Using covenants is how God communicates to us, redeems us, and guarantees us eternal life in Jesus. He does this because a covenant is a promise, and God’s promises cannot be broken since they rest in his infinite, pure character. The Bible is a covenant document. The Old and New Testaments are really Old and New Covenants. The word “testament” is Latin for Covenant.
There is a pattern to the covenants found in the Bible. Basically, it is as follows. The initiating party describes himself and what he has done, then there is a list of obligations between the two (or more) parties. What follows is the section dealing with rewards and punishments that govern the keeping and breaking of the covenant. The Ten Commandments fit this pattern and are a covenant document.
The initiating party describes himself and what he has done.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,” (Exodus 20:2).
Then there is a list of obligations between the two (or more) parties.
“You shall have no other gods before Me,” (Exodus 20:3)
“You shall not make for yourself an idol…” (Exodus 20:4).
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…” (Exodus 20:7)
etc.
Then there is the section dealing with rewards and punishments that govern the keeping and breaking of the covenant.
“… for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain,” (Exodus 20:7).
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you,” (Exodus 20:12).
Covenants can be conditional or non-conditional. A conditional covenant might depend on the faithfulness of one more more parties, and the covenant is invalidated should one or both break the conditions. An example of this would be the Adamic Covenant where God promised Adam eternal life if Adam remained obedient to God’s word. An unconditional covenant is one that is not dependent on the faithfulness of the parties, but remains valid. The Noahic Covenant is unconditional in that it is God’s promise to never destroy the earth again by water. There is no condition for the covenant.
All covenants in the Bible between God and man are originated by God and are an act of his grace.
both in high school…44 years ago…wow..that happened fast Sometime back I started measuring wisdom instead of age…I am 18 now with 43 years experience July 1969, wanted to be Neil Armstrong My parents and my scoutmaster leaned hard on me until I completed becoming an Eagle Scout at 13..never regretted doing that Went to work at Gulf States Utilities in 1977 as a co-op intern Full time upon graduation in 81 Discovered what telecom was by rebuilding 55 hops of analog microwave paths Learned about broadband high speed relaying on 500 kv systems that used 500 KHz of analog signaling to achieve 4 millisecond-clearing time upon fault detection Designed a regional two way radio trunking system Redesigned a 5 parish nuclear emergency alerting system, and inadvertently activated all 92 one afternoon….a difficult after action report with the senior vp… Designed a containment distributed radio system in a nuclear plant Started rebuilding the early 1980s. analog microwave system to digital As a consultant redesigned a transcontinental pipeline microwave system from 2 GHZ to 6 GHz digital Numerous scada systems… 22 years a consultant. What a career, what experiences….I am blessed to do what I enjoy technically.
John Hargrove Seeking Truth and Reality 