Covenant

διαθήκη

בְּרִית

A binding bond God makes and keeps with his people.

COVENANT

1. A mutual consent or agreement of two or more persons, to do or to forbear some act or thing; a contract; stipulation.

In Scripture, a covenant is a solemn, binding relationship with promises and obligations, sealed by an oath, a sign, or blood. The great covenants are God's own, and he is the one who makes them. After the flood he said, "I will establish my covenant with you" (Genesis 9:11), and set his bow in the cloud as its token. To Abraham he promised "an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee" (Genesis 17:7). At Sinai Israel was called to "keep my covenant" (Exodus 19:5), and Moses sprinkled "the blood of the covenant" (Exodus 24:8). To David God swore a lasting covenant for his house (Psalms 89:3-4).

At the heart of every covenant is belonging: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). Through Jeremiah God promised "a new covenant" (Jeremiah 31:31), and on the night before his death Jesus said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20).

Webster defines a covenant as a mutual agreement — a contract. People in Scripture do make covenants with one another: Abraham and Abimelech (Genesis 21:27), Jonathan and David (1 Samuel 18:3), and marriage itself, for Malachi calls a man's wife "the wife of thy covenant" (Malachi 2:14). But God's covenants are not bargains struck between equals. He sets the terms, and his faithfulness is their security: he is "the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness" (Deuteronomy 7:9).

A covenant is also more personal than a contract. When Israel broke the covenant made at the exodus, God spoke of it as a broken marriage — "which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them" (Jeremiah 31:32) — and promised a new covenant that would write his law on the heart and forgive sin (Jeremiah 31:33-34). Christians have described how the biblical covenants relate to one another in different ways; the New Testament presents Christ as "the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises" (Hebrews 8:6).

Covenant is overwhelmingly an Old Testament word in the ASV, heard most in Deuteronomy, Genesis, Jeremiah, Joshua and the Psalms, where the ark of the covenant and the renewing of the covenant are often in view. Hebrew speaks of "cutting" a covenant; the phrase translated "made a covenant" in Genesis 15:18 follows a ceremony in which animals were cut in two.

The Greek diatheke can also mean a will or testament, and Hebrews 9:15-17 moves between the two senses: "where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it" (Hebrews 9:16). Through the Latin testamentum, that word gives the two parts of the Bible their names, the Old and New Testaments.

Terms

• covenant
• covenants

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

The rainbow is the token of God's covenant with all the earth.

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee, throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.

God binds himself to Abraham and his descendants for ever.

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah hath made with you concerning all these words.

The Sinai covenant is sealed with sprinkled blood.

Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

God is faithful; he keeps covenant to a thousand generations.

I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant:

God's sworn covenant with David his servant.

Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

The promise of a new covenant for Israel and Judah.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

In the new covenant God writes his law on the heart.

And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you.

Jesus names the cup the new covenant in his blood.

But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.

Christ mediates a better covenant resting on better promises.

More illuminations · Harbinger's Lamp