A Covenant Keeping God, Elisha, and the Failure of Many Kings

Lesson 10  A Promise / Covenant Keeping God, Elisha, and Many Kings Passage: 2 Kings 6:8–14:29; 2 Chronicles 21–25 Doctrine: God's Covenant God cares about His Covenant but the Israelite kings failed to understand God's will for the nation as a witness to the nations and empires around them. They showed little desire to bring Israel in alignment to God's greater plan. Despite this, God continued to make his grace and mercy available to the kings and the entire profligate nation because He was committed to His Covenant with made with them through the patriarchs. Today, we're going to look at what this all means for us today. What's makes a covenant different from a promise? A covenant in Scriptural terms is different from promises in that a covenant is rooted in a big picture of God’s ultimate plans and objectives. A promise can be localized and limited without impinging or imposing on a person's larger set of obligations or commitments. But a covenant is more encompassing and is a lasting work based on God’s character transcending time and space. It is multifaceted, multilayered, and universal. God’s covenant is so important in the Bible, without understanding His covenant nothing in Bible imagery or symbolism tie together at all without it. Whether Noah’s Ark, the Temple and its rituals and practices, God’s redemption in the Exodus, and the eternal atonement of the Messiah’s work on the Cross, none of these would be interconnected without understanding His Covenant. God's Covenant is God’s design and logic of all His Word. The Gospel message is the telling of God’s covenant in Jesus, and the Salvation rescue is He undertaking today which builds His Kingdom. Check us out at: www.biblesf.com To join a study group near you, enroll at bsfinternational.org. For 100% online groups, enroll at bsfonline.org