The Covenant of All Covenants
A covenant is an agreement between two or more individuals or groups that establishes their relationship between each other. According to David Dean (2014), an understanding of covenant is essential to understand the scriptures and God's interaction with human kind, nation of Israel, and the church.Throughout the scriptures, there are at least six different covenants that God created with certain people during the canonical history. Each covenantal relationship that was created, set up for the next one to be established and fulfilled (Barrick, 1999). The covenants that are extensively emphasized are the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and new covenant. In each of these covenants, God initiates, establishes, and fulfills the covenants either with a person, a group of people, or the whole world conditionally or unconditionally.The biblical concept of covenant involves God’s promises to certain individuals, people, and the world. As each is made, the next becomes even more detailed than the previous in the commitment of all of creation being saved through the Abrahamic lineage.
The Adamic Covenant
In the Adamic Covenant, there is part 1 and part 2, which is before and after sin and death entered the world. In the first part of it, God gave the task to have dominion and consecrate the earth.
“Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV)
Through our dominion, man was given the task to replenish the earth. According to the Hebrew transliteration, the word “replenish” has a synonym which is “consecrate”. Consecrate means to make or declare sacred; set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29 (NKJV)
God being a holy celestial creator, cannot walk anywhere without His holy fire cleansing the places He walks through. So, God gave the job to man for the earth to be a holy place, so that He could dwell and fellowship with His creation. Part 1 of the covenant was created for fellowship. Because of man's sin and betrayal towards God, God himself initiated another covenant with man and made the plan for redemption to go into effect.
The Noahic Covenant
The response that God made to seeing humanity fall from grace, was to create a newer covenant. In the Noahic covenant, God initiates his covenant with Noah and his family with promises of blessings. then he reaffirms man’s role on the earth and gives instruction about how to treat every living creature. God reveals that even though he knows that the imagination of the heart of man is evil from a young age, refuses to place another curse on all creation and commands the earth to flourish and do what it was made to do (Genesis 8:22) He still chose to reaffirm his command originally given to Adam and Eve, with an addition to the consequences of one’s actions whether they be good or bad. (Genesis 9:1-17) As well as promising to never flood the earth again and reinitiates the original promise given to Adam in the beginning and toward all his creation. God was setting up certain laws to as part of the moral and ethical value system embedded in his nature.
‘So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.”’ (Genesis 9:1-5 NKJV)
And a sign was given as a show of his promise of the covenant, which was a rainbow in a cloud. God fulfilled his part of the covenant by keeping the promises he made to Noah and the rest of humanity by not destroying the earth again with a flood despite the extensiveness of wickedness seen in the world.
The Abrahamic Covenant
As we get to the Abrahamic Covenant, we see that God’s direction is becoming narrower than the previous. Prior to this covenant, God was speaking directly to one person and his lineage.
According to Genesis 12:1-9, God reveals to Abraham that God initiated it by promising Abraham that he was going to bless all of creation through his descendants.
Genesis 12:2 says, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”
The covenant was first introduced when God came to him in a dream and made certain promises to him as evidence of the covenant he wants to make. Genesis 16:13-21 gives evidence to the fact that God inaugurated the covenantal process through the sacrificing of an animal and circumcision of all the males under Abraham so that the fulfillment of the promises made would come to pass. As a sign of the covenant, God blessed Abraham with the son he was promised. God affirmed an unalterable purpose in the unconditional promises given to Abraham of Israel’s continuation as a nation and possession of the promised land so that God can do his work in redeeming mankind (Walvoord, 1945). According to the covenant, Abraham will be made a great nation, he will be blessed, be a blessing, protected by God blessing and cursing others according to how they would treat him, and through him all the families of the earth will be blessed. Not only was Abraham given the son of promise, which was Isaac, he was also blessed with several other children who built nations of their own. Currently, we only know of seven of his children, as the children of his concubines were not mentioned, nor the concubines themselves (Genesis 25:1-6)
The Mosaic Covenant
The creation of the Mosaic Covenant started off by God at Mount Sinai and extended throughout the forty years in the wilderness, in which laws were given to the Israelites to follow to fulfill their purpose in being the light to the nations. What makes this covenant different from all the others is that it is classified as a Suzerian-Vassal type covenant where the authority exists only on God (Barrick, 1999). It is a direct result and reaffirmation of the covenant made by Abraham, which has come to pass along with Israel becoming a great nation (Vasholz, 2004). The extent of the covenant made is seen in Exodus 20-31, in which through the covenant, laws were set in place. This covenant is conditional because Walvoord (1945) states that it was considered only to be for a certain period because it was to continue until the coming of the promised seed as well as, the blessings and cursing were also given, as the outcome of when they obeyed or disobeyed them. It was made so that the people of Israel could mirror the glory and holiness of God through the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. The fulfillment of this covenant is seen as blessings were showered upon them when they were obedient to the law and cursing when they were disobedient. This covenant was created for the people directly under the Abrahamic covenant to live a life reflecting the God they serve, who is a holy and gracious God. They were given the chance to be able to speak to God just as Moses did with God, but His presence was too intense for them because all they knew were how to follow religious and ritualistic laws being enslaved by a foreign people for 400 years.
Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was (Exodus 20:18-21 ESV)
They refused the first ever chance as a people to hear God personally and intimately the way their forefathers heard from and walked with God. Instead, they simply accepted the laws without the personal relationship. Without it, following the laws would result in the judgements regarding their actions. With the law and relationship together, the law would be in their hearts and the Holy Spirit would be moving them to walk according to the right path.
The Davidic Covenant
The Davidic covenant includes the promise of a seed, a kingdom, a great name, a place for the people, rest from his enemies, and a house for the Lord (Grisanti, 1999). It is a continuation of God’s covenant with Israel, yet more specified. In which David’s lineage was going to bless all of creation through God’s reign on earth. And they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it.
"And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD" (2 Samuel 6:17 ESV).
David created a tabernacle as part of the sign of the covenantal relationship between God and David and surpasses the nationalistic and Old Testament framework (Vasholz, 2004).
‘Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent”’ (2 Samuel 7:1-2 ESV).
Also, God initiates his covenant with David when he has the thought of the making a house for God when he himself is residing in a magnificent palace. The difference between this and all other covenants is that this one had conditional and unconditional parts to it. The unconditional promise was that the house of David will always reign over Israel, his name would be made great, and God would bless all the nations ultimately through his seed (2 Samuel 7:12). Through this promise, the messiah would come through his lineage as an establishment of God’s intimate relationship with David. “And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore” (Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV). According to Grisanti (1999), the promise of rest and a place for the people were conditional promises (7:10), in which their hearts had to be in the right place and following God for it to be fulfilled in their lives. As seen by the evidence revealed, this Davidic covenant narrows further down to the lineage of David and through him, the nations of the earth would be blessed.
The New Covenant
The new covenant is the final contract between God and man in the canonical text, which all other covenants created lead up to.
“To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”(Galatians 3:15-22).
The initiation of the covenant started as soon as man sinned (Genesis 3:15). It shows us how much God cares about us and how much he wants us to be rescued from our bondage of sin and death. He wanted to fulfill the promise he made to Adam, and he finally gets to come through with it in this new covenant.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).
The establishment of the covenant was done through the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross of Calvary with the promise of eternal life for those who believe in him as Lord. Along with the establishment of the church and the promise of the Holy Spirit, the third Godhead of the Trinity is an unconditional promise to the world.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV)
This passage gives us the knowledge of God vowing an upcoming point in time when he will renew his covenant with the church so that his own covenantal authenticity brings his people to a full realization of redemption through him. Therefore, the purpose of initiating, establishing, and fulfilling these covenants, God intended to establish a relationship with mankind and ultimately their redemption.
References
Barrick, W. D. (1999). The Mosaic Covenant. The Master's Seminary Journal, 10(2), 213-232.
Busenitz, I. A. (1999). Introduction to the Biblical Covenants; the Noahic Covenant and the Priestly Covenant. The Master's Seminary Journal, 10(2), 173-189.
Dean D. A. 2014) Covenant, conditionality, and consequence: new terminology and a case study in the Abrahamic covenant. Journal of The Evangelical Theological Society [serial online]. June 2014;57(2):281-308. Available from: ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, Ipswich, MA. Accessed July 12, 2017.
Grisanti, M. A. (1999). The Davidic Covenant. The Master's Seminary Journal, 10(2), 233-250.
The Holy Bible.
Vasholz, R. I. (2004). The character of Israel's future in light of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants. Trinity Journal, 25(1), 39-59.
Walvoord, J. F. (1945). The fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Bibliotheca Sacra, 102(405), 27-36.