Covenants – what they are and what God is offering you
This paper is a result of a long-ish journey that the Lord has taken me into covenanting, and what it represents. Some of my views on covenants are inferred, others are taken directly from the Biblical text. Clearly Jesus is doing something when He says in Matthew 26:28 – “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”.
The key is to understand that covenanting is something that the Lord is inviting you to do with Him, and offers you some significant benefits. But there are also some expectations on you of which you should be aware.
There is a great deal of scripture here. I make no apology for this because the issue is important and involved. I’ve therefore just taken the scripture in order and put relevant comments between them. The key is to see the progression as the Bible builds the idea. I’ll then draw together some key themes at the end.
An overview of some key covenants in the Bible
The first covenant comes in Genesis 9, when God commits not to destroy the Earth again with a flood.
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Covenants were something people entered into before there was a legal system. They are intended to be a binding agreement between two people. They can take different forms. What is sometimes known as a grant covenant occurs when only one side is making a commitment. Conversely a vassal covenant occurs when a stronger party is covenanting with another, and both are making commitments. The nomenclature is less important than seeing the progression. The covenant with Noah is one-sided and doesn’t expect him to do anything in return. We now move to Abraham in Genesis 15.
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
There is more detail given here around covenants but note that it is still a grant (one-sided covenant). The odd detail of Abram being told to bring the animals is to prepare a covenant ceremony. The idea goes that the animals are cut in half, used to form a line and the covenanting parties walk through the line, usually saying “if I do not hold to my commitments, may God make me like these animals”. Obviously that’s a little ridiculous for God to do to Himself, but the point is more that Abram recognised what was happening here and that this was a real commitment. God is answering fully the question “How will I know?”.
The covenant with Abraham extends around the “almost” sacrifice of Isaac incident, but I want to move to Exodus 24 where the Lord takes it up a level.
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, 2 but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”
3 When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.
He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”
There are two important things happening here. The nation of Israel is covenanting with God, not just a single individual, and they are doing something in return now. Specifically they are committing to keep the Law as it has been laid out in the previous chapters. Thus, the Lord has taken the covenant up a notch.
This brings us to the big covenant ceremony between Israel and the Lord, which occurs in Deuteronomy 27-28 just before they go into the promised land. I have reproduced it in full, and this is very detailed.
1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all these commands that I give you today. 2 When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. 3 Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. 5 Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. 6 Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. 8 And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.”
Curses From Mount Ebal
9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. 10 Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”
11 On the same day Moses commanded the people:
12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.
14 The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:
15 “Cursed is anyone who makes an idol—a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
17 “Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
18 “Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
20 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
21 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
22 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
23 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
24 “Cursed is anyone who kills their neighbor secretly.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
25 “Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
26 “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
Blessings for Obedience
1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Curses for Disobedience
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.[a] 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34 The sights you see will drive you mad. 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36 The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
This is long and scary. Note that the covenant is very detailed, and involves participation by the nation again. But it also describes a form to the covenant that wasn’t necessarily as clear before. There are four elements to the covenant, albeit one is implied:
- Acceptance of position. The nation by covenanting are agreeing to take on the position of the Lord’s favoured people.
- Commitments. They are committing to uphold a series of behavioural (in this case) requirements.
- Blessings. If they uphold those commitments, they will be blessed. Note some key elements to this – they will be fed well, they will be blessed with offspring, and they will be protected. This is consistent with Good Shepherd language, but the protection element is key and I will return to this later.
- Curses. In the event that the commitments are not met, they are inviting curses to be brought upon them.
I do believe that this is helpful as a guide to “covenant form” when we come to covenanting as an individual later.
The key in this section is the Lord progressively elevates the involvement of the people and the detail in the covenant through time. But also, He is illustrating that covenanting is a tool that can be used to access His resources and help. Not the only tool, but an important one.
A good question to ask in all of this is, do you believe the Lord changed His covenant? If the Lord is unchanging then that’s a tough argument to make. But equally, the covenant can look different from our perspective. So a way to think about covenanting is that the Lord has His own covenant that we can plug into in a variety of different ways. He’s shown us some and we will see others shortly. But I believe what He wants is for us to choose to come into covenant with us – and the reason He hasn’t been explicit about how to is because He will adapt to any covenant you offer. He’s clever like that…
In the next section I want to pick out some other points on covenanting that emerge in the Bible after Deuteronomy.
Other details on Covenants
We start with Joshua 8…
30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. 33 All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.
34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.
So apparently in the event of a failure under covenant we are able to re-covenant. That’s useful to know.
A little detail hidden in Isaiah 42..
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”
5 This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
Obviously a very famous chapter about Jesus. But note in verse six it says “I will make you a covenant with the people”. A person can be a covenant? Really? Interesting.
It continues in Jeremiah 31…
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“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 covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Another very well-known piece. Again, the Lord is talking about a new covenant (which is really a new way of us engaging with His eternal covenant). We obviously know what all this means now – He will give us the Holy Spirit within us to help us fulfil our commitments under the covenant. We clearly need it. It’s worth cross referencing this with Ezekiel 36 (sprinkle water, put Spirit within us) and to see the link into John 3 (born of water and Spirit). Not that it’s especially important for this paper, but the link is a neat one because it goes some way to explain John 3:10 (“How can you be Israel’s teacher and not know these things?”). Jesus was chiding Nicodemus for not knowing these things that had been clearly telegraphed in the Prophets.
So let’s just take some stock here. It seems that:
- God has created a covenanting technology
- He’s shown us some ways to use it
- He allows us to re-covenant when we mess up
- A covenant can be a person
- He can evolve the way the covenant looks to us, in order to help us fulfil the covenant better.
The point being, He wants us in covenant with Him, with all the protections and blessings that come with it.
Looking more closely at Jesus
This is where it will appear I’m taking a few liberties. I’m going to connect some ideas and my suggestion is if you are unsure, please pray through it. Don’t take my word for it. Ask the Lord if He wants you in covenant. For my own purposes, I am completely convinced that He wanted that for me. I am sharing this simply because I believe it is likely true for many others, not least because it affords a level of protection and blessing that make not be possible in any other way. And perhaps more importantly because He is currently telling me to share it.
I want to turn to John 10…
16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
For some time, this passage confused me, as it appeared inconsistent. Jesus says “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” and then says “this command I received from my Father”. Aren’t they inconsistent? It sounds like the Father did tell you to?
The way I think these can be resolved is to imagine this. Jesus comes to the Father and says “I am prepared to lay down my life to achieve Your will”. The Father then says “you may, but only if you take your life back up again. I therefore decree that this will happen” at which point the Father’s statement becomes a command.
But the key thing here is Jesus originated it. And my slight liberty here is I think he did it under covenant. He used the Father’s covenant technology to formalise this as an agreement between the two, but unlike previous versions of the covenant, He originated it.
Note the consistency of this with Psalm 2…
7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8 Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with a rod of iron[b];
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
12 Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Look at verse 8 – “Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance”. There are various cross references between this Psalm and the Book of Acts, which suggest that this occurs after Jesus is resurrected. It looks a lot like a blessing under a covenant to me.
Now we cross reference this with Matthew 28…
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me… So clearly Jesus has asked, because He’s been given everything.
My point in all of this is that I believe Jesus is demonstrating how He used the covenant technology to do what He did. And it is available to us through Him. We just have to choose to covenant with the Father.
Am I not just covered by what Jesus did?
Yes but it’s more complicated than that. The fundamental problem today is that the enemy has so many ways to get you to agree to a different covenant with other “gods” without you even realising that I believe it is far safer to be in a covenant with the one true God. Again, if you aren’t sure, pray through it. What I’m completely sure of is that the Lord’s covenant dominates absolutely every other attempt at covenanting by the enemy. It therefore seems far simpler and safer just to covenant explicitly.
Implications of covenanting
If you do go down the individual covenant route, I can tell you from experience that you have three things to worry about, as follows:
- You need to make your life like a stronghold. The enemy will attempt to attack anything it can to break your covenant. So you need to plug every hole you can. This requires focus and discipline.
- You need to focus on what God has designed you to be, not what you think you should be doing. You will end up doing plenty, but understanding where your focus should be is important.
- We are aiming to be Good Shepherds. The Biblical perspective on shepherding is important and we are called to be good stewards of the flock.
As you examine yourself in the faith and the covenant, I believe these are three important areas to review. I’ve therefore written papers on each that hopefully will help you on this journey.
A final point on covenanting that isn’t necessarily clear in the above so I want to make it so. Covenanting has at its heart the concept of “oneness” – we are doing this to the end, for ever. That’s why your marriage is a covenant. It has at its heart that you’re in it together until the end.
All of the covenants throughout the Bible had this sentiment from God’s perspective – “I’m with you all the way”. But this raises a question addressed in the previous paper on goats. Assuming you are not in rebellion, are you ready to say to the Lord “I’m with you, and I’ll follow you, whatever happens, to the end”. If you are, that’s a covenant. Do you really think He doesn’t want to covenant back?