The Preacher said “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again” (Ecclesiastes 1:7). The Psalmist said, “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High” (Psalms 46:4). The more a believer studies the Word of God, the more he discovers the truth of both the Preacher’s and the Psalmist’s words.
Symbolically there are rivers of truth and revelation which begin in the Book of Genesis and flow on in deepening, widening and refreshing glory into the sea of fulfilment, the Book of Revelation.
Through many years of studying that inexhaustible Book called the Bible, believers have discovered many streams of truth. However, there is a deep vast river, a mainstream of revelation, which flows through God’s Word. This mainstream is the flow of God’s ongoing covenantal revelation. It actually began, as all rivers do, in the mountain of God’s eternal purposes concerning man. Then, under the melting sunlight of God’s love and grace it began to flow down to earth. It has been flowing on and on, through the Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Palestinian, Davidic and New Covenants. The New Covenant brings the river of covenantal revelation into the sea of fulfilment and thus the river returns to the place from whence it came. Moses saw the river in Genesis parting into its four heads to bless the earth (Genesis 2:10–14). John then saw the river in the city of God on a great and high mountain (Revelation 21:9, 10; 22:1–3). The cycle of covenantal revelation which was in the Everlasting Covenant is now complete.
There are many streams of truth in the Word of God; theological, prophetical, typical, symbolical, eschatological and practical. However, all of these streams of truth flow out of and back into the mainstream of covenantal truth. None of these “streams” are the total river and it is dangerous to believe that any one of them is the whole river of Divine revelation. All streams must flow out of and back into the river of God. This river is the covenantal truth which flows from Genesis through the 66 books of the Bible into Revelation.
In “The Covenants” there are “waters to swim in” and one may go ankle deep, knee deep, to the waist or find a river that cannot be passed over (Ezekiel 47:1–12). The covenantal river is full of water that one can be enriched thereby (Psalms 65:9–10). Here the believer may drink of the river of God’s pleasures (Psalms 36:8).
The word “covenant” is a word that has lost its meaning and significance in present society. In Bible times the word “covenant” involved promise, commitment, faithfulness and loyalty even unto death. A covenant was sacred and was not lightly entered into by the parties involved. In Bible times a person was only as good as their covenant word. In a society where national agreements, business contracts, and marriage covenants are under stress and attack, where people are “covenant-breakers” (Romans 1:31), it brings great joy and comfort to know that God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God.
True believers are in covenant relationship with God through Christ and the New Covenant. They are also in covenant relationship with each other. This is symbolized each time believers meet together around the Lord’s Table, the New Covenant table. There they partake of the broken body and shed blood of the covenant Christ of God. What a spiritual transformation would come to the Church if believers would understand, appreciate and experience covenantal relationship and commitment!
It is to this end that “The Covenants” textbook has been written.
Our prayer is that Ministers, Students and all believers who read and study this text will receive that illumination and flow into the river of God’s covenantal revelation in true commitment to Christ and to the members of His New Covenant Body, which is the Church.