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Covenant
by Greg Williamson (c) 2007
UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS
Introduction
Forgetting for a moment the fact that God intends marriage to be a lifelong commitment, covenant marriage represents a commendable attempt to bring stability and permanence to an institution in dire need of both. That is because by its very nature a covenant is a permanent, binding arrangement.
Our English word "covenant" is derived from a Latin term (convenire) meaning "to come together" and is akin to the word "convene." [2] The basic idea is that of a "formal, solemn, and binding agreement" between two (or more) parties "especially for the performance of some action." [3] A covenant usually involves two or more parties who come together in order to make a contract that involves "promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities." [4] Within the realm of politics, this is referred to as a treaty; in a social setting it can involve either a lifelong friendship agreement or a marriage. [5] The Bible's use of the word "covenant" to describe the relationship between God and humankind helps to highlight several vital truths:
A covenant is more than a mere legal contract. Whereas a contract is by its very nature a temporary arrangement, a covenant has no expiration date -- it is permanent. "Another difference is that a contract generally involves only one part of a person, such as a skill, while a covenant covers a person's total being." [7] The Bible mentions several specific covenants between God and man, which can be understood as the outworking of God's original, overarching covenant with all of creation.
Covenant in the Old Testament "Covenant" is used to translate the Hebrew word berith, meaning "treaty, agreement, alliance, covenant." [8] Although the origin of this word is a bit obscure, an examination of the context in which it is used -- including the covenant language of other ancient Near Eastern literature -- provides us with an accurate understanding of covenant in the OT. [9] In general, there are three distinct types of covenant:
For our purposes, we will be concentrating on the third and most important type of covenant, God's covenant with human beings.
God's Covenant with Creation "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (GENESIS 1:1). God's inspired, authoritative Word, the Bible, reveals how God spoke into existence from nothing the universe and everything in it, including the earth. By choosing to create, God voluntarily obligated himself to care for and protect all that he had created. [11] This is not unlike the relationship between a father and his child wherein the father, solely by virtue of his position as a parent, has certain moral and legal responsibilities, including the obligation to care for and protect the life he has created. Although the actual word "covenant" is not used, the idea and essence of it is clearly implied. The idea of God's covenant with creation is further supported by the fact that a covenant is intended not so much to establish a new relationship as to confirm one that is already in place. [12] [13] In other words, a covenant relationship between God and his creation was present even though explicit covenant language was not used to describe that relationship.
God's Covenant with Adam and Eve God then created the first man, Adam. After impressing upon him his need for a soulmate, God also created Eve. Once again the word "covenant" is not used but is very much implied, as the first human pair were commissioned as "masters over all life" (GENESIS 1:26) -- that is, they were to be vice-rulers of the earth with God, a role which carried with it certain social and cultural responsibilities. [14] Adam and Eve were given a beautiful garden home in which their every need was provided for. They were also given one command: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The command was meant to solicit obedience and the blessings that would accompany it: eternal life on paradise earth. The covenant relationship between God and our first parents was simple: obey God and live; disobey God and die. That, in its most basic terms, is the essence of all covenants between God and human beings. God himself is the initiator and sustainer of the covenant, and we "are called to accept it as offered, to keep it as demanded, and to receive the results that God, by oath, assures will not be withheld." [15]
When they chose to rebel against God's rightful rule, Adam and Eve violated their covenant with God, incurring the curses of a hard life followed by certain death. But although at that point God could have walked away from the human race, he chose instead to keep his covenant with us. "[God] came to the fallen, shamed, and humiliated image-bearers and set about restoring humanity to fellowship with and service for him." [16] This is a crucial point and one that we see repeated in every covenant relationship between God and man: by its very nature the covenant is both reliable and durable. [17] This is made possible not because we as fallen, sinful human beings are responsible for maintaining the covenant, but rather because a holy, righteous, perfect and powerful God has obligated himself to do so. As a part of that obligation, God announced that from the ranks of now fallen humanity would arise one who would crush the greatest enemy of both God and humanity, Satan (GENESIS 3:15).
God's Covenant with Noah Eventually the human race became so polluted that God had no choice but to wipe it out and start over. He did so by sending a worldwide flood to destroy every living thing -- except for Noah, his family, and an assortment of animals by which to repopulate the earth. Following the flood, God made a covenant with Noah in which he "promise[d] never to send another flood to kill all living creatures and destroy the earth" (GENESIS 9:11). Just prior to this promise, "God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, 'Multiply and fill the earth'" (GENESIS 9:1). Here God's blessing is linked with his command, and the "dominion language" forms a link back to God's original covenant with Adam and Eve. One additional major feature of the Noahic covenant is the establishment of human government, "which includes the responsibility of suppressing the outbreak of sin and violence." [18]
God's Covenant with Abraham Twenty-one centuries before Christ was born, God called a 75 year-old man named Abram to pack up his family and all their belongings, leave their friends behind, and trek several hundred miles south for a permanent relocation to a foreign land filled with hostile strangers. All with only the word of God to guide him (GENESIS 12:1-3). But what a word it was! God promised Abraham 1) a large tract of land where 2) a great nation would reside, a nation that would come from Abram's own loins, and a nation 3) through which the entire world would be blessed. [19] Those incredible promises formed half of God's covenant with Abram; the other half was the expected responses: "leave, go, fear not, walk before me, be blameless, circumcise, offer your son." [20] [21]
Herein is reflected the delicate balance between covenant obedience/blessings and covenant disobedience/curses through which the king of the universe chooses to dispense his mercy and grace. "An important aspect of the covenant in Genesis and later is that it is an agreement between unequals. God is the sovereign being who initiates the covenant, who announces its conditions to people and who rewards the human recipients of the covenant with promise and blessing." [22] While it's easy to emphasize God's promises and their associated blessings, we should be quick to remember that those "promises are not about the worthiness of the recipient. They are not even about the immediate evidence of God's pledge. Covenants are always about the faithfulness of the One making the promise." [23]
God's Covenant with Israel
As only he can, God orchestrated events so that Abraham's grandson, Jacob, and his family eventually found themselves living prosperously in Egypt, where they formed the first fruits of the Jewish nation. But, just as God had foretold, eventually the Israelites were enslaved. This enslavement forms the transition between the time of the patriarchs and what is commonly understood as the most important act of redemption in the entire OT: the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. [24] God called Moses -- an Israelite commoner who had been raised as an Egyptian prince -- to lead his people to freedom. Following their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, God used Moses to present the Israelites with a long list of laws designed to cover every facet of their life together as a new community of people set apart for the service and glory of God. Taken together, the individual stipulations formed the Law, which in turn played an indispensable part in God's written covenant with the nation of Israel. Now the covenant was in writing, making it both permanent and authoritative. [25]
Moses told the nation of Israel, "Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today. You will receive a curse if you reject the commands of the LORD your God and turn from his way by worshiping foreign gods" (DEUTERONOMY 11:26-28). Here we see even more clearly the "careful balance between promise and command, between God's initiative and Israel's required response." [26] Moses does not say that God's covenant is conditioned on the response of the Israelites. Rather, he says that their response to God's covenant will determine the quality of their lives. Only "those individuals of the covenant people of God who manifest a true and living faith (demonstrated by a godly life)" [27] can expect to receive the covenant blessings. The legalism, along with its accompanying pride and arrogance, that came to characterize certain members of the Jewish community was still centuries away. For now, the "Jews believed that they were elected by grace, that they were to respond to the historical expressions of [the LORD's] mercy through obedience to the law, that [the LORD's] blessing would follow obedience, that his judgments would follow their disobedience and that forgiveness for their transgressions could be found through repentance and sacrifice." [28]
There have been a number of comparisons made between the covenant given at Sinai and a type of political treaty common at that time. The Hittite suzerainty treaty was a legal document bestowed by a king (suzerain) upon his subjects. Although the laws that God gave to the nation of Israel go far beyond the standard Hittite treaty, the same basic pattern is clearly discernible in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. [29] [30] In this way God chose something that was already familiar to the Israelites -- and everyone else living in that part of the world -- as a means of communicating both the privileges and responsibilities associated with being God's chosen, covenant people. [31] The main features of the suzerainty treaty include:
God's Covenant with David "The Davidic covenant became necessary with the development of a new historical situation. The Israelite king was now the mediator between the Lord and his people. A covenant with this king thus became a necessity." [33] God promised King David, "Your dynasty and your kingdom will continue for all time before me, and your throne will be secure forever" (2 SAMUEL 7:16). God's covenant with David can be defined as "a sovereign and gracious administration by which the LORD anointed David and his house to establish his kingdom and effectually to bring about a kingdom of peace, glory, and blessing." [34] As the king of Israel, David "fortified Jerusalem, developed a centralized administration of government, fought off any invading forces, and was aggressive in establishing the peace of Israel." [35] By the end of his reign, David "had extended his kingdom to all areas of the land promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:18-19)." [36] Ultimately God's covenant with David was "a messianic prophecy of what God will do for the human race in the redemptive work of Christ." [37]
God's Covenant and the Prophets The word "covenant" is used several times by the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel). However, its relative absence among the minor prophets (Hosea thru Malachi), coupled with an emphasis on the Law, has led some to believe that the covenant vanished. This is far from the case, however. In fact, it is God's covenant relationship with Israel that forms the basis of his repeated chastisements for her having broken it (as evidenced by her violations of the Law), as well as his repeated pleadings for her to return to it. [39] "The fact that [the prophets] have pronounced threats when the law (of the covenant) is broken, but blessing and prosperity when the law (of the covenant) is kept, shows their special knowledge of the covenant form." [40] Eventually Israel's repeated forsaking of the one true God for other, false gods led to her being forcefully removed from the land of promise.
Covenant in the New Testament The primary Greek word for "covenant" is diatheke, which means "1. a disposition, arrangement, of any sort, which one wishes to be valid ... esp. the last disposal which one makes of his earthly possessions after his death, a testament or will. 2. a compact, covenant." [41] This definition reflects the fact that diatheke was most commonly used "in the sense of a will." [42] In contrast to "a partnership, a diatheke permitted an individual to dispose of possessions any way that person chose. The decision, once expressed in a will, could not be annulled by another party. But the will became effective only after the person making it died." [43] The epistle to the Hebrews builds on this idea, asserting that Jesus' death opened the door to a new covenant or binding will -- i.e., eternal life for those who place their faith in him. As indicated in the above definition, diatheke can also refer to "the verbal content of an agreement between two persons specifying reciprocal benefits and responsibilities." [44] This aspect provides a word picture that helps us understand the seriousness and permanence of a covenant. "In many societies, and particularly in tribal ones, a covenant is a very significant bond between persons. It may, in fact, be the most important and lasting interpersonal relationship. It is seldom entered into lightly, for in many societies a covenant binds a person for a lifetime and may even involve willingness to die for the sake of the covenantal relationship." [45]
The New Covenant
Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, "'But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,' says the LORD. 'I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people'" (JEREMIAH 31;33). On the eve of his sacrificial death, during the Passover celebration with his disciples, Jesus authoritatively proclaimed a (new) covenant centered on his body and blood (MARK 14:22-24). This covenant would be made possible as Jesus "took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing" (GALATIANS 3:13). [46] This is commonly understood as the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah. Some see a radical disjunction between the old covenant as found in the Law and the new covenant as found in Christ. While it's theoretically possible to interpret some of Paul's writings in such a way (e.g., Galatians; 1, 2 Corinthians), a much more balanced approach, and one more in keeping with both other of Paul's writings and the remainder of the NT, is to understand Paul as pointing out the inherent deficiencies of the old covenant (most especially the sinfulness of the human heart) as proof of the need for the new covenant now available in Jesus Christ. [47]
The epistle to the Hebrews presents the most extensive treatment of the new covenant. "Against the backdrop of the OT priestly sacrificial system and within the horizon of hope generated by biblical prophecy, Hebrews presents a sustained, expositional argument that identifies Jesus as the superior, heavenly and sinless high priest, the mediator of a new and better covenant." [48] Particularly in light of the anti-Semitism which, sadly, has at times characterized some sectors of Christendom, we do well to remind ourselves that in valuing the new covenant over the old, the "contrast is not between something evil (old covenant/Judaism) and something good (new covenant/Christianity) but between something good (old covenant) and something better (new covenant)." [49]
Jesus Christ forms the foundation and center of God's covenant with the human race. All things were created through Christ (COLOSSIANS 1:16). He is the one who, as predicted in the Garden of Eden, came to crush Satan's power over humankind. He is the descendant of Abraham who has for the past twenty centuries been a spiritual lighthouse for the entire world. He is the prophet like Moses but much greater than Moses. The elaborate system of atonement through which Israel's sins were forgiven was but a shadow of Jesus' sacrificial death at Calvary in which he became both the high priest and the lamb whose blood was slain for the sins of the world. Jesus is the perfect and obedient son that Israel could never be. Jesus is the king who today, this very instant, reigns in the hearts of millions of men, women and children, and who one day will return to establish his earthly kingdom. [50] SOURCES (Click on the title for more information.) Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible The Complete Who's Who in the Bible Dictionary of Biblical Imagery Dictionary of Paul and His Letters Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology Evangelical Dictionary of Theology Holy Bible, New American Standard Holy Bible, New Living Translation Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis The New International Dictionary of the Bible The Oxford Companion to the Bible |
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