Title: Lesson 1
Summary:
God establishes unbreakable covenants that reveal His unwavering commitment to redeem and restore His people. Beginning with Abraham, God promises land, descendants, and blessing, reaffirming His oath through covenantal rituals. Moses foretells a future return to God’s commands and blessings of restoration. Through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God unveils the New Covenant—a divine work where He writes His law on hearts, forgives sins, gives a new spirit, and renews His people for His glory. These passages trace God’s faithful promises culminating in ultimate spiritual renewal and eternal fellowship with Him.
Scripture References:
Genesis 12:1-4 – ESV (audio 🔊)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Genesis 15:1-21 – ESV (audio 🔊)
- After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
- But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
- And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
- And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
- And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
- And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
- But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
- He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
- And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.
- And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
- As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
- Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
- But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
- As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
- And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
- When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
- On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
- the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
- the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
- the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Deuteronomy 30:1-10 – ESV (audio 🔊)
- “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,
- and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul,
- then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.
- If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.
- And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
- And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
- And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you.
- And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today.
- The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers,
- when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 – ESV (audio 🔊)
31. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
32. not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
33. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Ezekiel 36:22-32 – ESV (audio 🔊)
22. “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
23. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
24. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
25. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
28. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.
30. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.
31. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.
32. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.