Covenant

The First Covenant  

That Your Way may be known upon earth, Your Salvation among all nations Psalm 67:3

Covenant, in Latin, is testament. So calling the Bible the "Old Testament" makes it sound obsolete, like a relic of the past. But God Himself repeatedly insists, in the Bible, that His covenants with humankind are eternal. As He says, They are binding forever (ad olam, in Hebrew - eternal, perpetual, until the end of the universe, from here to eternity).

Keep My commandments and live, and My Law as the apple of your eye. Proverbs 7:2

What's a covenant? A covenant is a solemn pact or contract, a compact, usually involving the giving of a pledge or pledges that guarantee future performance.

The Bible speaks of six eternal, ever-lasting covenants (b'rit olam, covenant ever-lasting/from here to eternity).

1) The First Covenant, between God and all the Earth, and particularly - since only human beings could be fully aware of it - humankind. It starts with the human race's legendary common ancestors, Adam and Eve, and then, reaffirmed and extended, with Noah (and, by the way, with his wife Na'amah, a sister of Tubal-Cain), and all their children, and with all their children, and with their childrens' children, forever. That is to say: with all humanity. In the Biblical program, we all, each of us, are Noah's descendants.

This covenant is generally associated with Noah immediately after the Flood (Genesis 9:16), so it's often called the Rainbow Covenant, as well as First Covenant, Universal Covenant, Noahide and No'achide Covenant.

2) The Abrahamic Covenant (See Genesis 17, Psalms 105:8-10).

3) The Covenant of Sinai (See Exodus 34:10), Mosaic Covenant, Exodus Covenant, or Covenant between God and Israel in the Wilderness.

4) The Sabbath service with the Covenant of Sinai (Leviticus 24:8)

5) The Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 23:5), which extends the covenant between God and the "king after [His] own heart," David and his descendants, ad olam - into the great next era in world history, the Messianic Age, the Millenial Age.

6) The New Covenant (Isaiah 55:3, 61:8) arising in and helping to define the Messianic Age or Millenium - history's next era, when "it will be very easy to make a living," and Israel will stand vindicated, no longer oppressed or reviled, but recognized as God's servants, while justice, peace and "knowledge of God" will cover the Earth like the waters cover the sea."

To recapitulate: God tells us in Genesis, the first book of the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), that He bound Noah and all his descendants - that means us, all mankind - to Him forever, by the First or Noahide Covenant.

Later, God enters into covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and with Isaac's son Jacob, or Israel, including the children or descendants of Israel. This covenant extends to Israel's sons, who become the twelve tribes of Israel - the people whom the Bible later calls Jews, or yehudim.

And in your descendants shall all the nations of the Earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.   Genesis 22:18

In Exodus, God enters into another covenant with the people of Israel at Sinai. He reveals His Torah to them through Moses, and commands them to keep its statutes, laws and ordinances forever. God also calls these laws His Torah - His Guidance, Way, Teaching or Law. He insists that His Torah is forever.

O, how I delight in Your Torah! It is my study all the day.   Psalms 119:97

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