This content was excerpted from the Storyteller from Genesis to Revelation Bible study by Lifeway Adults.

In Genesis 12, God made a promise to provide Abraham descendants, land, and blessing. God appeared to Abraham again and confirmed these promises in a covenant in Genesis 15 and 17. In the Scriptures, a covenant is a promise in which God obligates Himself to His people to reveal Himself and enter relationship in terms of an oath.

God is always faithful to His covenant. His people are often unfaithful. Israel broke faith with God again and again, but God’s promises remained. As God deals with His people, He always reminds us of His covenant faithfulness (Exodus 6:5-8).

5 Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

6 “Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.
7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
8 I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.”

Exodus 6:5-8 CSB

Later in Exodus, God gave Israel commands to follow to demonstrate their identity as His covenant people (Exodus 20). But the people repeatedly rebelled and disobeyed, which led to forty years of wilderness wandering that we read about in Numbers. When we get to Deuteronomy, the people are done with their wandering and God again reaffirms His covenant promise as a choice between life and death, blessing and curse.

As Israel stood on the edge of the Promised Land, God called them to respond to His covenant, echoing the ongoing call to follow God repeated throughout Scripture. Our response to His call has two possible outcomes—life or death.

This was true in the days of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Caleb and Joshua, and it is true today. We can love God, entering into covenant relationship with hearts turned toward Him to receive life—or we can turn away from Him to follow the gods of this world and embrace the sin and death that follows.

In the books of the Law, that life God offers was represented by the promise of a land God’s people would possess on earth. But the promise didn’t end there! It pointed forward to a new covenant, with life that knows no end. God’s gift of eternal life in relationship with Jesus Christ is a promise we each must choose to believe in order to see the place He is preparing for us (John 14).