Why Are We Afraid to Be Honest with God?
Why Are We Afraid to Be Honest with God?
(An Overview of Our Covenants with God)
Larry R Evans, DMin
April 10, 2021
Quiz
(1.) True or False – We should be afraid of God.
(2.) True or False – If we don’t tell anything false, we have been honest?
(3.) True or False – Our sin hurts God more than it hurts us, but being disciplined hurts us more than it hurts God.
(4.) True or False – Covenants are necessary because God might change His mind.
(5.) True or False – Covenants and contracts are the same.
Introduction
The Reasons We Fear God
As an author was writing a book, he had a conversation with a friend. Here is some of the actual conversation.
Author: “I am writing a booklet, to be called, Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I am?
Other: “Do you want an answer to your question?”
Author: “That is the purpose of the booklet, to answer the question.”
Other: “I’m afraid to tell you who I am, because, if I tell you who I am, you may not like who I am, and it’s all that I have.”
(John Powell in Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? p.12)
This quarter we will be taking a serious look at conversations that God had with different individuals—individuals like Noah, Abram and Moses. Before we do, let’s bring to mind what we studied last week.
Last week in our study we were reminded that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God (Gen.1: 26,27). They were provided with everything they could possibly need and much more. They had a unique openness with God. He was their Creator, Provider, and Sustainer. To reassure them of His love and purpose for them, He also gave to them the Sabbath. It was a weekly reminder that they had an inherent value before they ever did anything in return. They were loved, and it was written on every leaf, every fruit, and even in the essence of time called the Sabbath! Clearly, God’s plan for them was just beginning to unfold.
Unfortunately, God’s plan faced some serious interference. The Serpent, Satan, made an offer that Eve could not refuse. She looked at the offer and saw three things: (1) it was good for food, (2) it was pleasing to the eye, (3) and it was desirable for gaining wisdom (Gen. 3:6). What we soon learned was that with the Serpent’s help, Eve (1) redefined what was good—previously God did that, (2) redefined was pleasurable—not as God intended, (3) redefined the source of wisdom—it was no longer God. Later in Scripture, we learn that this process of “redefining” God’s plan or purposes was called sin or even rebellion.
After Eve and then Adam succumbed to Satan’s deception, they had another encounter with God. This time, however, it was different. They hid from the One who had done so much for them. When God called out, “Where are you? they knew they could hide no longer. What they said next disclosed the reality of a broken relationship.
It is interesting, more than that, it is important to note that God came to them when they had sinned. This also was to become a pattern in the Bible’s account of God dealing with sinners. It is relevant to our study of covenants. God seeks, man hides. God’s question, “Where are you?” was an invitation to be honest.
At first glance, it appears that Adam was being honest with God: “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid” (Gen. 3:10). Adam was afraid to tell God what they had done. The conversation reveals not only what they had once done, but, at first, what they had become. There was no ownership for what really happened. Rather they tried to shift the blame. “It was Eve’s fault.” “No, it was the serpent’s fault”—it soon became God’s fault. Dishonesty often works this way. Jeremiah described the pattern this way,
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9, RSV)
It became apparent that the special relationships that came with their creation had been broken. Stepping away from the relationship brought consequences—not so much imposed as consequential. Sin broke the principles of a love relationship. Restoring that relationship is what “God’s story”, the Bible’s account of God’s covenants of restoration is all about. It called for a new kind of beginning.
Unfortunately, God’s attempt to restore the lost relationship was “redefined” by sinful man in such a way that God was and still is often seen as a gigantic Bayer aspirin . . . take God three times a day and you won’t feel any pain! Such was not the kind of relationship God was wanting to develop, nor was it the solution to man’s emptiness. Such a relationship masquerades the problem and creates a relationship of appeasement rather than one of adoration and love. What God is wanting is our “will”—a willingness for a new beginning to take hold that we may once again become one with Him. Later it will be called “born again” but it is described in the early chapters of the Bible as a covenantal relationship—the rebuilding of a broken relationship.
Reasons Not to Be Afraid:
God’s Covenant with Us
What Is a Covenant?
Biblically, the word “covenant” is essentially an agreement between two parties. At times some have thought of covenants and contracts as synonymous. However, notice how one Bible dictionary described the differences:
Covenant and Contract Distinguished
Contracts and covenants differ in a few areas. In terms of initiation, contracts are made by the exchange of promises, whereas covenants are sworn by solemn oaths.
In application, contracts are limited by the terms of the exchange of property (“this is yours, that is mine”), while covenants involve an exchange of life (“I am yours, you are mine”), which covers a virtually unlimited range of human relations and duties. In terms of motivation, contracts are based on profit and self-interest, while covenants call for self-giving loyalty and sacrificial love.
Contracts are temporary while covenant bonds are permanent, even intergenerational. Such distinctions do not imply that covenants are necessarily opposed to contracts since covenants call for both promise-making and oath-swearing (Heb 6:13–18).
A contract is an arrangement in human affairs that may be reinforced by swearing a covenant, in order to add the more binding dimension of the divine.[1]
The Hebrew term, berith, implies both a relationship and an arrangement. Inherent in the arrangement are promises, obligations, and a means by which the obligation can be fulfilled.
The Covenant with Noah
Noah is described in Genesis 6:8,9 this way,
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Noah and the Flood
This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
In verse 8 the word translated as “favor” in the NIV is translated as “grace” in the NKJV. It is the first mention of “grace” in the Bible. Linked with this experience is the word “covenant” in verse 18. It is also the first time the word “covenant” is used.
But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark —you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
This week we are only taking an overview of how covenant is used but let’s make one important observation: With a cataclysmic tragedy in the fairly near future, the covenant God had with Noah and his family was the assurance they needed to build the ark! A covenant with God has the component of assurance that we will not be abandoned by God. We must not abandon Him if we wish the “covenant” to remain firm. Grace is the cement that holds the agreement together.
The Covenant with Abraham
It is no coincidence that the covenant between God and Abraham is the centerpiece of the book of Genesis. We must not overlook this important observation.
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you. ”
Between the verb “Go” in Gen. 12:1 and its mention in Gen. 22:2 we have the key narratives of Abraham. But note this: with the first reference Abram is called to leave his past and his sense of security (his country, his people and his father’s household). When we get to the second “Go” (Gen. 22:2) he is called to abandon his future. As Jaques Doukan explains in the SDA International Bible Commentary,
Suspended in the void, disconnected from his roots, and without any horizon, Abraham depends only on God.
Is that not the experience of God’s people just before Jesus comes! The Abrahamic covenant is important, and we will study it in more depth in a few weeks. Do keep this principle in mind. Covenants with God bring assurance to meet uncertainties of life--not fear. They are built on a special relationship with God that God, Himself, initiates.
The Covenant with Moses
“Standing on the Promises!”
The name of Moses appears 80 times in the New Testament. Moses was not without his faults, but God was able to use him in significant ways. The Exodus from Egypt was and is a pivotal experience in the life of God’s faithful people. It is filled with the assurance that God has not abandoned His people even though they may be going through some difficult times. The covenant that God made with Moses was built on the assurance that God had given to Abraham. Note Exodus 6:2-4.
God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacobas God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
With this stated fact, the next paragraph (Ex. 6:6-8) begins with, “Therefore.”
Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’”
The three major emphases in the covenant with Abraham appear. It is clearly a covenant based on grace! While obedience is required God’s grace always precedes obedience. Obedience is a response to and not a cause for grace. (Ex. 20:1,2). Note how the three emphases are interconnected with each other.
(1.) A special relationship of God with His people (Gen. 17:7,8 & Ex. 19:5,6)
(2.) The would be a great nation (Gen. 12:2 & Ex. 19:6)
(3.) Obedience was required (Gen. 17:9-14 &, Gen. 22;16-18 & EX. 19:5).
The New Covenant
The promise of the new covenant was the renewing of the old, broken covenant connected with the deliverance from Egypt.
The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
Before we read the next few verses, note what God’s intention has been all along. Deut. 6:6,7 makes it very clear,
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Back to the reference to the “new covenant” – new because it had been broken, (Jer. 31:33)
This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
The new covenant is based on God’s forgiveness of sin, which would be accomplished by Christ. (Heb.8-12; 10:16-7). By all of this, all people would know Him. Such a compassionate God would be known for the way He related to those who had so abused their relationship with Him.
I recently received a call from Comcast. They gave me some welcomed and unexpected, good news! Because we had been long-time customers and regular with our payments, they were giving us a senior upgrade at no additional expense! Furthermore, our monthly payments would be reduced by $40 a month. Then I was asked to do one thing. I was to turn on the TV. I did. Then they asked what kind of remote I had. I told them. I then was asked to turn the TV off while the upgrade was being installed.
While that was happening, they explained that there would be no payments for June – August but that I needed to make a security deposit. This was not a monthly payment, but I would be paid back by not having the 3 monthly payments. They gave me an address where we were to make the security deposit of $299.35.
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