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By Roger A. Scully, Jr.
wholly,” which is to say that God separates Christians from the profane and dedicates them to His service in every
respect. The manner in which He sanctifies is not here revealed, thus requiring a remote contextual study of the
subject to determine the manner in which this is done. By looking to 1 Peter 1:2 we can begin to understand the
manner in which God sanctifies—through His Holy Spirit, “In sanctification of the Spirit.” Comparing this to John 17:
17, wherein we are told that God sanctifies through the truth, “sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth,” we
seem to come to a sort of contradiction—through the Spirit or through the truth? Yet, this contradiction is only seen
to those who fail to complete the remote study, for 1 John 5:6 states: “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness,
because the Spirit is truth.” We can further learn, from 1 Corinthians 2:9-13, and Ephesians 3:3-5, that the Spirit is
the revealer of the word, thus it is God who sent the Spirit (Jn 14:26) to reveal the word/truth (Eph 3:3-5), which
word sanctifies (Jn 17:17), thus God—by means of His Spirit—by means of the word, sanctifies man “wholly.” The
23rd verse continues by the apostle stating his prayer to God is that the Thessalonians, by implication all Christians,
are “preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.” “Preserved” finds its translation in the word tereo, which
literally means: “to guard one in the state in which he is.” But, it may be asked, how is one “guarded” through this life
unto the final tribunal? The answer is through “faith.” “Who are guarded by the power of God through faith unto a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last day” (1 Pet 1:5). Since faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:
17), it is through study of the word that a man can be guarded by God’s power, for the word is God’s power “unto
salvation” (Rom 1:16). Verse 24 of 1 Thessalonians 5 continues by stating: “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also
will do it.” Who will do what? God is the “Who” who will “preserve you blameless” (v.23). Thus, if we fail we cannot
blame God, for “faithful is He.”
God being faithful to “preserve” is only a part of the account, however. You see: He is also faithful to condemn,
that about which man often chooses to overlook. For it is stated, in Nahum 1:3, “The Lord is slow to anger, and
great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.” So it is, then, that God is faithful (cf. 1 Cor 1:9), to save and to
condemn, but who will He save and condemn? In answer we call attention to the 5th of Hebrews, verses 8-9. Herein
we read, “Though he were a son yet learned” (literally, manthano—to be in the habit of) “he obedience” (thus he
practiced obedience) “by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author” (the aitos,
or cause) “of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” If He is the cause of salvation to those who “obey”
(hupakouo—submit to the words of another) him,” then the converse must be true, which means that He is not the
cause of salvation to those who do not obey Him. Yet it remains that there are many who somehow think they have a
relationship with God, i.e. will be saved by God, without complying with His terms. This is a one sided view of God’s
covenant with man, which fails to take into account the responsibility that man has, and the justice of God to react to
man’s rebellion; thus the vast need to understand the idea of God’s covenant with man and its implications.
In this particular essay the burden will be to show the covenant God had made with Israel to take the land of
Canaan—the rebellion of the Israelites based upon the words of other men, the ten spies—and God’s reaction to
their rebellion. In the process we hope to make application to our present age (which application is made for us in
the 3rd and 4th of Hebrews) thus causing all who read to understand the necessity of being obedient to the Most
High.
The Covenant
How old is the cross of Christ? Better yet, how old is Christianity? One may be tempted to say 2,000 plus years,
yet the true answer is: eternal. Peter wrote, of Jesus, “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world” (1 Pet 1:20). The Christ, and that which He would purchase with His own blood, i.e. the church (Ac 20:28),
was in the mind of God before time began (cf. Eph 3:10, 11), thus making Christianity eternal. It is no wonder, then,
that the Old Testament is filled with “shadows of things to come” (Heb 10:1) seeing how it was but a tutor to bring
man to Christ (Gal 3:24). Since Old Testament Israel was a part of the scheme of redemption, then it must follow that
the land promise was also in the mind of God before time began. So it is, then, that God’s covenant with Israel to
take the land is also eternal.
We begin to read of the land promise in the 12th of Genesis, verses 1-2. God told Abram to leave his “country”
and “kindred” and to go to “a land that I will shew thee.” Connected to this promise is a reference to a nation, which
nation would spring from Abram’s loins. Thus, in verse 2, the record states: “And I will make of thee a great nation.”
The land promise to Abram was, in reality, a promise to the nation of his loins. In Genesis 15:5 God called on Abram
to “tell,” or count, the stars saying that his (Abram’s) seed would be as many. God continued, in verse 7, by again
stating He would give to Abram, in reality his seed, the land “to inherit it.” In verse 13 God speaks of his “seed” as
being “a stranger in a land that is nor theirs,” but explains that the nation would come to the land again (v.16). All of
the statements culminate in verse 18, “The Lord made a covenant with Abram…unto thy seed have I given this
land,” and again, in 17:8, “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee the land…all the land of Canaan.”
The land covenant continues to unfold leading to Exodus 6:2-4 wherein the Lord, speaking to Moses, states: “I
have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan.” The prophecy of Genesis 15 is now
ready to be fulfilled. So it is that Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground, bringing them
to Mount Sinai, where the Law was given to them, then, after many struggles, on to the land, which they had been
promised, all of which takes us to Numbers 13:2, wherein God said, “…the land of Canaan which I give unto the
children of Israel.”
The Contingency of The Covenant
The term covenant, by its very nature and meaning, involves more than one party. It has been defined by one
writer as a “binding agreement.” Now, “agreement” implies a plurality of persons involved, thus Webster says a
covenant is a “promise under seal between two or more parties.” The Hebrew term is beriyth, which means a pledge
between men; and the Greek term is diatheke, which means an agreement between two or more parties. As such,
biblically speaking, we have an agreement between God and man. An example of which is seen in Genesis 6. In
verse 7 God said He was going to “destroy man.” Yet, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (v.8). God’s mercy
was then extended to Noah when He gave Noah instructions on how to escape the pending obliteration, “Make thee
an ark” (v.14). After God, in verse 17, explains the manner of the destruction, He tells Noah, in verse 18, “But with
thee will I establish my covenant.” In 7:1 God instructs Noah, and his family, to enter the ark based upon the fact that
Noah had shown himself to be righteous before God. How did he show himself so? 6:22 gives the answer:
“according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” 7:7 records: “And Noah went in,” which is the only way he
could have been spared, thus Noah kept his end of the covenant made with God, and God, of course, kept His end
of the covenant by bringing the waters on the earth, and sparing obedient Noah, “By faith Noah, being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.”
We can take great comfort in the fact that God will not, by any means, break His side of a covenant, for He cannot
lie (Titus 1:2), and He cannot so because He is immutable (Mal 3:6). Man, on the other hand, as the other party
involved, can, and often does, break his end of the covenant, thus releasing God from the blessing and forcing Him,
because of His very nature (cf. 1Jn 1:5-10), to react to the punishment side of the contract, “When ye have
transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you…then shall the anger of the Lord be
kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly…” (Joshua 23:16). After having said thus, let us look again to Israel
in Numbers 13.
Now, here is Israel, at the land, which land had been promised them as a part of their covenant made with God.
Yet, this covenant was conditional—it was based upon Israel actually manifesting their faith by going to war to take
the land. You see: they had to respond, or uphold, their end of the contract. However, because of fear, they failed.
Though all was as God had said (Num 13:26-27) the people said, “nevertheless” (vs.28), for their fear was
misplaced. As one writer said, “They distrusted God’s power and promise, and were willing to be held in suspense
by their own counsels rather than be brought to a certainty by God’s covenant.” Israel put their trust in the words of
men, because they feared man, instead of in the voice of God—fearing Him, as do many today.
Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28). The “fear” about which Jesus speaks is often
misunderstood as simply being respect. While it is true, we do not deny, that respect is a part of this fear, it is not, by
any means, that which was meant by the Savior. The word “fear” is translated from the term phobeo, which literally
means: “to be terrified, trembling.” This is the verb form of the noun (phobos) found in 1 Peter 1:17, “And if ye call
on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your
sojourning here in fear.” Our fear, then, ought to be of God, and not of man. The beauty of this concept is seen in 1
John 4:17-19, where the apostle John explains, “Herein is our love made perfect…because as he is, so are we in
this world. There is no fear in love.” Is this not contradictory to that which was just stated? No, not at all, for it is a
matter of perspective and understanding. John goes on to write, “perfect love casteth out fear.” But what is “perfect
love”? This has already been explained, “Herein is our love made perfect…because as he is, so are we in this
world.” Jesus said it like this: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Perfect love, which is manifest by keeping
the commandments of God, is that which drives out fear because we know we have done that which pleases the
Father. Yet, at all times, there must remain a fear of transgressing His commandments, thus facing Him in the
judgment.
Where God has said: “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mrk 16:16), man says: “there is no need
to be baptized only believe.” Where God has said, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Gal 5:4), man says, “Once you are saved always are you saved.”
Where God has said: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19), man has said: “God will not mind if we use a mechanical instrument in worship
to Him.” Do we not remember the words of Jeremiah the prophet? “O lord, I know that the way of man is not in
himself: it is not in man that Walketh to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23). The man who tries to look to himself is he who is
a fool, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Prov 28:26). This is the same man referred to in Psalm 14:1, “The
fool has said in his heart there is no God.” The man under consideration in Psalm 14:1 is not the atheist, as is so
often assumed, but rather is the man who trusts in himself, as per Proverbs 28:26. He is called one who says there
is no God, because he sees his own way as being better than God’s. Thus Jeremiah says, “O earth, earth, earth,
hear the word of the Lord” (Jer 22:29). Yet, like the people of Israel, many today prefer to listen to the “spies”
instead of the word of God.
Because Israel failed to uphold their end of the covenant, by rendering obedience to faithful God, they were
punished. “Because,” said He, “all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in
the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice: surely they shall
not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it…Your carcasses
shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years
old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come unto the land…there they shall die”
(Num 14:22, 23, 29, 30, 35). Why were they going to die? Because they failed to render obedience to God, thus
they failed to uphold the covenant.
The Hebrew writer says of these people, “For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came
out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned whose
carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that
believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:16-19), “they despised the
pleasant land, they did not believe his word” (Ps 106:24). They believed in the existence of God, but because they
refused to obey Him, they manifest that they did not believe what He said, just as those today who do not obey Him.
Connection of The Covenant
These people, about whom we read in Numbers 13-14, are our heritage, our ancestry, and these things are
written for our learning (Rom 15:4), that we should not “lust after evil things as they also lusted” (1 Cor 10:1-13).
Our land is heaven and our covenant is with Christ (Matt 28:18). “Let us therefore fear” says the Hebrew writer,
“lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it” (Heb 4:1-2). This faith is not a dead faith, but a faith of life being manifest by actions (Jms 2:17-
26). They did not manifest their faith in actions, thus did not go into their rest, but “there remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God” (Heb 4:9). “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an
unholy thing…” (Heb 10:29).
Let us learn from the children of Israel. Let us not listen to men, but uphold the covenant of God, for in so doing
we can have life everlasting.