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THE COVENANT TREATY IN SACRED SCRIPTURE

The Bible is a book, or rather THE BOOK, about Covenant.  The Bible is not an encyclopedia of religious information, it is not a collection of moral parables, nor is it a collection of stories about the distant past.  The Bible is God's written revelation of Himself and man's relationship to Him through the Covenant bond He establishes with those men and women He calls into a unique relationship. This is the theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation-- God's Covenant relationship with His people. Throughout salvation history obedience to God's Covenant yielded blessings but disobedience called down Covenant curses; for example the Covenant blessings and curses of the Sinai Covenant with the Old Israel.  In the Old Testament God's relationship with Israel was always defined in terms of the Covenant, the marriage bond by which He joined her to Himself as His chosen people.  While covenant blessings and curses in the Old Testament were temporal, covenant blessings and curses in the New Covenant in Christ are eternal and the covenant bond is expresses as a marriage bond between Jesus the Bridegroom and the New Israel, the Catholic [universal] Church as His Bride.

Let's look more closely at the Old Covenant blessings and curses.

Please read Leviticus chapter 26 and Deuteronomy Chapter 28:1-69.  The Book of Deuteronomy is the last of the Books of Moses.  It is a record of the reestablishing of the Sinai Covenant which created Israel as a holy nation and the extension of that Covenant with the new generation of Israel who had grown up during the 40 years wandering in the wilderness and who are now about to take possession of the Promised Land.  Only Joshua and Caleb are alive from the pervious generation who had witnessed such incredible miracles in the Exodus experience. In reaffirming the Covenant treaty between Yahweh and His people Moses enumerates the blessings Yahweh promises for obedience to the covenant in Deuteronomy 28. 1-14 but he also warns the people of the curses that will befall them if they are disobedient to their covenant promises and obligations [see verse15 forward].  In the Old Covenant both the blessings and the curses are temporal. The blessings include health, fertility, good harvest and freedom from oppression while the curses remove the blessing of fertility for sterility, good harvest becomes famine, and freedom dissolves into foreign invasion and oppression

 

Please note the curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-69.  These covenant curses became prophecy fulfilled in the first century AD:

• verse 41:  In 66-73AD this curse was fulfilled when the Roman legions of Titus enslaved the Jews as a result of their revolt against the Roman Empire which had begun in 66AD
• Verses 47-48 = prophecy fulfilled in the Roman destruction of Judea.
• Verses 54-57 Jewish historian Josephus was an eyewitness to the siege

of Jerusalem in 70AD when these curses were fulfilled. The Jews kept the Passover feast in the Spring of AD70.  The city, which normally had a population of 100,000 now, numbered about 1.5 million people.  The Roman army besieged the city during the height of the feast.  The siege lasted 3 ½ months during which time famine had increased the suffering of the inhabitants.   Josephus, The Jewish War, Volume I, chapter 3 page 444 ...she slew her son; and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed.  Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her, that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready.  She replied that she had saved the very fine portion of it for them; and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement....  The Jewish historian, Josephus, recounts the reaction of the Roman soldiers when they discovered this Jewish woman had murdered and eaten her own child:  ...the Romans, some of whom could not believe it; and others pitied the distress which the Jews were under; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation.  The Romans set fire to the Temple and utterly destroyed it and the city of Jerusalem.  Josephus records that over a million people perished.

Please read Matthew 24:1-2: Jesus left the Temple, and as He was going away His disciples came up to draw His attention to the Temple buildings.  He said to them in reply, 'You see all these? In truth I tell you, not a single stone here will be left on another; everything will be pulled down.'   The 9^th of Av (Ab) 70AD the fire that engulfed the Temple melted the gold which covered the roof and wall ornamentation on the Temple.  The gold melted and ran down between the cracks of the stones.  After the battle the Roman soldiers poured cold water on the hot stones to break them apart in order to secure the gold that had melted into the cracks of the stones.  Today no trace of the beautiful Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem survives for just as Jesus prophesized in Matthew 24:1-2.  The Roman soldiers in their quest for gold and vengeance so devastated the Temple that not one stone was left standing upon another.

 

Relationships between people and between nations bound by Covenant:

God's relationship with man has always been defined through the sacred bond of the Covenant, from the Covenant with Adam and Creation to the Covenant established with the blood Jesus Christ. In the Sinai Covenant and the creation of the nation of Israel, God joined Himself to Israel in a Covenant that is expressed as a marriage between Yahweh and His bride, Israel.  The formal covenant treaty arrangements of the Bible bears a striking resemblance to the structure of peace treaties of the city-states and Empires of the Ancient Near East (see Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963).

In the formation of a Covenant both the dominant King and his vassal swear an oath in Treaty form, thereby creating a covenant binding the 2 parties.  The standard covenant had 5 parts (Kline)

 

A marriage Covenant followed a similar format with covenant duties and obligations.   Covenants form marriages from which come families.  There is no word in Hebrew for marriage or family.  A covenant with an equal creates "brothers".  Covenants with non-equals, like a great king and his vassal, create a father/ son relationship.  The vassal owes the king the loyalty and obedience a son owes a father.  Yahweh expresses his covenant with Israel as both a great king to a vassal but more meaningfully as a husband to his wife.  When Israel strays from Yahweh to embrace other gods she is an unfaithful wife, a harlot breaking the marriage covenant.

Covenant Treaties of Old Testament:

One of the best examples of a Covenant Treaty in the Old Testament is the covenant renewal treaty found in the Book of Deuteronomy written by Moses just before the new generation of the Sinai Covenant took possession of the Promised Land (the original Exodus generation had died during the 40 years between the giving of the Law at Sinai and arriving at the plains of Moab and the entrance into the Promised Land). The book naturally divides into 5 sections that correspond to the 5 parts of ancient covenant structure. (Kline: Treaty of the Great King; also Sutton That you may Prosper: Dominion by Covenant: Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987).

 

1. Preamble:	Deuteronomy 1:1-5
2. Historical Prologue:	Deuteronomy 1:6-4:43
3. Ethical Stipulations:	Deuteronomy 4:44-26:19
4. Sanctions:	Deuteronomy 27:1-28:68
5. Succcession Arrangements:	Deuteronomy 29:1-34:12

 

The Covenant Lawsuit:

For this will be Yahweh's day of vengeance, the year of retribution in Zion's lawsuit (riv).  Isaiah 34:8

In the ancient Near East when a vassal kingdom violated the terms of the covenant agreement, the Great Lord would send emissaries to warn the offenders of the coming judgment and enforcement of the curse sanctions.  If the covenant relationship could not be reestablished and the violations continued the great king's emissaries would call a "covenant lawsuit" against the offending vassal. In the Bible it was the mission of God's holy Prophets (who acted as God's emissaries) to bring a restoration of covenant obligations or, when failing in restoration to act as Yahweh's prosecuting attorneys and to bring the message of the covenant Lawsuit against the offending nation.  In Hebrew a covenant lawsuit is called a 'rib' or riv.  For example: Isaiah and Hosea brought a Covenant Lawsuit against Israel in the 8^th century BC.  The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel brought a Covenant Lawsuit against Judea in the 6^th century BC.  In every case the holy prophet acting as Yahweh's emissary addressed the generation on which the Covenant curses would fall. Some examples in Scripture are found in:

1. Deuteronomy 4:26; 30:19; 32:1
2. Psalms 50:4-7
3. the Book of Isaiah 1:2 &21
4. the Book of Hosea  4:1: Israelites, hear what Yahweh says, for Yahweh indicts (literally brings a 'riv', covenant lawsuit to) the citizens of the country:  there is no loyalty, no faithful love, no knowledge of God in the country...

The Hebrew word 'riv' or 'rib' is sometimes translated "indictment" or "controversy" and can mean "a contest (personal or legal)", and is found in Deuteronomy 17:8; 19:17; 21:5; 25:1; 2 Samuel 15:2; 2 Chronicles 19:8; Isaiah 34:8; Jeremiah 25:31; Ezekiel 44:24; Hosea 4:1; 12:2; Micah 6:2 (twice).

The covenant lawsuit in the book of Hosea is laid out in the classic Covenant Treaty format:  Israelites, hear what Yahweh says, for Yahweh indicts (Yahweh as a "riv" with) the citizens of the country: there is no loyalty, no faithful love (hesed), no knowledge of God in the country...Hosea 4:1

 

The book of the prophet Ezekiel is especially noteworthy as a Covenant Lawsuit since it parallels the visions of John in Revelation (please see the list of visions in Ezekiel/ John).  It is very important to note that each of the Old Testament Covenant Lawsuits is addressed to the current generation in the context of the Covenant relationship.  When the covenantal context of prophecy is ignored, the message the prophet was told to communicate is either lost or distorted.  The point is, if John's prophetic vision is the calling down of a Covenant Lawsuit (it follows the classic format) then John is addressing the current generation who rejected the Messiah. But he is also addressing the New Covenant Church symbolized in the letters to the seven Churches.  Each of those letters is also formatted as a Covenant Treaty.  In other words, the Old Covenant Church faces judgment for rejecting the Messiah while the New Covenant Church becomes the successor, the New Israel.  I think this is a key to unraveling the interpretation of the book of Revelation.  John's revelation is a prophecy with a specific covenantal orientation and reference.   (Note: A covenant lawsuit is not a divorce in the "marriage covenant" between God and Israel as some Protestant scholars have suggested; it is a judgment).

Jesus the Messiah came fulfilling the prophecies of the Prophets of Yahweh.  He came as prophet, priest, and king to form the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 13:13-14 but He also came as Yahweh's prosecuting attorney against an apostate Old Covenant people.  See Matthew 21:43-46 for Jesus' covenant lawsuit announcement against the Old Covenant people: Jesus speaking to the Priests, scribes, and Jews at the Temple: "I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.... the chief priests and the scribes realized he was speaking about them...

Compare Jesus' series of 7 curses which establish a Covenant Lawsuit in Matthew chapter 23: 13-52 with the Prophet Isaiah's covenant lawsuit and 7 curses in Isaiah  5:8-24; and the 7^th curse in 10:1-4; and Daniel's vision in 2:34-44. Also please see the chart comparing the Covenant Lawsuit judgment Jesus calls against Judah in Matthew 24 with John's Covenant Lawsuit in Revelation in the Charts section.  For passages with Old Testament covenant lawsuit language see Leviticus 26:14-45; Deuteronomy 32; Psalm 50; Isaiah 3:13-15; 34:8; Jeremiah 1:16; 2:9; 11:1-8; 25:31; Ezekiel 17:19-21; Hosea 2:4; 4:1; 12:2; Micah 1:2; 6:1-2.  In these passages God presents the evidence against his unfaithful Bride, Israel. 

Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2001, revised 2010 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.