(Part 1 of 2)
Covenant Sunday will be observed on February 2nd so it’s not far away. This is a special service of worship we share annually, usually at the beginning of the year when our church family is back from holidays and we’re looking ahead to the year before us.
The emphasis of the whole service is on God’s readiness to enfold us in generous love, not dependent on our deserving. Our response, also in love, springs from thankful recognition of God’s grace. The Covenant is not just a one-to-one transaction between individuals and God, but the act of the whole faith community at BCUC. The service is meant to lead us by a path both similar to and differing from that of normal Sunday worship, to that commitment which all worship seeks both to inspire and to strengthen.
The service contains a Reaffirmation of the Covenant God makes with all people (see Exodus 24).
The Bible Project helps our understanding as it responds to the question “What’s a Covenant?”
A covenant is a relationship between two partners who make binding promises to each other and work together to reach a common goal.
Covenants define obligations and commitments, but they are different from a contract because they are relational and personal. Think of a marriage—a husband and wife choose to enter a formal relationship, binding themselves to one another in lifelong faithfulness and devotion. They then work as partners to reach a common goal, like building a life or raising children together.
Covenant relationships are found all throughout the Bible. Entering into covenants was a major part of what it meant to live in the ancient Near East. So, God partnered with humans through a structure they already understood.
There are five foundational covenants that God makes – with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, before establishing the New Covenant through Jesus.
God enters a formal relationship with Noah and all living creatures, promising that, despite humanity’s corruption, he will never again flood the earth.
After God makes a covenant with Noah, evil continues to ruin the world. However, God’s rescue plan continues, and he calls Abraham into a covenantal relationship. He promises Abraham a huge family that will inherit land in Canaan and bring universal blessing to all humanity.
Exodus opens with Abraham’s offspring multiplying rapidly in Egypt, which threatens the new Pharaoh’s ego. He enslaves God’s people, and they cry out to God to rescue them. God hears them, sending Moses to be his instrument of divine power to lead the people out of Egypt and toward the land God promised to Abraham. After a harrowing escape, the people reach the foot of Mount Sinai, where God shows up to revisit the promises he made to Abraham. Acting as the representative for Israel, Moses ascends the mountain to hear the terms of God’s covenant with the people. God promises to make Israel into a holy kingdom of priests that will spread his blessing and glory to all the nations. God instructed Israel to obey all the laws given at Mount Sinai, promising to bring blessings if they followed his commands and curses if they ignored them. Israel’s allegiance to God will be outwardly reflected in the way that they live, keeping the commands and, most notably, observing the weekly Sabbath Rest.
God’s people enter Canaan (the Promised Land) and eventually demand a king, to be like other nations. Saul is anointed as Israel’s king, but he fails to obey God and is rejected. God then chooses David as king over Israel. David becomes a successful leader, overcoming Israel’s enemies and restoring order. He also wants to build a temple for God to dwell with his people again. God responds to this desire by making a covenant with David, promising to make his name great and raise up a descendant from David’s line, whose throne and kingdom will last forever.
All these covenants thematically build on one another. After God’s covenant with David, we are left waiting for the great deliverer, the Messiah from David’s line, who will make right the fractured relationship that began in the Garden of Eden.
Amidst rebellion and exile, the Hebrew prophets spoke of a new covenant, saying that God would one day fulfill all his promises, repairing his relationship with his people and blessing the nations through them.
This New Covenant is to be everlasting. God will write his law on the hearts of his people, bring complete forgiveness of sin, and raise up a faithful king from the line of David who will restore all that has been broken. The anticipation of this covenant pushes the story forward into the pages of the New Testament, where we are introduced to Jesus.
Do you notice how the covenants progressively build upon one another, forming a complete redemptive storyline? God preserved the world through Noah, initiated redemption through Abraham, established the nation of Israel through Moses, promised an eternal shepherd-king through David, and then fulfilled all his covenants through Jesus.
With each covenant, God’s promises and plans to save the world become clearer and clearer until we finally see that redemption can only come through King Jesus.
The New Testament authors present Jesus as the offspring of Abraham who trusted God, even to the point of death, and became a blessing to all nations. He is the greater Moses, leading us out of bondage, and he is the obedient Israelite who perfectly follows the laws of God. He is the royal son of David who inaugurated God’s Kingdom in his life, death, and resurrection, and who now sits at God’s right hand forever reigning as the one true King.
Jesus perfectly succeeded at every point where humanity failed. He is the guarantor and mediator of the new and better covenant. In the new covenant, we receive the forgiveness of sins and God’s empowering Spirit to help us live lives full of self-giving love. Because of Jesus, we can live righteously and partner with him as he renews the world.
I Invite you to prepare yourselves for worship and covenanting together on February 2nd by working through these notes and those in part 2 in next week’s newsletter.
Rob