10. The first covenant and the new covenant

From the evening sermon on September 26, 2004, 31th Memorial worship

The Bible says that the covenant between God and Abraham was the first covenant (Heb. 9:15). The reason was to set up Jesus as the hero of the new covenant. When Jesus came to this world, he was not able to play properly a role as the Messiah and went to heaven. The twelve disciples worked hard to establish Christianity, but it was the apostle, Paul’s work that spread Christianity around the world.

Jesus also spoke of this in his preaching, saying, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John,” (Matt. 11:13) to highlight his role in the Bible. That means the law of

Moses was effective until the emergence of the Baptist John as the guide for Messiah, which refers to the end of Abraham’s work.

God started his work from Abraham. There was a god who had already been known well in the land of Canaan. It was Baal (Num. 22:41). But Jehovah God was not. The Korean people did not know Jehovah God before Christianity came to this country. It has been less than two hundred fifty years from the time the Catholics and Protestants first came to this country.

At the time God called Abraham, Baal ruled over the people in Canaan. Jehovah was nothing to the people serving Baal. God had thought, “How dare Baal try to get humanity to serve him?” He could not condone it. God had a plan to get rid of Baal from Canaan. Nobody could recognize it. But that’s the plan of God. God needed Abraham to work for his plan.

We have to understand God’s plan in order to know what God wants, so that we know how God works with his servants. I am not only talking about the story in the Bible, but about the providence of God, in which we are working.