Diving In Session 2 Crises and Ages – The Epochs in the Bible

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The Plan of God – reminder from last time

At one level (probably the highest level) the Bible is the story of God’s rest – disturbed by His creatures’ sin but recovered by His own sovereign action and Self-sacrifice. This is the story that the succession of the Covenants is instructing us in.

Is the plan of God a mystery?

Paul speaks of this in Eph. 1:9-10:Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth

God is working to a plan and He has revealed it to us in the Scriptures. He has told us ‘the end from the beginning’ as we saw last week (Isa. 46:10)

This is brought out in the remarkable parallels between the bookends of the Bible – the first 3 chapters of Genesis and the last three chapters of Revelation – it’s almost like watching a film being shown and then played backwards:

We looked at this in Spiritual Warfare) https://davidsbiblenotes.co.uk/spiritual-warfare-what-are-the-different-judgment-days-in-the-bible

 

The Bible is the story of God’s glory – His eternal rest in righteousness (Psa. 97:2 TPT “His throne of glory rests upon a foundation of righteousness and justice”) – interrupted by the Fall, with the progression of the covenants from Sinai onwards working towards the restoration of that rest, consummated in the New Creation.

2 Pet. 3:13 (TPT) “But as we wait, we trust in God’s royal proclamation to be fulfilled. There are coming heavens new in quality, and an earth new in quality, where righteousness will be fully at home” and God dwells with the redeemed Rev. 21:3 (TPT) “from now on he will tabernacle with them as their God. Now God himself will have his home with them—‘God-with-them’ will be their God!” That last phrase is a Covenant phrase from Gen. 17 onwards, finally fulfilled for ever!

In between the bookends – The Bible speaks of different ages, and principles that governed Man and his relationship with God

Those are the bookends of the Bible. Even a casual acquaintance with the Biblical story would suggest that things changed over time and that things that were allowed at one time, were disallowed at another; some were allowed to approach God and others weren’t; the method of being allowed into God’s Presence seems to change; and as does the definition of those who were considered God’s people and the privileges they enjoy.

But there’s more to it than that! The story in between the ‘bookends’ is the story of Satan’s continual attempts to usurp God’s rule over His Creation, involving mankind’s continual rebellion against God’s rule, and how God uses Covenants to fulfil His purposes and bless His creation.

To understand the context of the Covenants recorded in the Bible, we firstly need to understand the different ages or stages that we read of in the Bible. God doesn’t arbitrarily introduce another Covenant in the history of His dealings with the human race – each one is brought in to deal with a specific situation that has arisen. What we might call a crisis – not that it has taken God by surprise as crises often take us by surprise.

These crises are triggered by a fight back of the kingdom of Satan against the rule of God over His creation, as mankind goes their own way following Satan, leading to a crisis in mankind’s relationship with their Creator, which results in a change in the way that relationship can be enjoyed and regulated – a new, or renewed Covenant is made.

So the Covenants need to be understood in context – including the original historical context, which includes understanding where it comes in relation to God’s plan for the ages.

And we can know that! In John 15:15, Jesus says that He doesn’t call us servants, as servants do not know what their master is doing. He has called us friends and taken us into His confidence by revealing His plans to us – dare we ignore that?

Crises result in God providing deliverance through making Covenants

There are times when God makes a covenant, or covenant-like, arrangement with people – the whole human race, or specific individuals, or the nation of Israel. This is not an arbitrary change made by God but is in response to some sort of failure on the part of mankind which has caused a crisis in relation to the previous (covenant) relationship. Generally, it is accompanied with God coming down to Earth in some form after a long period when he is waiting for people to repent and turn to Him. Finally, He has to step in!

“It is often the case that God’s action as a Deliverer is delayed until his people have ceased to hope for deliverance … This method of Divine action – long delay followed by a sudden crisis … is one to which we find it hard to reconcile ourselves.

[The Scriptures] help us so far, but they do not settle everything. They contain no philosophy of Divine delay, but simply a proclamation of the fact, and an assurance that, in spite of delay, all will go well at the last with those who trust in God” (Professor F.F. Bruce)

The Ages in Peter’s Second Epistle

So there are major changes in the direction of the Bible story when key events happened and God intervened in human history. We may know them as just Bible stories but the Holy Spirit through the Bible authors gives them a significance that we need to take note of.

Read 2 Pet. Ch. 3

v.2 we need to know and remember v. 8 don’t be ignorant! – why? Vv.11, 14, 17

v.4 things haven’t continued without change (uniformitarianism is wrong in both evolutionary and theological thinking)

We can picture history as a line spanning time from eternity to eternity. In his second epistle, Peter describes various ages or stages in the history of the heavens and the earth:

  • In 3:5 he speaks of the original Creation, and points to God making the dry land appear out of the primordial watery world (Gen. 1:2).
  • He goes on to say that “the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished” in the Flood (v.6).
  • And then tells us that the “heavens and earth that are now” (i.e. the world post-flood) are reserved for a fiery judgement at the end of time, which he describes in v. 10
  • Therefore we should be looking for and eagerly anticipating the Day of God when He will create new heavens and a new earth (v.13)

There are seven great crises that define God’s action as Deliverer

In each case, the Bible records

  • the cause (usually man’s response to the prior covenant)
  • God’s action (which has been planned in advance, e.g. 1 Pet. 1:20 and may have been the trigger for the cause)
  • a change whereby something is lost, or restored in the case of the later Covenants,
  • a new covenant being made,
  • mankind’s response
  • failure which leads to the next stage

Taking our timeline as a basis, we start with Creation. In Gen. 1:1-3 we read of the whole Trinity at work to bring the heavens and earth into being, and having completed that, God ‘rests’ from His work – satisfied (everything was ‘very good’) and resting (Heb. 4:4). Adam and Eve enter into that rest under the terms of Edenic ‘covenant’ – be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the Creation, care for the garden and enjoy God’s abundant provision for them (Gen. 1:28-30; 2:15-16) as they freely choose to obey and enjoy their God – major elements of what the Bible calls ‘love’.

At this stage they are innocent – sinless because they haven’t sinned. But their innocence didn’t protect them from the propensity to choose to disobey through freewill, a.k.a. sin, and God’s rest is broken by the appearance of the serpent in the Garden resulting in …

1.     The Fall Crisis

Caused by

The first attempt by Satan to usurp and overrule God’s plans. Adam and Eve have been given the dominion over Creation that Satan longs to have (Ezek. 14/Isa. 28). Eve listens to the serpent, disobeys the one restriction in the Edenic arrangement, Adam knowingly joins her in the disobedience (and thus becomes culpable) and this brings a crisis for them – they are ashamed before each other, they hide from the Creator, blame anybody but themselves for the situation they are now in, and the rest is history! The sanction was death – what was going to happen?

God’s action

Of course God was not taken by surprise by this and we learn from other Scriptures that the plan to save mankind from their self-inflicted punishment had been prepared before Creation. But how was God going to respond in the circumstances? He comes down! “They heard the voice of God walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:8).

Something is lost

The old arrangements can no longer apply; fallen people cannot come close to a Holy God so they are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Rather than tending the garden and enjoying its bounty, they will now have to work hard to get food from the ground, and pain and suffering will be their experience rather than the peace that they had previously enjoyed. They lose the right of dominion that they had enjoyed.

There will also be struggles between the man and the woman and, with the development of Cain’s sins, something else is lost too – the right of family relationship. If the parents are at loggerheads, now a man can’t trust his brother!

But the greatest loss is that they lose access to the Tree of Life (representing God’s Presence) which means that they and all their descendants will ultimately die.

A new covenant is made

Something changes at the Fall (and then something else changes with the giving of the Law – we’ll come to that later). Paul explains this in Rom. 5:12-14 “…by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Until the Law, sin was in the world … nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses”.

As David Andrew has often said, Gen. 3:15 is the context of all other contexts in Scripture. God applies a new set of arrangements for their existence – the work, pain and suffering, and ultimately death, that we have just considered but also provides coverings for them and, in His grace, prevents them from living for ever in their new sinful state.

Man responds

To God’s challenge, Adam responds by blaming his wife, telling God that it was His fault -“the woman you gave me” – husbands, it didn’t work then and it won’t work now! We need to take responsibility for our actions and our relationships.

But Adam also responds to the new covenant arrangements this by naming his wife Eve – the mother of all living (or who were to live after them) – a response of faith.

Adam and Eve and their descendants are now left to their own devices as to how to conduct their lives in the new circumstances. There appears to have been some instruction from the Lord regarding making offerings in order to appease Him for their on-going sins. The one ‘rule’ we read of comes in Gen. 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Cain’s sin – firstly ignoring what seems to be God’s provision for sacrifice by bringing the works of his own hands (the way of Cain; Jude 11), and then allowing sin to master him by murdering his brother. He seems to have no conscience of having sinned. Initially, God responds by extending the curse on the ground but putting a mark on Cain to protect him from human revenge.

Cain’s lack of conscience and his insolent response now gives the tone for the next stage of the story. The line of Cain, the ‘kingdom’ of Satan, is fighting back and is seen in its flowering in Lamech. In Gen. 4:23-24 Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

His family is credited as being the foundation of all man’s attempts to flourish without God – productivity, industry, artistry and beauty (Naamah means beauty Gen. 4:20-22). But a crisis is looming! Ultimately, man left to his own devices results in the proliferation of evil, “every imagination of the heart of man was only evil continually” which triggers the next crisis.

2.     The Flood Crisis

Crisis Caused by

By the time we get to Genesis 6, the verdict is dire! Left to his own devices and conscience “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and the Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth.” The ‘kingdom’ of Satan has filled the earth and corrupted almost the whole human race socially, morally and possible even genetically.

God’s action

God sees! Gen. 6:5, 12 but there’s a glorious ‘but’ in v. 8 “But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.” As we know, God gives the rest 120 years to change their ways and, when they don’t (2 Pet. 2:5), He sends a global flood to remove all living things that He had created – all tainted with sin and death. But keeps alive Noah and his family, and representatives of all kinds of creatures. Satan’s ‘kingdom’ has suffered a major defeat, but will it come back to fight another day?

Something is lost

Physical life itself, but also the right to choose your own course of action, the right of self-determination because …

A new covenant is made

Triggers the Noahic Covenant. This is described in Gen. 8:21-9:17 and still applies to humanity to this day – and will to the end of time (Gen. 8:22). We’ll dig into the details of this when we get into the individual covenants but let us just note for now that God has placed a sword in the hand of man to govern others. No longer will murderers be protected, as Cain was, and left to their consciences, but a sort of legal system for punishment of crime is introduced. (We only get the skeleton of this in Gen. 9 and ultimately we know from Rom. 5 that death was still ruling over humanity, but this is a time when men are left to govern themselves – no revelation of divine law other than that relating to murder.)

Man responds

Noah initially responds to the end of the Flood with a sacrifice, which seems to trigger the Covenant of God’s response, but it’s rather downhill from there. Noah, no doubt in response to God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, becomes “a man of the soil” (Gen. 9:18 ESV). But that leads to him getting drunk and some sort of sexual sin on the part of Canaan, his grandson, the son of Ham, and then he fades away in the Bible story.

But Satan has his man at the ready! A global leader emerges – Nimrod – who was a “great hunter in the face of the Lord”. He not only bears the sword of government, but he wants, and has, a kingdom, with a capital city – Babel. But ultimately, this time of human government, personified in Nimrod, ends in rebellion against God, leads to …

3.     The Babel Crisis and the call of Abram

Caused by

Nimrod and the people discover a great principle – unity brings power, and uniting religious and civil power (a city and a tower) into a single system is unstoppable, as God says in Gen. 11:6. They have discovered a principle for gaining ultimate power which will reach its grand fruition in the Beast Government (Rev. 13:15-17) in the time leading up to Jesus’ return in glory to set up His Kingdom, in which He will reign as ‘a priest upon His throne’ (Zech. 6:13)

God’s action

God comes down! (Gen. 11:5) Not that He has to come down to see for Himself what’s going on, but it indicates that He is going to get involved personally – and that is usually bad news for evil men! Their languages are confused – the Hebrew indicates that it sets them at cross purposes with one another, lack of unity and confusion. And they stop building (they will continue to build though – across the world we find ziggurat-like structures which seem to echo what was started at Babel).

Something is lost

If with Cain’s sin, the family relationships are spoiled or lost, here it’s the relationship between people groups – they can’t understand each other! – and are scattered abroad – the very thing that they were building the city to avoid, in deliberate rebellion against the terms of the Noahic Covenant (Gen. 9:1,7)

But there’s much more to it than that! There’s a seismic change in God’s dealings with mankind. If he chose Noah and his family and destroyed the rest of mankind for their wickedness, now he will chose one man and his family and make them a demonstration of His kingdom to the rest of mankind (who will now be left to go their own way while nevertheless still enjoying what is called “common grace” in the Adamic and Noahic covenants). He will also use that man’s descendants as the mediators of His blessing to the rest of mankind and the line through which the promised Seed will come.

A new covenant is made

So from now on, the Bible’s focus is the covenant people of God defined as Abraham’s descendants and to enjoy the blessings of the Covenant, there are conditions:

  • you have to be in it by birth Gen. 12:2-3  – the scandal of particularity, a.k.a. election
  • it is signified by circumcision Gen. 17: 11-14

(in the New Covenant by new birth John 1:12; 3:3,5; and signified by baptism 1 Pet. 3:21 Col. 2:11-12)

As Noah and Seth seem to retire into insignificance (not a mention of them in relation to Babel, and they live well into Abraham’s lifetime!), God searches the earth for someone He can use to further His purposes. He takes an idol-worshipper out of the kingdom of Nimrod (Acts 7:2) and makes him a pilgrim and a stranger in a land that doesn’t, and never will, belong to him personally! (Acts 7:5) Triggers the Promise to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant described in chapters 12 – 22 of Genesis.

Man responds

Abram leaves his home and land, and eventually his family, and becomes a ‘stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land’ (Heb. 11:9). Abraham believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness (Rom. 4:4 quoting Gen. 15:6). What did he believe? Gen. 12:2-3!

But there’s a problem! Abram has no son! He is old and his wife is past child-bearing. Nevertheless, God promises that it will be Abram’s own son who will inherit the promises and confirms it with an oath. We read about the terms of the covenant in Gen. 15 & 17, and in Gen. 22:16-17, quoted in Heb. 6:13 –“By Myself I have sworn!”

But in the revelation of the Covenant there’s a warning that it won’t be all plain sailing for Abraham’s descendants – they will also be strangers in the land of promise and will end up being slaves and afflicted in another land! His grandson Jacob has a history of wandering and he and his family do indeed end up going down into Egypt initially for protection and preservation, but it appears that they settle down too well, prosper, and start worshipping the gods of the Egyptians (Ezek. 20:7). What has happened to God’s promise of a being a blessed nation which blesses others and having their own land? It seems that all has failed yet again, but there’s another crisis looming …

4.     The Egypt Crisis

The ‘kingdom’ of Satan can’t let the people of God’s Promise prosper! A new political dynasty arises that has forgotten, or wants to forget(!), the blessing that the Children of Israel, and particularly Joseph, has been to Egypt. So, fearing their increasing numbers and the likelihood of them siding with Egypt’s enemies, they start oppressing and enslaving them, while carrying out genocidal plans against them. In the midst of one of the genocidal plans (throwing all new born baby boys into the Nile), a special baby boy is born and saved, brought up as the son of Pharaoh’s otherwise childless daughter.

As he grows up, he knows that he has been called to deliver his people from Pharaoh’s bondage, but things go a bit awry when he takes matters into his own hands. After 40 years of learning to be a ‘somebody’, he has to spend 40 years in the backside of the desert learning to be a ‘nobody’. Until one day, God comes down (Ex. 3:8) and speaks to him through a burning bush, telling him it’s time to go back and deliver His people. Moses will find out what God can do with somebody who knows he’s a nobody!

Caused by

The ultimate cause of this crisis is God’s faithfulness to His promises to Abraham, but also Israel’s seeming loss of sight of their calling, and the oppression of the Egyptians (the kingdom of this world), so God has to step in. The story of the 10 plagues and Pharaoh’s intransigence is well known – a battle between someone who thinks he is God and the One Who actually is God, so the outcome is not in doubt!

It does seem that the people of Israel had lost confidence in the promises and, while they welcome the news from Moses, with his brother Aaron in tow, that this is the time for their deliverance as promised in Gen. 15 (Ex. 4:31), it’s not long before they are rejecting Moses and Aaron and refusing to listen to their affirmation of God’s promises (Ex. 5:21; 6:9).

God’s action

God sends the 10 plagues and finally, the Egyptians let the people go! But God comes down again! (Ex. 19:18-20) and gives the newly minted nation a set of laws and ordinances to regulate religious, social and civil life (stated, affirmed or expanded by the 3 covenants made in this epoch).

A new covenant is made

3 in this case, and they all partially restore something that was previously lost:

The Mosaic or Sinaitic Covenant Allows regulated access to God (NB does not abrogate the Abrahamic Covenant Gal. 3)

The Land (or Palestinian) Covenant gives them the Promised Land

The Davidic Covenant points to the fulfilment of the Promised Seed

Man responds

All that the Lord has said, we will do! But they didn’t, and the history of Israel is one of constant failure in response to God’s constant covenant faithfulness.

They failed to grasp that they were to be a light to the Gentiles, a demonstration of God’s Kingdom to the nations; that they were to be a kingdom of priests representing the nations before God and mediating God’s presence (Ex. 19:5-6). God gave them priests to represent them before God but that ends with the failure of Eli and God has to write ‘Ichabod’ – the glory has departed – as He terminates the High Priesthood line through Eli. In the meantime, God gave them judges to rule over them under God – the book of Judges records the constant cycle of idolatry, oppression, repentance and restoration. God gave them the prophet Samuel, but they rejected him and chose a king, Saul who was a failure, so God chooses a man after His own heart, but it’s all downhill from there. From his grandson on (who split the kingdom in 2) only a few of David’s successors in the southern kingdom followed his example and none at all in the northern kingdom.

The “light to the nations” grows dimmer and dimmer until they can only say, as Isaiah sums it up “We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.” (Isa 26:18)

Gradually all the blessings are forfeited, leading to expulsions from the Land by the Assyrians and Babylonians and cessation of the regnal line through David. A small remnant returns after 70 years and struggles on against vastly more powerful nations until the Romans take over the whole Middle East, including Israel, and they are again under the yoke of foreigners, while believing that they were never in bondage to any man! (John 8:33) The people of Promise in the land of Promise seem to fade into insignificance and the kingdom of this world dominates.

An empty religiousness takes over and hope seems to have almost died out, and a dire moral and spiritual darkness seems to have taken over when God comes down again (John 1:14) triggering …

5.     The First Coming Crisis

Which is actually a series of crises from Herod trying to destroy the Promised Seed of the Woman to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Into the darkness ‘There was a man sent from God’ – a voice crying in the (socio-political-religious) wilderness that was first century Judaism. He is not the long-awaited Messiah but the forerunner for Him.

Caused by

The crisis is the result of failure on the part of God’s people and the ensuing moral and spiritual darkness over the earth but culminates with presence of God incarnated in Immanuel the Messiah which challenges the whole of mankind as to where their loyalty lies! Will mankind recognise and respond to the Kingdom of God, or will they continue to serve the kingdom of this world? He is rejected by His own people (Israel John 1:11; Acts 3:13), and by the Gentiles (Acts 4:27) who collaborated together to get rid of the Heir (Luke 20:14) – they crucified the Prince of Life (Acts 3:15), the Seed of the Woman who was to bruise the Serpent’s head, and in so doing, enabled Him to do just that! (Col. 2:15)

God’s action

But – God raised Him from the dead! (Acts 2:24; 3:15; 13:30) And has made Him Lord of All (to Jews Acts 2:36; to Gentiles Acts 10:36) and now the message of salvation and restoration is preached to every creature in all nations (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 24:47)

Lost things are restored! (Psa. 69:4b)

  • The Right of Access to God’s presence – lost at the Fall, restored by Jesus Heb. 10:19-22)
  • The Right of dominion restored to the Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:47) and shared with the people of the New Covenant (Rev. 20:6)
  • The Right of Family relationships – lost after the Fall, restored by Jesus as we are brought into the family of God (John 1:12; Gal. 3:21)
  • The Right of Societal and national relationships – lost at Babel, restored transcendentally by Jesus (Gal. 3:22
  • The Right of inheritance – lost after Babel, restored in Christ (Rom. 8:16-17)

“In Him the sons of Adam boast

More blessings than their father lost”

A new covenant is made

This was announced by Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31-34), described by Ezekiel (Ezek. 36:26-27), inaugurated by Jesus (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20), and confirmed by His resurrection (Heb. 10:13-17.

We need to note that this Covenant is initially made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, but is extended to include the Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-19), and eventually will embrace the whole of creation (Col. 1:20; Rom. 8:19-21).

Man responds

To those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). The age of Grace -> has the tide turned? Has the rebellion of man finally been overcome by the goodness of God (Rom. 2:4)?

Well it seems not. Mankind is well and truly committed to the rule of Satan and his rebellion. Romans 1:18-32 describes the response of mankind generally to the revelation of the Gospel, futility progressing (or regressing!) to insanity. Some respond in faith and are saved (John 1:14; Rom. 9:9-10; etc.). But the Scriptures dealing with the end of this age are agreed that there will be a great falling away, times of great distress and rebellion, evil mounting up (Matt. 24; Luke 17; 1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3; 2 Pet. 2-3) and taking control in the kingdom of The Beast (Rev. 13:2 – Satan incarnated 2 Thess. 2:3-4,9) where most of the world takes the mark of allegiance to The Beast, reminding us of the words of Jesus in Luke 18:8 “when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?”

Leads to

A cataclysmic confrontation between the god of this age and the God of Heaven! …

6.     The Second Coming Crisis

A straightforward reading of Scripture reveals that there will be a time of great trouble at the end of this age. And we would expect Satan to put up a very strong ‘last stand’! He was defeated at Calvary and has been fighting a rear-guard action ever since, but as the end approaches he knows his time is getting short and his anger against God becomes ‘great wrath’ against the people of God (Rev. 12:12).

Caused by

The universal rebellion of mankind as we saw just now, but also the failure of the visible Church – we cannot afford to point the finger at Israel (boast not yourself against the branches! Rom. 11:18) as the Church’s record in history demonstrates – the Dark Ages, multiple wars in the name of religion, the Crusades, the Inquisition, anti-Semitism leading to the Holocaust, “by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed” as the old hymn goes.

Of course, the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Ekklesia that Jesus is building, but my view is that Jesus rescues the true Ekklesia as part of His Second Coming – which the Scriptures seems to suggest is a program of events culminating in the establishment of Jesus’ reign over all the kingdoms of Earth.

God’s action

Psa. 2 – He that sits in the heavens laughs at man’s rebellion! “Yet I have set my King upon the hill of My Holiness” and advises men and women, old and young, to ‘Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish in the Way.”

All the nations will be gathered before Him (King Jesus):

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne … and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31)

probably in the valley of Jehoshaphat (which means ‘Jahweh judges’):

“Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore Judah and Jerusalem from captivity, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations as they divided up My land.” (Joel 3:1-2)

The promises of the New Covenant are fulfilled in the Millennium

  • The Ekklesia is completed and glorified 2 Thess. 1:7, 10; Rev. 19:7, 14
  • Israel will be restored and saved Isa. 11:11-13; 65:18-25

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”(Rom. 11:26-27)

  • Satan is bound for 1000 years so that he cannot deceive the nations any more (Rev. 20:1-2)
  • Creation will be restored and blessed with Edenic conditions again (Isa. 11:4-10; Rom. 8:21; Psa. 72:16; etc.)
  • The Kingdom of God fills the Earth – the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isa,. 11:9)

Man responds

We are not told much, if anything, about how mankind responds to God’s perfect rule and blessing, until the end of the Kingdom period when Satan is released from the bottomless pit. Mankind then responds to his incitement to rebellion! Thus the Kingdom ends in worldwide rebellion which …

Leads to

7.     The Final Judgement Crisis

Caused by

God has exhausted all possible means of wooing and winning the hearts of those whom He had created. The final rebellion against His perfect rule and kingdom is the last straw – Mankind has failed the last test!

God’s action

Everything of this creation is swept away and all the dead, both small and great, stand before Him at the Great White Throne. Eternal destinies are sealed!

The New Covenant is completely fulfilled

New heavens and a New Earth, “Behold I make all things new” Rev. 21:3-5. God’s rest is finally restored!

1 Cor. 15:24-26 “Then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to God the Father … the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” and God’s rest is restored in righteousness. God can finally dwell with His people – He will be their God and they will be His people (Rev. 21:3). The work which was ‘finished’ on the Cross is finally consummated and God’s rest is restored – “righteousness will be fully at home” 2 Pet. 3:13 for ever. Hallelujah!

“Joyful now the new creation Rests in undisturbed repose” (JND)

God now brings thee to His dwelling,

Spreads for thee His feast divine,

Bids thee welcome, ever telling

What a portion there is thine.

In that circle of God’s favour,

Circle of the Father’s love,

All is rest, and rest for ever,

All is perfectness above.

Blessèd, glorious word “forever!”

Yes “forever!” is the word;

Nothing can the ransomed sever,

Nought divide them from the Lord.

(Joseph Denham Smith)

This week has tended to focus on the discontinuity of the crises and Covenants. But there is also an overriding continuity. Next week we will place the Covenants in the context of our chart and see how they tie everything together and work towards God’s Plan for the ages!

Covenant, Diving In!