Dear listeners, we have come to the final talk of our series of twelve on Old Testament Survey. We began with the emphasis that the Old and the New Testament together form one Bible as the written Word of God. We went on to cover each category and every book of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.

In this final talk of the series, we shall revisit how the Old Testament is an integral part of the whole Bible and show its link to the New Testament. A survey of the New Testament is the next series we will do. The best key to grasping the entire Bible, Old Testament and New Testament together is to track the covenants that God made with mankind. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, these covenants form the divinely given backbone that links the whole Bible as one. God made five covenants in the Old Testament and one covenant in the New Testament. All the five Old Testament covenants are interrelated. So that each is built on the previous. All the five Old Testament covenants are directly linked to the one New Testament covenant and one New Testament covenant fulfills all the covenants that God has made with mankind. These can be said to be the grand picture. The grand linkage of the whole Bible. Now the five Old Testament covenants are as follows.

God's covenant with Adam in the book of Genesis is the first covenant. This covenant included all mankind as Adam’s descendants. So this is a multiple point. In other words, all of mankind, not just the church, not just Israel, all of humankind in God's creation, beginning with Adam were meant or is meant to be in covenant with God. When Adam sinned, mankind fell and human nature was corrupted. This shows the fact that this is a covenant that covers all mankind, shows the extent and the seriousness of the fall of Adam. Death has come into the picture. When God created everything, everything was good. But when Adam and Eve sinned death was the outcome. And that is the outcome that faces all mankind.

That leads us to the second covenant that God made with mankind which is God's covenant with Noah in the book of Genesis. Noah was chosen by God because of his faith in Him. All mankind was in sin and rebellion, but Noah called on the name of the Lord. So God made a covenant with Noah that through him and his family, God would give mankind a second chance. He gave him the design for an ark that gave room for him and his family and animals of God’s choice to be kept in that ark. And God sent the flood that destroyed all of mankind at that time, except those who were in the ark. So in that way, God's covenant with Noah was God giving mankind a second chance, and therefore all human beings, are not only descendants of Adam, but we are descendants of Noah because only Noah’s family lived through the flood.

God's covenant with Abraham followed God's covenant with Noah. And this is also in the book of Genesis. So from the covenantal perspective, the book of Genesis is of special importance in that it contains the first three covenants that God made with mankind. This was the first step. That is God's covenant with Abraham was God’s first step in God's plan to save all the families of the earth through the faith of Abraham and use of his descendants as His vessel. Now notice that God's covenant with Adam included all of mankind.

God's covenant with Noah included all of mankind as Noah’s descendants. But God's covenant with Abraham included only Abraham’s descendants. However, this was the covenant and this was the people that God chose to use in order to save all of mankind. So God's covenant with Israel, with Moses as His chosen mediator, is the fourth covenant of God with mankind. Although this covenant was made with Israel, but Israel was to be God's instrument to save all mankind. So Israel, as the descendants of Abraham, inherited God's covenant with Abraham.

Now this covenant of God with Israel through Moses is the central Old Testament covenant. The five books of the law of Moses, which we covered, Genesis to Deuteronomy is the basis of this national covenant, the twelve books of Old Testament history from the book of Joshua to Esther track Israel's national walk with God, whether they kept or broke His covenant and the consequences that followed. The five wisdom books collect for us the wisdom that the faithful receive from God on how to walk with Him on earth.

And the seventeen books of prophecy, five major prophets and twelve minor prophets record the messages and lessons proclaimed and taught by these prophets that God sent to His people throughout their history. So you can see that all of the books of the Old Testament are centered around God's national covenant with Israel, with Moses as his mediator. 

The book of Genesis is the first book of the law. And in that way God's covenant with mankind, through Adam to Noah are covered within God's law or covenant with Israel. And God's covenant with Abraham marks how or why God came to choose Israel as His instrument, not for His own blessing only, but as God's instrument, God's priest, God's nation for Him to use to save all of mankind.

Now the fifth covenant is also the last Old Testament covenant. And the fifth covenant in the Old Testament is God's covenant with David. This is the human genealogical line. That is to say, David's line is the human genealogical line that God used to send us His Messiah, of the line of David: Jesus Christ who will reign forever.

So the promised Messiah is prophesied and foreshadowed through all the categories and all the books of the Old Testament. Law, history, wisdom, prophecy, all of them. They all foreshadow the coming of the Messiah. But it is this fifth covenant that God made with David. That is the means that God used to send us his Messiah as the one who is born of the seed of woman who would bruise the serpent's head. That was a prophecy at the time of the fall in Genesis. But God's covenant with David is the covenant He used to give us Jesus Christ as the king of kings, the son of David, who will reign forever.

So these are the five Old Testament covenants. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel with Moses as mediator and God’s covenant with David. Now the New Testament carries only one covennant, the one New Testament covenant is God's covenant with all humankind with Jesus Christ as the perfect sinless mediator. He alone saves all who are saved. The church becomes His body. Salvation comes to those who exercise the faith of Abraham in Christ. All of the five Old Testament covenants find the ultimate and total fulfilment in this one New Testament covenant.

Christ is the final Adam. He is the faith. He is the new Noah who alone saves all who come to Him from God's judgment. Just as only those who are in the ark are saved in the time of the flood. So also only those who come to Christ are saved from the coming and final judgment of God. He is the object of Abraham’s faith. That means He is the one in whom Abraham had faith. If we share Abraham’s faith, that means we have faith in Christ, we have faith in God, then we will be saved.

He is the one greater than Moses who gives us the New Testament law in His gospel, which is the law of the spirit of life. Moses can be considered the greatest man in the Old Testament, because God gave His law through Moses to His covenant people. Jesus plays the role of Moses as a lawgiver, but He gives us the new and ultimate law of God, while the law of Moses is only to show that we have sinned, the law of Christ, if we come to Him in faith, saves us.

So He is the greater than Moses who gives us the new law in His gospel, which is the law of the Spirit of life. And in relation to the fifth covenant as I have already highlighted, He is the son of David and reigns eternally. Therefore, all of the five Old Testament covenants find that final and ultimate fulfilment in the one New Testament covenant. So this conclusion points us directly to how the Old Testament and the New Testament are one revelation of God with Jesus Christ as the center and foundation and climax of all, Old and New Testament together.

You can follow this continuation when you follow us in the next series on New Testament survey. May God bless all who receive His Word into their lives. Hallelujah.

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