Foundations 1.6 | Biblical Themes…Covenant, Slavery

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Foundations 1.6 | Biblical Themes…Covenant, Slavery and Deliverance Teacher’s Guide Theme Verse Psalm 105:8 “He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations.”

Objectives Students will explore three Old Testament covenants and their completion in Jesus. Students will appreciate the promises that God has made to his people. Students will commit to living their side of the covenant relationship God desires.

Blueprint Covenant is a major theme in the Old Testament. God makes several significant covenants with His people. Some are one-way (divine commitment) covenants and others are two-way (human obligation) covenants. Tonight we’ll look at three from the Old Testament: God’s covenants with Abraham, Moses/the Israelites and King David. We’ll see how each was significant, but each seemed to fail at one critical point. Then we’ll look at the New Testament and see how Jesus is the final fulfillment of each. Small group time brings it to a personal level using the idea of covenant to describe our ongoing relationship with God.

Overview of the Evening 6:30

Students arrive Group check-in/Greater memorization 6:40 Opening game 6:50 Welcome and announcements 6:55 Teaching 7:15–7:20 (depending on how long you go) Break out into small groups 8:00 Class is over

Foundations 1.6 | Biblical Themes…Covenant

Teacher’s Guide

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Teaching Outline 1. 2 Work on memorizing books of the Bible 2. 3 Review last week’s theme summary 3. 4 Tonight’s theme verse: Psalm 105:8 “He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations.” 4. 4 Covenant How important (scale of 1-10) is it that someone keeps a promise they made to you? How important (scale of 1-10) is it that you keep the promises you make to others? Tonight we’re looking at the theme Covenant. A covenant is a promise. It’s bigger than, “I promise to clean my room” or “I promise to pay back this loan.” It’s more like the promise a couple makes at their wedding. It’s a heart promise as well as an action promise. We’re going to look at three Old Testament covenants that God made with His people. Two are one-way commitments and the other is a two-way commitment. 5.1 Examples: parents make a one-way commitment when they have a child. They promise (non-verbally) to the child to love, care for, provide for and protect the child. They do this with no expectation of anything back from the child. 5.2 When that child has her driver’s license the covenant style changes. Now it’s a two-way covenant. Parents will provide the car; child will drive safely, pay for gas, not wreck the car or hurt themselves. There are benefits to living up to their part and consequences for failing to do so. 5. 6 The first covenant we’ll look at is with Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. 7 God comes to Abraham and promises to make him into a great nation, make him famous and make him a blessing. One problem with God’s promise: Abraham was 90 years old, had no children and was a nobody. 10 years later God gave him a son, but he was no great nation and no great blessing when he died. 6. 8 The second covenant is with Moses and the Israelites after they left Egypt (Exodus 19-20). 9 Here God makes a two-way covenant—we call it the 10 Commandments—with His people. He lays out the Commandments (Exodus 20) and lists the benefits to keeping them (Exodus 19:5-6) and the consequences for breaking them (20:5).

Foundations 1.6 | Biblical Themes…Covenant

Teacher’s Guide

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One problem with this covenant: it’s impossible to keep the 10 Commandments, so we’re all stuck with the consequences. 7. 10 The third covenant is with King David. 11 God makes a one-way covenant with David saying that a descendant of David’s line will always be on the throne. One problem with this covenant: the last King of Judah died in exile in Babylon in the mid500s BC. 8. 12 Jesus. Each of these covenants has a “flaw” in it…something keeps each covenant from being fully realized. Abraham only has one son, how can he be a great nation and a blessing to all nations? Moses gets the 10 Commandments, but no one can keep them perfectly, so we’re all subject to the consequences. David’s last heir dies in Babylon…there’s no king for the throne, but there’s no throne anyway. 13.1 Look at Matthew 1. It starts with Abraham and traces his descendants down. His descendants become the Jewish nation. What started with one man now becomes a great nation. Look at the last descendant mentioned…Jesus. How was Abraham a blessing to the nations? By being Jesus’ ancestor. 13.2 Look at verse 6. David is also a descendant of Abraham. Verse 11 lists Jeconiah, he’s the last king from the line, the one who dies in Babylon. But look at verse 16 again. Ever heard Jesus called the king of kings? God’s promise wasn’t just for an earthly king in an earthly kingdom. It was bigger…a king to rule over all things, eternally. 14 What about Moses? Look at Matthew 26:26-28. Recognize these words? Look what Jesus says in verse 28, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” The covenant with the Israelites is impossible for us to keep, but God provides Jesus, who kept it perfectly as the way for us to still receive the blessings of the covenant. 9. 15 Each of these covenants was significant in its time, but not until Jesus do we see the big picture, the fulfillment of each. 10. 16 Read the theme summaries together. 11. 17 Read the theme verse together. 12. 18 Next week: Slavery and deliverance.

Foundations 1.6 | Biblical Themes…Covenant

Teacher’s Guide

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