TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: The Nuts & Bolts of Covenant Making..........................................................................................1
Chapter 2: Let's Make A Deal.......................................................................................................................28
Chapter 3: The Threshold Covenant ............................................................................................................44
Chapter 4: The Salt Covenant.......................................................................................................................59
Chapter 5: Significant Old Testament Covenants (1)....................................................................................72
Chapter 6: Significant Old Testament Covenants (2)....................................................................................96
Chapter 7: The Greatest Covenant of All ...................................................................................................114
Chapter 8: Superior Covenant Living ..........................................................................................................132
Chapter 9: God's Motives in Covenant-making............................................................................................142
Chapter 10: I Swear To God!.......................................................................................................................149
Chapter 11: Covenant Renewal...................................................................................................................160
Chapter 12: The "Hesed" of God..................................................................................................................175
Chapter 13: Those Who Trusted In The "Hesed".........................................................................................188
Chapter 14: Gods Marriage Covenant..........................................................................................................198
Chapter 15:The Human Marriage Covenant.................................................................................................208
Chapter 16: The Silence of the Lamb............................................................................................................242
The Nut & Bolts of Covenant Making
A man attended one of my Covenant seminars. He listened carefully and studied along with great interest. Suddenly his eyes began to brighten and he caught it (that is the term I use for those people who learn the truths of covenant as it unfolds before them). One week later, I received a letter from him saying that he hadnt been able to sleep well since the seminar. He was so excited, he couldnt think of anything but covenant. Such is the cost when you catch it.
In another seminar, an elder came to me and said "I feel like a fool not having known this before, but I feel so good having learned it now." He had caught on!
Yet another man in Oklahoma found an early edition of this book somewhere. He read it and then read it again, then again-- ten times at last count. He incorporated these truths into a personal Bible study and at this writing had baptized a number of people in many studies. He was excited, because he too caught on.
A woman in Amarillo, Texas had the book given to her. Like the others, she got excited and began teaching the subject in her ladies Bible class. Over the years, she has given away dozens of copies of this book, and she is still at it. She caught it.
And so it goes one person at a time, here and there, totaling into the hundreds their lives are changed forever because they caught what you are going to learn.
Next to Jesus and His kingdom, what you are about to study is the most important concept that you will learn in your life. I know, that sounds almost boastful, but I am telling you the truth! Yet most of us are extremely ignorant of covenant. I certainly was. When I caught on I never was the same. For years now, I have been visiting churches and colleges changing other peoples lives as I can.
If you catch on, you will be changed forever too. I hope I can enroll you in the covenant cause so you can work with me to share this word with still others.
Raise your right hand and enter an agreement with me. Tell me you are going to make yourself read all of this book all of it! Make a covenant with me that you will force yourself to finish what you start. It is not always easy, but keep reading! You are going to get so excited that you will praise God and wonder why you didnt know this before.
Now that I have you awake and excited, lets begin our study.
I like a good story that makes a point. Beginning our study of "covenant," let me tell you three true stories. These will help you understand more clearly the jargon we will be using as we get to the subject of covenant.
STORY NUMBER ONE
On November 11, 1918, the Germans and the allied forces signed what was known as an "armistice agreement" to end World War I. You might be interested in knowing that an armistice is merely a temporary cessation of war based on the input of both sides. Neither of the two warring factions really won. They just got weary. They sat down and negotiated a settlement that said, "I will stop if you will." By mutual agreement, the opposing forces laid down their arms and went home. All was quiet on the Western front.
Remember that story, because it is going to illustrate the first kind of covenant we will investigate later.
STORY NUMBER TWO
Some twenty years after the first World War, it all broke out again. Most of the same countries were allied on each side (though this time, the Axis forces included the unlikely partnership with Japan). Germany and the European forces finally were defeated, and then all of the Allied might was trained on Japan.
On August 6, 1945, a bomber called the Enola Gay was dispatched to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. After two bombs were dropped, that nation was brought to its knees. The Japanese asked for peace.
On September 9, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, the warring sides met to sign a peace treaty. But this was no "armistice agreement." This was a pact of unconditional surrender dictated by the Allies and signed by the humbled nation of Japan.
That is the second kind of covenant we will come back to in a while.
STORY NUMBER THREE
I was living in Texas at the time. One night, I received a phone call from a friend of mine who lives in Arizona. We chatted for a while, and then he asked if my wife and I had ever gone to the Grand Canyon. I answered "No." He said, "Come go with my wife and me." I explained that I was poor, and I didn't have the money, but that didnt put him off a bit. He replied, "I know you are a poor preacherI have heard you preach before. It was a few minutes before I could get him to stop laughing and get serious. Anyway, he continued, my wife and I have decided we are going to pay your way on this vacation."
And you know, he was true to his word. Wayne and his wife met us at the airport. We rode in a van they had rented. We ate meals and munchies they paid for. We played golf on courses my friend reserved. We went to see sights they had planned, and we enjoyed a wonderful time at no expense to Donna and me.
The two treaties that ended those two wars plus the story of the friend on the phone perfectly illustrate the concept of covenant that we find in the Bible.
THE PARITY COVENANT
Remember the first treaty? It was the armistice. That kind of agreement was an "agreement between equals." Both sides had a say, and both sides got part of their way.
The Bible speaks of covenants like that agreements made between equal partners who "hammer out" a consensus. It is called a parity agreementan agreement between equals. Get that word, Parity into your vocabulary.
I liken such a covenant to me selling you a car. I want $10,000 for my used car. You want the car, but you will only pay $5,000. What do we do? We sit down and discuss it. You come up$5,000, $6,000, $7000, while I come down, $10,000, $9,995, 9,990. After a while, I sell you my car for $9,980. What a deal!
Seriously though, that is a parity agreement. I demanded certain things, and you offered certain things. After a while, we hit a deal that both of us agreed ona parity agreement. Say those words out loud about three times. Got them?
But remember this: you will never find God entering into an agreement like that. Why? Because such a covenant is an agreement between equals. God couldnt find anyone with whom to work out such a deal. There is no one equal with God.
THE SUZERAINTY COVENANT
That second treatythe one signed in Tokyowas different. It was what the ancients called a suzerainty treaty. Get that term in your mind too. Such an agreement was not between equals; this one was imposed by a superior party called a suzerain over an inferior called a vassal. The superior dictates the terms, and the inferior had better keep them if he knows whats good for him. This is an agreement involving obligation. A mutual response is expected, with both sides doing something to keep the covenant.
You will see God making many of these type covenants in the Bible. He (the superior) makes covenant with us (the inferior). He offers certain blessings, we take on certain responsibilities. He does some thingswe do some things. This is the kind of covenant we most understand (after all, we see it when God made a covenant with Israel through Moses on Sinai) but it is not necessarily the covenant that God made most often. God likes this next kind.
THE CHARTER AGREEMENT
The third story (the one about my friend paying for my vacation,) is actually a story of "covenant" too. When you learn about it in the Bible (and it is the most beautiful kind of covenant), you will enjoy it. It is called by many names. Get one of them into your mind. It is called:
•A patron covenant
•A charter covenant
•A unilateral (one sided) covenant.
•A covenant of grant because one member of the covenant merely grants something to the other.
Here is the strange thing about this covenant: this is an agreement made by only one personnot two.
This amazing covenant takes the form of a sovereign promise, voluntarily taken by one party to bless the other party. It is in no way dependent upon human response. When God makes such a covenant, He offers His favors unconditionally to a chosen one (like Abraham). God asks nothing but Abrahams trust. He wants merely to bless Abraham and all his descendants after him.
In a covenant like this one, man doesn't have to do anythinghe merely trusts God to do what He has promised. God binds himself with a promise much like my friend bound himself to pay for my vacation. (For an example of such a covenant, see Genesis 15.)
THE UNILATERAL COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
In that famous covenant of Genesis 15, God alone passed through the pieces of slain animals. That meant that God alone was binding Himself to do something for Abraham. Abraham did not pass through those slain animals, because Abraham took on no responsibility in the matter. Like me, Abraham was getting it all paid for by a friend.
But lets add another thought here (not wanting to be confusing.) Even though the covenant of promise was freely extended to Abraham, God later demanded circumcision of any descendant who wants to remain in that covenant. God declared in Genesis 17:14
Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."
How does one break a covenant of promise? It is simple. He disqualifies himself from being blessed by refusing the sign of that covenant in his body. God recognizes no one who does not have the sign. Just as one cannot get into a free show without a ticket, covenant people in Abrahams time could not receive blessing without circumcision. Anyone who refused it was out.
