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#2 The Church and
Covenants
On November 11, 1918, the Germans and
the allied forces signed what was known as an “armistice agreement” to end WW1.
The two warring factions were weary. They sat down and negotiated a treaty that said
“I will stop if you will.” By mutual agreement, the opposing forces laid down
their arms and went home. All was quiet on the Western front.
Twenty years later, war broke
out again. And on August 6, 1945, a bomber called the Enola Gay was dispatched to
drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It brought the nation to its knees and
they asked for peace.
The warring sides met to sign a
peace treaty on September 9, 945. But this was no “armis – tice agreement.”
This was a pact of unconditional surrender dictated by the Allies and signed by the
humbled nation of Japan.
The two treaties that ended
those two wars perfectly illustrate the concept of covenant that we find in the Bible.
The first treaty — the
armistice — was an “agreement between equals.” Both sides had a say, and
both sides got part of their way. The Bibles speaks of covenants like that —
agreements made between equal partners who “hammer out” a consensus.
(We should observe that
man-made agreements and covenants existed more than 25-hundred years before the time of
Christ….beginning with the famous Code of Hammurabi and stretching to the Hittite
empire).
But you will never find God
entering into an agreement like that. There are no equal partners with God.
That 2nd treaty — the one
signed in Tokyo — was different. It was
what the ancient called a suzerainty treaty: one imposed by a superior party over
an inferior.
This type covenant we see God making many
times in the Bible.
Biblical religion is covenant
religion. Biblical history is punctuated by God’s covenants with individuals and
peoples, and the teachings of the Old and New Testaments are set in a covenant framework.
The parity covenant was
a contract or mutual agreement between individuals who were in certain respects equals: as
Laban and Jacob in Gen. 31 or David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 18.
No covenant in which God is a
partner is conceived in this way, for human beings never initiate the covenant with God or
draw up the conditions of the relationship.
A partial covenant is
marriage, for God describes his relationship with Israel as a marriage (Hosea 1-3, Exek.
16).
God’s covenants with Noah,
Abraham, and David may be termed charters, in which God bound himself by oath to
grant certain favors to a chosen person and the people descended from or joined to that
person.
The 1st Covenant: God and
Noah
Genesis 9:8-11: "Then God said
to Noah and to his sons with him: {9} "I now establish my covenant with you and with
your descendants after you {10} and with every living creature that was with you--the
birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with
you--every living creature on earth. {11} I establish my covenant with you: Never again
will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to
destroy the earth.""
The first reference to a
covenant in the Bible occurs in the story of Noah and the flood (Gen. 6 and 9). Here God
gave his unconditional promise not to destroy again the world and its inhabitants by water
and placed the rainbow in the sky as the sign and reminder of his covenant with the
earth and all flesh.
The sign of the covenant
with Noah was the rainbow. The sign of the covenant with Abraham was circumcision,
and the phrase used in Acts 7:8 (“the covenant of circumcision”) shows
that understanding.
The covenant promise was
continued through Isaac and Jacob (Israel), as affirmed in 1 Chron. 16:14-17:
"He is the LORD our God; his
judgments are in all the earth. {15} He remembers his covenant forever, the word he
commanded, for a thousand generations, {16} the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he
swore to Isaac. {17} He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting
covenant:"
The Mosaic Covenant
We now move to what is commonly
called the 10 Commandments. It begins with this statement:
Exodus 20:1-3: "And God spoke
all these words: {2} "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of
the land of slavery. And then He begins: {3} "You shall have no other
gods before me."
The law was to be read to the
people every seven years (Deut. 31: 10-11). Twelve distinct curses were pronounced on
those who entered into the agreement but later chose not to abide by its conditions (Deut.
27-28).
God’s loving-kindness
– 7 times in OT connected with covenant
(Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV) "Know therefore that the LORD your God is
God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of
those who love him and keep his commands."
The Promise of a New
Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31-34: "The time is
coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah. {32} It will not be like the covenant I made with
their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they
broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD. {33}
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,"
declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I
will be their God, and they will be my people. {34} No longer will a man teach his
neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive
their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.""
(Hebrews 8:8 NIV) "But God found fault with the people and said
: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah."
The new covenant will
not be like the covenant made at the time of the Exodus and mediated by Moses. The Lord is
our God and we are His people — that is the same!
1. The law would be written on
the hearts of the people, instead of tablets of stone, so that they would all know the
Lord.
2. The basis of this relationship is
that the Lord will pardon our iniquities and remember our sins no more.
* The difference? Not in what
God requires, but in the internalizing of his law and in the means of the forgiveness for
violation.
From our study of Hebrews:
1. Covenant spoken of by Jeremiah is
connected in Heb. 8:8-12 to Christ and his sacrificial death.
2. Christ is the mediator (cpt. 9),
guarantor (7:22), of a new and better covenant (Heb. 8:6-10).
3. The old covenant didn’t have
a basis for once-for-all forgiveness (9:12-15; 10:4).
4. This new covenant brings the Holy
Spirit, who writes the law of God on the heart
(2 Corinthians 3:2 NIV) "You yourselves are our letter, written on
our hearts, known and read by everybody."
(2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV) "He has made us competent as ministers of a
new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life."
(Galatians 3:14 NIV) "He redeemed us in order that the blessing
given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we
might receive the promise of the Spirit."
(Romans 10:13-14 NIV) "for, "Everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved." {14} How, then, can they call on the one they have not
believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can
they hear without someone preaching to them?"
(Galatians 4:4-5 NIV) "But when the time had fully come, God sent
his Son, born of a woman, born under law, {5} to redeem those under law, that we might
receive the full rights of sons."
Covenant language
We should approach the Bible wearing
“covenant glasses.” From first to last, this is a treaty — or a series of
treaties God made with His people.
Question and an answer—and
the lesson is yours for further meditation: * If a person is precious and special in
covenant, what of God’s relationship with those outside? What relationship do
non-covenant people have with Yahweh? Read
Ephesians 2:1-10.
Because this is true, it is
vital that we are in covenant and that we understand the covenant we are in.
Last modified:
July 10, 2008
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