Covenants of the Old Testament - Research Paper Example

of Lecturer 19 October Covenants of the Old Testament The term, Covenants of the Old Testament as used in the Hebrew Bible is the communal agreement between two or more individuals to do something and the covenant could be conditional or unconditional as each covenant actually varies depending on the circumstances that surround the making of the covenant. Based on the subject matter, covenant as used in the Hebrew Bible could be said to mean an agreement that binds man to God. “Sometimes we seem to get the impression that there were different covenants with different people in different eras, like the Abrahamic covenant or the Davidic covenant. Whether it is one covenant expressed in different contexts and hence different forms, or it is different covenants with different persons, depends to a certain extent on individual interpretations” (Poon 42). God has made covenants with certain persons in the Hebrew Bible and some of these covenants could be unconditional or could clearly depend on the loyalty or fidelity of the human partner. God established covenants with notable people in the bible like Noah, Abraham, Moses and David (Brueggemann 91). It is important to note which of the covenants that God established with these persons in the Hebrew Bible that is unconditional and the ones that are conditional. In the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Noah after he (God) had used flood to destroy the people of the earth except Noah and his family. According to the bible, God told Noah that, I solemnly promise you and your children and the animals you brought with you- all these birds and cattle and wild animals- that I will never again send another flood to destroy the earth. And I seal this promise with this sign: I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise until the end of time, to you and to all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, and I will remember my promise to you and to every being, that never again will the floods come and destroy all life. For I will see the rainbow in the cloud and remember my eternal promise to every living being on the earth. Gen. 9:8-17 In the covenant that God made to Noah, it is clear that God did not like the fact that he had to destroy the people that he created with flood and due to the love that he had for Noah and his family, he had to establish this covenant with Noah and his generation. God promised not to open the floodgates of heaven and use water to destroy the world again. He promised that he would not destroy humans and animals with flood as he told Noah that the rainbow that appears in the cloud is the sign of the covenant that he (God) made with Noah and his generation. The rainbow shows that, to every covenant, there is a sign. The rainbow is also a reminder to man of God’s promise never to use flood to destroy the world again. This covenant could also be referred to the covenant of the preservation of life (Harris & Platzner 14). God gave Noah this covenant to assure him of his steadfast love for the human race. However, it should be noted that, the covenant that God made with Noah is an unconditional one as it did not in any way depend on the fidelity of the human partner. At this point, it is also pertinent to take a look at the covenant that God made with Abraham, who was a descendant of Noah. Abraham was a man of faith; he was a man that walked with God. As a result of Abraham’s faithfulness, God had to establish a covenant with him. God bestowed a great blessing upon Abraham that has made people to be blessed through him. In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, God tells Abram (as his name was called then) that, “I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish to the Euphrates River. And I give to them these nations: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim. Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites.” (Gen. 15:18-21). This was the covenant that God established with Abraham and his seeds forever. It should be noted that, before God makes a covenant with an individual, there must have been something that must have prompted it. It was Abraham’s faithfulness and righteousness that prompted God to bestow great blessings upon him and his generations forever. Like the covenant that God made with Noah, there was also a sign that followed the covenant that God established with Abraham. One sign was that, God had to change Abram’s name to Abraham as he promised to make him a father unto many nations. Another sign was that God took Abraham outside in the night on a particular day and told him to count the stars if he can and he promised him that, as long as he was unable to count the number of stars in the sky his descendants would be innumerable. The covenant that God made with Abraham was actually unconditional as it did not depend on the fidelity of the human partner. In order to have an inheritance in the blessing of Abraham, his descendants had to be circumcised as any uncircumcised ‘seed’ of Abraham does not have any inheritance in his blessing. Thus the seal of the covenant was circumcision of all the male offspring and any of Abraham’s male seed that is not circumcised has violated the terms of the agreement that God had with Abraham and is not liable to receive or share the blessings that was bestowed upon Abraham. Thus, the covenant of blessings that God gave to Abraham and his descendants is unconditional but it is with a seal and seeds of Abraham must not violate the terms of the seal. God just wanted the circumcision to be a kind of sign of his promise to Abraham’s seeds and his seeds must be circumcised in order to be partakers of the blessings (Harris & Platzner). Another covenant that must be looked into is the one that God established with Moses as he led the Israelites through the wilderness. The covenant that God made with Moses and the Israelites is usually called the Sinaitic covenant as it was actually made after the children of Israel left Egypt and sojourned through Mount Sinai. In this covenant, God told the Israelites that, he would make them his little flock. The Israelites would be God’s chosen nation. Out of many nations of the earth, Israel was God’s favorite and this was due to the covenant that God established with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “And you shall be a kingdom of priests to God, a holy nation” (Exo. 19:6). This was God’s covenant with the people of Israel as given through Moses. The people of Israel would benefit from this covenant, if only they would obey God’s laws and ordinances. Thus, if the Israelites disobeyed God in any way they have violated the terms of the agreement that God had with them. It is on this note that, the covenant that God had with the people of Israel through Moses could be described as a conditional one as it depends on the fidelity of the human partner. Obedience to God’s laws and ordinances was the only thing that would make the Israelites to have a portion in God’s blessing. This was the reason that he gave them the Ten Commandments in the twentieth chapter of the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible and the Israelites must obey these laws in order to be God’s own nation indeed. The Mosaic covenant is seen more like a covenant that was established between an influential ruler and his weak subordinate. This is not to say that, God forced the Israelites to heed to his word and obey his laws, but he wanted them to live right and enjoy the inheritance that he had promised their fathers. The Israelites would be blessed if they obey God and they would be given a curse if they break the covenant that God had established with their fathers before them. Thus, the covenant between God and the Israelites, through Moses was a conditional one (Harris & Platzner). The last covenant to be considered is the one that God made with David. This covenant is usually regarded as the Messianic covenant as it was the promise of the Messianic salvation that was to come through the loins of David. God promised that, the savior of the world (Jesus Christ) would come through David’s dynasty (2Sam. 23:5). The covenant that God made with David would be appreciated if one looks at the book of Psalms, “I have made a solemn agreement with my chosen servant David. I gave taken an oath to establish his descendants as kings forever on his throne, from now until eternity!” (Psalm 89:3-4). The implication of this bible passage is that God established a covenant with David that was going to last forever. The covenant that God made with David was an unconditional one as the promise of making great kings from David’s lineage would last forever (Harris & Platzner 15-17). This was the reason that God had to send his son, Jesus Christ to spring out from the root of David. God fulfilled his promise of making great kings out of David and eventually the King of Kings in the New Testament. There was no condition attached to the covenant that God made with David, except that he said that, he would punish his (David) offspring if they disobey, but that does not mean that he would stop loving them. It should be noted that, the covenant that was made with Noah is regarded as the covenant of grace as God was trying to tell Noah that no matter the sins that his offspring commit, he would never use flood to destroy them as he did before. The covenant that God made with Abraham was also a covenant of grace and blessing. Though, it could still be argued that the covenant that was made with Abraham was a conditional one, the fact remains that, it is only very few of Abraham’s seeds that might not have met the condition of being circumcised as it has become a tradition for the seeds of Abraham to become circumcised (Lee 78). On that basis, one would also be right if one refers to the covenant that God made with Abraham as a conditional one. The Mosaic covenant is the one that is actually based on conditions as it depended wholly on the loyalty of the humans involved. The Mosaic covenant depended on the faithfulness of the Israelites in keeping God’s ordinances. The Davidic covenant is regarded as the fifth covenant according to the text and it has great relevance in New Testament Theology (Harris & Platzner 17). The Davidic covenant is regarded as the Messianic and fifth covenant and God actually made this covenant with David in order to bring salvation to the world by promising that the Messiah would be a Son of David. The New Testament evolved from this Davidic covenant as certain events that took place in the New Testament were actually fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David. This was the reason that Jesus Christ was usually regarded as the Son of David anywhere he went to. David was described as a man after God’s own heart and this was the reason that, the creator of heaven and earth promised to make his kings to sit on the throne forever. God’s throne was in heaven and the earth was his footstool and he promised to make out of the earth, great kings from the loins of David (Harris & Platzner 17). The fact remains that the last covenant in the Bible was the Davidic covenant and it was actually the foundation that the New Testament was built upon. Works Cited Brueggemann,Walter. Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997. Print Harris, Stephen & Platzner, Robert. The Old Testament An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible 2nd Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. Print Lee, Lyle. Five Covenants: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. 2005. New York: Macmillan, 2007. Print Poon, Meng Seng. Missiological survey of Old Testament: an introductory guide. Singapore: Jethro Life Skills Pte Ltd Singapor, 2002. Print The Living Bible. Jet Move Publishing, 2009. Print Read More