Lessons #391 and 392

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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +

+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +

+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +

+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +

+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +

+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +

+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +

+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +

+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +

+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +

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Description of Institution of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:23-25)

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Recall the message of this section the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthians and so the universal church of Christ to get is this: You should understand that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Lord Jesus that involves two elements in its celebration with significances. We began to consider the first element of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper which is the bread. We considered its significance as a reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. We also considered the things a believer should reflect as the person partakes in the bread used for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. So, we continue our study this morning with the second element of the Lord’s Supper.

The second element involved in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the wine used when the Lord instituted it. The institution of the use of wine for the observance of the Lord’s Supper is similar to that of the institution of the bread. That this was the case is in introduced in the first phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 in the same way. The expression “in the same way” is translated from a Greek adverb (hōsautōs) that is used as a marker of similarity which approximates identity. Thus, it may mean “likewise” as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that because deacons are important in the local church in their function as overseers or pastors, they must have exemplary moral character and qualifications as we read in 1 Timothy 3:8:

Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain.

The word may mean “similarly” as Apostle Paul used it in his instruction to Titus, as the pastor in Crete, to instruct the young men as he instructs the elderly men and women about being careful to develop spiritual character as we read in Titus 2:6:

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.

In our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25, it is used with the meaning “in the same way” to convey that the actions the Lord Jesus took in the establishment of the drinking of wine for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper follow the same as He did for the bread. Consequently, Apostle Paul did not use any verbs so that the reader would draw from the context, the proper verbs that reflect the actions the Lord Jesus took in the institution of drink that is to be a part of the observance of the Lord’s Supper.

It is our contention that when Apostle Paul used the Greek adverb translated “in the same way” in 1 Corinthians 11:25 that he intended for us to supply the actions of the institution of the drink to be used in the observance of the Lord’s Supper from those that were involved in the institution of the bread. That this is the case is implied in the next phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 after supper. The phrase after supper has been interpreted by some to mean that the Lord’s Supper was begun by the breaking of the bread, continued by the regular meal, and ended with the drinking of the cup. This does not necessarily have to be the case since the concern of the apostle here is simply to indicate that the institution of the cup followed the institution of the bread. Thus, the phrase after supper probably referred to end of the celebration of Passover after which the Lord then instituted the Lord’s Supper. In effect, the apostle referred to the end of the Passover meal because of the similarity he was concerned in verse 25. Recall that the last instruction of the Lord to the disciples and so to the church in verse 24 is do this in remembrance of me. As we explained previously, this command implies that the disciples were to eat the bread as part of the new celebration the Lord instituted. So, we would expect that Apostle Paul would have used a connective that connects the eating of the bread to the second element of the Lord’s Supper. This was the approach followed by two gospel writers who narrated the institution of the cup. Matthew writes in Matthew 26:27:

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.

Likewise, Mark writes in Mark 14:23:

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

Both Matthew and Mark used a Greek conjunction (kai) that the translators of the NIV rendered correctly as “then.” Thus, the word “then” implies that what they wrote next happened following the institution of the bread for the Lord’s Supper. But we have no such connective in our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25. Instead, we have a Greek adverb translated “in the same way.” Thus, the logical conclusion is that the apostle wants us to go back to the actions the Lord Jesus took in establishing the first element of the observance of the Lord’s Supper to describe that of the second element of the celebration.

There are three actions of the Lord concerning the establishment of the drink to be used in the observance of the Lord’s Supper derived from the establishment of the bread as the first element of the observance of the Lord’s Supper. The first is the taking of the cup that is derived from the fact that the Lord took the bread as in the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:23 took bread. It is to reflect this action of the Lord Jesus that the translators of the NIV included the sentence he took the cup of the clause of 1 Corinthians 11:25 after supper he took the cup. The word “took” does not appear in the Greek text of 1 Corinthians 11:25 since the literal Greek reads also the cup after eating supper. By the way, the definite article “the” used before the cup is to be understood, as some have suggested, as referring to a particular cup, either the cup of wine drunk after the Passover meal, or the cup, well known to the Corinthians, which formed part of their regular celebration of the Lord’s supper. The second action is offering of thanks to God the Father. The third action is giving the cup to the disciples. The second and third actions are not directly reported in 1 Corinthians 11:25 but implied. Nonetheless, they are clearly reported as the actions the Lord Jesus took in the establishment of the drink that is part of the observance of the Lord’s Supper in the gospel accounts given in Matthew and Mark as, for example, Matthew writes in the passage we cited previously, that is, Matthew 26:27

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.

Matthew indicates that the Lord gave a command to drink from the cup while Mark simply stated the result of the Lord giving the cup to the disciples as we read in the passage we cited previously, that is, Mark 14:23:

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

By the way, as we have indicated in our previous study, the account of the Gospel of Luke regarding the establishment of the drink used in the institution of the Lord’s Supper is similar to that of the Apostle Paul given in the passage we are studying. That aside, the three actions we have considered that the Lord took that were not directly stated in 1 Corinthians 11:25 are because of the beginning phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 In the same way.

In any case, Apostle Paul described the establishment of the drink that is used in the institution of the second element involved in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper since he wrote after supper he took the cup in the verse we are considering. The word “cup” is translated from a Greek word (potērion) that literally refers to a vessel for holding liquid and so drink from, hence means “cup” as in the giving to someone drink of cold water that our Lord referenced in Matthew 10:42:

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

The literal cup can by metonymy (a figure of speech in which one thing is designated by the mention of something associated with it, e.g., White House in this country stands for the president) stand for what it contains, as for example, where “cup” represents “wine” in Luke 22:20:

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Figuratively, the word “cup” is used for the suffering and eventual violent death of the Lord Jesus in John 18:11:

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

In our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25, although it literally means “cup,” but it is used in the sense of that which is contained in a cup, that is, wine.

There is also the question regarding the use of wine in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper today. Before we comment on this, let me state that contrary to what a particular denomination teaches that the wine used in the Lord’s Supper turns into blood of Jesus once the priest pronounces blessing over it, there is no basis for such teaching. The wine the Lord Jesus offered to His disciples did not turn into blood. If it did, the disciples being Jews would have protested drinking of blood as being contrary to God’s instruction to them through Moses, as recorded in Leviticus 17:14:

because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off."

So, there is no basis to teach that the wine turns into blood of Jesus during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is true that the Lord Jesus spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood as we read in John 6:53–56:

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

However, “blood” here is not literal blood as the Jews who heard the words of Jesus took it. The eating of Jesus’ flesh and blood refers to receiving by faith His atoning work on the cross so that the person that believes in Him will have eternal life. That aside, we will take up the question of use of wine at the appropriate time in our consideration of 1 Corinthians 11:25.

In any case, Apostle Paul quotes the Lord Jesus’ words as He instituted the element of the cup in the Lord’s Supper. The quotation that is concerned with the significance of the cup is given in 1 Corinthians 11:25 This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

What did the Lord mean in the declaration This cup is the new covenant in my blood? To begin with, we should recognize that the Lord did not mean that a physical cup is the new covenant. Of course, we have already indicated that the cup is a reference to the wine contained in it. Certainly, wine is not the new covenant as the literal reading of the declaration may imply. You see, the word “is,” is translated from a Greek word (eimi) that if you recall we considered in verse 24. We indicated that it has several meanings, but we considered only those that were possible candidates in that verse. The same possible meanings apply in verse 25. For example, the word could possibly mean “to be identical.” Nonetheless, as in verse 24, the meaning in verse 25 is “to represent.” With this meaning, we could read the Lord’s declaration as This cup represents the new covenant in my blood. In effect, the wine used in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper represents what is given in the phrase the new covenant in my blood. Hence, our concern is to understand what the Lord meant in this phrase.

To understand what the Lord Jesus meant in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 the new covenant in my blood we need to first consider what is meant by “covenant” and then what “blood” means in the phrase we are considering. Because we intend to consider the two words in a little more detail, we will not answer the question of what the Lord meant in the phrase in today’s study, but we will do so in the next study. Today, we will simply lay the groundwork that will help in interpreting the Lord’s statement This cup is the new covenant in my blood. By the way, I could have given you the interpretation right away but that will not enable you to understand other truths that the Holy Spirit intends for us to grasp with the word “covenant.” In other words, we will not be completely true to our claim of expositional teaching of the word of God.

The word “covenant” is translated from a Greek word (diathēkē) that in the NT has two general meanings. It means “last will and testament” in Hebrews 9:16:

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it,

Another meaning of the word is “covenant.” It is a term that comes to us via the Latin expression con venire that means “a coming together.” A covenant refers to the mutual arrangement between two parties involving mutual obligations. The Scripture reveals two classifications of covenant: human and Divine-human. Human covenant is that between two parties in which there is a binding agreement between them. It generally requires that both parties swear an oath and ratify it with some form of ritual. The example of this is found in Isaac’s covenant with Abimelech that was ratified with an oath, as in Genesis 26:30–31:

³⁰ Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹ Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

Human covenant is characterized by relationship between two parties and mutual obligations between the two parts. Thus, without doubt, human covenant involves trust, responsibilities, and benefits. In political arrangement, human covenant is understood to mean a treaty but in a social setting it means a lifelong friendship, agreement of the type exemplified between David and Jonathan, as stated in 1 Samuel 18:3:

And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

The covenant between Jonathan and David required them to demonstrate mutual loyalty and lovingkindness to each other in certain tangible ways. It is because human covenants in social setting involve trust, responsibilities, and benefits that marriage is described in terms of covenant in Malachi 2:14:

You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

Divine-human covenant refers to the covenant between God and man. As with human covenants, the divine-human covenant is characterized by the same concept of relationship between two parties and mutual obligation. However, when we think of divine-human covenant we should recognize it primarily in terms of the declaration of God’s initiative not the result of an agreement between God and man as such. In effect, it is a kind of arrangement that establishes a relationship between God and people based on His grace in which humans are benefited or blessed. Unlike human covenant, where both parties are involved in setting up the conditions of the covenant, the conditions of the divine-human covenant are set only by God. We are saying that God did not enter any kind of negotiations with any human being regarding the conditions of the terms of His covenants with humankind. Anyhow, in divine-human covenant, it is usually humans that are involved in rituals associated with ratification of a covenant. Thus, the Israelites ratified their covenant with God with blood of animals as indicated in Exodus 24:4–7:

⁴ Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. ⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”

Divine-human covenant involves oaths not taken at the same time by God and man. For example, the Israelites took an oath with respect to God’s covenant with them at Sinai in that they obligated themselves to obey the terms of God’s covenant with them, as indicated in Exodus 24:3:

When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”

But God alone obligates Himself by an oath to keep the terms of His covenant with Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 22:15–18:

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

In any event, it is important we do not think of divine-human covenant as an arrangement between two parties but primarily as God’s gracious act in which out of His initiative makes promises and sets out to fulfill them. In short, we should think of divine-human covenant in terms of God’s self-commitment to bring blessings to those in a relationship with Him.

The Scripture reveals several divine-human covenants. There are those who trace divine-human covenant to creation so that they speak of “covenant of nature” based on such passage as Jeremiah 33:20:

“This is what the LORD says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time,

Similarly, they speak of covenant of works or Adamic covenant because of such passage as Hosea 6:7:

Like Adam, they have broken the covenant— they were unfaithful to me there.

There is dispute among commentators as how Adam is to be understood in this passage so that it can hardly be used to establish a doctrinal position. These attempts to trace divine-human covenant to creation notwithstanding, a first clear reference to divine-human covenant in the Scripture concerns Noah so that we speak of Noahic covenant. It was first hinted during God’s instruction to Noah to build the ark for his preservation and that of his family as indicated in Genesis 6:18:

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

The background of this reference to covenant is the corruption of humans that God threatened to destroy them completely thereby totally sever any divine-human relationship but in His grace, He chose to maintain relationship with one family, that of Noah. God did not immediately elaborate on the covenant as He had to wait for Noah to obey His instruction to construct the ark. Then after the flood, following Noah’s sacrifice to the God, He revealed the content of the covenant, as we read in Genesis 8:20–22:

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. ²² “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

In effect, the covenant with Noah is indeed a universal covenant with humankind and living creatures in which God made a promise never again to destroy the world with flood and the sign of which is a rainbow, as in Genesis 9:8–17:

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” ¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

It is perhaps better to think of this covenant with Noah as unilateral in the sense that God obligates Himself to what He says He would do.

A second divine-human covenant involves Abraham. So, there are the covenants described as Abrahamic. Although scholars are divided in how many covenants are involved in it but there seems to be two general categories of this covenant. There is the covenant in which God promised to make Abraham into a great nation. This may not be clear until we recognize that a nation consists of people and a territory or a land. Therefore, promises related to Abraham having many descendants and a territory should be regarded as concerned with nationhood. Thus, God promised Abraham many descendants, as in Genesis 15:5:

He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

The land or territory that goes with being a nation is promised in Genesis 15:18–21:

¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

A second covenant of the Abrahamic covenants is to bless the nations through Abraham’s offspring. This covenant is hinted in Genesis 17. Let us note particularly Genesis 17:6–7:

⁶ I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. ⁷ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

This hinted covenant involved circumcision, according to Genesis 17:14:

Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

However, it was in Genesis 22 that we have a fuller explanation of this second covenant, as we read in a passage we cited previously, that is, Genesis 22:15–18:

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Both aspects of Abrahamic covenants involve unilateral obligations on the part of God. It is true that God expected Abraham’s descendants to be circumcised but such is only a sign of what God promised but the terms of the covenants are to be fulfilled by God alone.

A third divine-human covenant involves the people of Israel. This covenant is commonly known as the Mosaic covenant. It is a covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai following their deliverance from Egypt. This covenant involves bilateral obligations. Thus, God promised to make Israel unique among the nations so that they are treasured, holy, and priests of God, as stated in Exodus 19:5–6:

⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

The conditional clause if you obey me fully and keep my covenant indicates that Israel has an obligation of obedience to this covenant. This is made even clearer by Israel’s response to the terms of this covenant in a passage we cited previously, that is, Exodus 24:7:

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”

God had chosen Israel as His special people so He required them to demonstrate that they are indeed His people and so He placed requirements on them that if they carried out will indicate they are His unique people. The point we are stressing is that keeping the terms of the covenants with God is really what shows that the Israelites are unique people of God since God has already chosen them as His people. That keeping the terms of God’s covenant with Israel is a demonstration of their uniqueness as His people is conveyed in the instruction of Moses to Israel in his farewell address, as we can note in Deuteronomy 4:5–6:

⁵ See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. ⁶ Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

Therefore, it can be stated then that the Mosaic covenant was God’s way for maintaining His relationship with the nation that fulfills the covenant of God with Abraham that concerns being a great nation. Remember that when God made this covenant with Israel in Sinai, they were already His chosen people as clearly stated in Deuteronomy 7:6:

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Therefore, the covenant did not make them His people but as we have indicated it is intended to show that they are in a unique relationship with Him. This is an important point because it is possible to misunderstand this covenant as indicating that it is intended to make Israel God’s people. True, there are blessings and curses associated with the covenant, but they are not intended to define the people but to reward them for showing that they are God’s unique people or to curse them for failure to do so. So, the Mosaic covenant is best understood as God’s faithful commitment to acknowledge Israel as His own special people in keeping with His promise to Abraham.

An implication of the point that we are stressing that Israel’s compliance with the terms of God’s covenant with them at Sinai was to demonstrate that they are unique people and not so they become His people is that Christians should live in accordance with the instructions of the word of God to prove that they are God’s children and not to make them His children. We are already the elect of God and so what is required of us is to show that we are indeed His children. It is no wonder the Holy Spirit through Apostle Peter gives us the instruction recorded in 2 Peter 1:10:

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,

God’s calling and election do not depend on humans in any form or shape. So what the Holy Spirit says to us through the apostle is that we should demonstrate by our actions that our call is real and our election absolutely certain. If we live in accordance with the word of God then we will never have doubt about the genuineness of God’s call and His election. In effect, our lifestyle should serve to give us assurance of our salvation and also to tell unbelievers that we are indeed Christians. Our lifestyle does not make us Christians but it proves we are one. It is this sort of thing that Israel’s obedience to the terms of the Mosaic covenant was supposed to do for them and their surrounding neighbors.

A fourth divine-human covenant involves David and so it is known as Davidic covenant. It is a covenant in which God promised to establish David and his descendants on Israel’s throne forever. This covenant is the basis of Israel’s hope of deliverance and restoration to their God and for their expectation of the Messiah, the greater Son of David, that we now know is the Lord Jesus Christ, as indicated during the announcement of His birth in Luke 1:32–33:

³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

This covenant was given to David through Prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 7:9–16:

⁹ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. ¹⁰ And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹ and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: ¹² When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. ¹⁵ But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

It is true that the word “covenant” is not used in this passage but the passage is indeed concerned with covenant God made with David for later he referred to the promises of this passage as God’s covenant with him in 2 Samuel 23:5:

“Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire?

The confidence David exhumed on how secured the covenant God made with him was, speaks to the fact that the covenant involved a unilateral obligation on the part of God only. There is no obligation God expected to be fulfilled in this covenant, but He guarantees it based on His goodness. Of course, as in previous covenants, God expects obedience to His word on the part of the beneficiaries of this covenant.

Davidic covenant is indeed a more focused or narrowed down version of Abrahamic covenant. We say this because of the similarities between the two. There is the promise of “a great name” in both. In the promise given to David we read in verse 9 of 2 Samuel 7 I will make your name great. Likewise, we read of the promise of a great name for Abraham in Genesis 12:2:

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

There is the promise of offspring or line through whom the name is to be continued in both covenants. The promise of offspring is given to David in verse 12 of 2 Samuel 7 I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. The same promise was earlier given to Abraham in Genesis 21:12:

But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Hence, it is correct to say that Davidic covenant is indeed the focused version of Abrahamic covenant. Furthermore, the promise of a lasting royal family in the sentence your throne will be established forever of 2 Samuel 7:16 means that Davidic covenant fulfills Jacob’s prophecy of Judah having the ruling function forever, as stated in Genesis 49:10:

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

The Davidic covenant manifests God’s commitment to His promise and His dealing with us in His grace. You see, God indicated that He would carry out His promise regardless of what the descendants of David do although they will be punished as stated in 2 Samuel 7:14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. It is God’s grace and commitment that is also revealed when He indicated that despite the failure of David’s descendants (e.g., Jehoram) that He will not utterly destroy them as stated in 2 Chronicles 21:6–7:

⁶ He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. ⁷ Nevertheless, because of the covenant the LORD had made with David, the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David. He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and his descendants forever.

The point is that Davidic covenant clearly demonstrates God’s commitment to His promises. Therefore, you should be confident in your salvation. You should have a sense of security in Him because He cannot fail to keep His promises.

A fifth divine-human covenant is the new covenant. Israel’s failure to keep to the terms of Mosaic covenant and resultant judgment coupled with the fact that God’s promises cannot fail led to a new covenant, not new in essence but in fulfillment. This new covenant with Israel is most often associated with Prophet Jeremiah because he gave the most explicit statement of it in Jeremiah 31:31–34:

³¹ “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

However, other prophets spoke of this new covenant. Prophet Isaiah spoke of this new covenant in terms of everlasting covenant in Isaiah 55:3:

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

Similarly, Prophet Ezekiel spoke of the new covenant as an everlasting one in Ezekiel 16:60:

Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Our consideration of the word “covenant” helps us to understand that when the Lord uttered the words of 1 Corinthians 11:25 that the disciples would understand that He was referring to the new covenant that was prophesied by the prophets of old. This being the case, we still need to consider the word “blood” to answer convincingly what is meant in the phrase This cup is the new covenant in my blood. We will do this in our next study but let me end by reminding you of the message of 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 which is You should understand that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Lord Jesus that involves two elements in its celebration with significances.

02/18//22 [End of Lessons #391 and 392]