Interpreting Prophecy

Lesson 3God's Covenants with Man

Last week in class we looked at Christ, the center of end time prophecy, His role as our Savior and King and the literal kingdom he’ll set up when he returns. We saw that in the end Christ will defeat all our enemies for us, including the last one – death and that we’ll spend an eternity with him in the New Heaven, New Earth, and the New City of Jerusalem. Later, as our study progresses we’ll look specifically at the Millennial Reign of Christ. For now we look forward with great excitement to the coming Rapture and His return.

This week our study will focus on the Covenants (agreements or contracts) God has made with us and for us. These are important because God’s word never changes, his promises have been and will be literally fulfilled, therefore, we should know what they are so that we know what to look forward to. And, perhaps even learn a little about this current age of grace we are living under as Christ’s church.

Bible

In addition to God’s eternal promise of salvation we have a number of promises (covenants) that directly apply to the coming return of Christ. We should know these and be watching for this fulfillment – we are taught that we should not be caught by surprise, not be asleep, but to be watching for His return. One thing we learn when we study the dispensations of God is that ending one period and beginning a new period is always accompanied by something dramatic, miraculous, and totally unexpected by the lost. Whether you look at Noah and the story of the flood, the birth of the nations and the tower of Babel where the languages were started, or the parting of the Red Sea. In each case life was going on as normal and the lost criticized the righteous as crazy lunatics. The lost continued to depend on their idols, the creations they made with their hands, and their wisdom – not believing that God would bring judgement on them, nor that it would be so sudden and so final. Knowing this we should examine God’s prophecy about the future, the end of the Church age, and His covenants with us that will drive the outcome as the future unfolds.

Now, here are this week’s questions.

  1. Read Genesis 12:1-3, 12:7, 16:15, 25:2. List the specific promises God makes in these passages.
  2. What does God promise Israel in Jeremiah 31:31-34?
  3. Read Luke 22:20 – what does this tell us about the New Covenant? Who does it apply to?
  4. I Corinthians 6:19, 12:13, and Ephesians 13:14 point to another difference between the Old Covenant with Israel and God’s New covenant. Can you tell what it is?
  5. How do the passages we read before on the rapture relate to your answer for question 4.?
  6. Read Isaiah 2:1-4. What does God promise Israel in the future – list some of the specific things promised in this passage. (These are some of the things they are looking forward to today.)

May God bless you this week.

Yours in Christ,

Wes