Covenants

I would like to share these thoughts and invite your comments. I am using a “big brush” and not attempting to go into great detail, just giving the general idea.

Covenants are important in the Bible and there are a number of them. I am here going to address only two.

The first is the Covenant God made on Mt. Sinai with Israel. It was a Suzerainty treaty – that is, a treaty between a powerful and a weak party. The terms of the treaty were dictated by the Surerain and the weaker party can accept or reject (usually at its own peril), but not negotiate.

God, who had just freed Israel from the slavery of Egypt, set the terms of the Covenant. Basically they were, I, on my part, will be your God and protector, you, on your part will obey my Commandments – The Decalogue. The Covenant was eternal, but there were blessings and curses attached to it. If Israel was faithful they would be blessed and if not cursed. So, when Israel was unfaithful and punished, it was not because the Covenant was no longer in effect, but precisely because it was in effect.

The history of Israel and this Covenant are found in the Hebrew Testament of the Bible.

Jesus Christ, who is God, made a New Covenant with his followers. He summed us the teaching of the Law and the Prophets by saying, “Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the second, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is not the Law of the New Covenant Jesus would establish in his blood, this is a summation of the Law of Moses. This does not negate the Decalogue because one who loves God, self and neighbor does, in deed, fulfill the requirements of the Covenant with Israel.

Jesus, however, will raise the bar. In Matthew he says, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” In other words, Jesus is going to draw out the full meaning of the Law.

There is a progression of morality in the Bible. For example, Cain killed Able and was condemned to become “a restless wander on the earth.” Cain complained his punishment was too harsh and, because he was a wanderer, “anyone may kill me on sight. Not so! the Lord said to him. If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold.”

Later, in the same chapter 4 of Genesis, “Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, listen to my utterance: I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for bruising me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

So, when Leviticus says, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” it is attempting to bring retribution in line with the offence. It is not so much demanding an eye for an eye, as saying it may be no more than an eye for an eye. The offended is quite free to extract less or even forgive.

Jesus will say, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” That is, to illuminate their ultimate meaning. Christ raised the benchmark when he said, “You have heard the commandment, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But what I say to you is: offer no resistance to injury.”

I use this particular example of the many “You have heard….But I say(s) in Matthew to illustrate my point. Some time ago, I believe in Colorado, a man was sentenced to the death penalty. The judgment was later contested (I never did hear the outcome) because one member of the jury, a Christian, had brought a Bible to the deliberations and apparently reminded everyone he should be condemned because the Bible said, “An eye for an eye.”

My point is that, as Christians, we are to look to the teaching of Christ, as found in the Gospels, an the benchmark of our morality, not the teachings of the Hebrew Testament.

Ultimately, Christ said, “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for one another. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another.”

I believe Christ established a New Covenant in his blood and, just as in the Covenant made with Israel, gave us a law that goes with it, “Love one another.” This too is a Suzerainty covenant and we are not asked to negotiate the terms.

It is an ideal to be striven for and I am the first to confess I fall very short on a daily basis. But, I don’t think we have any license to lower the standard.

Bob Glavey