An Introduction to Biblical Covenants

Scripture Reading

Psalm 117 NIV84

1 Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. 2 For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.

Introduction

Come to Scripture… how do we put it together? A big picture overview.

Can introduce each covenant briefly - stipulate some main themes.

Note that covenants express the unfolding purposes of God

They allow us to understand God in relationship with His people.

We cannot truly understand the Scriptures is we don't understand the covenants of Scripture

We can’t really apply the Scriptures wisely to our lives if we don’t understand “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27),

Psalm 117

Within this Psalm, we have the very important truth of God's lovingkindness and faithfulness to Israel

The Psalm speaks of God's covenant relationship with His people.

1. Defining "Covenant"

Definition: "A covenant is a chosen relationship in which two parties make binding promises to each other." Schreiner, Thomas R..

A covenant is an elected, as opposed to a natural, relationship of obligation under oath.

Marriage...

It is an elected relationship...

Two parties decide that they will commit to one another.

They make certain commitments under obligations to one another...

Prov 2:17 speaks about the adulterous woman... “That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;” (Proverbs 2:17, NASB95)

““Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.” (Malachi 2:14, NASB95)

As we consider covenants in Scripture, we must recognise that this is what a covenant is...

Word in Hebrew - berit...

John Davies: notes that “the fundamental image behind each of the applications of ברית [bĕrît] is the use of familial categories for those who are not bound by ties of natural kinship.” Thus by a ceremony or (quasi-) legal process, people who are not kin are now bound as tightly as in any family relationship.

Relates to Covenants between people... or between God and man...

e.g. Gibeonites...

Joshua 9 - Gibeonites came to Israelites, lied to them...

They entered into covenant agreement with each other.

“Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.” (Joshua 9:15, NIV84)

Later they found out that these were locals... some wanted to put them to death.

But, because they had sworn an oath, they could not... that's how serious it was..

They did however make the Gibeonites to be wood-cutters and water carriers for them... put them to work for them.

The seriousness... seen much later...

“During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”” (2 Samuel 21:1, NIV84)

“The Lord’s anger was satisfied only after seven of Saul’s descendants were put to death in exchange for the evil inflicted on the Gibeonites (vv. 2–9).” Schreiner, Thomas R.

2. Covenants in the Ancient Near East

Two types of covenants were typical of that day...

1. The Suzerain-vassal treaty

Diplomatic treaty between a great king and client kings / vassals.

This reinforced the interests of the suzerain (great king) by arguments from history and oath-bound loyalties from the vassal (weaker) states

These were backed up by divine sanction...

Sections in the treaty...

1) The identification of the Suzerain by his name and titles;

2) The historical survey of the Suzerain's dealings with the vassal. The purpose is to illustrate to the vassal how much the Suzerain has done to protect and establish the vassal who therefore owes submission and allegiance to the Suzerain. These two sections are referred to as the "Preamble."

3) The next section of these treaties list the "stipulations." What the vassal is required to do is spelled out in principal and detail.

4) The last section of these treaties contains the blessings and curses of the Suzerain. If the stipulations are met by the vassal, he will receive the Suzerain's blessings, which are listed. If the vassal fails to meet the stipulations, he will receive the Suzerain's curses, which are also listed.

2. The Royal Charter or land grant

Involved a grant of property or even a privileged position of some office... priestly or royal

This privilege was given as a favor by a god or king...

Focused on honour and interpersonal relationship

Curses under this type of covenant were often directed at those that would try to take away what the king had granted to the person...

There are many striking similarities between the covenants that God enters into, and the covenants that were prevalent in that day.

That's not surprising. God'spoke to people in their day in a manner that they could easily relate to.

HOWEVER! - Two important points...

1 - Need not discover every feature of the genre or model in the biblical example

2 - They represent different emphases on a continuum....

Seriousness of covenants...

Already seen somewhat in the example of the Gibeonite situation....

But the seriousness is seen also in what is known as the cutting of the covenant

The word "cut" (Karath) in the Hebrew is usually used with Berit...

It speaks of "cutting a covenant."

The meaning behind this is the practice of taking an animal...

.... they would cut the animal in half... two pieces...

The blood would drain out onto the ground in the middle, as the two halves were laid on other side.

The parties would then walk barefoot through the middle of the cut animal, through the blood...

This signified the curse that would come upon them if they broke the covenant—​​​they would be sacrificed and slain for violating its provisions. Schreiner, Thomas R.

Difference Between Covenant and Contract

Occassion

Contract = expected benefit

Covenant = Desire for relationship

Initiative

Contract = Mutual agreement

Covenant = Stronger Party

Orientation

Contract = Negotiation / Thing-oriented

Covenant = Gift / Person-oriented

Obligation

Contract = Performance

Covenant = Loyalty

Termination

Contract = Specified

Covenant = Indeterminate

A covenant, commonly, is forever; a contract for a specified period. A ticking off of terms in check-list fashion can reveal a broken contract, and the point of brokenness can be clearly identified. A covenant, too, can be broken, but the point at which this transpires is less clear, because here the focus is not on stipulations, one, two, three, but on a quality of intimacy. Of all the differences between covenant and contract, the place in covenant of personal loyalty is the most striking. Gentry, P. J., & Wellum, S. J. (2018).

This leads us to consider the nature of biblical covenants...

The nature of Biblical Covenants

At the heart of covenant, then, is the relationship between parties characterized by faithfulness and loyalty in love. In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, a word pair is consistently used to express this notion: ḥesed and ’ĕmet. [Gentry, P. J., & Wellum]

hesed and emet...

ḥesed, has to do with showing kindness in loyal love.

’ĕmet, can be translated by either “faithfulness” or “truth.”

NASB - “For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 117:2, NASB95)

“For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.” (Psalm 117:2, NIV84)

You cannot separate the two words...

They belong together in a special and unique way...

Scripture Examples...

“He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”” (Genesis 24:27, NASB95)

“I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.” (Genesis 32:10, NASB95)

“Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;” (Exodus 34:6, NASB95)

““Now may the LORD show lovingkindness and truth to you; and I also will show this goodness to you, because you have done this thing.” (2 Samuel 2:6, NASB95)

“All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.” (Psalm 25:10, NASB95)

English.. by and large... can't explain by evaluating each of the two words individually, and then combining their meanings...

The combined term speaks of God demonstrating faithful, loyal love within the context of a covenant.

Turn to Genesis 47...

“Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness [hesed and emet...] . Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” “I will do as you say,” he said.” (Genesis 47:28–30, NIV84)

Here was a covenant relationship between two people...

There is an obligation for a stronger party to help a weaker party...

Fulfilment would demonstrate faithful, loyal love.

Note the relationship!

Now consider Psalm 117...

It's a call to praise Yahweh

The reason given for praise???

Hesed and emet...

Split over parallel lines... Hebrew parallelism.

Thus - the reason is God's faithful, loyal love with his covenant people.

It has been said that the celebration of this quality summarizes the entire Psalter...

That's what the entire book of Psalms is about - praising God for his faithful, loyal love.

NB!!! The question of relationships is handled in the Bible by one concept, one word: Covenant! And the question of an overall plan is handled by the sequence of significant covenants.

Story Line of Scripture

Often thought that Scripture is merely a collection of stories.

Reality is that Scripture is a single text, from a single source - God!

It's not a collection of books

Running through all books, single plot structure

Covenants constitute the framework of that larger story

There is only 1 God... He has made everything to rule over, for them to worship

Adam

First man and woman rejected this way... God no longer the centre.

Who takes the place of God? Me, myself and I

Chaos and evil have thus reigned since.

Noah

Sin had increased greatly on the earth.

Gen 6 - man has become exceedingly wicked on the earth...

“The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5, NIV84)

God says will destroy everything...

New start made

God enters into a covenant relationship with Noah...

Sadly... this also degenerated into a state of wickenesss.

Genesis 11 - tower of Babel

Genesis 11:4–8 NIV84

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

Abraham

God was to save the whole world through the seed of Abraham

Would turn him into a great nation.

“The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”” (Genesis 12:1–3, NIV84)

Moses

God started a project... start to bring all people back to himself.

Covenant given...

NOTE: The people of this nation would be a light for the surrounding nations

They would put into this world that was in chaos and selfishness, and they would be required to put on display the kindness and mercy of God.

They would be required to demonstrate to the rest of the world the dignity of humanity as created in the image of God.

They failed... covenant curses / blessings...

David

Israel failed to listen to God...

They also didn't want to live with God alone as their head... wanted a king.

The King was himself, as representative, to do what the nation failed to do.

This covenant promised sovereignty... to be ruled and led by an king that could be the representative of the people... but who would rule in righteousness and justice...

But there was also a failure on behalf of the King

New Covenant...

Due to the repeated failures (which were bound to happen) God promises a New Covenant

The purpose of the New Covenant is that all that had been promised by God under the various covenants would be brought to fulfilment under a new era where God's people would worship Him and serve him rightly... with a truly righteous and just head / king

Entire plotline goes along this.

The desire of this study is that we delve into the details of these various covenants as God presented them / established them.

We want to know how God has dealt with man; how man failed to live up to the requirements of God; how Christ ultimately brings to fulfilment all that God desires; and then in light of that, how we may live as the people of God to the glory of His name.

Importance / Application / Conclusion