Last week, we introduced the concept of covenant, by looking at some aspects of the covenant made between Jacob and his father-in-law, Laban, in Genesis 31:43-54:
- A Covenant is a “witness,” testimony to the agreement between two individuals.
- The stone was a visible sign of the testimony between the two individuals.
- A meal was shared between the two individuals.
- A curse was placed on the other individual if he did not fulfill his part of the covenant.
- Both parties agreed not to harm the other.
- The oath was made in the presence of God, calling down the curse from God if one were to violate his oath.
- The covenant agreement was consummated by the offering of a sacrifice with a meal shared (perhaps a reference to the verse 46).
God chose the concept of “covenant” from man’s language to present the agreements that He would unilaterally take with mankind, beginning we might say with Adam and Eve, although the word “covenant” does not appear in the biblical text until Noah. Subsequently, God made covenants with Abraham, Israel, and David.
The passage that most influences the NT teaching on the idea of covenant is Jeremiah 31:31-34. Note that this covenant will not be like the previous covenant. Through the first covenant, Israel was God’s people – that would not change. But the nature of the relationship would change.
We will come back to the covenant made with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, the covenant contained in the Law of Moses. For now, let’s consider the New Testament fulfillment of the covenants made with Abraham and David.
In Acts 2:30-32, Peter deals with the implications of the resurrection of Jesus. He now sits on the throne of David. In the same way, Paul shows that the covenant made with David was fulfilled when Jesus rose from the dead in Acts 13:32-35.
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So, in referring to the points made from the “covenant” between Jacob and Laban, for the new covenant, the resurrection of Jesus is the sign.
Secondly, the New Testament associates the blood of Christ with His new covenant: Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20 (among the Gospel writers, Luke, the Gentile, is the only one who uses that expression “new covenant”). Once again, the “forgiveness of sins” from Matthew’s account and the “new covenant” expression from Luke’s account tie this event into Jeremiah’s promise of the new covenant. Of course, this event in the upper room recorded by Matthew and Luke is the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the spiritual meal Christians partake as a part of this new covenant, just as Jacob and Laban shared a meal in Genesis 31.
We might say, then, that every Sunday when we observe the Lord’s Supper, we are going through a “vow renewal ceremony” (as the Jews did), committing ourselves to fulfill, to the best of our ability, the stipulations of this new covenant.
The extended quotation of Jeremiah’s prophecy from 31:31-34 is found in Hebrews 8:8-12. The Hebrew writer, of course, connects the new covenant with the death, the “once and for all” death of Jesus Christ.
Thus, the sacrifice of Christ is the basis of the covenant between man and God (9:15-23; 10:4). Finally, the oath of the covenant was made by God, based on His own unchanging nature and the impossibility for God to lie (6:13-20).
So Jesus has established a new covenant, not just with Jews but with Gentiles as well. A covenant made possible through His own sacrifice on the cross. Jesus is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David (Matt. 1:1). Those two covenants live on. People are still walking by faith, still being saved by faith so that Abraham’s covenant still lives. The kingdom Jesus established still exists and Jesus is still king, still sitting on His throne. So David’s covenant still lives.
But what about the covenant with Israel made at Mount Sinai? As we see in Hebrews 8, that covenant is now obsolete. We’ll talk more about that next week.
–Paul Holland
