COVENANTS AND SALVATIONS HISTORY

The Bible is a love story – the tale of God who loves us so much that he came to us – the lost souls – to save us through great sacrifice. “Scripture records the highlights of a divine drama.” The prophetic nature of scripture needs to be understood as it is, “the covenantal pattern of divine justice and mercy.” Through a series of covenants, God move from dealing with Adam and Eve to dealing with the entire world.

A covenant is similar to a contract, but in fact is greatly different. A contract is made with a promise or pledge for the exchange of goods. A covenant is the extension of kinship by oath, an oath made by invoking God’s name.

There were five major covenants in the Old Testament, all of which are fulfilled in the final one, the New and Everlasting Covenant as the priest says in Mass. Testamentum(sp) was use the Latin translation of the word, covenant, by St Jerome when he translated Greek bible. So that part of the scripture came to be called the New Testament. Understanding the covenantal development of the bible story helps us understand why the Old Testament is so long.

The covenants are named for the mediator, the one who was speaking to God about the terms of the covenant. Here they are:

1. The Covenant with Adam – Adam was to till and keep the Garden of Eden, named and was given dominion over all of them, and was given a wife in a marriage covenant. All the plants in the garden were theirs to eat, except one. (family)

2. The Covenant with Noah – God promised to save Noah and his sons and their family from the flood in return for building an ark and saving the animals. (extended family)

3. The Covenant with Abraham (3 promises) – God promised Abraham a “Land of Milk and Honey” where his descendants would be a blessed nation, then a kingdom, and then all the families on earth would be blessed by him and his seed. (tribe)

4. The Covenant with Moses – Moses was called to lead his people out of bondage, to ratify a national covenant that made them a Holy Nation, and to occupy the Promised land of Canaan as their inheritance. (nation)

5. The Covenant with David – David was to build a worldwide kingdom, establishing a everlasting throne with the son of David destined to rule over all nations, united as one family, to worship the heavenly Father within his house, the Temple of Jerusalem. Kingdom)

All of these covenants were broken! The curses for breaking a covenant (Deut 28) came to bear.

“Finally, the Father kept all his previous promises by the gift of his Son, who boreall the curses of the previously broken covenants – in order to ratify the New Covenant – in the self-offering of his flesh and blood that permanently binds all of us together, both Jews and Gentiles, in one universal divine family: the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” ( from Dr Hahn’s book “A Father Who Keeps His Promises”)

Studying the Old Testament in light of the covenants helps us to understand all the curses the Jews suffered through, and why they were cursed, and how all that came about because they did not trust in the Lord. There are consequences of the broken covenants that still haunt us today. Lots of lessons to be learned! This same study will enable us to see how we are in a covenantal relationship with God through our baptism.

The book I mentioned by Dr Hahn is a great aid in understanding these covenants, as is Dr Bergsma’s book “Bible Basics for Catholics”