God’s Covenant
God’s covenant is something Scripture speaks about very often. What is that covenant? Why does Scripture speak of it so often? These questions we wish to explore in the next few issues of the News.
We should remember, first, that the covenant is God’s covenant. That means that it is a covenant which He has in and with Himself. When He makes a covenant with us, therefore, it is but a revelation of something that He has even without us.
This, of course, is true of all that God reveals. Whatever He reveals to us is a revelation of Himself. That is a very humbling thought. In reference to the covenant, it means that God does not need us to be a covenant God. He is a covenant God in Himself!
We believe that God’s covenant is the relationship between the three persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We will be showing in future articles that the covenant is a relationship or bond. But if that is true, it is first of all the bond that makes the three persons of the Trinity one God.
When God establishes His covenant with us, He takes us into that relationship and makes us part of it; He takes us into His own family and becomes our Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. What a wonder!
The Bible talks about this in II Peter 1:4, which says that we are made partakers of the divine nature! That is the realization of God’s covenant with us, something so wonderful that we would not even dare think it if the Bible did not say it.
There are other passages that describe the inter-Trinitarian relationship between the three persons of the Godhead. Proverbs 8:22-31 is one such passage. “Wisdom” in this passage is the Son (cf. I Cor. 1:24). He is described in relation to the Father as being “by Him, as one brought up with Him … daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (30). That is God’s covenant.
Into that blessed relationship we are taken when God establishes His covenant with us. But we may never forget that He does not need us to be a covenant God. His covenant with us, therefore, is always a covenant of grace—pure and undeserved favour.
Do you know that covenant God? Do you know what it is to be made partaker of the divine nature? To live apart from Him is death (Ps. 73:27). To know Him is life eternal (John 17:3). Rev. Hanko
(For further reading on this subject, see “The Covenant: God’s Tabernacle With Men”, by Herman Hoeksema.)
Does Scripture Contain Errors? (2)
“And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there” (II Sam. 10:18).
“But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host” (I Chron. 19:18).
We are faced here, as we noted in our last article, with an apparent contradiction in the number of casualties that Syria suffered at the hands of David’s army. II Samuel speaks of 700 chariots; I Chronicles speaks of 7,000. II Samuel speaks of 40,000 horsemen; I Chronicles speaks of 40,000 footmen.
We noticed last time that, whatever may ultimately be the solution to this problem, the child of God believes firmly in the infallible and inerrant inspiration of Scripture. He contends for the truth that God, through the Holy Spirit, is the Author of Scripture and that, therefore, Scripture cannot contain errors. He believes this, whether or not he is able to solve what appear to be discrepancies in the sacred records.
Having said this, we can now turn to the problem itself.
Different solutions have been offered by commentators, most of whom believe, as we do, in Scripture’s inerrancy.
Most commentators take the position that the problem arises out of scribal errors. They point to the fact that the Scriptures have been copied by scribes dozens and dozens of times; that somewhere in the scribal transmission, some scribe made an error; and that error has been continued. If this is the case, we will never know the truth of the matter; although this lack of knowledge makes no difference in our faith.
Other commentators have attempted to explain the discrepancy in one way or another. Some have suggested two battles, in one of which 7,000 charioteers were killed and 40,000 footmen; and in the second of which 700 charioteers were killed and 40,000 cavalry.
Others have said that the 700 charioteers that were killed were a separate division of the Syrian army that contained also 7,000 troops connected to and fighting with the charioteers.
And other suggestions of a similar kind have been made.
Calvin, in his sermons on II Samuel makes some interesting remarks.
Now there seems to be a great contradiction here … Well, for one thing, when chariots are spoken of, we must note that the ancient mode of fighting was in chariots … A man in a chariot was like a thunderbolt, and then there were these blades [mounted on the wheels] which cut whatever they could touch … They were a great strength in olden times. That is one point … But the difficulty is still not solved … 7,000 chariots is an extravagant number for those times. We must therefore accept this, that in reality there were 700 chariots, but that they were in such array that it was like 7,000 … As far as ‘horsemen’ or footmen are concerned, one assumes that what is said in one place refers to the other. Therefore, when horsemen are spoken of on the one hand here, and footmen on the other, one accepts that in reality there were 40,000 footmen defeated, and 40,000 horsemen … There could certainly have been 40,000 horsemen, and as many footmen. We cannot resolve the question. But that is not where we should stop—with the number of people …
Then Calvin makes some significant remarks, worthy of our attention.
To what, therefore, must we pay attention? This is what the Holy Spirit wanted here: on the one hand, to show the affliction of David, and what a multitude of enemies had besieged him, and then what cause he had to magnify the goodness of God for giving him such an excellent victory.
This is a point worth repeating.
We can sometimes get so exercised over little and relatively insignificant problems that we lose sight of the great truth that the Holy Spirit is teaching. This must not happen.
We cannot with our present knowledge resolve the problem, although Calvin’s explanation appeals to me. That the Scriptures are without error is a given which we accept by faith.
In our preoccupation with attempting to solve the problem, let us not lose sight of this great truth that God fights for His people and gives them always the victory, even if it be against overwhelming odds. Christ has won the victory for us; and faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Prof. Hanko
