27 Overview of The Sub covenants

The elements of Abrahamic Covenant of land seed and blessing form the basis for the sub covenants that would come later in history of the nation. 

• The Conditional Mosaic Covenant set the terms for enjoyment of the land; 
• The unconditional Davidic Covenant promised that Messiah, the King would come from David's Seed; 
• The future New Covenant in the Kingdom Age fulfills the promise of Israel becoming a blessing for the entire world as a result of their link with their Messiah King.

This legacy of blessing requires an individual commitment. It is significant that God did not just speak a blessing upon the world but he determined that blessing would come through individual and personal commitments. 

Every believer is called to leave a legacy of blessing for future generations."Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.” 1Pe 3:9 We are blessed to be a blessing to others. 

Yet, when we look at the nation of Israel, we do not see them as a blessing to the world but instead they seem to be a constant source of irritation and world unrest. Knowing that it is God's promise to use Israel as a blessing, it is not unexpected that Satan would work to undermine that promise.  

1. The sad reality is that we live in times where the leadership in Israel is captured by the same globalist elites that the United States government has been captured by. So while we recognize and support the unconditional promise of Israel’s existence, guaranteed by God Himself, that doesn’t mean that their exercise of government should be unconditionally supported. 
2. Isaiah 43:1; “called by their name” i.e. naming = authority over something or someone. This reminds us that God’s scepter of authority is invested in Israel. The Jews are God's people and a direct challenge to Satan’s authority. This explains much of why they are so persecuted and yet survive to thrive.
3. Genesis 49:2,10: Jacob’s prophecy concerning Judah as the channel of blessing through Shiloh, the King of Peace. Israel is the direct channel of Messiah crushing Satan’s power and restoring God’s Kingdom on earth. It is no wonder then that Satan would infiltrate the Jewish culture. Satan would delight to make a mockery of God’s promise to use Israel as a channel of blessing to all people. (the Jews reject Jesus today because they claim that He failed to bring peace)
4. “God’s kingdom plan involves the establishment of a “nation” that would be the means through which universal blessings would occur. But this nation needed to be set apart unto God for service. It must be different from the other nations.”

Vlach, Michael. He Will Reign Forever: A Biblical Theology of the Kingdom of God.

The only way for this to happen is for God Himself to guarantee the outcome. So, He makes covenants and memorializes them with specific Covenantal signs: Rainbow, circumcision, sabbath, communion table. By means of legal contract, God obligates Himself before all of His creation to bless the earth. 

People today recognize that there is a force greater than themselves that governs the worlds and their inhabitants. They refer to this force as ‘the universe’- a kind of impersonal force that they can tap into through spiritual exercise. The universe is not an impersonal force. There is an unseen realm filled with personal witnesses for the truth of God’s Eternal Word. (They are called “The watchers” in Daniel 4:17)

As evidence of this we see that at the end of Moses life, he is given a song to teach the people of Israel in every generation. God said that he gave Israel this song was given to be a witness against them. The song affirms that God will punish them for their evil but regardless of how evil Israel becomes, God will not destroy them as a nation. God speaks to His people through this song of Moses by calling upon heaven (the universe) to bear witness to this oath: 

"For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. ... Rejoice, O ye nations, [with] his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, [and] to his people." Deuteronomy 32:40,43. 

Why would God lift His hand to make an oath to an impersonal force?

Titus 1:2 reminds us that this Kingdom hope springs from the integrity of God’s Word.
Hebrews 6:18: Promise and an oath that it will be accomplished upon pain of death.

Sub covenants restate and expand the promises of Land, seed and blessing
Genesis 15:18-21: We have seen that this covenant is a literal geographical portion of land inhabited by literal people groups whose literal displacement is confirmed historically.

Deut 29:1 informs us that the land covenant (sometimes called the Palestinian Covenant) is different than the Mosaic covenant. It is closely related to it as it states the conditions upon which they will remain in the land. It also seems to be a covenant that extends to future generations or any people who will honor Israel's claim upon the land:

"Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with [him] that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with [him] that [is] not here with us this day:" [Deuteronomy 29:14-15 KJV]

This land covenant itself stands as an unconditional promise of regathering
Deuteronomy 30:3. A promise that when Israel’s sin causes them to be driven out of the land just like those that they displaced, God will regather them into His land again. 
“This Land Covenant also should be construed literally since the eschatological regathering of Israel is mentioned alongside Israel’s scattering.”
Woods, Andrew M.. The Coming Kingdom: (p. 35). Grace Gospel Press.

2 Sam. 7:12–16 amplifies the seed promise given to Abram: God entered into a covenant with David, which promised that through David’s seed would come an eternal house, throne, and kingdom.

“Since these promises given to David are an amplification of the seed component of the Abrahamic Covenant, they share the Abrahamic Covenant’s literalness and terrestrial nature.” This observation teaches us to avoid spiritualizing what the Spirit of God intends to be taken literally.

Gal 3:16,29 further defines seed as referring to one person in particular who will come through David’s lineage and enroll both Jew and Gentile believers as heirs to the promise.

John Walvoord clarifies that this inclusion of Gentiles does not spiritualize David’s literal throne in Jerusalem to mean the reign of Christ from the Father’s throne in heaven.

Jer 31:31-34: Lastly we come to amplification of blessing found in the new covenant. Again, we cannot confuse the new covenant established with the church as the fulfillment of the new covenant in the Millennium. (Notice the phrase, “after those days” i.e. days of tribulation)

The church is but the first fruits of this covenant. The fulfillment of it will be with Israel when they finally receive Yeshua as Messiah. James points out to Jewish believers that are scattered and now form the early church that they are the firstfruits of a greater harvest to come.

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." - Jas 1:18 KJV

Paul reminds us that in the church, not only are believers from the twelve tribes a kind of firstfruits, but Gentiles also share in this promise:

"that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel," - Eph 3:6 NKJV

“Once inaugurated, this eternal covenant (Jer. 32:37–40) will bring forth both regeneration for Israel, thereby permanently removing from them the necessity of the Mosaic Covenant” (Jer. 31:32). Woods, Andrew M.. The Coming Kingdom:(p. 36).

This observation then reminds us of the gracious provision of the new covenant that is established with the individual believer, does away with the need for the Mosaic law. 

Summary:

• The Abrahamic Covenant is the basis for the sub covenants that provide for a legacy of blessing through personal faith in God’s promise.
• The sub covenants expand the promises of Land Seed and Blessing.
• The Covenants legally bind God before the hosts of heaven to perform them
• The Covenants are to be literally fulfilled through Israel in a land of prescribed boundaries