LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 266

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266 SUPPLEMENT TO CTCR REPORT

The Old Testament is the record of the continuing
fellowship-initiative of God. God, in choosing Abraham
and the nation descended from him for a life in cove-
nant relation with Himself, wrote large in history His
will to have communion with men (Gen. 12:2-3; 17:7).4

This covenant is the order established by God in
which man is privileged to live under the promise of
God and is at the same time called upon to live under
His Law. The Law calls man to that communion which
God willed as the normal structure of creation and
judges him for his failure to live in that structure ac-
cording to the divine will. The promise points man
beyond divine judgment to the redemptive act of God
which is to restore Israel and all men to the unbroken
communion with God and with one another according
to His gracious will (Jer. 31: 31-34; Ezek. 34: 22-25; 34:30
to 31; 37:26; 2 Sam. 7:12-17; Is. 9:2; 11:1, 4, 6, 12; 54:10.
Cp. Is., chapters 42 and 49).5

1 Gen. 3:8, 9. “And they heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the cool of the day, and Adam and his
wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?”

2 Gen. 3:16-19. “Unto the woman He said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. ... And unto
Adam He said . . . cursed is the ground for thy sake.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou
taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return.”

3 Gen. 3:15. “And I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”

4 Gen. 12:2, 3. “And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great,
and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that
bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Gen. 17:7.
“And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee
and thy seed after thee in their generations for an ever-
lasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed
after thee.”

5 Jer. 31:31-34. “Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the
day that I took them by the hand to bring them out
of the land of Egypt, which My covenant they brake,
although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put My Law in their inward parts and write it
in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be
My people. And they shall teach no more every man
his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for

I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more” (the new covenant), Ezek, 34:22-25.
“Therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more
be a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and He
shall feed them, even My servant David. He shall feed
them, and He shail be their Shepherd. And I, the Lord,
will be their God, and My Servant David a prince
among them. I, the Lord, have spoken it. And I will
make with them a covenant of peace and will cause the
evil beast. to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell
safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.” Ezek.
34-30-31. “Thus shall they know that I, the Lord, their
God, am with them and that they, even the house of
Israel, are My people, saith the Lord God. And ye My
flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your
God, saith the Lord God.” Ezek. 37:26. “Moreover, I will
make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an
everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them
and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in the
midst of them forevermore” (the covenant of peace).
2 Sam.7:12-17. “And when thy days be fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy Seed
after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and
I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house
for My name, and I will stablish the throne of His
kingdom forever. I will be His Father, and He shall
be My Son. If He commit iniquity, I will chasten Him
with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children
of men. But My mercy shall not depart away from
Him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before
thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be estab-
lished forever before thee. Thy throne shall be estab-
lished forever. According to all these words, and ac-
cording to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto
David.” Is.9:2. “The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great Light; they that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the Light shined”
(see entire chapter). Is. 11:1,4,6,12. “And there shall
come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch
shall grow out of his roots.... But with righteousness
shall He judge the poor and reprove with equity for
the meek of the earth. And He shall smite the earth
with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His
lips shall He slay the wicked... . The wolf also shall
dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. .

And He shall set up an ensign for the nations and
shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth.” Is. 54:10. “For the mountains shall depart, and
the hills be removed. But My kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be
removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (the
covenant of peace). See also Is., chapters 42 and 49.

2. As Fulfilled in the New Covenant

Tue NEW COVENANT of fellowship between God and
man which God promised in the Old Testament (Jer.