INTRODUCTION

1. Many are the blessings God has bestowed on Israel

2. One of the most significant blessing is the giving of special Covenants

3. A number of Covenants may be noted:

a) Abrahamic Covenant

b) Mosaic Covenant

c) Davidic Covenant

d) Levitical Covenant

4. Sadly, Israel had not learned to appreciate these special and sacred Covenants

 

THE HOLY COVENANT

72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers

And to remember His holy covenant,

73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: Luke 1:72-73

1. Which Covenant was in mind?

2. Zacharias was referring to the covenant God gave to Abraham specially

a) God’s covenant was described as “holy”

b) It was sacred to God even if Israel had failed to appreciate it

3. The months of being mute

Zacharias had ample time to read the Scriptures thoroughly

 

THE ORIGINAL COVENANT GOD GAVE TO ABRAHAM

9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer,

a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle,

and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.

11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.

13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs,

and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.

14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark,

that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.

18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:

“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,

20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” Genesis 15:9-21

1. It was a holy Covenant

a) Sanctified by worship

b) Unclean birds threatened to corrupt the sacrifice

c) Abram (Abraham) chased the scavenger birds away

d) God’s Presence was manifested by “a smoking oven and burning torch”

2. The Covenant God gave to Abram

a) There will be numerous descendants

b) They will undergo suffering and affliction

c) But God will redeem them from bondage

d) They will be given the land of Israel

 

APPRECIATING WHAT GOD WAS GOING TO DO

1. God had redeemed the children of Israel

a) From the Egyptians

b) From the Assyrians

c) From the Babylonians

d) From the Medo-Persian

2. What God would do next

a) Israel was under the iron hand of Rome

b) But God was not going to repeat what He had done in the past

c) God was still going to bring about deliverance

d) But this Deliverance was of even greater significance

 

GOD WILL NEVER FORGET HIS HOLY COVENANT

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,

And my Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.

16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me. Isaiah 49:14-16

1. Israel once cried out in deep unbelief

a) That God had forsaken

b) That He had forgotten

2. God’s response to Israel

a) He cannot forget

b) He will not forget

c) His people are continually before Him

 

OUR CHALLENGE

1. To find renewal of faith

2. To cultivate faith

3. To hold fast to faith