What Is a Covenant?

A covenant is a complicated thing.  It means two people are allies, they are working together for a common purpose.  There are promises and obligations on both sides.  Both parties agree to certain things in a covenant.

In the Old testament era, people would not eat together until they agreed upon a covenant.  A meal was a sacred thing that meant two or more people (and their families by extension) were in a covenant with one another.

This is why the Ancient Israel Community celebrated the Passover with a feast, and we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  God gave us a feast to demonstrate his covenant with his people.

The People in Deuteronomy 5:1-5 are being reminded of the covenant that God made with their fathers.  What’s really fascinating is that Moses tells them that this covenant was NOT with their father but with them.  This is the power of God’s covenant.  He keeps his promises to his people despite the generational gap.

You and I have inherited this covenant and as one people in a a covenant with the Creator of the universe, we have obligations to keep this covenant.  The creator of the earth is setting out to redeem this earth and he has partnered with his covenant people to accomplish that.  Our obligations are to use our place in his creation as “redemptive spheres of influence.”

Whatever your place, you should see it as a place to work alongside God to erase the effects of the fall by being generous instead of selfish, by teaching your kids well, by building better homes, by loving well, by telling people who do not know Jesus how the gospel can alter their existence.

What can you do in your redemptive sphere of influence to keep your covenant obligations to the creator?