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Covenant


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Word Study

Covenant

Covenant in the Bible: Meaning and Purpose

Covenant is a dominant theme in the Scriptures and serves as a foundation to the story of God's people. In a literal sense, a covenant means a binding agreement, a legal contract. It is a seal between two or more parties. Nov 5, 2020

Covenant, a binding promise of far-reaching importance in the relations between individuals, groups, and nations. It has social, legal, religious, and other aspects. This discussion is concerned primarily with the term in its special religious sense and especially with its role in Judaism and Christianity.

Binding-

(of an agreement or promise) involving an obligation that cannot be broken.

"business agreements are intended to be legally binding"

Seal-

a device or substance that is used to join two things together so as to prevent them from coming apart or to prevent anything from passing between them.

We don’t talk a lot about covenants today, but we should. Covenants are one of the most important themes in the Bible—they are the key to God’s redemptive plan to restore humanity to its divine calling. Starting in Genesis, God enters into one formal partnership (i.e., covenant) after another with various humans in order to rescue his world. These divine-human partnerships drive the narrative forward until it reaches its climax in Jesus. To tell the story of God redeeming humanity through Jesus is to tell the whole story of God’s covenantal relationship with humans.

So what is a covenant? And how does the covenantal story of the Bible begin?

What’s a Covenant?

A covenant is a relationship between two partners who make binding promises to each other and work together to reach a common goal. They’re often accompanied by oaths, signs, and ceremonies. Covenants define obligations and commitments, but they are different from a contract because they are relational and personal. Think of a marriage—a husband and wife choose to enter into a formal relationship, binding themselves to one another in lifelong faithfulness and devotion. They then work as partners to reach a common goal, like building a life or raising children together.

Covenant relationships are found all throughout the Bible. There are personal covenants between two individuals (e.g., David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 23), political covenants between two kings or nations (e.g., King Solomon and King Hiram in 1 Kings 5), legal covenants with a nation (such as the laws about freeing Hebrew slaves), and so forth. Entering into covenants was a major part of what it meant to live in the ancient Near East. So God partnered with humans through a structure they already understood.

Action Step:

Find something that has a binding seal on it such as a sealed envelope and think about your covenant with God. Put in the comments what you found?



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