Relevant Verses: Genesis 6, 9, 15; Deuteronomy 7; Jeremiah 31, Psalm 136
Theme: Covenantal Love
Leading Question: “How does the idea of covenant help us understand the word “love”? Our lesson speaks of “covenantal love.” Just what does that mean?
Comment: Where we live there is a “covenant” which spells out what can be built and what cannot be built in our neighborhood. Does the restriction which such a word imply enrich or impoverish our understanding of love?
In the early chapters of Genesis, the word “covenant” appears several times. The first instance is in Genesis 6, just before the great flood:
Gen. 6:17-22: I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, 18 but I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. 19-20 Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive. 21 Take along all kinds of food for you and for them. 22 Noah did everything that God commanded.
In this context, doesn’t the word “covenant” imply good news for Noah? The Lord is going to send a flood on the earth, “but I will make a covenant with you.” So the word covenant implies security, not just restriction. That is also true of the second time that covenant appears, just after the flood, in Genesis 9:
Gen. 9:9-13: I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, 10 and with all living beings—all birds and all animals—everything that came out of the boat with you. 11 With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. 12 As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, 13 I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world.
A more revealing use of the term is found in Genesis 15, when the Lord promised to give Abraham the land of Canaan. But Abraham asked: “How can I know that it will be mine?” (Gen. 15:8. The Lord then instructed Abraham to bring a variety of animals and birds for a sacrifice. He was to cut the animals in half, but not the birds. The climax of this event is described in verses 17-18:
Genesis 15:17-18: When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals. 18 Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River.”
Typically, when such a covenant was made between two parties, they would sever the bodies of an animal sacrifice, and both parties would walk through them, essentially saying, “if I break this covenant, may my body be torn in two like these animals.” It was a deadly oath that the parties were swearing in order to promise that they would not break the covenant.
Yet, God Himself does not walk through the animal carcasses. He makes a promise to Abram, and then, Abram has a dream. In this dream, symbols of God pass through the sacrifice on His behalf. While this is a strange ritual to us, the point was made clearly to the ancient audience: God will most definitely, certainly, absolutely fulfill this covenant that He is making with Abram.
And what exactly are the terms of that covenant? God promises that Abram’s descendants will eventually conquer the Promised Land, four generations after Abram has died. What is Abram’s part in the covenant? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. God makes a promise, but Abram is under no such obligation.
This is striking, because a covenant of this type requires two parties coming together and making promises to each other. Yet Abram is required to make no promise. God will fulfill His promise no matter what.
This is the same kind of assurance that we have today. No matter what I might do, no matter how far I might fall, no matter how sinful my thoughts, words, or actions may be, nothing can take me out of my Father’s hands. There is nothing that I could ever do to earn my salvation, and there is nothing that I could ever do to keep my salvation. It is all completely a gift of God!
But if all that sounds like a blank check, we need to look at a passage in Deuteronomy 7:
Deuteronomy 7:7-10: “The Lord did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. 8 But the Lord loved you and wanted to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors. That is why he saved you by his great might and set you free from slavery to the king of Egypt. 9 Remember that the Lord your God is the only God and that he is faithful. He will keep his covenant and show his constant love to a thousand generations of those who love him and obey his commands, 10 but he will not hesitate to punish those who hate him.
Question: Are there sufficient safeguards in Scripture to prevent us from taking the covenant promise as a blank check?
Question: What about the new covenant? Does the New Testament concept of the New Covenant move us dangerously close to the idea of a blank check? And is there a difference between concept New Covenant in the OT and NT?
Christians are sometimes tempted to see the New Covenant as a contrast between the NT and OT ideas. Here the concept of New Covenant as quoted in Jeremiah is crucial:
Jeremiah 31:31-34: 1 The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. 33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Question: Does the fact that the book of Hebrews 8 quotes the same passage sometimes lead Christians to contrast the OT and NT usage rather than see them as the same?
Comment: These words from Hebrews 8:13 should not be taken to overrule the use of New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:
Hebrews 8:13: 13 By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear.
In Jeremiah 31, the promise is clearly made to Israel in the Old Testament. Is this a good example of how the same words in OT and NT should not be made equivalent? Each context must be taken on its own merits. In short, we should lay all the passages in both testaments side-by-side instead of on top of each other.
Question: Does the repetition of the concept of “covenant loyalty” in Psalm 136, provide grounds for reinforcing the idea of God’s everlasting “covenant” loyalty?
The New Revised Standard Version uses the phrase “steadfast love” as a refrain for every verse of Psalm 136. And that phrase “steadfast love” reflects the Hebrew word chesed, “covenant loyalty.”
Psalm 136: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
In short, God never gives up on us. Even if we turn our backs on him, his “steadfast love” can always be renewed.
