Dr. Couch, what is the Palestinian Covenant and is it unconditional? And what does unconditional mean?
ANSWER: Let's back in to these questions. To be unconditional means that there are no human or Jewish conditions to be fulfilled for that covenant to be valid. The Palestinian Covenant is an extension of the Abrahamic Covenant that has three main parts. Promises to Abraham and his descendants concerning (1) a land, (2) a Seed, and (3) a blessing. The Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional in that to fulfill the covenant is not dependent on the faithfulness of Abraham. God will sovereignly bring the covenant to its completion. It is not based on human faithfulness, though the Jews will be believing in the Lord and be faithful to Him when the covenant is finalized in the Kingdom.
The key verses on the Abraham Covenant are found in Genesis 12:1-3. God told Abraham,
"Go to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation (a great Seed), and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Deuteronomy 28-30 lets us know that the Abraham Covenant is unconditional and that it will be ultimately fulfilled by the Lord in order to establish the promised Kingdom. Deuteronomy 30:1-9 tells us that God is going to bring the Jews back to their land and that the Jews will obey Him "with all their heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons" (v. 2). The Lord will do "this and that" in a very sovereign way. Verse 10 is a bad translation. It reads "If you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments ..." But the "If" is the Hebrew word "key" that should better be translated "When." That is, this will all happen "When they obey the Lord" as performed in a sovereign way by the Lord in the hearts of the Jewish people. In fact, in the side notes of the NAS it says the verse should be translated "For you will obey the Lord ..."
And Unger writes: "The divine redemptive program is not to be frustrated. God's grace will provide a remnant to fulfill the promises of restoration. Israel's disobedience and failure will not avail to overthrow God's purposes of grace."
In his classic work "Things To Come" by J. Dwight Pentecost, we see that this Covenant is unconditional and certain to be fulfilled. Pentecost writes:
"The Palestinian Covenant must be unconditional. It is called by God an eternal covenant in Ezekiel 16:60. This covenant has the guarantee of God that He will will effect the necessary conversion which is essential to its fulfillment. Romans 11:26-27; Hosea 2:14-23; Deuteronomy 30:6, Ezekiel 11:16-21 all make this clear. This conversion is viewed in Scripture as a sovereign act of God and must be acknowledged to be certain because of His integrity.
"From the original statement of the provisions of this covenant, it is easy to see that, on the basis of a literal fulfillment, Israel must be converted as a nation, must be regathered from her world-wide dispersion, must be installed in her land, which she is made to possess, must witness the judgment of her enemies, and must receive the material blessings vouchsafed to her. Since these things have never been fulfilled, and an eternal and unconditional covenant demands a fulfillment, we must provide for just such a program in our outline of future events."
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch (2/11)
