Covenants: the Highway to Divine Exemption.

Introduction

Genesis 12:1-4 (KJV)

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.⁴ So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Genesis 22:1-18 (KJV)

   And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.² And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.⁵ And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.⁷ And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?⁸ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.⁹ And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.¹⁰ And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.¹¹ And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.¹² And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,¹⁶ And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:¹⁷ That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;¹⁸ And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

In Genesis 12:1-3, God made some promises to Abram however in Genesis 22:16-18, He made a covenant. Promises are built on trust while covenants are founded on oaths.

An oath is stronger than a trust because trusts can be abused, betrayed or breached while oaths much more difficult to break. When a trust is betrayed, a simple apology can suffice and that be the end of the matter. In other words, trusts can be abused without any significant consequences while the breaking of oaths can lead to severe consequences even lethal ones.

Promises can be forgotten or ignored but covenants do not share this characteristic because they speak eternally. 
Because covenants are naturally tough to break, the demands of a covenant are stronger, tougher and more powerful than the demand of promises (Gen 12:1, Gen 22:1-2). Observe:

1. God had told Abram to relocate from his comfort and familiarity to a place he was to be shown, this demand was tough but doable because of the accompanying promises however there was no assurance or guarantee whatsoever when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only beloved son as a burnt offering.
2. At this point Abraham was well over 100 years old and his wife Sarah was over 90 years old, the sacrifice demanded by God of Abraham meant that there was no longer going to be a future for Abraham.
3. He was not going to receive any promises fulfilled after the sacrifice because none were made in the first place.
4. In Gen 22:4, he had 72 hours to reconsider his act of disobedience, the temptation to disobey would have been so crushing. He would have endured so many eternities with each step he took for 3 days, probably the worst 3 days of his entire life.
5. In Gen 22:7, the question his son Isaac asked him would have added to his sorrow together with the knowledge that the boy knew what was about to happen being the son of someone experienced in making burnt sacrifices to the Lord. The young lad might have even resisted this.
6. If God had instructed Abraham in the presence of other witnesses, he might have been able to at least explain his actions, however that was not the case. He might have wondered what he was going to tell the world, the young men he left on standby (Gen 22:5), his neighbors and most agonizingly, his wife Sarah. 

When God is about to have a covenant with you, he separates you from the pack. Because Abraham did not know that it was a test, his reaction was therefore from the genuineness of his heart. God was so moved by this that He swore by Himself (Gen22:16) and made His covenant with Abraham.

The first blessings were a promise but the second ones were sealed with an oath.

Psalm 50:3-6 (KJV)

³ Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.⁴ He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.⁵ Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.⁶ And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

God has said in His prophesy for us as a church for the year 2017 that He will deal with the wicked (Malachi 4:1-3) but before this happens, a separation will take place (Psalm 50:5), exemption comes to play. His saints shall be gathered unto Him that have made a covenant by sacrifice.

This means covenants are the sure way to prosper and to enjoy the blessings of heaven in the midst of famine.

1. Promises are common to all saints but covenants are special to only certain saints.
2. Covenant saints are saints that will go the extra mile and will not take no for an answer when it concerns the things of God.  They will jump at any opportunity to promote the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, plugging themselves in.  They don't wait to be encouraged, goaded, disciplined or pushed to advance Kingdom matters. God is not going to cut a covenant with loafers, lukewarm, lazy and stingy saints.

Abraham became God's concern when he put an urgency into his obedience to God (Gen 22:3); the same happens to any man who makes God his primary concern.  God will not cut a covenant with any man who does not make Him a priority.

Psalm 89:34-36 (KJV)

³⁴ My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.³⁵ Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.³⁶ His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.

God's covenant with David was sealed with an oath which trancended generations that even blind Bartimaeus addressed Jesus as Son of David (Mark 10:47-48) several generations later. There is a permanence to covenants and this endures through all generations.

Conclusion

Jeremiah 33:20-21 (KJV)

²⁰ Thus saith the Lord; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;²¹ Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.

Jeremiah 33:25-26 (KJV)

²⁵ Thus saith the Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;²⁶ Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

God is saying that the only thing that can break His covenant with David is a thing that can break the covenant of Night and Day.
Covenants are not easily broken, are permanent and have more demanding requirements because they are founded on oaths. They protect men from destruction and restore unto men benefits. 
God doesn't bless a community or group, he blesses individuals.

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