Covenant In The Bible

In the Bible, there are many covenants, which are extremely significant ideas because through a series of covenants, God comes into people’s life and brings people together. The idea of the covenant has been described by Hugenberger as follows: “ A covenant, in its normal sense, is an elected, as opposed to natural, relationship of obligation under oath.” (Jefferey 10) His definition follows that of Mendenhall, who defines covenant more broadly as a “solemn promise made binding by an oath, which may be either a verbal formula or a symbolic oath.” Like a covenant, a contract is also a binding agreement between two parties that spells out the conditions and obligations of each party, and it also represents commitments, promises and obligations.

For instance, God protects and guides his people who are slaves in Egypt through covenants. Government creates laws to let everyone share equal rights and duties. This reveals that covenants and contracts are usually provided by the stronger side to protect the weaker side. Whereas, covenants are in a far more variety of forms. They can be conditional, unconditional or even own both characteristics. There are several conditional promises made to humanity by God, as revealed in Bible. In particular, I want to introduce the Mosaic Covenant, which is conditional based on the Ten Commandments given by God. This covenant, beginning in Exodus 19, contains the foundation of the written and oral Torah, as well as the promises from God to make the Israelites his special possession among all people and “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, if “[they] obey [God’s] voice and keep [his] covenant”. ( Exo 19:5) This covenant demonstrates that God requires absolute loyalty and obedience from his people. Israelites have to obey the commandments of the Torah in order to receive the blessing of God and finally fulfill the covenant. This means that the continual dwelling in the land is dependent on their obedience. Unlike the Mosaic Covenant, the Phinehas Covenant is unconditional, that is regardless of people’s obedience or disobedience, God still gives Phinehas an

As a sign to remind Noah and his descendants of his covenantal promise, God “set the rainbow in the cloud” (Genesis 9:12-13). Just as circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, the rainbow is the sign of the Noahic Covenant. This covenant always reminds us of God’s faithfulness and his amazing grace. God is a holy and righteous God who has a generous heart to forgive his people’s sins. Also, just as God provided a way for Noah and his family to be saved in the ark, He also has provided a way for us to be saved through Jesus Christ. Noah and his family were saved from the wrath of God that came in the flood. The covenants from God are made first with the nation of Israel and, ultimately, with all mankind due to God’s great love towards his