One of the most mysterious and yet theologically significant events is recorded in Genesis
15. In a vision, God told Abram to take a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon, and cut all except
the birds in half. Then he was told to place each piece opposite the other.
"Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness
fell upon him" (v.12). Then God predicted the 400 year bondage of Abram's descendants in a foreign
land and their return to Canaan at the end of four generations.
"And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there was a smoking oven
and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram" (v.17,
18). Then followed the prediction of the extent of the land to be given to Abram's descendants.
The Hebrew idiom "cutting a covenant" was based on the custom of cutting up an animal and those who
were making the covenant walking between the pieces. In this case, only God (visualized as a "smoking oven and burning torch")
went through. This suggests to many that it was an unconditional covenant on God's part, no matter what Abram did or did not
do.
Covenant is a word with many shades of meaning, being used for all sorts of formal agreements between
people or between God and men.
Covenants Between Men.
Between friends, such as David and Jonathan, a covenant is an alliance of brotherly love and loyalty
(1Sam. 18:3; 20:8,; 23:18). In Proverbs 2:16,17, the "seductress" who
deserts her husband "and forgets the covenant (marriage contract) of her God" is described. A covenant can also be an agreement
or pledge, as between Jehoiada and his captains (2Kin. 11:4). Between countries it is a treaty
or alliance, as between Israel and the Gibeonites (Josh. 9), Solomon and Hiram (1Kin. 5:2-6), and
Judah and Tyre (Amos 1:9). Between a king and his people, as between Saul and Israel, it was not
unlike a simpler form of a constitutional monarchy.
Between God and man.
Most important of all, between God and man, a covenant was "cut" with animal sacrifices, an oath and
promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
Meredith Kline maintains that the whole Book of Deuteronomy, plus the Ten Commandments, and passages
such as Joshua 24, are all written in the form of an ancient covenant, or treaty, between a monarch
and his subjects. In this case the Monarch was God and His subjects were the Israelites.
The five parts that Kline details in hid "Treaty of the Great King" are as follows:
1. Preamble, identifying the suzerain, or lord.
2. Prologue, describing previous history of relationships.
3. Stipulations and demands of the suzerain.
4. Ratifications, or swearing allegiance, with benefits for keeping the
treaty and curses for breaking it.
5. Witnesses and instructions for implementing the covenant.
The Covenants and Bible Doctrine
All Bible believing Christians believe in the covenants, but some make them central to their theology
and some see them as an important part of a larger framework.
Those who fit the whole Bible into a covenantal framework are known as "covenant theologians". Those
who see the covenants as within larger administrations (dispensations) are known as "dispensationalists". Recently, conservative
Christians from both groups have found out that they have much more in common than they previously thought. Whether one favors
covenants or dispensations, or both, the main program is neither the one nor the other, but the Person of Christ, who is all
in all, and in all.
