Many people seem to believe there are only two covenants in Scripture.
This is not correct.
There are actually several covenants identified.
Some of them are with other human beings.
Those will not be recorded here.
We're going to take a look at those covenants
which YAHWEH established with various individuals
and/or groups of people.
They will be listed in the order in which they occur
in the text of Scripture.
1. The Covenant With Noah - Genesis 6.5 - 7.5
The covenant is made by YAHWEH (God's only personal and Eternal Name.)
prior to The Great Flood.
He instructs Noah to build a container
(traditionally, an 'ark', but it actually was a "box",
a container, which Noah then built).
It was sealed inside and outside with pitch (tar),
thus making it water tight so it would float.
He was given instructions
concerning the dimensions and features of the container.
This Covenant is in the form of a promise.
YAHWEH will spare the lives of Noah, his family,
and the animals that are with them in the container.
No specific action is required by Noah as part of this covenant,
unless you consider the building of the container as a condition.
It is not so stated.
Noah was instructed to take his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives
into this container at the time he was instructed to do so.
Along with them he was to take two of every living creature,
a male and a female,
and also all kinds of food for them into the container.
In addition he was also to take
seven undefiled male and female animals
and seven defiled male and female animals from among them
seven days prior to the start of the flood. (Gen. 7.2)
We're not given the information here as to which animals this involved.
The covenant included YAHWEH's provision
to keep Noah and his family, only eight human beings,
alive and separated from the flood
that YAHWEH was about to bring upon the entire earth,
thereby destroying all living flesh.
This flood would come
because of the corruption and violence
which filled the entire earth.
Among all the people on the earth,
only Noah was found to be without fault before YAHWEH.
There are some wondrous symbolisms involved in this event
that are discovered when you do a full study of the Hebrew terms
used to describe this process.
They can be found within the notes
that accompany The Aleph-Tav Bible,
a unique new translation of the entire Bible.
This translation has a significantly Hebraic flavor to it,
using Hebrew names and providing notes
on various aspects of the text
that are not normally identified in most English bibles.
Those unique insights will not be covered here,
but you are encouraged to seek them out.
2. The Covenant Promising No More Floods To Destroy The Earth - Genesis 9.9 - 9.17
YAHWEH covenants with Noah and his seed
(this actually involves the entire human race
because after The Flood every living person
comes from Noah and his offspring).
He promises that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood.
Thus, this covenant is in the form of a promise.
No action is required by Noah or his family
for this covenant to exist or be performed.
This covenant is accompanied by a "sign",
a symbol that serves as a reminder of the covenant.
That sign is YAHWEH's "bow in the cloud",
what we refer to as a "rainbow".
It's a reminder to Noah of YAHWEH's faithfulness.
It’s also a reminder to YAHWEH that He has promised
to never send a flood again to destroy life on earth.
3. The Land Covenant With Abram - Genesis 15.1 - 17.27
Abram experiences a vision.
In this vision he is told that YAHWEH is going to give to him a special blessing.
(Note: The text appears to be slightly out of proper order in this passage.
Verse 2 appears to fit more logically after verse 5.
Then Abram's comment in verse 2 makes more sense.
This can happen when old manuscripts are being pieced together
from fragments that get placed in the incorrect order.)
Abram is promised that his seed will outnumber the stars of the skies.
He is also promised that the land in which he now stands will be given to him.
He is then instructed to take certain animals and divide them into two parts.
Please note: This makes this a "blood covenant".
It involves the shedding of blood.
After this is done a smoking fire pot and a torch of fire pass between these parts.
This symbolizes that if the covenant is broken
the parties involved would be subject to such a division into two parts,
effectively causing their death,
hence, the shedding of blood as a result of breaking the covenant.
This was a "standard" for "cutting a covenant"
in the nations of that time period.
Everyone understood what such actions involved.
A covenant of this sort was a very serious matter.
Verses 18-21 identify the territories involved in this covenant.Ten groups are identified.
This encompasses The Land of Kena’an.
This is a Land Covenant.
It requires nothing on Abram's part.
It is a promise from YAHWEH.
We need to note that Abram and Sarai
have no children at this point.
What follows in the text
relates the story of how Abram becomes a father,
first by means of Sarai's handmaid, Hagar, an Egyptian woman,
and then by means of Sarai herself.
The story continues into Chapter 17
where we find YAHWEH promising a son to Abram and Sarai.
In verse 7 we are reminded of the covenant of the land.
In the midst of this segment
we find Abram's name changed to Abraham
and Sarai's name changed to Sarah.
Name changes in Scripture always have special significance.
We are also told this is an eternal covenant between Abram and his seed.
This covenant will never end.
There is a portion of this covenant many treat as a separate covenant.
It is known as The Covenant of Circumcision.
Genesis 17.10-15 specifies, "This is my covenant...".
Every male from eight days and older
is to be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
This denotes a permanent physical identification
of the participants in this covenant.
It presents a clear means of identifying
who is part of it and who is not.
(Obviously, this has now been compromised in numerous ways.
The Adversary, Satan, has corrupted this practice
so that it is no longer a valid sign of the covenant.
Yet in the days of Abraham and his offspring
it clearly distinguished them from "non-members" of the covenant.)
This also can be considered to be a "covenant of blood”.
The Covenant of Circumcision is part of The Land Covenant.
It is to apply to those who will inherit The Land.
Thus, it is not truly a separate covenant.
This also is an Eternal Covenant. It will never end. (Gen. 17.13)
In Genesis 17.19 we are told that Abraham's son, Yitzhak
(Traditionally, Isaac)
will also have this Covenant of The Land established with him.
NOTE: In Genesis 17.25 it is identified that Yishma'el,
Abraham's son by Hagar, is circumcised.
This is very important to note.
He is included in The Covenant.
The Yishma'elites show up numerous times in the biblical text.
They have a role to play in YAHWEH's plan.
4. The Covenant At Mount Sinai - Exodus 19.1 - 24.8
This Covenant is the one generally referred to as "The Old Covenant”.
As you can see from this list,
that term is somewhat misleading.
However, this Covenant is unique in several aspects.
Its primary focus is INSTRUCTION by YAHWEH
given to guide His people
in regard to how they are to live before Him
in a manner that's pleasing to Him.
The New Covenant, which we will come to later,
has this same characteristic.
It is THIS characteristic
that distinguishes these two covenants from all others.
The Sinai Covenant covers several chapters.
The story begins with the arrival
of the children of Yisra'el (The proper Hebrew spelling.) at Mount Sinai.
They arrived there in the third month after their departure from Egypt (Mitsraim).
They left in the first month, Nisan (also identified as Abib), on the 15th day,
the day after the Passover of The Messenger of Death
who killed all the first-born in Egypt.
Thus, they arrived in the fourth month.
The exact day of their arrival is not noted,
but it appears it may have been the 15th day of the fourth month.
The specific timeline is not clear.
However, the people were told to purify themselves,
become undefiled, by the third day.
Then they were told that on the third day
YAHWEH would come down upon the mountain
in the sight of all the people.
On the third day
they were all gathered at base of the mountain.
Some awesome events then took place as they before the mountain.
YAHWEH then spoke to them out loud, in their hearing.
He spoke what the Hebrews refer to as "The Ten Words".
These are the only words the people heard.
(Note: By human tradition, and not by YAHWEH,
these are referred to as "The Ten Commandments".)
These Ten Words are referred to as The Torah,
which literally means instruction, teaching, instruction.
NOTE: THESE WORDS ARE NOT 'MANDATORY’.
They are INSTRUCTIONS,
revealing what YAHWEH desires of His people.
He will never force you to keep them.
If you willingly choose to live by these instructions
you will be doing what is pleasing in His sight.
If you fail to live by them
you will be considered to be rebelling
against what He has told you He desires.
That rebellion results in offending Him.
And every offense, every act contrary to His will (desire,) is punishable by death.
Death needs to be understood
as separation from fellowship with YAHWEH.
He will not tolerate "sin"
(an offense or willful violation of His instructions)
in his presence.
Therefore, the Instruction (Torah) given at Sinai has enormous significance.
The Ten Words provide the foundation
of what the Hebrews refer to as Torah.
However, Hebrew tradition also includes as Torah
the rest of the first five books of our bibles.
Even this falls short of The Truth.
The ENTIRE SCRIPTURE, from Genesis through Revelation,
is in reality Torah.
Every word is a part of YAHWEH's Instruction to His people.
It is vital to understand this.
The major difference
between The Old Covenant and The New Covenant
is to be found in the provision within The New Covenant of a REDEEMER,
a means of deliverance from the requirement of death
(separation from YAHWEH's presence).
This will be discussed further when we cover The New Covenant.
We are created with free will,
the ability to CHOOSE whether we will agree to do
what YAHWEH has told us He desires of us
or whether we will REFUSE to do what He desires,
and we do whatever seems good to us in our own determination.
In order for us to have free will there can be NO COMMANDMENT!
This is crucial.
You cannot be "ordered" to do something
and still have free will.
Agreement by willing choice is ESSENTIAL to free will.
Coerced obedience, regardless of the form, style, or manner of coercion,
is NOT free will.
If you are "required" or "forced" you have NO freedom!
To understand, and to agree to, The Old Covenant
you must study it,
understand it,
and agree to live according to it.
Only when you state, willingly,
your intent to agree to DO what's stated there
can you enter into The Old Covenant
(or any covenant, for that matter).
A covenant is an agreement.
Two parties enter into it by free choice.
It's important to note exodus 24.8.
This Covenant is a Covenant of Blood!
Blood was shed and sprinkled on the people by Moshe
to "seal" The covenant.
It symbolizes the serious nature of The Covenant.
It identifies that one breaking The Covenant
is subject to the shedding of THEIR BLOOD!
5. The Covenant of The Sabbath Day - Exodus 31.12 - 17
There is a covenant YAHWEH established
that specifically deals with The Sabbath Day.
This is the ONLY DAY that is marked by a covenant of its own.
That should tell you how important this day is to YAHWEH.
The Sabbath Day is to be set apart.
The concept here is to be made 'holy', 'sacred'.
Set apart things are for YAHWEH alone!
This day is to be set aside in order to remind us of several things.
First, it is to remind us of our Creator!
In six days YAHWEH created the "world"(consider this to include the entire universe).On the seventh day He ceased from His work of creating.Perhaps we could use the term, “It is finished!”.
While the creative process was completed,
this does not mean everything stopped.
Everything had been placed "in motion",
but everything did not come to a standstill.
Second, it is to provide for us and those we live among
a day of "breathing",
"a breather" from the difficult tasks of life known as 'work'.
This covenant calls us to observe six days as "work" days.
Human traditions have perverted our understanding of this covenant.
Those traditions have identified
virtually any difficult human "effort" as "work".
This is not correct.
One of the best ways to consider the ramifications of this
is to consider The Sabbath as a day in which
we do not "work" for things that benefit us directly
by "our own efforts".
The concept is that of "employment",
earning a living,
doing things for ourselves.
The whole point of The Sabbath Day
is to move our focus onto YAHWEH
- and off of ourselves.
This is HIS DAY!!!
It is NOT "your day" to do as YOU please.
It is THE DAY to worship YAHWEH
and to focus on what He has done for us.
One "defiling" this day is subject to DEATH!
(Exodus 31.14-15) To defile it means
to refuse to honor YAHWEH's Instruction concerning it.
When you fail to honor YAHWEH by what you do on The Sabbath
you defile it.
This is an Eternal covenant! (Exod. 31.16) It will NEVER end!
It's very important to note
that The Sabbath Day is the SEVENTH day.
It is NOT the FIRST day.
It is NOT Sunday,
which is considered to be the first day of the week
by over 95% of the cultures on the earth.
The seventh day has been established almost universally as SATURDAY.
In Scripture the days are not given names.
They are given numbers.
Likewise, with a few exceptions,
the months are identified by numbers.
The names we use have been generated
by "human traditions" and cultural manipulations.
Most of the names we use are directly from pagan concepts.
(Sun day, Moon day, Thor's day, Saturn's day, etc.)
The Sabbath Day is to be set aside for YAHWEH.
Our focus is to be on Him on His Day!
It is not to be on ourselves.
Do you honor this covenant today as one who believes in Him?
6. The Mo'ab Covenant - Deut. 27.1 - 31.13
This covenant is generally overlooked.
Few recognize that Moshe made a separate covenant with the children of Yisra'el
as they arrived at the border of Mo'ab
just before crossing into The Promised Land.
This was Moshe's "last act".
He was not allowed to enter The Promised Land
because of his failure to honor YAHWEH at the waters of Meribah.
He struck the rock
instead of speaking to it as he was instructed by YAHWEH.
Now his life was going to be ended.
Moshe spoke all these words to all Yisra'el. ((Deut. 31..1)
He wrote this covenant on a scroll.
He gave it to the priests
who carried The Chest of The Covenant. (Deut. 31.9)
He instructed them to read it at The Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles)
at the end of every seven years.
Every seven years slaves were to be set free and debts forgiven.
This became known as a “Sabbatical year".
The covenant was to be read out loud as a reminder at this time.
Please note: Leviticus 26 is a repeat of this covenant.
It was to be read out loud in The Land of Promise
when the children of Yisra'el had crossed over into the land,
and it was to be written in stone,
with a full explanation of what was involved.
The blessings were to be read on Mount Gerizim
and the curses upon Mount Ebal.
7. The Covenant of Yahoshua - Joshua 24.1 - 27
Yahoshua was about to die.
He had led the children of Yisra'el into The Promised Land.
These are his final instructions to them.
They all promised to be faithful to these instructions.
Yahoshua set up a stone as a monument.
He identified it as a "witness" against the people.
It was to serve as a reminder to them
that this sone had heard their promise
to serve YAHWEH with a whole heart.
When they looked at this monument
they were to remember their promises made here.
8. The Covenant with The Redeemed - Isaiah 59.20 - 59.21
This is not a lengthy covenant.
It is a word of promise to those who return to YAHWEH
and acknowledge His Redeemer, The Promised Messiah.
His word will not depart from their mouths or from the mouths of their seed.
When you read the surrounding text
you see numerous things spelled out
that are connected to this covenant.
However, the heart of the covenant is The Word of YAHWEH.
This is an Eternal covenant.
9. The Nehemiah Covenant - Nehemiah 9.38 - 10.39
The children of Yisra'el had returned in part from their exile in Babylon.
Nehemiah has reminded them of the troubles they have encountered
because they forsook The Covenant of Sinai.
He is, in effect, inviting them
to return to serving YAHWEH with a whole heart.
And he is asking them to enter into a covenant with YAHWEH
to faithfully serve Him according to all He has taught them.
He goes so far as to have them set their seal on this covenant.
This is an extraordinary move.
We don't see this in most other covenants.
It makes every individual who does so
directly accountable if they violate the covenant.
10. The New Covenant - Mark 14.24, Luke 22.20, 1 Corinthians 11.25
Note: The following quotes are from The Aleph-Tav Bible:
Jer. 31:31 “Behold!
The days are coming.”
- An Utterance of YAHWEH -
“And I will cut a New Covenant
with the house of Yisra’el itself את
and with the house of Yahudah itself את,
Jer. 31:32 not like The Covenant which I cut
with their forefathers themselves את
in the day when I seized them by their hand
for the sake of bringing them
out of the land of Mitsraim,
My Covenant itself את which they broke!
And I was married with them!”
- An Utterance of YAHWEH -
Jer. 31:33 “Indeed, this is the covenant
which I will cut
with the house of Yisra’el itself את
after those days!
- An Utterance of YAHWEH -
I will give My Instruction itself את
into their center!
And I will engrave it upon their hearts!
And I will be for them as their Elohim!
And they will be for Me as a people!
Jer. 31:34 And no longer will they teach
each man his neighbor himself את,
and each man his kindred himself את
saying, ‘Know YAHWEH Himself את!’
Indeed, they will all know Me Myself את,
from the least of them
to the greatest of them!”
- An Utterance of YAHWEH -
“Indeed, I will forgive their perversity!
And I will not take note
of their offenses any longer!”
Above is the prophecy from Jeremiah concerning a New Covenant.
Below is its fulfillment in The gospel of Mark:
Mark 14:22 Then as they were eating
YAHUSHUA took bread,
blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.
And He said,
“Take, eat!
This is My body.”
Mark 14:23 Then He took the cup.
And having given thanks He gave it to them.
And they all drank from it.
Mark 14:24 Then He said to them,
“This is My blood.
It is The New Covenant
which is poured out for the sake of many.
The New Covenant is a covenant of blood.
But it is drastically different from any other covenant of blood.
It involves the very blood of YAHWEH's Promised Messiah,
The ONLY Messiah the world will ever know!
It is His blood that guarantees our redemption from the power of death.
His body and His blood were sacrificed on a torture stake.
He took upon Him "the sins (offenses) of the entire wold"!
It's impossible for us to comprehend what this means.
But it's not impossible for us to believe this is true.
YAHWEH sent His only Son into this world
for the specific purpose of giving His life in place of YOUR life
- IF you will willingly believe why He came
and what He accomplished on YOUR behalf!
IF you refuse to believe it THEN you have NO PART in it!
IF you believe it and trust in His deliverance from your debt
owed because of your "sin", your offenses against YAHWEH
created by your refusal to live according to His desires,
THEN you WILL BE DELIVERED from the power of death!
You WILL be granted Eternal Life in the presence of YAHWEH, and His Son!
This covenant REQUIRES YOUR AGREEMENT!!!
YAHWEH has done His part.
YAHUSHUA, our Messiah has done His part.
Do you agree with YAHWEH's Promise
that your "sins" (offenses) HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN?
When you agree and trust in this New Covenant
you WILL be granted Eternal Life in the very presence of YAHWEH and His Son.
If you do not agree you will not be participating in it.
(Note: Most of you do not know that "Jesus" is NOT the Name of our Messiah.
Jesus is derived from a GREEK word, ieosus. It means anointed.
It is a TITLE.
It is NOT a NAME!
His Hebrew Name is YAHUSHUA.
It means YAHWEH is Deliverer.
Scripture teaches us, "My NAME is in Him." (Exodus 23.21)
If our bible translators had been consistent
He would have been called Joshua of Nazareth.)
Entrance into The New Covenant brings with it a "new nature".
A natural human being is born with a "human nature".
A human being who agrees to enter into The New Covenant is "born again".
This really means they are granted a "new nature",
one that is different from "human nature”.
You understand the tendencies of "human nature".
They are not always kind, loving, compassionate, etc. - like YAHWEH is.
The "new nature" is "The Divine Nature".
We become LIKE YAHWEH in our desires and our functioning in life.
We seek to live by His Instructions and do what is pleasing to Him,
not what is pleasing to ourselves.
This is what Paul refers to as "the new man".
It is the beginning of the fulfillment
of the prophecy of Jeremiah identified above.
NOTE: These pages are a "work in progress". They're updated fairly often as new information or insights are provided that require a change in what's presented. Please check back regularly to see what may have changed since your last visit. Scripture verses used on the site are from The Aleph-Tav Bible. They're not always presented on these pages in exactly the same format as they occur in the text due to space considerations but the text is the same. Download or print your own copy today.
Personal use is free, but these are not to be used for any commercial purpose. Please contact the site owner if you have an interest in commercial usage.