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Jewish covenants in the Old Testament
Jewish covenants in the Old Testament
The Old Testament: The Five Covenants Essay
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According to the website, general meaning of covenant is when two or more parties who come together to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities. But when it comes to Old Testament, Covenant refers to two or more parties bonded together. For instance, legal treaties between kings and subjects existed during the Bible period like Moses, Joshua. The website illustrates Noah as the faithful covenant man who received the covenant from God that grace, redemption and restoration will be maintained in his family. Jesus conditions for Covenant were everyday spiritual fellowship with God, living a blameless life among the fellow human beings. Website #2 This website explains five different covenants God made But when I specifically searched for the Biblical covenant I got the meaning as an agreement between God and humans. Covenant is the supreme theme of most vital stories in the Bible, which involves promises through five main Covenants to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus. In order to establish the continuing relationship, the covenants were written on tablets but once written the Covenants should not be altered. Despite of all the different types of Covenant, there wasn’t any fault in God’s agreement with people but rather it was the people who failed to keep the Covenant. There are eight Covenants in the Bible starts from Adamic Covenant to the Eternal Covenant. All these Covenants gave the idea that if people obey God’s promises, then God deliver blessings to the people as well as to their descendants, but if they violate the Covenant, the result will be punishment. For instance, If Adam was obedient to god’s Covenant then, Adam night have got everlasting life but instead Adam received the punishment of death. In addition to that the Covenant with Noah demonstrate God’s blessing to Noah as well to all the generations to come in the form of Therefore, I need to obey God’s commandments and walk in his ways to achieve the eternal life as God promised the blessings to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Secondly, I would take the Bible as a covenant in my life. God gave the Bible for his people as a Covenant, in order to live a holy life according to Bible. Therefore, God’s children should read scripture daily to study what God’s commands and to apply in daily life. As a child of God I usually read the Bible daily for my personal spiritual growth. Another example for Covenant from my life is, as a Nursing student I do have a covenant with the CARNA (College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta). Nursing students are supposed to make an agreement with CARNA that, they will meet the practice standards and practice competencies with the CARNA and then only one can graduate as competent
Gentry, Peter J., and Stephen J. Wellum. Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical Theological Understanding of the Covenants. Crossway, 2012. Google Scholar: Subject relevance
There are many different forms of covenants in the Old testament that the people of God agree to. The first one being looked at is between God and Abraham. God promised Abraham a great nation and God said he would bless Abraham (Gen 2:2). God also promised him the Promise Land (Gen 15:18) and said he would be the father of many nations (Gen 17:4). All God asked of him was devotion from him and his people and to have circumcision be the sign from the people (Gen 17:11). The promises of the covenant directly impact Abraham, but they also impacted the people who would follow. God would also use these vows in other covenants because they had historic meaning. The Mosaic covenant has several similarities to the Abrahamic covenant. God told Moses that he would make the people of Israel his treasured possessions (Exo 19:5), which corresponds with the promise of blessings in the first covenant. God also promises to bring the people into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exo 6:8). God still expected the people to follow and adhere to his words and the sign he required was following the ten commandments. These covenants were made when the people were forced to be a nomadic due to persecution. The promise of blessings and nations and land was something the people needed. The next covenant God made was with King David, this covenant also resembles the Abrahamic covenant. After the people had settled into their land God talks to King David, through the prophet Nathan. God tells David he will have a child who will establish a kingdom forever (2 Sam 7:13) and the kingdom, as well as the house, will be forever and his child will not lose the throne (2 Sam 7:16). These promises are like the ones made to Abraham, both are promised nat...
Abraham was portrayed as the father of the Jewish people and this serves as a key element in Judaism. A covenant is an agreement between two parties. Between God and Abraham there existed unconditional covenants in which God made promises to him that required nothing in return; there were no conditions were attached. Abrahamic covenant was everlasting and from the Bible it begins to unfold from the book of Genesis12.
The redemption that mostly played out in the New Testament in a part of the New Covenant found in Jeremiah 31:33, “‘or this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This covenant is also known as the permanent covenant, because God promised to write it on our hearts, and because God laid out His plans for the coming of Christ. The coming of Jesus was prophesied early in the Bible, and according to Williams Rainey Harper in his journal, Micah 5 told of the coming of Christ. The journal states, “A cornerstone shall be established in Zion; and out of Bethlehem from the line of David shall come a righteous ruler, who shall lead Judah against the Assyrians.” These verses in Micah also solidify the prophecy made by Nathan in 2 Samuel 7. Jesus is the Son of God, and He is from the lineage of David, He was born to atone for the sins of mankind. When Jesus first came to earth, and was declared to be the Son of God people did not believe Him. The Resurrection of Jesus and the Hope of Immortality states, “…significance for believers or for all men is considered to depend logically upon the similarity of Jesus to other men and is weakened in the degree in which he is considered unique as the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity.” While it is sometimes hard to understand, God fulfilled the New Covenant. Jesus died on a cross, so we are forgiven our sins. His blood was the price of our sins. The most well known Bible verse John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” His death promised us an eternal
In this essay we will briefly discuss how past history has defined a covenant and what covenant Abraham had with God. There are questions on why God chose a person such as Abraham due to his known demeanor, we will learn how Abraham decided to lead his life to fulfill the covenant and chooses to live a renewed way of life.
For Israel’s existence as the covenant people of God sacrifice was necessary as the existence of sin and impurity threatened their relationship with God (Rooker 2000:49). The process and act of sacrifice was prescribed by God as a means purging impurity caused by sin. This would result in forgiveness and the restoration of the relationship between God and the sinner (Arnold & Beyer 1999:124).
In the passage quoted from Jeremiah above, the prophet is predicting that a new covenant would be formed between God and his people, an agreement that would supersede the pact made between Moses and God upon Sinai and at the Red Sea. The first covenant, Jeremiah indicated, would become null and void because of the sins of the Jewish people. The new covenant would absolve these sins and reaffirm God's fidelity to his people.
In the covenant made by Yahweh with Abram it seemed far-fetched, however, through Moses and the mosaic covenant, those Hebrews would become Yahweh’s fulfilment to Abraham. This time seems like a slow paced culture with more quiet time in nature, in which people could communicate and maintain a close relationship with Yahweh. Unlike, our hectic, chaotic, and fast paced world we live in today. Our understanding of their faith, and knowledge of Yahweh’s laws seem unfathomable, similar to some family of bush people who live in the mountains. At the same time, we live in an advanced culture where knowledge is readily available, so people can learn. Even solitude proved difficult for the Hebrews, as they continued to rebel. Through each step the Hebrews became more established as a nation. Furthermore, the relationship between Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham and the Exodus, only became a reality later, even though, those Hebrews needed to endure Yahweh’s
Flanders, Henry J, Robert W. Crapps, and David A. Smith. People of the Covenant: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
Contracts are used to dictate how an agreement between two or more parties, involved in a mutually beneficial relationship, will function in a way that is agreeable to all parties involved. There are many different types of contracts for many types of situations and they can cover a wide range of rules and regulations dependent each parties wants and needs. Sometimes the agreement between the parties involved changes, but it is not always so simple to change the terms of a contract. As Christians contracts have been in our lives for a long time. God made a contract with all of us from the very beginning and he has honored the terms of that contract ever since. “He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand
Their unfaithfulness led to enslavement in Egypt for approximately four hundred years. When the Lord finally freed his people through Moses, He established a second covenant. This new covenant bound the twelve tribes of Israel into one community under a set of commandments by which the people would model their lives. The Ten Commandments serve to protect the Hebrew community. The first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me,” must come first because it reestablishes the foundation that God defines right and wrong. The second, third and fourth commandments aim to prevent divisive values from forming in the community. Commandments five through nine focus on specific actions and the timing of their consequences. For example, killing has immediate consequences, whereas adultery has future implications. The Israelites separate themselves from other civilizations with the final commandment. God commands the Hebrews to control their thoughts, so that their thoughts may not lead to sinful actions. The Ten Commandments were not concerned with granting justice among the people, but firmly established the first principles of one of the longest lasting cultures in human
The Israelites and Philistines had different yet identical views on the powers of the Ark of the Covenant. One instance, which really interested me, was reading the reference the Philistines made to Moses and the plague that his God had brought upon Egypt (1 Samuel 4:8-9). This shows that they knew the power that it had and what God is capable of doing. But, their way of dealing with the plague was different than you would expect because they passed the Ark around from principal to principal. They all contracted some kind of disease, which they associated with the Ark (1 Samuel 5:1-12). The Israelites saw this as the symbol of their faith because one they brought it to their city when the Philistines were attacking them hoping that it would protect them from losing the battle (1 Samuel 4:1-6). Then the protectors of the Ark were killed, which in a way I feel like God did purposely so that the Philistines can understand the God of the Israelites.
Flanders, Henry J, Robert W. Crapps, and David A. Smith. People of the Covenant: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
There are five aspects of covenant. For the purposes of this paper I am going to be referring to primarily the new covenant that is offered us through Jesus. The first aspect is the parties involved. There are two parties: God and the elect. Unlike the old covenant, the elect goes beyond the Jews. It also includes the gentile, or non-Jew in all the nations. This is one aspect of covenant that has helped shape my worldview. I have spoken to people who believe that God only selects a few privileged people to be saved, and condemns the rest to eternal punishment in hell. I now wholeheartedly believe this to be completely false, and even a heresy. In John 3:16 God uses the phrase “panta ta ethne” which means “all the nations.” There are other places in scripture, for example, when Paul says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” He clearly says ‘everyone who believes’ not leaving anyone out. There are places in scripture, such as Ephesians 1:11 that talk about things which are predestined for believers. This verse is commonly taken out of context by those who believe in predestination. He has indeed planned out things He wants those in covenant relationship to accomplish for His kingdom once we accept Jesus and make Him Lord of our life. He does not, however, make the choice beforehand to save some, and damn some to hell! God created us in His image, therefore we have also been given the gift of free will to choose to love Him or love the world. This is the depraved condition of mankind in our fallen state.
First, worship is a communal act and assumes communal unity. Therefore, regular gathering of and commitment to the local church is essential. The unity of all Christians found in the New Covenant indicates that discipline and reconciliation must are essential to honoring and keeping the covenant. In this same vain, as we examine ourselves to make sure that our present lives align with the covenant, we are expected to respond with knowledge of God’s desires, with sincere obedience, as well as sincere