Unit 1C

Covenants

Covenants

An agreement or promise.• Every covenant involves:

1. what one side agrees to do2. what the other side agrees to

3. something that symbolizes the agreement• What would the three parts of the

covenant of a marriage be?

Covenants With Us

The Bible refers to five covenants: • The first is made through Noah• The second with Abraham• The third through Moses• The fourth with David• The last through Jesus. The covenant

through Jesus is sometimes referred to as the New Covenant or Testament.

Treaty Covenants:

• Are conditional and are weighted in favour of the more powerful party - God.

• Moses’ covenant (called the Mosaic covenant or Sinaitic covenant because it was made on Mt. Sinai) is a treaty that essentially protects the rights of God and imposes obligations upon Israel. These obligations (the 613 commandments) are more or less the conditions upon which the creator of the treaty, God, will offer protection to the people, Israel.

• Treaties are based on fear• The Mosaic covenant is made against the

backdrop of a smoking mountain (volcano?) and ear splitting thunder.

What is the true covenant?

Jesus asks us to treat everyone as a brother and a sister, much as we do when we are children. That seems to be our end of the bargain. It seems we get off too easy.

Grant Covenants

• are covenants of promise or grant covenants.

• They essentially protect the rights of the weaker party and are unconditional – imposing no (or minimal) obligations upon the weaker party.

• The remaining covenants, Noahic,

Abrahamic, Davidic and New Covenant are grant covenants

Grant Covenants cont.Grant covenants are based on love:

• - Out of love God sets aside our fear of another flood when God covenants with Noah against the backdrop of a rainbow.

• - Out of love, God chooses Abraham to be the patriarch of an entire race of people against the backdrop of a star-filled sky.

• - Out of love God promises David that his dynasty will last

forever against the backdrop of a time of peace and security.

• - Out of love, God promises all people that they will be united with him forever through Jesus Christ against the backdrop of Jesus’ loving sacrifice and his glorious resurrection.

Why did God made so many covenants?

• There is no easy answer • the covenants were made over a period of centuries and for

different reasons. • The Noahic covenant was made to reassure the world

that life would continue forever. • The Abrahamic covenant was made to set the identity of

Yahweh’s people and guarantee them a place in the world. • The Mosaic covenant was made to link fidelity to Yahweh

to God’s promises to Abraham. • The Davidic covenant was made to ensure political

stability in Judah because of David’s fidelity to Yahweh. • All four of the above covenants were made to bring about a

kind of heaven on earth, if only for the people of Israel.

What was wrong with the old covenants?

• of the four old covenants, two had been broken (Mosaic and Davidic) because of human weakness.

• the other two (Noahic and Abrahamic) were fulfilled for all time but failed to ensure a heaven on earth, so to speak.

• The Noahic covenant promised a continuation of the human race but no guarantees for world peace.

• The Abrahamic covenant promised a race of people and possession of the land of Canaan (Israel).

• But possession was made conditional in the Mosaic covenant.

What was wrong with the old covenants? ….cont

• In the New covenant, God promises something far greater than an earthly paradise. God promises his eternal presence – in heaven. We are invited to God’s home forever.

• The final covenant with Jesus, which is sealed by the cross, is the fulfillment of a true relationship with God, in the Kingdom of Heaven.

• This covenant promises good news. • That good news seems to be that we

misinterpreted the previous covenants……

God is Love and God wants you to know that love.

Could our perception and the reality be different?

• The covenants could be our perception of what God wanted from us in return from what we thought God wanted from us.

• In the Gospels, we are given an answer. When Jesus is asked, just what on Earth does God want us to do? We are told that God only wants us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and visit those in bondage.