 Right, welcome back. So we saw the test, the call to give all. So Abraham did his part of fulfilling the covenant. And let's look at this, a deeper revelation of God saying Jehovah Jairah, Genesis chapter 22, 13, and 14, then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and there behind him was a ram caught in the ticket by its horns. So Abraham went, took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place. The Lord will provide Jehovah Jairah. And it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. You saw that sequence of covenants that God is giving Abraham. And he says, okay, Abraham, you're fulfilling yours. Look at me, what I'm going to do now. Instead of your son, it's going to be a ram. And in that Jehovah Jairah, the same way I will provide later on for another ram who will take away the sins of the world. And by myself, I have sworn God backs up his covenant with himself. And he's not saying, okay, 24 elders, you're in heaven with me or two angels, important angels. They are signing the agreement saying, okay, they are backing up the covenant for me. No, God says, hey, I've established. I will back it up and I will fulfill it. So God gave the promise, but he also signed off on the promise as a guarantor. So did we understand this covenant with Abraham? Yes, and how he established the blood covenant there. Let's look at the blood covenant with Moses and Israel. First one, Passover, which is a type of redemption. God ransomed his people out for himself who would continue to be in covenant. Remember to Abraham, what did God tell Abraham? People will go into affliction for 400 years, but they will come out and they will continue to be in covenant with me. God gave Moses the law and established it as a blood covenant. Let's read Exodus chapter 24, 1 through 8. Let me read that for the sake of this online students. Exodus 24, 1 through 8. Now he said to Moses, come to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel and worship from afar. And Moses alone shall come up near the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people go up with him. So Moses came and told the people of all the words the Lord and all the judgments. All the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said, we will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. So he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered, burned sacrifices and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. Look at verse 6 and Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Verse 7, then he took the book of the covenant and reading in the hearing of the people and they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all the words. Look at these wonderful, right? The law of Moses, God tells Moses, okay, Moses, this is what you do. You come to the mountain now. And when you come to the mountain, you bring your brother and bring 72 elders as well. And you'll all stand at the foot of the mountain. You stand there and send Moses up. I need to talk to him. Now God didn't say, okay, Moses, okay, people, you sit here. Sorry, Moses didn't say you'll all sit here. Just relax, find a shade. Now God, so Moses said, here's what you do. You go get rams, get and do your offerings here and then half the blood he takes it, puts it in basins. Half the blood he takes it to sprinkle on the lamb. And then he says, you know, Moses reads the law to them, right? Basically it's the commandments that God had given him. And here he's saying he sprinkled the blood on the people, right? So probably he took his hand and just sprinkled it. I don't know. He may have used some, you know, a small cup or whatever. But the point is he sprinkled it on the people and he said, this is the blood covenant that God has made. But what's interesting is the people responded. I like the response of the people, right? They said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. Now, if you read a couple of chapters later, all that the Lord has said they don't do, right? And now if you think of it, why is God so strict? Why is he doing this? Why is he always saying judgment, judgment? Why? Because you agreed to be in the covenant. I gave my part of the covenant, I brought you out of Egypt 400 years. I didn't say, I didn't change my mind and say, okay, 800 years now. You came out and you saw the miracles that happened, right? And I've established the blood covenant. I've told Moses to tell you everything, right? Because I spoke to Moses and he put the blood on you as part of the blood covenant. So you're part of the covenant now. Then you're saying, no, I'll go back. I don't want to be here and you know, you're rebelling against God. So you're offending the covenant. You tell me, it's basically God saying, are you, you're going away from the covenant. So God is saying, okay, if you're going away, then I'm still there. But you're allowing the enemy to come and do whatever he wants to do to you because you're not part of the covenant. You're running away from the covenant. Now my covenant is I will bless you. You run away, curses will fall. Now don't blame me for that. Why the curse is coming? Because you're out of the covenant. You're letting the enemy come and do things to you and your family. As long as you're in covenant with me, nothing's going to happen to you. Remember what happens after this? Moses is dead. What does he tell Joshua? Joshua, stand up. It's time to go to the promised land. Just like I was with Moses. I'm going to be with you and I will fulfill my promise to Abraham. I will fulfill the covenant and they go. They go into the promised land. They defeat, you know, the walls of Jericho come down. How does God do all those wonderful miracles because of the covenant? You see, God was merciful all the while. When we look and we read all these things from the Old Testament, oh man, why is God saying do this, do this and bring punishment and Jeremiah is coming, Isaiah is coming and all these prophets. Why? It's not like God is a God who's keeping the covenant, but the people are saying, you know, they're sitting on the fence. Basically, that's what the Israelites were doing. They're sitting on the fence, especially during the time of Jeremiah, they're sitting on the fence. Some of them say, okay, nothing is happening. No, no, nothing wrong. Okay, I'll do what I have to do here. Then Jeremiah will prophesy something. Okay, we obey you, we will follow you, whatever you say. They're sitting on the fence. Now, what is God saying? Don't do that. Don't sit on the fence. You're either in the covenant or you're not in the covenant. You choose. Joshua 24-15 is wonderful. Joshua gathered all the people and he says to them, okay, we're going into the promised land now, but choose this day whom you're going to serve. Are you going to serve the God of the Amorites, the God of the Canaanites, all those other gods? Are you going to serve them or you're going to serve the God of Israel? Now, you choose this day before you get into the promised land. Don't come there and change your mind. Why is Joshua saying that? Because they already changed their mind before. So, Joshua is basically trying to say, hey, you're in covenant with God. Now, you choose if you want to be in covenant. Read Joshua 24-15. Choose this day whom you are going to serve. But as for me and my house and my household and the people of my clan will serve the Lord. So, me and my house, I will serve the Lord. But you choose. Joshua is putting the choice. Saying, you want to be in covenant? You don't want to be in covenant. If you're not in covenant, it's your choice, not me. Because we are going into the promised land now. So, someone will say, oh, yes, we will serve only the Lord our God. And many of them were obedient to that. They followed God. They obeyed God. But many of them turned astray. Many, many of them turned astray. Why? Because it's very easy to forget things. It's very easy to break a commitment. We know that God is not going to break, but we can easily break. And now these commitments, you know, I remember one of the commitments that I made was, and I was very young at that time. I said, God, in 24 hours, four hours I'll spend with you. That was my New Year resolution. Four hours. Two hours prayer, two hours read the Word. Not when one hour I spent. I think maybe 15 days I followed that. After 15 days, I was busy doing everything else other than praying and reading. I said, commitment broken. I said, from February, I'll start. I'll restart from February. February, three days or four days, I would have done it. Oh, okay. Two months, no. Another 10 months there from March, I will start. So March onwards, it's 10 months. 10 is better than 12. 10 months. By the time March came, I lost hope in starting. Why? Because I've broken the, I mean, it's not like I've broken the covenant. I've broken my commitment. I've said something. God, I want to do it. And I'm not doing it, but God didn't say, you said, no, four hours. Now you take sickness, you take disease, you take, I will not be there for you. I will not protect you. Did God do that? No. God said, hey, you are not keeping the covenant. Doesn't mean I won't do it. I will do it. I know you're my son. You're my daughter. I will do it. But it would have been nice if you had kept your covenant for who's sake, not for your sake. When you keep the covenant, I am going to bless you. I'm going to anoint you. I'm going to use you for my glory. It's not like, you know, you keep praying and nothing happens. No, there's something that is going to happen. You are going to be changed into the image of, into my image. So it's not about me. I have many angels, many people here to worship. It's about you. It's about what you want to do. So then I realized, hey, let me not disappoint God. Let me make realistic commitments. I don't want to be like the Israelites. Oh, I'll do, I'll do. You know, the next generation itself didn't do. And the generations after that became worse. The Deuteronomy had to be written. Okay, listen, people of Israel, when Moses was there, the word Deuto means second time. Right. So if you read Deuteronomy, it's a reminder of what all happened. Right. Just go through the book of Deuteronomy. Remember, y'all were in bondage. Remember that you were like that in slaves. Remember how with God's mighty hand, I brought you out. Remember the miracles. Remember that manna came up from heaven. Remember the water that just followed you everywhere. Remember that the pillar of fire, everything is remembered because the new generation doesn't know anything. Why are we here? I don't know. We are in the desert because we are here. I thought this is my house. No. They don't know what's happening. They thought, okay, we are living in the desert. We are desert nomads. But God is telling them, y'all are not nomads. You are going into a proper promised land, which I have for you. Right. But the problem is, y'all have forgotten. The commitment to a broken. You know, it's very interesting to read the book of Exodus. And sometimes it's so funny to read it because all that they're doing is circling that mountain. God is making them go in circles. Can you believe that? Millions of people just going in circles. They come back to the same place. Hey, I was here before. No. No. Why? Because the mountain itself is so big, they're going in circles. So when God told Joshua, okay, stand up. Get up. We're going to go into the promised land. All they did was from the circles that they were doing, from Mount Seer, they were doing circles there for about 40 years. God told Joshua, they just went straight and they reached the promised land. Probably in five or six days. But they were in circles. They broke the covenant. God didn't say, but still God said, okay, Joshua, take them. They're only going in circles. There's no Google Maps for them to find out. So sometimes our delays, our things that happen in our life is because of our wrongdoings of us breaking commitments. So we need to repair that. Go back to God. Look at things in your life if you feel, why is it not going right? See if you can do it a different way. Ask God for guidance. Don't be going in circles. Don't be doing the same thing. See how God can minister to you in different ways. So that was the mosaic covenant and how God established the blood covenant there. Okay. Let's look at the sacrifices and the feasts. I'm sure you're learning a lot of this in the Old Testament survey. But let's just briefly look at this. The sacrifices and feasts invoking or proclaiming or signifying the covenant. During Moses' time, God gave them the mosaic law, the tabernacle, the mosaic priesthood. And we also see seven main feasts instituted. Now, God has brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. It's not like God is saying, okay, go straight, take left, take right. I'm here only. Even as they were waiting in the desert, God instituted things. He said, okay. Now Abraham, I could not use to do all this. So Moses, I'm going to use you. What you do is you make one tabernacle. You call it tabernacle. And that tabernacle is something where since wherever you're going, you carry it in the center of the entire, you know, 12 tribes or carry it. That is a sign that I am with you. The tabernacle. So you carry that. Then he said, okay, Moses, there's something else you have to do. Now, since we have the tabernacle and there's going to be a place of worship, we need priests. Now, Moses may have wondered what is priests. So, you know, God would have explained to him, okay, so the priests will do this. They will go and offer the sacrifices on behalf of the people of Israel, right? Now, these priests must be people who, you know, are obedient and all of that. There would have been rules. And so this must be priests, right? And the third thing, what the priests must do is they must facilitate the seven feasts that I'm going to tell you about, right? And so there was a feast of the Passover speaking of Christ as our redeemer. Remember? God said to Moses in the last play, cut the lamb, take the blood, put it on the lamb pose, and death will pass over. Remember that? Yes? Yes or no? Yes, right? So if you cut the lamb, take the blood, put it on the door pose, blood will pass over. So that is the Passover feast. They remember. Okay, God, we did not die because the blood on the door post saved us. The Passover feast. And so what the Israelites do in the Passover is very important feast. They cut the lamb. They cut the lamb. They sacrificed it to God. God, you saved us. Death passed over. It didn't touch us. That's the feast of the Passover. And talking about Christ, what he would do. The feast of the unleavened bread, speaking of cleansing and removing of sin. Right? So God gave a list of things to do. He says, okay, you take unleavened bread and you knit it together and then wait for some time. And that's the whole process. Right? So it's like separating sin from your life. So what they would do is finally they would take that bread and offer it as a burnt offering to God. Right? Then the feast of the first fruits, speaking of our new life in Christ and offering ourselves up to Him. Remember the Pentecost? During the Pentecost, it was a feast of the first fruits. Right? Acts chapter 2. Feast of the first fruits. 50 days later is the Pentecost. Right? So in the feast of the first fruits, for us right now, it is speaking of our new life in Christ offering ourselves. Then the feast of the Pentecost, speaking of the power of the Spirit, the feast of the trumpets, speaking of victory and triumph and the day of atonement, speaking of Christ atoning work on the cross. Now this is all translated to us now. Right? So each, the feast of the first fruits was what they would do is they would take the first fruits. If you are a gardener, if you have a land, if you would take the first fruits, offer it to God. If you have vegetables, if you have whatever, fruits or whatever your first harvest is, you'll offer it to God. That's the feast of the first fruits. The feast of the Pentecost was a festival to commemorate what God can do in each of them's life. Right? And day of atonement, it was that one day where the high priest would go and make atonement for the sins of the people once a year. Right? But now when you translate all those feasts to us now, it all points to Christ and what he did for us. Right? Through the blood covenant. Now the feast of the tabernacles, speaking of our pilgrimage and our journey through the desert and our rest in God and Christ coming again, the salt of the covenant to be offered with all offerings and the covenant of salt again has many, many procedures involved. Now, we're not going too deep into all of it. Right? I'm not sure if in the Old Testament survey you already did a detailed study, but one of the things that you can do, I remember doing this when I was a student. So what I did was I, in the Old Covenant, I wrote on all the feasts. Right? All the sacrifices and the feasts. And probably you can just get a chart or you can write it in your paper or now you can use Excel or Word, whatever. I wrote on all the feasts and under that feast, what is that feast about? Right? So the practical things like, okay, you have to do this. See, there are some feasts that God says, don't put the blood. Some feasts, he says, don't put the offerings. He says, don't put the fat. Right? So in some places he says, put the blood also. So there are many things involved. Right? So if you want to learn more, you can, you know, just make a chart, write down what are those sacrifices and then in the end, you can write also in each column how those sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Right? And this will help you. Right? It's just something that helped me understand. Right? And in the New Testament, something that I did was, I did the missionary journeys. One, two, three, four, where did Paul go? What are the places he visited? What are the churches that were planted? And so every time you look at it, you'll know, okay, okay, the blood covenant, the guilt offering, this is what is done. The feast of the tabernacles, this is what is done. The feast of the guilt offering, the sin offering, this is what is done. So you get a better picture. Right? And then even when you write down what it signifies in Christ, it'll really make your whole understanding very strong. Right? So you can think of doing that in your free time. All right. Everyone with me? Yeah. Okay. Let's get into people of the covenant. Now, when we look at the old covenant and how it affected the daily life of people, we know that everywhere, right in the old covenant, from the time of Abraham, those covenants affected the people's lives. It either did good or it caused, you know, it caused them to go, when it caused them to go away, there was, again, it affected their lives. So you and I, how can we be in covenant with God and how does it affect our life? Right? Now, we'll also look at how did it affect the people's lives. But remember, even as we study this, remember that the covenant that you and I are in, the blood covenant, and we partake in the Lord's table and we talk about the cross and the blood as well. What is it? How does it affect our daily life? It does affect our life. Right? It does change the situations and seasons in our life. The way we look at challenges, the way we look at problems changes. Right? Let's look at, in the Old Testament, how did these covenants change their life? Let's look at a few insights and bring it related to our lives as well. The people of Israel were very aware that God had established a blood covenant with Abraham. They recognized the blood covenant with Moses and they knew the instructions that God had given them regarding the blood covenant. There were people of the covenant and God had promised to work with them and through them in a special way. So now, over time, the people of Israel understood, okay, God spoke to Abraham, made a blood covenant, God spoke through Moses, he gave Moses the law, he made a blood covenant. So now I'm in covenant. Abraham didn't know it. But now they understood it. Okay, there's something called, as a covenant, I have to follow these rules and when I follow these rules, obey these rules, God blesses me. When I turn away from these rules, God, you know, there are curses. So they understood it. The people of Israel understood it. Look at Exodus 19-5. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my commandment or my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine. Exodus 34-10. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant with you. For all your people, I will do marvels such as have not been done in all earth, nor in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Right? Now look at the New Testament. Acts 3-25. You are sons of the prophets and the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to Abraham and in your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Wonderful verse. In your seed, God is saying in this seed, in the seed through Abraham and in this seed, your seed, all the families of the earth talking about Jesus will be blessed and the seed will crush the serpent's head, destroy the works of the enemy and now it's not going to be a covenant that is just we are doing it there, just a blood covenant that happened in the Old Testament and no more of these sacrifices. But now it is going to be a real covenant. Right? Can you picture this? After the book of Acts, when Jesus died, he resurrected and the book of Acts, remember the disciples and all of them? Why were they not giving any offerings and going to temples and doing all those offerings and all? I'm sure what would have happened was there would have been a realization. Right? There would have been a realization. All these sacrifices that our forefathers have been doing, the covenant to Abraham and then Moses and all these covenants and sacrifices and feasts, everything relate to Jesus. Right? And I can picture these apostles and the disciples, the 12 disciples just thinking, Man, all of that, all of those covenants, God passing through the flesh, that blood covenant, they all would have studied it. Right? In the New Covenant, they all know it. That is why it was offensive for the Jews. When Jesus said, If you only eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you will partake in the covenant. That's a big thing to say to the Jews and to the... you know, because for them, blood. Blood is talking about a covenant. Right? Even if they... You know, the Jews, if they had cut their finger and blood is leaking, first thing that would have been in their mind was, Oh, blood covenant. God made a covenant with me. Right? The first thing that would have come to their mind. So, God draws a distinction here. Exodus 8, 21 to 23. Or else, If you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptian shall be full of swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand. And in that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. In order that you may know, I am the Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this is, this sign shall be. Now, this is during the plagues. You look at this, the father or the mother heart of God here. Listen, Pharaoh, if you don't let my people go, I'm going to bring my people out of Egypt. Right? And when they come out of Egypt, I will send swarms of insects to your land, but none of them will come upon my people, the people of Israel. Why? Because they are my children and this will be a sign that you are separated from my covenant people. You know, as you read this, one of the pictures that can come to our mind is that of an eagle. Right? An eagle, when it gives birth to eagles, is very, very careful about who messes around with their nest. It is extremely dangerous. A mother eagle is extremely dangerous when it senses that eagles are in danger. They can really, you know, cause a problem. Right? Because eagles are very, very caring for their eagles. Right? So, if you see, they cover them with their wings and they sit. So, they make sure that, you know, all the eagles are there, all the eagles are there and they are covered there. The wings are there. You can't see the eagles. You can't go climb up a tree and say, oh, eagles, small eagles are here, the eagle come and... Right? First of all, we don't even think about it. Right? Remember, Isaiah, what God says? Like an eagle that covers his eagles the same way, I will overshadow you. When you are tired, when you're weary, when you fall down, I will lift you up. I will raise you up with wings like eagles. God identifies with these animals. Why? Because they have certain attributes. Right? And God is telling, hey, Pharaoh, the swarm of insects are going to come, but like an eagle, how it covers the eagles' nest the same way, not when one insect will come on my people. They won't even come that side. I've directed them all towards you. Can you picture that? I can imagine the people of Israel, if I was there, I would say, oh, my, I'll be fully confident, knowing that you can see the insects and the bees and whatever those, those tormenting the people, but you're standing there. I think it's going to happen to me. God's made a covenant. God has told Moses that they're not coming this side. Now, what if one comes this side? No, they will not. Because it's a covenant. Right? He's made a distinction. This is my people. This is people out of the covenant. Exodus 9, 4, and the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel. Now, not only will I save you, even your belongings, your livestock, your camels, your goats, your sheep, everything will be protected. Now, I can imagine, can you imagine the Pharaoh saying, all the animals are dying? Why are they dying? I don't know, they're just dying. But how come the Israelites, nothing is happening to them? Oh, God is saying that's because they are in covenant. Can you picture that? You see how God works? He's making a difference. He's making people know that there is a difference. He's making the Egyptians the Pharaoh know that when you are under my covenant, nothing can come near you. No harm can be done to my people. Right? Exodus 9, 26, only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were, there was no hail. Exodus 10, 22 and 23. So Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Can you picture this? You got all the Israelites, maybe from here, they're at this side. That side is all the Egyptians. The sun has risen. But there's no light that's in. For three days, it's completely dark. They couldn't see anything. You know, those days, there were no lanterns, there was no candles and all. They probably used lamps, but there was darkness the whole day. And I can imagine Pharaoh coming out in his balcony and watching, hey, there's light there. How come that light is not here? The sun has risen, but there's no light here. Why? Because I've separated you. I'm proving to you, when you are in covenant, I will do things that you will not understand. I will protect my people. I will be there for them. Now, here's the interesting thing. It's not like all the people of Israel were like, oh, God, you are the best. No, they were also some of their living and sin. But because of his covenant, he says, no, they're my people. I'll look after them. So you see the mother, father, the parent heart of God there. As a parent, if your child does something wrong, you will correct them and discipline them. If I don't, and the child grows up to be somebody who's just obeyed the things of God or disobedient, it is nobody's fault, but my fault. Nowadays, there are people who, families who say, speak to my son or speak to my daughter. They use bad words while speaking at home. They use bad words to us as two parents. Now, I go back. The first thing I asked them was, what happened when they were small? They began to share what happened. They were not there, probably. Or probably, they said, it's okay. Once they grow up, they will not use these words. There was no correction made. And the book of Proverbs is full of correction. He says, fathers, correct your children, discipline your child, train up your child in the ways of the Lord. Don't just leave them to be astray. Train them up. So God does that for us as well. This last was Exodus 11, 5 through 7. And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. Again, the Passover. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the animal and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt. Such was not like it before, nor shall it be again. But none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue against man or beast that you may know the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites. Now with all these examples, we establish that God makes a difference with people who are in covenant and people who are not in covenant. How much more in the new covenant can God make this difference? He's given us the Holy Spirit. He's saying, walk just as I have walked in life. Do the things which I have done in life. Right? And He separates us. Saying, you are my child. You are the light of the world. So being the light of the world, when you go into darkness, you will bring light. Right? So God is a God who separates those in covenant and those who are not in covenant. But by His grace and mercy, right now, anyone who's far away and not even in the covenant can enter this covenant and enjoy all the blessings of the covenant that is available. Right? God is not saying, okay, you know, you have not been in covenant for me for so long or for 10 years so I will give you half the blessings. No. Once you're in the covenant, everything is available for you. Right? You may be, the person may be a criminal of a person who is, you know, a murderer. Yesterday we talked about it. You can be a murderer, but if he's come and he believes in Jesus, immediately he's in the covenant. Right? He's in the covenant. So God is saying, okay, everything is yours. He may have to go through the consequences of His actions, but now he's in covenant. You're getting what I'm saying. Right? Nowhere does God say, no, I will not give you. Right? Look at what happened in the book of Acts. Cornelius, he's a Gentile. Right? Peter, go and pray. Peter goes, prays, what happens? The Holy Spirit falls upon Cornelius and he and his family began to speak in tongues. What does Peter say? Hey, now they are also part of the covenant because the same way we spoke in tongues in Pentecost. In the Pentecost, we all spoke in tongues. They are speaking in tongues. So they're part of the covenant. Nowhere does Peter say, okay, you can have 50% of the covenant or these are few things of the covenant you can have. No, everything is yours. You are part of the covenant. All the blessings of Abraham, all the blessings of the cross, you are part of it because you're part of the covenant. Right? We are overtaken with blessings, blessings and prosperity and victory over our enemies. Right? So these are plenty of verses. You can read it. All the blessings that we have, we have victory. We have, we know that God is with us. He will stand for us. He will fight for us. And we are covenant people in community, meaning living together. They were giving instructions on how to live together in community, taking care of each other, welcoming the stranger, caring for the poor, orphaned and widowed. And when we look at this, going on even in the Israelites, they were given certain rules. Right? In terms of, you know, it's very interesting when you look at, when you read the book of Exodus, it tells the 12 tribes, how they should walk, which ways they should walk and the order of the 12 tribes. Right? And how to pitch your tents. It's not like, okay, we're going to stop here for the night. Everybody pitch your tents. No. Okay. This tribe will be here. And then when you finish pitching your tents, you come out of the, of your tent area and put your flag up there. This, this tribe will be there. This tribe will be here this time. So there was allocated places for each tribes. Why? Because they're all living in community. Right? All of them living in community. And they all probably, you know, being of different tribes, they probably spoke about the covenants of what God did. God did this, God did that for us. Right? It's not like if they were not living together, things would have been different. It's just that we talked about it, right? God is a God of order. That's things in our order. Right? And that's how he works. Right? So even in the smallest things, we see that Joshua 23, 9 and 10 for the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised you. What a covenant. What a proclamation God is making, right? God is saying, hey, I will fight your battles. Joshua, I brought you, sorry, Moses, I was with Moses. I brought him out. And now, Joshua, I will fight your battles. You, one person is enough for you. You just go and I'm there. It's like thousand of us, thousand people can come against you. You alone can go. He's not telling Joshua, okay, one person go against thousand, but he's putting a picture. He's just saying, you one person with covenant and covenant with me is enough to defeat thousands of people because I am there with you. Now, who understood this very well? Remember David? What did David say? Hey, you Israelites, you're hiding here in the camp. You're all are strong. I'll know how to use the swords and fight battles. You'll have won many battles. Why are you scared of this Philistine first of all? Secondly, he's not in the covenant. So David didn't look at the natural, right? If you look at the national, oh, man, he's huge. My brothers are scared. I stand no chance. But David didn't look at that. All he said is, hey, I'm in covenant with God. I know that God will fight my battles. Probably David has, you know, heard of stories or read about stories of Moses and all those things. I'm in covenant with God. So this Philistine may be bigger, stronger, better. But he's not in covenant. I am smaller, weaker. I may have killed the bear and the lion, which nobody knows. But compared to this Philistine, he's bigger. He can kill me in no time. But I have news. He's telling his brothers, I'm part of the covenant. I'm part of the covenant of Israel. The Lord God has made a covenant. All he did was went standing on that covenant. It was, you know, sometimes when you read it, it looks like overconfidence, no? David, this is not overconfidence. Not at all. God prepared him by killing the lion and the bear. But that was his second option. It was the second point. The first point was, I am in covenant with God. That's one. So King, firstly, I'm in covenant. Two, I have killed the lion and the bear. It's not like I've not fought anyone before. So I have some practical experience. But that is second. First, I am in covenant with God. I took a few pebbles through it. It hit his head. We know the story. Right? Our covenant. The shepherd who killed a warrior. Samuel 1726 and 36. Then David spoke to the men who was, who stood by him saying, what shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Can you picture Goliath there? Did you call who? Who are you little boy to talk about me that way? And I can picture David saying, yeah, you are an uncircumcised Philistine. Who are you to defy me? You're looking at me. I may be four foot five inches. You know, this small boy with one sling. But you're forgetting who's there behind me. The covenant God is with me. Look at this. But who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Not only the physical army, but the spiritual army also is putting that right. God is fighting for you. 36, your servant, second point, your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them seeing he had defied the armies of the living God. So David is not only saying, you know, God is with me but he's also telling the result. What's going to be the result, King? I can always picture David saying, even you're King, you are also in covenant. But I don't know what happened to you. Anyways, I am in covenant. I've killed the bear, I've killed the lion and that Philistine, that's going to be the result. His result is going to be that. So don't worry about me. Verse 45, then David said to the Philistines, you come to me with sword, with spear and with the javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you and take your head from you and this day I will give you the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth and all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. You see that confidence? You see that confidence? What a confidence. You're saying, hey, you come to me with sword and javelins and all that you're wearing but I come to you in the name of the Lord with a couple of pebbles. But here's the result. I will give the carcasses of the camp of Philistines to the birds in the air and the wild beasts of the earth. I can imagine his brothers and the king saying, okay, you said you want to fight. No, just go fight quietly and come. Why you want to talk so much? Go, do what you have to do. Come back. If you win, you win. If you're dead, you're dead. You can't help it. Why you want to talk so much? Right? Quietly go, finish it. And the brothers are getting scared here. This is the last time I'm seeing my youngest brother. They'll be wondering, oh man, what am I going to tell him? He came to give food. I should have taken the food and sent him away but he's saying he'll fight. What am I going to tell my parents? Finish fast and just come off. You're alive, good. He says, no, no, no, wait. Let me tell you what is the result of this fight. Since I'm in Covenant, the carcasses of the Philistines will be like food for the birds of the air. One person is dead, but he's talking out of this covenant. Now picture this. The enemy comes and he says, I'm going to do this, this, this to you. I'm going to, you know, you'll never be in ministry. I will never let you minister to people. You will always be a failure. You know, tell me what you're going to do. And you're going to say, oh yeah. Didn't have a failure anyways. No, no, no. David stood on the covenant. You and I can stand on a greater covenant. So the devil comes. Hey devil, I don't have time for you. Hey, but you're failing in everything. You're everything that you're doing is a failure. Look at you. Your health is not good. You know, whatever you study, you don't remember. Tomorrow if I ask you the verse, you won't remember. I'm in Covenant with God. I'm in Covenant with the Lord Jesus. I don't have to explain anything to you. Your result, you already know it. The Bible says in Colossians 2, he defeated the devil and he made a public spectacle of his victory. Will the temptations come? Will the challenges come? Yes, but you and I can stand on the covenant. Say God is what the enemy is saying, but I'm going to stand in your covenant. Greater is he who's in me than he that is in the world. No weapon fashioned against me shall prosper, for I am the righteousness of God. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against it. Every morning I teach my children, my children about 10 verses. All the 10 verses he should say and he says it, it becomes so real for him. Especially he says, I like this verse data and the enemy comes in like a flood. The spirit of the Lord will raise a standard against it. The flood is coming, there's a wall there. I think it can come near you. Let's stop here. We'll pick up from next class. We've covered quite a lot. Take some time to go back and read everything that we have studied. Thank you so much online students. Have a great week ahead. See you next week. God bless.