Abrahamic Covenant
Abraham was one of the descendants of Noah (Genesis 10-12:3). His father was Terah, the son of Nohor. Terah, Abraham, Sarai and Lot travelled to Haran. After they set up a home there, Terah died (Student Resource). They were very rich and had many cattle (Genesis 12). Abrahamic covenant was an unconditional covenant (Student Resource). God required nothing of Abraham (CCC#72). It is the third covenant that God had made with man after the Adamic and Noahic covenants (Student Resource). It is an important covenant to the Hebrews because in this covenant, God promised the descendants of Abraham (Hebrews) the land of Canaan and other blessings. The Abrahamic Covenant brings together the scattered nations (CCC#59). God chose Abraham because God saw that Abraham’s heart and mind were open to Him (CCC#145). God determined to call out someone special for Himself through whom He could bring blessings to all the nations.
The Abrahamic Covenant is one of the greatest revelations of God concerning the future history (Student Resource). God gave Abraham three main promises. The promise of the land (Genesis 12:1); the promise of descendants (Genesis 12:2); the third promise was of blessing and redemption (Genesis 12:3). God called Abraham, a man from Ur to a land that God would give him. God promised Abraham that the land will be their everlasting possession (Genesis 12:2, 17:8), (Student Resource). Abraham who was seventy five and childless was promised many descendants (CCC#706). God promised to bless Abraham and families of the Earth through him. God also promised Abraham that He will bless anyone who blesses him. God’s promise was literal. God blessed Abraham by giving him the land of Canaan (Genesis 13:14-17). God gave him descendants (Genesis 22:17). The Abrahamic covenant finds its complete fulfilment in connection with the return of Messiah.
The language used in this Covenant is simple and to the point. The main covenant was given in Genesis 12:1-3. Others are additions to the original covenant. God told Abraham “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go; walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you” (Genesis 13:14-17).
Abraham asks for a sign and receives confirmation in the form of a covenant oath (NJBC 2:24). God promised Abraham land (Genesis 12:1). The ceremony in Genesis 15 indicates the unconditional nature of the covenant. The only time that both parties of a covenant would pass between the pieces of animals was when the fulfilment of the covenant was dependent upon both parties keeping commitments (LHB). This type of covenant is also seen in Jeremiah 34:18 (Student Resource). The agreements were confirmed when God alone moved between the halves of the animals. The penalty of breaking the covenant was death (Student Resource). It is to be noted that it is a smoking furnace and a flaming torch representing God, not Abraham, which passed between the pieces. This covenant is a promise of God. He is the one who binds himself. The signs that represents God was also seen in Exodus 19:18 when God is making himself present to Moses on Mt. Sinai (NJBC 2:24).
In the Abrahamic covenant, there were two sings of the covenant (Student Resource). Name change and circumcision (Student Resource), (Lion Handbook). We can see God giving instructions to Abraham in Genesis 17. God asks Abram to change his name to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. The Hebrew people attached great significance to their names and places. Abram means ‘exalted father’. It becomes Abraham, which means ‘father of many’ (Student Resource). Circumcision was a physical sign of God’s promise to Abraham. God asks Abraham to circumcise everyone in his household including his servants. Circumcision signified obedience to God on part of the people (Lion handbook pg. 35). God said to Abraham; “As a sign that you are keeping my promise, you must circumcise every man and boy in your family. From now on, your family must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old…. Any man who isn’t circumcised hasn’t kept his promise to me and cannot be one of my people” (Genesis 17:9-14). Abraham, as a sign, circumcises Isaac when he was 8 days old (Genesis 21:3-4), (Student Resource).
Mosaic Covenant
The Mosaic Covenant is a covenant made between God and the nation of Israel. The most important covenant in the Old Testament is the Mosaic covenant (Lion Handbook 210). The covenant was made after he killed a guard and fled the country (Chapter Guide to Exodus 1-12). Mosaic covenant was made at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-24). God made this covenant “so that they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true God, the provident Father and just judge, and so that they would look for the promised Saviour” (CCC#62). The Catechism of The Catholic Church describes the connection between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic Covenant as such “God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. This covenant “was the decisive step in the creation of Israel as a nation” (Lion Handbook 210). By the covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses.” (CCC#72). What this means is that the Mosaic covenant is a partial fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant.
God initially made a covenant with Abraham; thorough Moses gave the Laws to guide the people. The Mosaic Covenant is especially significant because in it God promises to make Israel “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (). The Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant. The blessings that God promises are directly related to Israel’s obedience to the Mosaic Law. If Israel is obedient, then God will bless them, but if they disobey, then God will punish them (student resource book). The blessings and the curses are written in Deuteronomy 28. Even if they sin and act against God, they will pay for their sins but will be saved because of the promise God made with Abraham. “I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.” (Leviticus 26:42-44).
Like other covenants, the Mosaic covenant was “in their basic structure” (Lion Handbook 211). A will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. But as Moses had sinned, his own blood could not forgive sins, and was therefore useless as confirmation of this covenant. Moses offered oxen as a sacrifice to confirm the Covenant. The covenant could only be made after the young men had “offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto Yahweh”. The covenant is made by sprinkling the blood of the offerings on the people in order to purge their sins, “for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” (Exodus 24:4-8). The sacrificial system of the Mosaic Covenant did not really take away sins (); it simply foreshadowed the bearing of sin by Christ. The conditions of the covenant were read out to all the nations of Israel so they can follow the Law and accept The Lord as their God. At the time of the covenant, God reminded the people of their obligation to be obedient to His law (), and the people agreed to the covenant when they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!” (). The ritual in the Mosaic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant included sacrifices to confirm the covenant and circumcision was another sign of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants (Gen. 17:10-14; Ex. 12:47-48).
The Mosaic Covenant differs significantly from the Abrahamic Covenant because the Mosaic covenant is conditional and the Abrahamic covenant was unconditional (student resource book). To the Israelites the Lord looked like a fire on top of the mountain (Exodus 24:17). We can see this in the Abrahamic covenant when God seal the covenant by moving in between the cut pieces in the form of fire and smoke “A smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces” (Genesis 15:17-18).
Sabbath was one of the sign associated with the Mosaic Covenant. Food was another sign which every Jew should observe. “You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.” (Exodus: 31). “Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God.”(Deuteronomy: 14).
The New Covenant
“The day will come,’ said the Lord, ‘when I will make a new Covenant with the people of Israel… But this is the New Covenant I will make with the people of Israel. I will put my Law in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The New Covenant is an agreement between God and humankind which they freely enter. The prophet Jeremiah predicted that there would be a time when God would make a New Covenant with the nation of Israel (Student resource). The Old Covenant required obedience to the Mosaic Law and it required people to perform rituals and sacrifices in order to please God. The Old covenant only included the people of Israel but the New covenant was made “for anyone willing to receive it” (Lion Handbook). This covenant was made to bring salvation (CCC#70). God promised them salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It is a covenant between Jesus Christ and God. The New covenant links to the Mosaic covenant because Israel’s people were not loyal to God and wasn’t obeying his Laws. They did not care about God’s covenant with Israel. That is why God promised a new covenant. He wanted to have a new kind of relationship with his people.
In the new covenant, God promises that He will forgive all our sins (Matthew 26:28, Acts 13:38); gives us the Holy Spirit to teach us (John 14:26) and gives us eternal life (Romans 6:23). “God promised them salvation and offered them his covenants.” (CCC#70). These promises and blessings are addition to the promises in the Mosaic Covenant. The New Covenant is unconditional because it is open to “anyone willing to receive it.” (Lion Handbook). We can also see the unconditional nature of this covenant when Jesus says about his sheep, "No one can snatch them out of my hand... No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28-29). New Covenant provided Gentiles an unconditional means for salvation. They will also receive the promises that God promised to Abraham. The New covenant will be kept by all the people because “it would be written on their heart; not something external, but a new life within.” (Lion Handbook).
Jesus Christ is the basis of the new covenant. We can either accept this or reject it. Because he loves us, he urges us to accept it and to put our faith in Jesus Christ and to understand him as our only means of salvation. Jesus through his life set an example to others that a Human can live without sin.
A covenant is confirmed when the mediator of the covenant die. In the New Covenant, Jesus dies as the sacrifice to confirm the covenant. One of the rituals that are presented in the New Covenant is the Baptismal Ritual. Baptism was first seen in Matthew 3:2-12. Another ritual is the washing of feet. This is seen in John 13:1–17 when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples and asks them to do the same for others. This was done so that they will be the servants of others. God’s presence was seen when the Spirit of God in the form of a bird that had come down to show who Jesus was. “Through Jesus, God offers the gift of new life, a sharing in God’s own life, now and forever.” (Lion Handbook)
One of the signs of the New Covenant is the Baptism. Baptism is the sign similar to circumcision in the Abrahamic Covenant. Baptism identifies the person as a participant in the New Covenant; it is like an invisible mark on the person. People get baptised to cleanse their souls from sin. Baptise means to cleanse with water, this is why people baptise with water. But John said Jesus “will baptise” you “with Holy Spirit.” The new covenant has a different basis, and it presents a different basis of relationship between God and humans. The new basis is Jesus himself and his blood. Jesus did what we could not do, and he offers his sacrifice to us as a gift. Another sign in the New Covenant is the Last Supper. Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). In Scripture, leaven symbolizes sin, so bread without yeast represents holy God. The bread signifies the Son who was broken to save the humanity. Wine symbolised blood which the Son of Man will shed in order to be saved; “My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27–28). The Last Supper is the Passover for us. If we remember this and take part in the covenant, we will be saved.
Conclusion
By analysing the covenants, I can see there are things that every covenant follows. These include sacrifices, rituals, signs and condition. Usually sacrifices are used to confirm a covenant. A sacrifice was seen in all of the covenants that I have studied. Rituals were carried out before the sacrifice. Rituals were used to make themselves clean. Signs are common in all of the covenants that I have studied. Abrahamic Covenant had circumcision as the sign. Circumcision was a sign of participation in God’s promises to Abraham. This sign was also seen in the Mosaic Covenant. In the New Covenant, Baptism was the sign of participation in God’s promises. The main condition in all these covenants is based on faith in God. Abraham had faith in God; because of this, God gave him promises and blessings. In the Mosaic Covenant, the people of Israel had to have faith and obedience to receive the blessings. The New Covenant is entirely based of faith. Anyone who have faith shall receive the blessings and be part of the promise.
Bibliography
Alexander D and P, (eds), 2009, The Lion Handbook to The Bible, Oxford, Lion Hudson
Brown R.E., Fitzmeyer J.A., Murphy R.E. (eds) 1990, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, London, Burns and Oates
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition, Vatican, Libreria Editrice, Vaticana, 1994
The Holy Bible. (2003). Wheaton, IL: Crossway-Good News. English Standard Version.
Covenant (Biblical) :