What Is A Covenant?

From The Christian Reader:

What is a Covenant?


by D.P. Brooks



One of the prominent words in the Old Testament is the word “covenant.” Also, the New Testament has many references to a covenant. As a matter of fact, a more literal and accurate title for the two parts of the Bible would be “Old Covenant” and New Covenant.” Since the covenant concept plays such a large role in the Bible, it is necessary that the Bible student know the meaning of this key word. The Hebrew nation had its birth and received its distinctive character because of the covenant God made with her at Mount Sinai. Furthermore, Jesus spoke of the cup of the Lord’s Supper as “my blood of the [new] covenant” (Mark 14:24). Thus the covenant concept is a key one in both Testaments.



Perhaps most students of the Bible have a fairly clear concept of the covenant as a solemn and binding agreement between two parties. For example, marriage is referred to in the Bible as a covenant. There were covenants of friendship and covenants between nations. But perhaps most students of the Bible fail to grasp the tremendous role of the covenant for Israel’s life.



At the core of Israel’s life was her covenant with God. This covenant spelled out her proper relationship to Yahweh (“Lord,” the covenant name of God), showing what he expected of the people and informing them of what he had done and would do for them. When they drifted away from the covenant they ceased to be a distinctive people of God. They lost their character and became “like the nations.” Every call to repentance was a call to renew the covenant. Israel was the nation of the covenant and prospered or suffered in accordance with her loyalty or disloyalty to it.



Thanks to the work of biblical archaeologists, we now know a great deal about covenants in the ancient world. The parity covenant was one in which two parties bound themselves together, a covenant between equals. But there was another kind of covenant called the suzerainty covenant. In this type, the agreement was between a stronger and a weaker party. For example, a great nation overpowers a weaker one. The victors can either slaughter [or enslave] the defeated people or offer them a covenant. If a covenant is offered, it is altogether by the initiative and grace of the stronger. Under specified conditions the victor may agree to protect the small nation, but certain conditions are laid down which must be kept by the small nation. Failure to do so allows the greater power to set aside the covenant and wreak vengeance on them.



A good example of the suzerainty covenant was that between Babylon and Judah. Judah was to pay tribute to Babylon each year and to refrain from taking sides against her in power struggles. But Judah rebelled and violated the covenant. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and deported the people. Jeremiah the prophet had warned Judah that to break the covenant would be disastrous because God had ordained that his people keep this covenant. But the heedless people went through with the rebellion and had to face the horrible fate of overthrow.



Obviously Israel’s covenant with God was the suzerainty type. God had delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and offered her a covenant at Mount Sinai. “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:4-6). [Also see 1 Peter 2:9-10.]



All of the Old Testament must be read and interpreted in the light of this most basic of all facts. Israel is in solemn covenant with God to (1) keep his law, and (2) be a priest nation to all the world [as is the church in the NT]. Her “chosenness” was not something earned; it was God’s free gift. The purpose of the covenant was not to make Israel God’s favorite, not to bestow preferential treatment. It was a call to serve God as his representative. Every call to revival in the Old Testament was a call to renew the covenant and be faithful to its requirements.



Jesus warned the Jewish people that the kingdom would be taken from them and given to those who would bring forth fruit for God (Matt. 21:43). You will notice in the New Testament that the church has taken the place of Israel in God’s plan to save men. Israel voided the covenant by refusing the Messiah and turning her back on God’s call to be a priest to the nations. Instead, she interpreted her chosenness as something to be held on to in pride and exclusiveness. Both Paul and Peter called the church the new Israel, the chosen people of God, the priest people. Jeremiah had prophesied a day when God would establish a new covenant:



Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with the fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (31:31-33).



In Christ God established this covenant with those who chose to follow him. During the Last Supper, Jesus gave the disciples the cup of wine and said: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:25). Mark 14:24 gives a slightly different wording of the same statement. Every observance of the Lord’s Supper is to be a time of covenant renewal.



(From D.P. Brooks, The Bible—How to Understand and Teach It [Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969], 36-39.)