![]() ![]() Disloyalty to the family has never been respected in any culture because humans have been made to understand that the creation of life necessarily involves an implied covenant between the life-givers and the child. A quality relationship between the two parties is expected and does not need to be ratified by the making of a covenant. The reason that covenants were normally made between non-relatives is because those born into a family are born into a covenant – parents are obligated to the children and children are obligated to their parents. Normally, covenants were made between non-relatives and involved obligations, were sealed by an oath, and at times had witnesses. Marriage is an excellent picture of a covenant. Covenants were about loyalty, were person-oriented and were concerned with the quality of relationship between the parties involved. Covenants were normally made by stronger parties as a gift to weaker parties in order to establish what sort of relationship the two parties would have and contained the stipulations that would guide that relationship. What one should understand about a covenant is that unlike a contract the heart of the covenant is a relationship. These covenant documents will be looked at in much greater detail later, but they make clear the point that the Bible adopts commonly known concepts and forms in order to communicate important truths. The Israelites would have identified from the form and content that the documents were legally binding in the Heavenly court, gracious, and meant to be the guiding principle for life. This means that Moses’ work was a mixed Genre: The form of a Suzerain Treaty and Royal Charter with the content of a Law Code. However, both Exodus and Deuteronomy also shares similarities with the Babylonian Hammurabi Law Code and Royal Charters of the day that had the blessings preceding the curses. One can see that Moses intentionally adopted the form of the Treaties of his day so that the people could immediately understand what sort of document they were looking at. This is will be clearly shown in future posts, but right now a brief look at the structure of Hittite treaties compared to the Mosaic Covenant will be sufficient to demonstrate the point: Whenever an existing concept did not fit His intended purposes, He’d modify it. Instead He spoke in the language of the day and used commonly known concepts to communicate clearly with His people. God, in His wise and merciful love, does not come to humanity speaking in a foreign language and using concepts that have no relationship whatsoever to our experience. In Royal Charters, or Land Grants, the Suzerain is rewarding his vassal for good works already performed, or merely graciously giving him a gift. In Hittite Suzerain Treaties, dating back to 1400 BC, which Deuteronomy takes the form of, the Suzerain (great king) makes known the obligations of his Vassal (the lesser king who serves him). ![]() The concept of “covenant” as understood in the Ancient Near East is well documented and seen in Hittite Suzerain-Vassal treaties and Royal Charters or Land Grants. Each covenant will be reviewed in future posts. ![]() ![]() 33:29-39:29)Īt no point in history has there not been a covenant between God and man, and thus it is through covenants that God develops His relationship with humanity. The Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19-24/ Deuteronomy).At crucial moments in the plot structure of scripture there are important covenants made: At the very least it should be obvious that this is a crucial and important concept within Holy Scripture. To begin with, in the English Standard Version of the Bible the term “covenant” can be found 295 times, spanning 37 books of the Bible. The thesis is that the Bible is best understood by God’s relationship to humanity, which is displayed in the Covenants He makes with mankind. The main argument of Kingdom through Covenant is that the Covenants are the backbone of the entire Bible. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |