THE SABBATH by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 25, 1905

THE SABBATH

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L. A. PHIPPENY

THE COVENANTS.

The Everlasting Covenant.

THE subject of the Sabbath is interlinked and interwoven with that of the covenants, of which it is an integral part. Hence the importance attaching to an understanding of the covenants in their relation to the Sabbath.

A covenant is an agreement between two or more parties, involving certain mutual promises, and certain conditions. A contract is a covenant.

A covenant is also a promise made by one party to do or cause to be done certain things, when certain conditions are met. It must involve a second party, altho the second party may not formally enter into the agreement at the time the first party promises. Of this class of covenants, a will, or testament, is an illustration.

In the Scriptures the words covenant and testament are both used, somewhat synonymously, involving the ideas of contract, mutual promises, and testament, or will.

Every covenant, contract, testament, or will, must have its essential object clearly stated. There must also be a consideration. That is, something of value must pass between the parties to bind the covenant, tho the mutual benefits to be derived by the covenantors may be regarded as a consideration, if so agreed between them. In the case of a will several considerations are understood, such as relationship, friendship, benefactions, etc., and the will, or testament, is confirmed by the death of the testator. For its provisions are thus made sure and unalterable forever.

The covenant idea is one that is prominently set forth in the Scriptures, and it requires only an ordinary, careful study of the scheme of the Bible to discern that this thought lies at the foundation of the whole plan of redemption. A covenant was made with Adam, for we read a reference in the sixth chapter of Hosea that backsliding Ephraim and Judah, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. A covenant was made with Noah and his sons; a covenant was made with Abraham, and renewed and repeated with Isaac and with Jacob; a covenant was made with the Israelites, when the Lord led them forth from Egyptian bondage; a covenant was made with David, and his house after him; this covenant was referred to by Isaiah as an everlasting covenant; and a prophecy of a new covenant is made by Jeremiah, and referred to by the writer of the book of Hebrews as the new testament.

The Everlasting Covenant.

The reference by Isaiah to an everlasting covenant is not the only reference to an everlasting covenant. God's covenant with Noah is called His everlasting covenant with the earth; His covenant with Abraham is called His everlasting covenant, and is renewed with Isaac and with Jacob and with Israel, the nation, as His everlasting covenant therefor; and it requires but a glance at the terms of the new covenant to show that whenever it is established its blessings must be everlasting in their effects. What is there, therefore, in these covenants that the Lord refers to as His everlasting covenant, that warrants this term?

The answer to this question is in the covenant matter,—the terms, conditions, promises, and object. To Noah—and to the earth—the Lord promised the preservation of the earth forever from destruction again by a flood of waters; to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, was the promise of the land of Canaan for an "everlasting possession," and that their seed should be as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore for number. And in the fulfilment of this promise, so far as its local features were concerned, the Israelites were led from Egypt to the promised land. But the promise of Canaan and the innumerable multitudes to constitute the posterity, was a promise embracing more than the literal land of Palestine, and its capacities. This was clearly understood by the worthies of old.

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. . . . These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. . . . They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly." Hebrews 11.

The promise—God's part of the covenant—with Abraham, was also that in him should all families of the earth be blessed. "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. . . . Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ. . . . And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." For in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ." Galatians 3.

The Restoration of the Kingdom.

These blessings are the blessings of the Gospel in the working out of the plan of redemption through Christ. The all-inclusive object is the anti-typical Canaan—the earth restored—for an "everlasting possession." This was the object of the everlasting covenant mentioned by Isaiah—the "sure mercies of David." The mercies mentioned by David were the Lord's promises to him that his throne should be established forever, that divine mercies should not depart from his house. Christ, the Seed, is to reign on the throne of His father David forever, in the regeneration. That throne will be called the throne of David, and its establishment rested on the successful accomplishment of the Redeemer's mission.

It becomes very clear, then, that the promises made immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, are a part of the everlasting covenant: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here is the promise of the Redeemer, who should destroy sin. Here is the promise of salvation, of forgiveness, of restoration. It is the beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel. It was the hope of Adam and Eve, and of every soul since, who has desired salvation. Its precious promises, and the unfolding of the plan, were passed on from father to son and from family to family, through the ages, until the Redeemer came. Adam, to whom was given the dominion of earth in its Edenic state, lost it through sin; Christ, the second Adam, has regained it through righteousness. And so the prophecy declares: "And Thou, O Tower of the flock, the Stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion." Micah 4:8.

From the gate of Eden to the restoration of the lost dominion, the work of redemption is one work. The various promises to Adam and to Noah and to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and to Israel and to David, and to us, are all of one, and have one object—"an everlasting possession." The conditions of possession demand a holy people for the everlasting possession, a people who have been made righteous and holy through the Lord's means for making them righteous, a people whose character is His character, in whose hearts is His law. He is to be their God, and they are to be His people, and He is to dwell in and with them. These conditions are the conditions of the new covenant. Indeed, they must be so, for the new covenant is only the clear statement of what must be accomplished in the work of redemption.

[The next article will be "The Covenant-Testament."]