Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #37 of Genesis, chapter 21.  We are going to read Genesis 21:27-32:

And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them. Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

I will stop reading there.  In our last Bible study, we were talking about the fact that Abimelech has consistently been a picture of Satan.  We can see that in verse 25 where his servants violently took away a well of water.  In the spiritual realm, that is exactly what Satan’s servants have been actively doing over the course of the church age and the Great Tribulation.  Whenever God sent forth His Word, the Gospel, it was often illustrated as a well of water, and the enemies of God and the Bible would set themselves in opposition and attempt to take away the “well of water.”  This was allowed, to some extent, based on whether it was the will of God, and during the church age God did permit various churches (or even an entire denomination) to fall away from truth.  It was all under the Lord’s control.

We know that at the time of the end of the church age, the “wells of water” that had sprung up in the churches of the world were violently taken away at God’s allowance.  God loosed Satan to come against the camp of the saints.  Gog and Magog came against the Gospel, and God was no longer in the churches to defend and protect them, and He allowed them to overrun the churches and to be victorious over them.  Therefore, the “wells of water” were violently taken away.  We also read in Jeremiah that the landmarks have been removed and the flocks were violently taken away.

So, we see that Abimelech is a clear type of Satan here and in the earlier chapter.  And, yet, now Abraham and this king of a city in the land of the Philistines make a covenant.  At the end of our last study, we asked the question:  “In the spiritual dimension, how can it be possible that God would make a covenant with Satan?”  I mentioned at the close of that study that the first thing we must do is to remind ourselves regarding what the word “covenant” means.  We went through this in Genesis 17, but this is the Bible, and if God keeps using a word or a subject matter again, then the student of the Bible is to cover it again.  We are not to say, “Well, I learned about covenants back in Genesis 17 and, therefore, I am going to skip it this time.”  That is how worldly students often behave when they are studying: “Oh, I learned that already, so I am going to save time and just move on.”  But that is not how we are to study the Bible.  God speaks of “bringing to remembrance.”  The word “covenant” is hard to understand, and it is often misunderstood by the churches and theologians.  They tend to go a little crazy with the word because of the way God uses it in relationship to Noah or Abraham or Isaac, and they speak of the Noachian Covenant (Noah), and so forth.

Remember that we were greatly helped (in our understanding) when we went to Exodus where there were a couple of places that really straightened out what God has in view with the word “covenant.”  It says in Exodus 24:7-8:

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that JEHOVAH hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which JEHOVAH hath made with you concerning all these words.

What is the book of the covenant?  At this point, it was the book of the Law that God had moved Moses to write.  That was the entire Bible at that point in time.  So, the book of the Law was the covenant – it was the book of the Bible.  The Bible is God’s Law book.

It says in Exodus 34:28:

And he was there with JEHOVAH forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Here, the Ten Commandments are called “the words of the covenant.”  Later when the Ten Commandments were placed inside the ark, it became known as the “ark of the covenant.”   It contained the Ten Commandments which are the words of the covenant.  Again, this can be easily misunderstood because some people think that only the Ten Commandments that were written on tables of stone were the covenant.  However, it is more than just the Ten Commandments.  We must look at it just as we look at any other words in the Bible, and we understand that the number “10” represents “completeness,” so this would mean the completeness of the commandments.  And where would we find the “completeness” of God’s commandments?  Look at your Bible, because in the sixty-six books of the Bible we have in our possession the completeness of the Ten Commandments,” as they pointed to the complete Law of God, the Bible.  The Bible is God’s Law book.  It says in Deuteronomy 4:13:

And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

This is further emphasis that it is the Law.  The Ten Commandments are the words of the covenant or the words of the Law.  So far, in these verses the covenant identifies with the Bible or the Law of God.  For example, the Ten Commandments include, “Thou shalt not kill,”  and “Thou shalt not steal,” or “Thou shalt have none other gods before me.”  There was Law, after Law, after Law.  And the covenant between God and man is a covenant of Law.  God laid down the Law in the Garden of Eden that man could eat of all the trees of the field, and there were a great many of them, but there was one tree that was made off limits by the Law: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  There was the Law of God, and man broke that Law.  In doing so, he became a covenant breaker.  This is the language the Bible uses in Isaiah 24:5:

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

These statements are synonymous with one another.  To transgress the laws is to change the ordinance and to break the everlasting covenant.  The covenant is the Law – it is the ordinance.  Man has broken the everlasting covenant.  Remember that the Word of God endures forever, so it is an everlasting Word or everlasting Law, and man has broken that Law.  He is a transgressor.  Sin, as the Bible defines it, is the transgression of the Law of God, according to 1John.  Ultimately, sin is the breaking of the covenant of the Law that God gave to man, and man was obligated to obey it.  If he had obeyed, there would be the blessings of the covenant.  If he disobeyed, there were curses that would be enacted as the judgment of God.  The judgment of God comes upon mankind for breaking the everlasting covenant of His Word or His Law or the “Ten Commandments,” the completeness of the Law of God, as indicated in James 2:10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”  One would have to keep the whole Bible with all its Laws.  If you were to keep all the Law, but offend in one point, you would be guilty of all.  You would be a Law breaker.  You have broken the everlasting covenant.

In Romans 1 God speaks of various sins that mankind will be given up to, and we must keep in mind the definition of sin.  It is the transgression of the Law.  If there were no Law, there would be no sin.  When God gives a Law and you transgress it, you exceed that boundary mark and trespass upon it, and you are a transgressor.  You are a breaker of the Law and a breaker of the covenant.  Again, here God will list all kinds of sins (transgressions of His Law) and it says in Romans 1:28-31:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

After listing all these transgressions of the Law, God says they are covenant breakers.  They have broken the everlasting covenant of God.  They have broken the Law of God.  They are guilty, and they will face the consequences.

We know the Law, the Bible, is the covenant.  We know God made a covenant with man through His Law.  But what about Satan?  Where is the evidence of God having made a covenant with Satan?  Has God given Satan a Law(s) that he must obey to avoid being a covenant breaker?  Our initial reaction is to think, “Well, Satan is different.  He is not a man.”  We know man is under the Law, but Satan is a fallen angel, just as the angels that fell with him.  They were all created good initially and, yet, they fell from their estate and became evil spirits, also known as devils and demons.  They are unclean spirits.

But notice that I said they “fell,” and that is accurate language.  If they had not fallen, they would still be in heaven as good angels.  So, something happened which resulted in their “falling” from their original good condition.  We know there are still good angels in heaven that never “fell.”  What does it mean to “fall” as Satan and certain other angels fell?  The angels that remained good are used by God as ministering spirits, and it must mean that they kept His Law.  And it also must mean that the group of angels headed up by Satan fell because they failed to keep the Law of God.  And the Law is the covenant.  Therefore, God must have had a covenant in that He gave a Law of some type to the angelic beings.

By the way, the word “angels” can also be translated as “messengers” and can be used to refer to the people of God, but these are spirit beings that God made.  They are invisible to the people of the world.  We cannot see Satan or demons, just as we cannot see God who is Spirit.  In case someone thinks that since angels are spirit beings they could not have been given a Law by God, just keep in mind that God is Spirit.  And we know from Psalm 138 that God has placed Himself under His own Law(s).  It says in Psalm 138:2:

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

We can substitute the word “law” for “word” in this verse.  We know from Psalm 119 that God refers to His Word as laws, statutes, commandments, and so forth.  They are all synonyms for the Word of God.  Therefore, God has magnified His Word above all His name.  The Bible is magnified above His name.  And His “name,” which includes His Person and all His attributes, is in submission to His Law; that is, He cannot and will not violate His Law.  God cannot sin, the Bible tells us.  He cannot lie, because a lie is a sin.  He will not transgress His own Law and, therefore, it is as if He keeps “covenant” with Himself.  He is a covenant keeper within the Godhead, as He is in submission to His own Law or His own Word.  

Therefore, God, who is Spirit, submits to the Law.  And if God is in submission to His own Law, this would mean the angelic spirit beings could have been given a Law and whether they would keep that Law (and stay in heaven) or they would not keep that Law (and fall).  They became demons, as the Bible tells us.

I think we are making a little progress.  It is interesting because this is all developing from our (absolute) understanding that the entire Bible must be understood spiritually.  This fits with the fact that Christ spoke in parables and without a parable He did not speak.  We see that Abimelech represents Satan and Abraham represents God, so when we consistently follow the underlying spiritual information within the historical parable, we are getting into an area that has not been addressed, which is the fact that God has a league with Satan; that is, there had been a Law or covenant established between the two and Satan must have violated that covenant or Law and he sinned.  Does the Bible tell us that Satan sinned?  What is the definition of sin?  Sin is the transgression of the Law.  The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but this verse applies to all humans.  What about Satan?  Did Satan sin?  If so, he has violated the Law.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will continue to think about this and examine what we can find in the Bible regarding this idea of a “covenant” between God and Satan.