BIBLE COVENANTS

CHAPTER ONE
The Covenant Principle
The word used in the Hebrew Old Testament is b'rit and the phrase
karat b'rit has the meaning of 'to cut a covenant'. It indicates that the
pact or covenant was formed by the ceremony of cutting an animal. In
the ancient Middle East a covenant was a formal legally binding
agreement between two individuals, to families or even between two
nations. Much more still is implied in the Old Testament where the
emphasis is on the covenant relationship. - a theme I'll want to return to
a bit further on.
The first instance of a covenant we come across in the Bible is that with
Noah. Now whilst most covenants were two-sided and conditional, God
immediately shows us two principles somewhat different when, after
the flood, he makes the covenant with Noah
Never again will all life be cut of by waters of a flood; never again
will there be a flood to destroy the earth (v11)
Then there is the sign of the covenant- the rainbow. Every time we
see the rainbow in the sky, it's telling us that God is remembering,
bearing in mind, this promise.
The next promise is with Abraham- the promise that he will bless
Abraham and his seed and that through him all peoples on earth will be
blessed. (Genesis 12:3). Significantly when in chapter 15 we read of
God confirming the covenant (again one-sided, and here with the
sacrifice of an animal) there is the promise that the blessing would be
though Abraham's offspring- singular, and pointing ahead to the Lord
Jesus Christ. There was a sign of the covenant: the circumcision of the
male members of the covenant people. But I don't wish to linger with
Abraham but move on to Moses and to the 'Old Covenant'
CHAPTER TWO
The Old Covenant
We probably remember Moses most of all for the Burning Bush, for the
Exodus of the Children if Israel from Egypt and for the parting of the
Red Sea. After the people had passed through the Red Sea (and let's
note that Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 says our forefathers. were all
baptised into Moses. in the sea (vv1-2)) God led them to Sinai. Here
the Covenant (the 'Old Covenant' as, after the writer of Hebrews, we
call it) was enacted. This is a covenant proper with the involvement of
both parties, a binding together, animal sacrifice, and terms and
conditions.
Basically God is offering the people, the nation, a land in which they
may dwell, and, if they keep their side of the bargain, where they may
dwell in safety. Above all there is the promise that if you obey me fully
and keep my covenant. you will be my treasured possession. You
will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-
6). Then there is the killing of an animal and, significantly, God and
Israel become pledged by the sharing of the blood, part of it being
sprinkled on the side of the altar and part on the people with the words
This is the blood of the covenant the Lord has made with you
(24:8) Herein we see the formal, legal covenant becomes more than
that: it is the basis of a relationship.
The blood, the life of the victim has been used to cover the two
contracting parties. Each passing under the blood becomes identified
with it. Before, they were separate entities; now they are one. So God
is a blood-member of Israel. Those last two sentences re key
sentences. Let's hold on to them.
There were conditions in the covenant to which the people pledged
themselves Exodus 34:27-28 contains key words here: Write down
these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a
covenant with you and with Israel. And he (Moses) wrote on the
tablets these words-The Ten Commandments
When two nations made a covenant the terms would have been
placed on stone tablets at their border; one stone facing each way and
each stone containing the terms and conditions. When Moses came
down Sinai with two stone tablets, they didn't contain five command-
ments each! When the Ark of Covenant had been built
they were placed there, one tablet facing out, to human view, the other
facing inward- for God's presence was between the seraphim on either
side of the Ark. Let's hold on to that too.

We've already noted the terms and conditions of the covenant. Like any
other covenant, if either party broke it, it would be terminated, only to
be renewed if the injured party chose to offer renewal. This covenant
was an act of God's choice. All was of God's choosing; he had made
them one people; only to their chosen leader did he reveal his Name.
So, basically, looked at from the point of view of Israel, we may see the
covenant as: If God does something for us, we'll do something for God.
So there was no real antithesis between the legal requirements of the
covenant and the fact that it was an act of God's grace. Thus it differed
from the normal quid-pro-quo nature of normal human covenants
We also face the fact that Israel was a wayward people- not that they
were unique in that! To a degree the whole of the rest of the Old
Testament is an account of the people continually turning away from
God. But God remained a God of 'covenant and love' Time and again
the Covenant is renewed. It's renewed under Joshua at Shechem
where the people declared with renewed vigour Far be it from us to
forsake the Lord and serve other gods. Yet they do!, and so it goes on.
Yet through all this God remains faithful; he remains their God, they
remain his people. And that carries with it all the guarantee of a
covenant pact. The closest analogy is wedlock. The marriage partners
give themselves to each other with tokens, vows and promises. And the
marriage vows are binding. The marriage relationship is as binding as
any blood family relationship, even if sadly it is so lightly regarded
nowadays. Listen to God's words through Jeremiah: I remember the
devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me (2:2), or the
rebuke in Hosea let her remove the adulterous look from her face
(2:2)
In addition we may see God as father; as father of disobedient
children I reared children and brought them up, but they have
rebelled against me (Isaiah 1:2) and as shepherd of sheep: in
Ezekiel we have I will search for my sheep and look after them
(34:11)
This constant love of God for his people is a continual thread and
thrust, especially in the prophetic writings. God's acts of judgment are
for the restoration of the people. Thus in Isaiah we have For your
Maker is your husband. The Lord will call you back as if you were
a wife deserted and distressed in spirit (54:5,6)
Furthermore, in the prophets we see something else:
"Behold, the time is coming", declares the Lord, "when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31)
It's in the New Covenant that we see the real jewels, but to really
appreciate all that God has provided we need first to look very briefly at
the role of the High Priest and of the Day of Atonement.
CHAPTER THREE
The High Priestly Sacrifices
All religions had their priests. The religious role of priest was twofold-to
represent man to god and god to man
-to offer sacrifice to appease the god(s)
This basically was the role of the Old Testament priesthood: the
Levitical priesthood, but their was a major difference. Pagan priests
offered what they thought beast in appeasement: in the Old Testament
the priesthood was based on God's ordinance and on the sacrifices
that God ordained. When we would turn away at the thought of the
animal sacrifices and the blood, let us remember that it was God's way.
The temple altars would have been a very bloody place; gallons of the
stuff washing around. We find the idea offensive, and some modern
Bible translations try to do away with blood- especially in relation to the
death of Christ and ideas of 'propitiation'
The key day, which still features large in the Jewish calendar is Yom
kipp'ur- the 'Day of Atonement'. This was God's provision for his erring
covenant people; his provision to atone for their sin, literally to 'cover it
over'. The act of atonement was the responsibility of the High Priest,
who first had to prepare himself before he would enter that part; that
inner part, of the Temple specially set apart; that part where God's
presence dwelt. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the first
covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly
sanctuary...the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on
their ministry. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that
only once a year, and never without blood which he offered for himself
and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance (Lev 9:1,6)
And then the crowds would wait anxiously outside, to see if the Priest
would come out alive! The requirements for the Day of Atonement were
laid down in Leviticus 16. The High Priest was to take from the
(community) two male goats for sin offering and a ram for burnt offering
(v5) After offering the ram for his own sin, he would draw lots over the
goats. He would enter the Holy Place with a bull's blood, which he
would sprinkle, on the Mercy Seat. Then, cleansed from sin, he would
re-enter with the goats. One he
would slaughter and would sprinkle the altar with its blood to obtain
clean-ness for the people for another year. The second goat: firstly he
would lay his hands on it and confess the people's sin on it. Having laid
their sins on the goat, it would be driven off into the wilderness, never
to return, taking the sins away with it: it was the 'scapegoat' If the priest
then emerged alive, they would sigh with relief: the sacrifice had been
accepted and their sin covered for another year!
Now, the sacrificial system was effectively an integral part of the Old
Covenant, dealing with the inherent inability of the people to adhere to
the Covenant terms. And with all this in mind and recalling the promise
of Jeremiah of a new covenant, we recall that as the Lord Jesus Christ
took the cup in the Upper Room he said This cup is the new
covenant in my blood (1 Cor 11:25) We can now imagine some of the
thoughts that raced round his disciples' minds as they heard those
words, and I hope to show, we can know a far deeper richness of
significance when we hear those words in the Holy Communion service
CHAPTER FOUR
The New Covenant
So, let’s have a look at the New Covenant.
If, in the Old Covenant, we see the key-point of its institution in the
sacrifice of animals, and the sprinkling of blood on the altar (before
God) and over the people, then we must look to the shedding of the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death was the sacrifice.
In Romans 3:25, Paul says God presented Him (Jesus Christ) as a
sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. Here was the
sacrifice. Here was the sacrifice presented not by man (according to
God’s ordinance) but by God himself. Moses offered the blood of
animals to God; Jesus Christ offered his own blood to the Father.
Here his blood is shed over the hearts of those who believe. Actually
the phrase ‘sacrifice of atonement’ in the NIV is not a good one. Better
is the KJV ‘propitiation’ (the sacrifice which sets aside God’s wrath at
our sins), and which completely takes our sin away: ‘atonement’ implies
not the removal of our sin, but just it being covered from view. Those
who have faith; these are the members of the new covenant people;
these are the ones to whom God in Christ pledges himself; these are
the ones to whom God says ‘You are my people and I am your God’
The key here is that it’s not what we offer God which ensures our place
in the Covenant; it’s not what we provide that pleases him. It is what he
provides. But this does produce within the believer’s heart a change.
We’ve already looked at the promise of a new covenant in Jeremiah
31:31. If we read on to verse 33 we have this: I will put my law in their
minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will
be my people.
Note two things:
1. God puts his law in our minds. No longer is the law an external
weight sapping our energy in trying (and not succeeding in) keeping it.
It is written into our minds and (on our hearts). It is internal; a wellspring
for action; a source of energy.
2. He writes it on our hearts. If you’re familiar with the BCP Communion
service, you’ll now how, after the reading of each of the Ten
Commandments, we respond ‘Lord have mercy upon us, and write this
law on our hearts’ Actually, the key here is the boundary-treaty. Do you
remember that the tablets of the Commandments were placed on the
Ark of the Covenant? Well, now the law is placed so that as God looks
at our hearts he sees the law and is pleased with its keeping by his
Son. As we look out to him, so we see it too. It's there as a constant
reminder. The trouble is, we still fail to keep it!
One other point to remember is the mediator of the Covenant. Moses
was the mediator of the Old. He it was who sprinkled the blood of the
animals on the altar and on the people. He it was who interceded for
the people when they made the Golden Calf. But in the New Covenant,
Jesus is our Mediator. It was his blood. He sprinkles it on our hearts; he
sprinkles it on the heavenly altar. This cup is the new covenant in my
blood which is poured out for you (Luke 22:20), he said in words
redolent of those spoken by Moses at Sinai. And 1 Timothy 2:5 reminds
us there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ
Jesus. And Romans 8:34 reassures us that Christ
Jesus.is.interceeding for us.
CHAPTER FIVE
Christ our High Priest
This is where we come back to the High Priestly sacrifices on the Day
of Atonement. They are no longer required. Hebrews 8:13 says that by
calling the covenant ‘new’ he has made the first one obsolete
Remember that the High Priest had to go into the Most Holy Place
once a year for atonement of the people’s sins, first having to offer a
sacrifice for his own. Then if he reappeared safe and well, the people
knew that God was pleased with the sacrifice and they were O.K. for
another year. But it was an unsure, precarious place to be in. If we
string together a few verses from Hebrews 9, we will see how
absolutely secure we are.
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but
He entered the Most Holy Place by his own blood, having obtained
eternal redemption
How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God cleanse our
consciences from acts that lead to death.
For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a
copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself to appear for us in
God’s presence, (vv 12,14,24)
Jesus Christ presented his blood before his Father in the heavenlies
and that is our absolute, cast-iron guarantee. Jesus Christ, through his
blood, is the guarantor of our Covenant place with God. When, in the
Communion prayer, you hear the words ‘This is my blood of the new
covenant’; here, if you have faith, is your absolute guarantee of God’s
acceptance, and all the other promises in his word A covenant is a
legally-binding agreement between two parties. So, you have the right
through the blood of Christ - and only thereby- to claim all the promises
declared by God in his Word. And because Jesus offered the Father his
own blood, the covenant is between Jesus and God the Father.
In conclusion: In the cup of the Holy Communion you have the sign of
the Covenant; the sign that God commits himself to the community of
faith. And Jesus Christ, in being raised from the dead, shows that his
blood-sacrifice is eternally accepted by the Father. Our place within the
Covenant is guaranteed because the Father is pleased with the perfect
self-sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered