(The History of Ancient Israel)
So, what is a Covenant?
In simple terms, a covenant is a promise
But…
A covenant, especially a Biblical one made by God himself, was not exactly the same as todays promises, it was much more serious and long lasting than today. In the Biblical context, covenants were referring to the traditional Middle Eastern covenants of the time.
Middle Eastern Covenants were like business deals or formal agreements two people would agree on, they were a common way to settle agreements and material possessions. Covenants, though, were even much more than regular business today, covenants were very strong, very serious, and very [personal] agreements between two people in which they vowed something to each other. They often vowed their entire property and life to one another and even after their death this covenant extended to their descendants. These covenants were often sealed with the people in an agreement cutting themselves to make a blood pact, in fact the very work covenant in Hebrew is “בְּרִית” (ber-eeth') which comes from a work meaning “to cut” and “to Create” [1].
But God’s also used covenants to fulfill his goals and bless obeying humans, but his covenants were not even regular covenants, When God made a covenant with humans, he made the terms and agreements and humans decided if they want to follow God or not. They were also much more serious and eternal in nature even for a covenant, it was a very grave thing for God to make a covenant with you and it was something to be taken extremely seriously. However, God’s covenant was not necessarily harsh or even punishments but were often blessings for individual humans that obeyed him and their descendants.
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Sources:
[1]
Strong’s Hebrew 1285. בְּרִית (ber-eeth')—A Covenant, Biblehub
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