Covenant Class, Lesson 7

The Covenant Relationship Lesson Seven

The Bible contains two major blocks of literature called the Old Testament and the New Testament, or the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.  This might create the impression that there are only two covenants.  However, the Bible records several covenant relationships between God and people.

 

1. Noah:  The early chapters of Genesis show the separation of man “from” God, starting with Adam and Eve.  This changes when Noah is separated “for” God from the rest of sinful humanity.  In 6:18, God has already declared His intention to send a destructive flood but determines to establish a covenant with Noah.  This requires Noah’s “chesed” in building the ark and gathering the animals.  God responds in kind by superintending the flood and bringing His covenant-partner to safety.  After the flood subsides in 9:9ff., God again establishes the covenant and includes future generations of Noah’s descendants and all animals as well.  Some see these as two separate covenants, but it is better to see them as developments of one basic covenantal relationship.  The rainbow is given as the sign of the covenant, which will forever remind God of His promise never to again destroy the earth (with water).  The covenant blessing is “salvation”, setting a trend for future covenants.  The “everlasting” covenant endures in significance until the “day of the Lord” spoken of by Peter (2 Peter 3:12-13), when the present world will be destroyed with fire.  We, even in the present day many centuries since, look to the bow in the Heavens to find a gracious God who loves and cares for us.

 

2. Abraham:  Like Noah, Abraham is set apart “for” God.  As with Noah, God is said on numerous occasions to establish a covenant with Abraham, which leads some (including Alexander Campbell) to consider each development to be a separate covenant (like separate “treaties”).  Again, it is better to see them as the several expressions and developments of one covenant relationship.

 

The only stated requirement is that the male descendants and male slaves, at eight days of age, must receive the sign of the covenant—circumcision.  However later, descendants are criticized for lacking the faith of Abraham, as though physical circumcision was deficient in terms of “keeping covenant” apart from the faith of Abraham, which constituted “circumcision of the heart” (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; Rom. 2:29).  There is with Abraham’s covenant a curious “shadowing” in which the visible, physical elements of both circumcision and the covenant promises seem to be mere shadows of spiritual, invisible realities.

 

The dramatic covenant-entrance ritual between God and Abraham is narrated in Gen. 15:4-21.  Abraham has doubts over the trustworthiness of God’s promises.  So God commands him to provide the “clean” sacrificial animals later required for priestly sacrifice under Moses (heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, and pigeon).  These are split in two (except the birds), and Abram guards them from the “unclean” birds of prey until sundown.  Abram slips into a deep and fitful sleep, during which God foretells the Egyptian captivity and exodus his descendants will suffer through and promises Abram a long life that will come to an end with a burial.  After sunset (i.e. the beginning of a new day), a “smoking oven and a flaming torch” (though seemingly similar, these words are different than the “pillar of cloud/fire” that led Israel through the wilderness) pass between the animal halves and immediately the declaration follows:  “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram…”  (Gen. 15:18).

 

The significance of these events is merely suggested.  The common ritual for human covenant partners required BOTH to pass through the parts of the animal victims, with the frightening implication that such would be the like-fate of any covenant breaker (Jer. 34:18-19).  In Jeremiah, it had been the covenant-breakers who made a covenant with God and walked between the split carcasses.  In the case of the covenant with Abraham and God, only God is seen to pass through!  Jay Guin suggests that the implication is that Abraham (with descendants in his covenant community) is not under the usual threat of penalty; God assumed this for himself and so the covenant is distinctly a covenant of grace.  Even so, the blessings of Abraham’s covenant would be forfeited by his “physical descendants” who were not also his “spiritual descendants” by having a faith akin to that of Abraham (Rom. 4:12; 9:7, 27; 11:19-20).  Forfeiture of blessings also stands for males who fail to be circumcised.  It is curious, though of uncertain significance, since the divine manifestations passed between the animal parts after sunset, that therefore this event took place on a different day.  Perhaps the only intent was to provide a vivid nighttime display.

 

If Paul were hard pressed to set forth the most significant covenant contained in the Old Testament, it would not have been to covenant with Moses.  It would clearly have been the one with Abraham.  Paul understood the Mosaic covenant to be of limited duration and significance, while the Abrahamic covenant had enduring eternal duration and significance so that the blessings promised to Abraham could later be “spiritualized” and extended incredibly beyond the initial promises:

·        The “Promised Land” transfers from Canaan to Heaven

·        The descendants transfer from physical to spiritual, those of faith instead of those (merely) of the same flesh

·        The blessing to all nations becomes bound up with the Gospel

Paul’s chief opponents were “Judaizing” Christians who tried to force Gentile Christians under the Mosaic covenantal obligations—such as circumcision, keeping Torah, and dietary restrictions.  Paul typically countered this denigration of the true Gospel by insisting on prior, more foundational and more authoritative obligations bound up in the Abrahamic covenant.  The obligations under Moses were thus set aside.

 

God’s self-imposed obligations/promises to the Abrahamic covenant include:

·        To make of him a great nation, with descendants beyond number, beginning with an immediate heir (Isaac, not Ishmael).

·        To make his name great.

·        To make him a blessing, not only of all those who bless Abraham, but also a blessing to all the families of the earth.  Likewise, God will curse those who curse him.

·        To give the “promised land” (Canaan, a “land flowing with milk and honey”) to his descendants, but only after the “iniquity of the Amorite” is topped up.

·        To watch over Abraham, his family, and descendants protectively (as a “shield”) through his life journey.

Abraham’s obligations, imposed by God, include:

·        Obeying God’s command to leave his homeland for an unknown destination.

·        To “believe” God, implying trust, obedience, and faithfulness.

·         To provide the covenant-entrance ritual of split sacrificial animals.