God of Covenant: Drawing Near Through Promise and Restoration

The names of God turn the Bible from a stressful rule list into a drama that unfolds and invites people to participate. The strong tower, the bread, the shepherd, the lamb, and even the root of Jesse show that God gives names and images that are rich, layered, and sometimes confusing. The complexity of God can make faith feel irrelevant when God gets tied to a place, a day of the week, a feeling, or a little white box that gets opened and shut when convenient.

The God of covenant makes the whole story bigger than a checklist. God creates out of nothing, takes chaos, and brings it into order, abundance, and flourishing. Sin destroys by asking that old question, “Did God really say?” Sin questions God’s character, turns abundance into scarcity, and grabs the one thing that was not given. God restores by covenanting again and again, drawing nearer and nearer until sin does not get the final word.

The covenant with Noah shows God preserving the world after judgment and promising never again to flood the earth. The covenant with Abraham shows God initiating redemption through a family that will bless the nations, even when Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands. The covenant with Moses shows Yahweh meeting a runaway in the wilderness, restoring Israel from Egypt, and tabernacling in the middle of the people. The covenant with David shows God promising a faithful shepherd king, even through a human king whose life had both humility and mess.

Shechem gathers the beauty and the brokenness of covenant life into one place. Shechem is promise, refuge, commitment, and worship, but it is also murder, slaughter, failure, and sin. God’s hesed shows up there as active loyalty, unearned grace, and covenant resilience. God keeps choosing a covenant people even when they ask, “Did God really say?”

The new covenant cuts through the whole cycle. Jeremiah promises a covenant written not on stone, but on human hearts. Jesus comes as sacrificial love, the God who says, “I am here,” and breaks through heaven and earth. Mark shows this with heaven cut open at Jesus’ baptism and the veil torn at his death. The God of covenant draws near so that the veil is lifted, the Spirit gives freedom, and image bearers reflect God’s love and purposes into the world. Communion remembers that shalom cost the broken body and poured out blood of the faithful God whose promises are yes and amen.

##

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Complexity can invite deeper faith The complexity of God does not have to make faith feel irrelevant. Mystery can either get reduced into a little white box, or it can open a person into awe, curiosity, and participation. Faith becomes thin when God is tied only to church, Sunday, or a feeling, but faith becomes living when the whole earth is seen as full of God’s glory. [35:41]
• 2. Covenant love stays actively loyal God’s hesed is not sentimental softness. God’s covenant love is active loyalty, unearned grace, and resilience that keeps moving toward people who keep breaking trust. Shechem tells the truth about human mess, but it also tells the deeper truth that God’s faithfulness is not fragile. [49:44]
• 3. Jesus cuts through the distance Jesus is not merely another covenant marker in the story. Jesus is the God of covenant cutting through heaven and earth, cutting through broken promises, and bringing restoration close enough to touch. The torn veil declares that access to God is no longer hidden behind distance, fear, or failure. [56:01]
• 4. Unveiled faces reflect outward The Spirit removes the veil so that freedom is not self-absorption. The mirror of faith is set at an angle, so the transformed life sees the body of Christ and the world God loves. Glory is not hoarded in private experience, but reflected outward in embodied love, justice, and mission. [64:50]
• 5. Communion remembers faithful cost The bread and cup remember that shalom was costly. The faithful God did not abandon covenant breakers, but entered pain, betrayal, and death with a body broken and blood poured out. Communion trains memory to see freedom as a gift that must be received with reverence and shared with the world.
  
  ## [74:29]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [31:08] - Names of God and the Story
• [32:30] - Props for God’s Names
• [35:01] - When Complexity Feels Irrelevant
• [38:27] - Creation, Sin, and Restoration
• [42:00] - Noah and Covenant Mercy
• [43:48] - Abraham and the Promise
• [44:40] - Moses, Yahweh, and the Law
• [46:19] - David and the Shepherd King
• [47:03] - Shechem, Promise, and Mess
• [51:59] - Jeremiah’s New Covenant
• [54:55] - Mark’s Gospel Sandwich
• [57:03] - The Torn Veil and Freedom
• [60:01] - Worship, Transformation, Mission
• [66:17] - Communion and Covenant Faithfulness

Bible Reading

Jeremiah 31:31-34
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” [52:18]

2 Corinthians 3:1-18
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. [01:02:17]

Joshua 24:15
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” [49:09]

Observation questions

1. In Jeremiah 31, what are the specific ways the new covenant is described as different from the covenant made when God brought Israel out of Egypt? [52:18]
2. In 2 Corinthians 3, what images does Paul use to describe the work of the Spirit—letters, tablets, veils, mirrors, and freedom—and what do those images show on the surface of the passage?
3. Joshua 24:15 is a moment of decision. What choice is set before the people, and what clear commitment does Joshua make?
4. What were some of the places or habits that can make faith feel small or irrelevant—such as tying God to a building, a day of the week, or a feeling? [35:41]

Interpretation questions

1. Jeremiah says God will write his law on human hearts. What does that suggest about the kind of relationship God wants with his people, and how is that deeper than simply following rules? [52:18]
2. Shechem held both covenant renewal and human failure in the same place. What does that reveal about God’s hesed—his active loyalty, unearned grace, and covenant resilience—when people keep breaking trust? [49:44]
3. Paul says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and that unveiled people are being transformed into God’s image. What kind of freedom seems to be in view here, and how is it different from doing whatever a person wants? [01:04:38]
4. Mark’s picture of heaven being cut open at Jesus’ baptism and the veil being torn at his death shows God breaking through distance. Why does that matter for people who feel far from God or stuck in repeated failure? [56:01]

Application questions

1. Faith becomes thin when God is kept in a little box. Where is the strongest temptation right now to keep God limited to Sunday, to church activity, or to certain emotional moments, instead of seeing all of life as belonging to him? [37:17]
2. Sin often begins with the question, “Did God really say?” When does that question tend to show up most in real life—during disappointment, temptation, delay, insecurity, or something else? What does it usually sound like in the mind and heart? [40:28]
3. God’s covenant love stays faithful in messy places. Is there an area of life right now that feels more like Shechem than sanctuary—full of beauty and brokenness at the same time? What would it look like to trust God’s loyal love there? [50:49]
4. The veil is torn, and access to God is no longer hidden behind fear or failure. What would change this week if that access were actually believed in a concrete way—in prayer, confession, worship, or asking for help? [57:03]
5. Unveiled faces are being transformed, and the mirror of faith is turned outward. Who is most clearly being placed in front of that mirror right now—a family member, coworker, neighbor, or someone in the church body—and what might reflecting God’s love toward them look like? [01:05:20]
6. Communion remembers that shalom was costly. What helps keep the cross from becoming familiar or routine, and how can the broken bread and poured-out cup reshape the way peace with God and others is pursued? [01:14:29]
7. God restores people back toward abundance, flourishing, and image-bearing life. What is one practical way to participate with God in that restoring work this week rather than only admiring it from a distance? [01:07:00]