TRUTH LESSONS—LEVEL TWO

LESSON SIX

THE COVENANT WHICH GOD MADE
WITH THOSE
WHO WENT TO INHERIT THE LAND

OUTLINE

1. The One who made the covenant—Jehovah:
   1. The One who brought the children of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai.
   2. The One who led the children of Israel forty years through the wilderness.
   3. The One who was about to bring the children of Israel through the Jordan to take the good land of Canaan.
2. The ones with whom the covenant was made—a new generation of the children of Israel:
   1. The descendants of the old generation, who tempted God and were punished by God and strewn along in the wilderness.
   2. Those whom the old generation considered a prey and too weak to enter Canaan.
   3. Those who wandered in the wilderness and bore the whoredoms of the old generation forty years.
   4. Those whom God would bring into the good land of Canaan.
3. The contents of the covenant:
   1. They were to keep the covenant that God made at Mount Sinai and to love Jehovah God with all their heart and with all their soul.
   2. If they would keep the words of the covenant and do them, they would live and be blessed.
   3. If they would disobey the words of the covenant, they would be cursed and scattered among all the nations.
   4. If they would repent and obey the words of the covenant, God would restore them.
   5. God would circumcise their heart to love Jehovah God with all their heart and with all their soul and to obey His voice.
4. The result:
   1. They turned away from God and disobeyed His covenant through all their generations.
   2. They were cursed, suffered calamities, and were carried away to the nations.
   3. Until this day they still have not turned their heart to God, who has been eagerly expecting their return.
   4. Their whole house will not repent and be saved until the coming again of the Lord Jesus.

TEXT

Through Moses God brought the children of Israel to the east of Jordan, to the land of Moab (Deut. 1:5), and before they went on to take the good land of Canaan, He made a covenant with them through Moses, the sixth covenant that God made with man (Deut. 29—30).

I. THE ONE WHO MADE THE COVENANT—JEHOVAH

A. The One Who Brought the Children of Israel
from Egypt to Mount Sinai

The One who made the covenant is Jehovah God, who brought the children of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai. Through the Passover He rescued them from His judgment; He brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, delivering them out of the Egyptian tyranny and out of Egypt, the land of bondage; and He led them to experience the tree that changed the bitter water into sweet (Exo. 15:23-25), the twelve springs at Elim (Exo. 15:27), the manna sent from heaven (Exo. 16:14-15, 31-32, 35), and the living water flowing out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6). These items signify Christ as man’s life supply in different aspects, by which God brought the children of Israel to Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:1-2). There Jehovah God made the covenant of the law with them, revealing Himself to them that they might know what kind of God He was and with what kind of God they fellowshipped. He also instructed them to build the tabernacle as His dwelling place that His glory might be concretely expressed on a large scale.

B. The One Who Led the Children of Israel
Forty Years through the Wilderness

Jehovah God also led the children of Israel through the great and terrible wilderness for forty years (Deut. 8:15) to humble them, to test them, and to know what was in their heart (Deut. 8:2). He humbled them and let them be hungry, and fed them with manna which their fathers did not know, that He might make them know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Jehovah (Deut. 8:3). He disciplined them as a man disciplines his son (Deut. 8:5). Moreover, He cared for them so that for forty years in the wilderness their clothes did not wear out upon them, and their sandals did not wear out on their feet, in order that they might know that Jehovah was their God (Deut. 29:5).

C. The One Who Was about to Bring
the Children of Israel through the Jordan
to Take the Good Land of Canaan

After forty years of wandering, the old generation of the children of Israel fell and died in the wilderness. At that time God brought the new generation of the children of Israel to the east of the Jordan in the land of Moab and was about to bring them through the Jordan to take the good land of Canaan, the land that God swore to their fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants for a possession. Deuteronomy 9:1-3 says, “Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven....The Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face.” It was just before they crossed the Jordan that Jehovah God made this covenant with them.