Chinnapparaj D.

Paul
PENTATEUCH Theology Second Year
Professor Rev. Fr. Arni SMIRS
Visitacion

COVENANTS IN THE PENTATEUCH

1. INTRODUCTION

In General Covenant is an agreement between two people and involves promises on

the part of each to the other. The concept of a covenant between God and His People
is one of the central themes of the Bible. In the Biblical sense, a covenant implies much
more that a contract or a simple agreement between two persons or parties.

The word for “Covenant” in the Old Testament also provides additional insight into the
meaning of this important idea. The English word "covenant" obviously means "to come
together", and is derived from the Latin con "with", venio "to come", and is cognate with
such words as "convention" and "convenient" where the basic idea of "coming together"
either of persons, or the fitness and aptness of circumstances underlies the meaning
and usage of such words. The Hebrew word "covenant" is berith, and this word refers
to something that has been "cut". (http://www.heavendwellers.com/hd_covenant.htm)

But when we hear the meaning as “cut” really we won’t understand it really. But in the
Hebrew, the covenant or the berith was confirmed by sacrifice and a reference to
Jeremiah 34:18,19 will show what lies behind the choice of this expression. We learn
that Zedekiah the king had made a covenant with all the people which were at
Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them, but afterwards the king and the people turned
and caused the servants who had been set free to become bond slaves again (Jer.
34:8-11). To these men who had thus violated their covenant, Jeremiah addressed
these words: "And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, which have
not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before Me, WHEN
THEY CUT THE CALF IN TWAIN, and passed through the pieces thereof" (Jer. 34:18).
By means of this strange ceremony, the contracting parties seem to say "The Lord do
so to me and more also, if I keep not my promise".

Covenant plays an important role in the life of Israel. Among many major and minor
covenants in the Bible we will just see about Three important Covenant in the Old
Testament.

2. GOD’S COVENANT WITH NOAH

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2.1. Context:

Centuries before the time of Abraham, God made a covenant with Noah, assuring Noah
that He would never again destroy the world by flood (Genesis 9).

Noah lived at a time when the whole earth was filled with violence and corruption – yet
Noah did not allow the evil standards of his day to rob him of fellowship with God. He
stood out as the only one who “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9), as was also true of his
great-grandfather Enoch (Genesis 5:22). “Noah was a just man, perfect in his
generations” (Genesis 6:9). The Lord singled out Noah from among all his
contemporaries and chose him as the man to accomplish a great work.

When God saw the wickedness that prevailed in the world (Genesis 6:5), He told Noah
of His intention to destroy the ancient world by a universal flood. God instructed Noah
to build an ark in which he and his family would survive the universal deluge. Noah
believed God “according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22).

With steadfast confidence in God, Noah started building the ark. During this time, Noah
continued to preach God’s judgment and mercy, warning the ungodly of their
approaching doom. But people did not listen to him, instead, they continued in their evil
ways and ignored his pleadings and warnings until the flood overtook them. When the
ark was ready, Noah entered in with all kinds of animals “and the Lord shut him in”
(Genesis 7:16, cut off completely from the rest of mankind.

Noah was grateful to the Lord who had delivered him from the flood. After the flood, he
built an altar to God (Genesis 8:20) and made a sacrifice, which was accepted
graciously by God.

2.2. Content:

 God so pleased with the sacrifice of Noah and makes covenant with him.
 Breed and multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1 ,7)
 Every living thing that moves will be yours (Genesis 9:3)
 He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed (Genesis 9:6)
 Never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood (Genesis
9:11)

2.3. Concerned Persons:

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I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, and
with every living creature and that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with
you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. (Genesis 9: 9 – 10)

2.4. Connected Sign:

And this is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and
every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it
will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9:12)

3. GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

3.1. Context:

Abraham’s story begins with his passage with the rest of his family from Ur of the
Chaldeans in ancient south Babylonia (Genesis 11:31). He and his family moved north
along the trade routes of the ancient world and settled in the prosperous trade center of
Haran, several hundred miles to the northwest. While living in Haran, at the age of 75,
Abraham received a call from God to go to a strange, unknown land that God would
show him. The Lord promised Abraham that He would make him and his descendants
a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). The promise must have seemed unbelievable to
Abraham because his wife Sarah was childless (Genesis 11:30-31; 17:15). Abraham
obeyed God with no hint of doubt or disbelief.

Abraham took his wife and his nephew, Lot, and went toward the land that God would
show him. Abraham moved south along the trade routes from Haran, through
Schechem and Bethel, to the land of Canaan. Canaan was a populated area at the
time, inhabited by the war-like Canaanites; so, Abraham’s belief that God would
ultimately give this land to him and his descendants was an act of faith. “Abram put his
faith in Yahweh and this was reckoned to him as uprightness.” (Genesis 15:6).

The circumstances seemed quite difficult, but Abraham’s faith in God’s promises
allowed him to trust in the Lord. In Genesis, the Lord reaffirmed His promise to
Abraham. The relationship between God and Abraham should be understood as a
covenant relationship – the most common form of arrangement between individuals in
the ancient world. In this case, Abraham agreed to go to the land that God would show
him (an act of faith on his part), and God agreed to make Abraham a great nation
(Genesis 12:1-3).

For his faithfulness and righteousness, for the first time in the history, God explicitly and
in a proper way like human being makes covenant with Abraham. “He (God) said to

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him, ‘Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram,
a turtledove and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these, split the animals down the
middle and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not divide.”
(Genesis 15:9-10) “When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking
firepot and a flaming torch passing between the animals’ pieces.” (Genesis 15:17) The
covenant was systematic and proper. “That day Yahweh made a covenant with
Abraham in these terms: ‘To your descendants I give this country, …” (Genesis 15:18).

3.2. Content:

 I will give you descendants like stars of heaven (Genesis 15:5)

 I will give your descendants the land from the River of Egypt to the Great River
(Genesis 15:18)
 Your descendants will be taken into slavery but I will save them (Genesis 15:13)
 You will join your ancestors in peace (Genesis 15:15)

3.3. Concerned Persons:

This covenant is made between God and Abraham, through God speaks about the
giving of the land to the descendants of Abraham but he makes this covenant with
Abraham personally.

3.4. Connected Sign:

As a sign of the covenant in chapter 17 God asks “ … every one of your males must be
circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and that will be the sign of
the covenant between myself and you” (Genesis 17:10b-11).

4. GOD’S COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

4.1. Context:

The Israelites moved to Egypt during the time of Joseph. “Then there came to power in
Egypt a new king who had never heard of Joseph,” (Exodus 1:8) and turned Israelites
into common slaves. The people cried out to the God of their forefathers. “So God
heard their groaning, and God remembered covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24). He chooses Moses, appears to him in a burning bush, and
commissions him for this great task as a mediator between him and his people. After a
series of ten plagues upon the land of Egypt, God brought the Israelites out “of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand” (Exodus 32:11).

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Three months after leaving the land of Egypt, the children of Israel camped at the base
of Mount Sinai (Exodus (19:1). God promised to make a covenant with the Israelites
(Exodus 19:3-6). Before they even knew the conditions of the contract, the people
agreed to abide by whatever God said (Exodus 19:8).

4.2. Content:

 No other gods but Me

 Do not take the name of the Lord in vain
 Observe the Sabbath
 Honor your father and mother
 Do not kill
 Do not commit adultery
 Do not steal
 Do not give false witnesses
 Do not covet

4.3. Concerned Persons:

This covenant was made “Between myself (God) and the Israelites…” (Exodus 31:17a)

4.4. Connected Sign:

As a first sign “Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it over the people, saying, ‘This
is the blood of the covenant which Yahweh has made with you, entailing all these
stipulations.” (Exodus 24:8) As a second sign God asks “The Israelites will keep the
Sabbath, observing the Sabbath for all their generations to come: this is an eternal
covenant. Between myself and the Israelites, this is a sign for ever….” (Exodus 31:16-17).

5. COMPARISON

In all the three covenants the initiation comes from God. It is God who voluntarily
comes down, out of love, and makes covenant with his people. In all the three covenant
God separates his people from the other people of nations. There is specific sign is
given in all the three covenants. In the first covenant with Noah the sign is his bow, in
the second covenant with Abraham it is circumcision and in the third covenant with the
people of Israel it is the blood of the lamb and asks the people to keep holy the Sabbath
as a sign of the Covenant. In all the three covenants God promises that he would be
steadfast in keeping up the covenant. He makes the covenant in order to have an
eternal relationship with his chosen ones.

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If we see as differences, the first covenant is with Noah, animals and nature which
means it is with the whole universe. So it can also be called universal covenant. In the
second covenant it is with God and with his faithful servant Abraham it is something
personal where as if we take the third covenant it is with the people of Israel whom he
chose for himself. The second differences we see in these three covenants are: the first
two covenants speak of blessings and there are not much conditions or curses. The
blesses them to breed and multiply and fill the earth and he promises to give the land
for the descendants but where as in the third covenant there are conditions,
commandments. Blessings are given in the fulfillment of the commandments. If they
don’t follow the commandments there are curse. In the first two covenants God directly
makes covenant with Noah and Abraham where as in the third covenant God choses
Moses as a mediator between him and the people of Israel and Moses proves that God
is right in choosing him as a mediator and he does his job excellently. The covenant of
God with the people of God comes as the fulfillment of all the other covenants which
God made before.

6. CONCLUSION

All these covenants prefigure the New Covenant in one way or the other. In the new
covenant it is between God and his New Israel. Here the sign that God places in the
clouds is not the bow but his own son who will be coming in the clouds. The covenantal
seal is not just the blood of lamb but the blood of Christ who intercedes before the
throne of God. That’s why Jesus said “This cup is the new covenant in my blood
poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20) Jesus plays a role of New Moses in the covenantal
relationship between God and his beloved people, the church. Noah became the
Father of the New Creation, savior of the whole creation through whom God carried out
the salvation of the universe, in the case of Abraham he became the Father of all the
nations through his faith. And in the new covenant Jesus becomes the ‘first born of all
creation.’ (Colossians 1:15) Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Old Covenants.