Covenants

There were two tribes in Africa, the Wongaroos and the Buckaroos (I'm not kidding this is true).  They were at war with each other when it was getting nowhere.  So after they read their terms to each other they made a blood covenant with each other.  They cut their right hands with a sword and shook hands and let the blood mingle.  This represented them being blood brothers ( http://www.hosanna.org.za/bloodcov.htm ).

What is a covenant?  It's another word for agreement.  We make covenants today.  The most popular one is marriage, though many people don't keep this covenant.  What they fail to understand is when you make a covenant in marriage, you're not just making it to your spouse, you're making it to God as well.  When you break the marriage covenant, you're not just breaking it with your spouse, you're breaking it with God.  Marriage involves three people, not two.  A man, a woman, and God.  This is even more devastating when there are children involved.

There are seven covenants God made in the Bible.

The first covenant is the Adamic Covenant, which is in Genesis 3:16-19.  ( http://www.gotquestions.org/Adamic-covenant.html )

To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,    and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.

 By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are    and to dust you will return.”

 This covenant was a result of the direct sin by Adam and Eve.  Then there was the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 9:8-17 ( http://www.gotquestions.org/Noahic-covenant.html ).

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:  I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,  I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”   

After God flooded the earth because of the wickedness in the world and spared Noah and his family, God made a covenant that he would never flood the earth to destroy life again.

The third covenant God made was the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:1-3 ( http://www.gotquestions.org/Abrahamic-covenant.html )

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth    will be blessed through you.”   

The actual ceremony between Abraham and God is Genesis 15.  This covenant was God promising Abraham that he would have many descendants, which would be Israel.  The next covenant is the Palestinian Covenant, found in Deuteronomy 30:1-10 ( http://www.gotquestions.org/Palestinian-covenant.html )

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations,  and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,  then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.
He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you.
You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Basically if the people would return to God and obey Him, God would bless them.  He would restore the nation, but if they would not obey Him and return to God, He would scatter them.  The next covenant was the Mosaic Covenant found in Deuteronomy 11 ( http://www.gotquestions.org/Mosaic-covenant.html )

This covenant was for the people to keep God's law ( also found in Exodus 19-24).

The next covenant was the Davidic Covenant found in 2 Samuel 7:8-16 ( http://www.gotquestions.org/Davidic-covenant.html )

 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning
 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

 “‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you:
When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.  But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever."

This covenant was God promising David's lineage would reign forever.  The final covenant is known as the New Covenant, found in Jeremiah 31:31-34 ( http://www.gotquestions.org/new-covenant.html )

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,    though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.  

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“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.

No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”  

The New Covenant, which was fulfilled through Jesus, is God promising to forgive sins and a knowledge of God to all people, not just Israel.  (For a summary on these covenants go to http://www.gotquestions.org/bible-covenants.html )

Covenants are a big deal to God.  We should take them as a big deal as well.