible.

Balaam is hired to curse and can only see a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Israel's distinct standing is God's design, spoken through a prophet who wished otherwise.

God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent; He hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Balaam confesses that the blessing on Jacob is beyond recall, and no enchantment stands against it.

There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. The pagan prophet sees the coming King of the Davidic line arising from the very nation he was paid to curse.

The LORD thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. Israel's future rests on the sworn covenant, held fast by God's own mercy.

God chose Israel to be a special people not for their numbers or worth but because the LORD loved them and would keep the oath sworn to their fathers. Election here is His free love and His covenant faithfulness, nothing else.

Before Israel ever enters the land God promises the return from it: though scattered unto the utmost parts of heaven, He will gather them, bring them into the land of their fathers, and circumcise their heart to love Him. This is the covenant of restoration, and it is unconditional in its outcome.

When the Most High divided the nations their inheritance, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. Israel stands at the center of how God ordered the map of the world.

There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. A down payment on covenant faithfulness that guarantees the rest: the God who kept the first installment will keep the everlasting one.

The LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. Israel's security is tied to God's reputation, so to cast them off would be to stain His own name.

God covenants with David that his house, his throne, and his kingdom shall be established for ever. This is the royal charter of Israel's hope, and it demands a literal throne and an unending King, fulfilled in the Son of David who reigns for ever.

David's last words rest on an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. The dying king stakes everything on a covenant he calls all his salvation and all his desire.

Even in judgment God preserves a tribe for David, that he may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen. The covenant to David and the choice of Jerusalem hold firm through the nation's decline.

The LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised to give him alway a light. When Judah deserved ruin, the Davidic covenant kept the lamp burning.

David's psalm calls Israel to be mindful always of the covenant, the word commanded to a thousand generations, confirmed to Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan. The land grant is sung as everlasting in the heart of worship.

The Davidic covenant is restated: God will settle David's seed in His house and kingdom for ever, and his throne shall be established for evermore. The Chronicler adds that God will not take His mercy away from him, unlike from Saul.

The LORD gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons, by a covenant of salt. Salt marks a bond meant never to spoil, sealing the throne to David's line.

The Levites confess that God chose Abram, made a covenant to give the land, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous. Covenant faithfulness is named as the proof of God's own righteousness.

Mordecai is certain that enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place if not through Esther. Behind the whole book stands a settled truth: the covenant people cannot be annihilated, because their preservation is guaranteed.

I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. The psalm opens by naming the Davidic covenant as sworn and unbreakable.

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips; his seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. God pledges the permanence of David's line against the sun and the faithful witness in heaven.

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, confirmed to Jacob for a law, to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. Inspired worship calls the land grant everlasting long after Sinai.

When Israel had rebelled again and again, He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. Their failure never cancels the covenant; it only occasions fresh mercy.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. The city stands at the heart of the covenant, and a blessing is attached to those who love her.

The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it. This is my rest for ever, He says of Zion, here will I dwell. Both the Davidic throne and the choice of Zion are put under oath and marked for ever.

For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. The election of the nation is stated as a settled fact and a reason for praise.

The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. Regathering scattered Israel to her city is named as the LORD's own ongoing work of praise.

The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel from the four corners of the earth. A second, worldwide regathering is promised, distinct from the return from Babylon.

He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. The nation's future is not extinction but worldwide fruitfulness.

Fear not: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back. God commands the four directions to release His people, everyone called by His name and created for His glory.

Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me; and God answers, Can a woman forget her sucking child? Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. The very charge of abandonment is met and overturned in God's own words.

For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. The mountains may depart, but my kindness shall not depart, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. God's covenant with Israel outlasts the mountains themselves.

The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. Paul lifts this promise into Romans 11 as proof that a Deliverer will yet turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

Jerusalem shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor her land Desolate, but Hephzibah and Beulah, for the LORD delighteth in thee. The city once called forsaken is renamed by the God who marries her to Himself.

Who hath heard such a thing? shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? shall a nation be born at once? God promises that Zion will bring forth her nation suddenly, a birth without precedent.

As the new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain. Israel's seed and name are given the same permanence as the eternal state itself.

The days come when men shall no more swear by the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, but by the God who brought them from the north country and from all the lands whither he had driven them. A regathering so great it eclipses the Exodus in Israel's memory.

A righteous Branch is raised unto David to reign and prosper, and in His days Judah is saved and Israel brought again from the north country. The King of the Davidic line and the regathering of the nation stand together in one promise.

I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers. Both houses are named, and the land is the very land of the covenant.

Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee. Israel outlasts the empires that swallowed her, by divine decree.

Behold, the days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. The New Covenant is announced by name to Israel and Judah, written on the heart, sealing forgiveness and a restored knowledge of God.

If those ordinances of sun, moon, and stars depart, then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me. If heaven can be measured and earth's foundations searched out, then will I cast off all the seed of Israel. God stakes Israel's permanence on the fixed order of the universe.

I will gather them out of all countries, and bring them again unto this place, and cause them to dwell safely, and make an everlasting covenant with them. God pledges to plant them in the land assuredly, with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

God binds the throne of David and the priesthood to His covenant with day and night: if that covenant can be broken, only then can David's line and the seed of Jacob be cast away. Since day still follows night, He has not cast away the two families He chose.

Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, for I am with thee; though I make a full end of all the nations, yet will I not make a full end of thee. Correction in measure, but never destruction.

The Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion. Written amid the ashes of Jerusalem, even here the exile is confessed to be for a season, not for ever.

I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. The scattering is answered by a gathering and a re-gift of the very land.

I will bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered, and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel. The regathering is also a revealing of God to His people.

When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob, and dwell safely. The gathering ends in secure dwelling in the land promised to the patriarch.

I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out, and gather them from the countries, and bring them to their own land. God Himself becomes the Shepherd who regathers scattered Israel where the false shepherds failed.

I do not this for your sakes, but for mine holy name's sake: I will take you from among the heathen, gather you into your own land, give you a new heart, and put my spirit within you. National regathering and national conversion, done for the sake of God's name.

The valley of dry bones is interpreted by God Himself: these bones are the whole house of Israel; I will bring you into your own land, and put my spirit in you. National resurrection from the grave of exile, spelled out so no one can miss it.

God will make Israel and Judah one nation upon the mountains of Israel, with David as king over them, and make an everlasting covenant of peace, His sanctuary in their midst for evermore. The regathering ends in one kingdom, one King, and an everlasting covenant.

Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. A total, final regathering with not one left behind among the nations.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. The prophetic clock is set over Israel and Jerusalem by name, marking out a program for the nation that the church age does not absorb.

At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. Through the worst distress ever known, Israel is brought through and delivered, not abandoned.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea; and in the place where it was said, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said, Ye are the sons of the living God. The nation named Not-my-people is destined to hear itself called God's own again.

Israel shall abide many days without a king and without a sacrifice; afterward shall they return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, in the latter days. The long stateless interval and the latter-day return are foretold together.

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. The nation is God's son by covenant love, a bond Matthew sees answered again in the Son who is Israel's own.

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away. Israel shall grow as the lily and cast forth roots as Lebanon. The book that opened in judgment closes with the nation healed and flourishing.

Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people, and restore the years that the locust hath eaten. God's jealousy for the land and pity for the people drive a full restoration.

When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and plead with them for my people and my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered and whose land they parted. God calls the land His and the people His heritage, and judges the nations over both.

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and build it as in the days of old. The fallen house of David is not abandoned but rebuilt, the promise James cites at Jerusalem.

I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD. A final planting with a divine guarantee of no more uprooting.

Upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The book ends with Israel repossessing her inheritance and the kingdom belonging to the LORD.

In the last days the mountain of the LORD's house is established, nations flow to it, and He gathers her that was cast off, and reigns over them in mount Zion for ever. The cast-off remnant becomes a strong nation under the LORD's own reign.

Out of Bethlehem shall he come forth that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. The eternal Son of the Davidic covenant is to rule Israel, born in David's own town.

Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. The prophet closes by resting Israel's hope on the sworn covenant to the patriarchs.

Sing, O daughter of Zion; the LORD hath taken away thy judgments. At that time will I bring you again, and gather you, and make you a name and a praise among all people, when I turn back your captivity. Judgment gives way to a gathering that makes Israel renowned.

In that day will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD. The Davidic heir is made God's signet ring, quietly reversing the curse spoken over Jeconiah and keeping the royal line alive to the Messiah.

He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. The nations that harm Israel strike at what God holds most tender, and He will answer for it.

I will save my people from the east country and from the west, and bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. The covenant formula, my people and their God, sealed over a regathered nation.

I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them. Both houses are gathered from Egypt and Assyria until no room is found for them.

I will pour upon the house of David the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn. The nation that rejected her Messiah will one day see Him and turn in repentance.

The third part shall be brought through the fire, and refined; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The LORD is my God. A refined remnant emerges owning God and owned by Him.

His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, and the LORD shall be king over all the earth. The Messiah returns to the very ground He left, and reigns from Jerusalem over the whole world.

I have loved you, saith the LORD; yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Yet I loved Jacob. God's elective love of the nation is His answer when Israel doubts it, and Paul builds on it in Romans 9.

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Israel's survival is tethered directly to God's own immutability: because He does not change, they are not destroyed.

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The New Testament opens by tying Jesus to both the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, the two great promises to Israel converging in one Man.

In the regeneration, the Twelve shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus speaks of the twelve tribes as real and future, with a coming kingdom in which they are governed, not dissolved.

O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, and ye would not. Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Jesus fixes a future day when Jerusalem will welcome Him, and He will not return to her until she does.

He shall send his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. At His coming the scattered elect of Israel are gathered, the regathering completed by the Lord Himself.

The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever. Gabriel restates the Davidic covenant to Mary in plain, national terms, a literal throne and an unending reign over Israel.

He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. Mary's song reads the incarnation as covenant faithfulness to Abraham's seed for ever.

Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The word until sets a limit on Gentile control of the city, guaranteeing that its trampling ends and Israel's day returns.

I appoint unto you a kingdom, that ye may eat and drink at my table, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. On the last night Jesus still speaks of a coming kingdom in which the twelve tribes are governed.

Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. Jesus locates the source of salvation in the covenant nation, honoring Israel's place in God's plan even to a Samaritan.

When they asked, Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? He answered, It is not for you to know the times. Jesus corrects their timetable but never their premise; the kingdom will be restored to Israel, only the when is withheld.

Peter calls Israel to repent, that the times of refreshing may come, and that God may send Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. A national restoration is still ahead, spoken by all the prophets.

James lays out the order: God first visits the Gentiles to take out a people, and after this I will return, and build again the tabernacle of David. The church age of Gentile ingathering does not cancel Israel's restoration but precedes it.

Paul stands trial for the hope of the promise made unto the fathers, unto which our twelve tribes, serving God day and night, hope to come. Late in the New Testament the twelve tribes are still a living reality with a covenant hope.

Paul names what belongs to his kinsmen the Israelites: the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises. He speaks in the present tense; these gifts still pertain to Israel.

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Paul asks the replacement question directly and answers it with his strongest denial.

Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles. If their fall enriched the world, how much more their fulness. Israel's stumbling is temporary and points toward a future fulness.

If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Paul foresees a coming reception of Israel so great it is like resurrection.

Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer. The hardening is partial and timed, and it ends in a national salvation.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God will not take back what He gave and called Israel to.

Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Christ came to confirm the covenant promises to Israel, not to void them.

The covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. Even the law, given later, cannot cancel the Abrahamic promise.

Remember that ye being in time past Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise. Paul reminds Gentile believers that the covenants belonged to Israel, and that they have been brought near, not made into a replacement.

When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself. By two immutable things, the promise and the oath, God confirmed His counsel so that it cannot fail. The Abrahamic covenant rests on two things in which it is impossible for God to lie.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. The writer quotes Jeremiah in full and leaves the named parties intact: the New Covenant is Israel's, its blessings now shared through Christ's blood.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. The patriarchs died still waiting on the covenant, confessing themselves strangers on the earth and looking for the city God prepared. The promises outlive the men who first received them.

An hundred and forty and four thousand are sealed of all the tribes of the children of Israel, and John names the tribes one by one. In the last days God still reckons Israel by her tribes and seals them for His purpose.

A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars, brings forth the man child who is to rule the nations. She is Israel, drawn from Joseph's dream, giving the Messiah to the world and preserved by God through her flight.

The holy city has twelve gates, and on the gates are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, while the foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles. Even in eternity Israel and the church are honored together and kept distinct.