Summary

I begin this teaching discussing the differences between dispensational and covenantal theology.

I then delve into various concepts and perspective of covenants in the Bible from an Eastern perspective. I explain how covenants are crucial to understanding the Bible and how they shape your relationship with God. As I often say: If you don’t understand covenants then you don’t understand the Bible or your relationship to the God of the Bible.

Join me as we explore the significance of covenants and their impact on our faith.

Read the transcript and watch the video to gain a deeper understanding of the Biblical concept of covenants.

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: This is a Bible based teaching created for the Remnant of God for the purpose of group study, encouragement, healing, and personal development. It is unrehearsed without the aid of teleprompters or editing and so it is not presented in a polished manner. It is NOT intentionally offensive. However, some may find some of the content objectionable or politically incorrect. It has not been approved by the FDA, EPA, BLM, DEQ, DHS, CDC, WHO, ABC, or XYZ: Only GOD.

Transcript with minor changes for readability

00:02 I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone, who identifies as a Christian, warn others to stay away from “Eastern religions”.

Most of the time I just forget about it and go on about my business. But there was that one time when I responded by saying “Well, if you want to stay away from Eastern religions then why do you subscribe to Christianity”?

The Bible, and basically everything in the Bible, with the exception of Elohim / God Himself, originates from the East.

Understanding the culture of the Bible is critically important to understanding the Bible. Here is a fun little video demonstrating the importance of understanding the culture that you are trying to identify with.

So with that being the case, a good way to gain insight into certain aspects of the Bible is to gain insight into the ancient East. One aspect of the East that, is almost completely foreign to those of us in the West, is covenants. If you don’t understand ancient Eastern covenants then you can’t understand the Bible, the God of the Bible, or YOUR relationship TO them.

I see the Bible covenantally; not in a Calvinistic way (although there definitely are legal aspects to it), but from a covenantal, Eastern perspective; the perspective of the Bible. This teaching is an introduction to the subject of Biblical covenants.

Before I proceed with that though, I’d like to mention that there are two main ways that people in the west interpret the Bible: One is dispensationally, and the other is covenentally.

Dispensational Theology

Before I discuss covenants, I thought that I would just very briefly discuss dispensationalism. Dispensational theology is a method of interpreting the Bible that involves segregating, or you might say dividing the Bible into designated sections; or you might say periods of time: Dispensations that are based upon circumstances and events.

People who segregate or divide the Bible in this way usually do so in somewhere between two and eight different dispensations. As these dispensations are identified, it is believed then that the God of the Bible interacts with people, even all of His creation, differently during each dispensation.

It’s my view, observation, and experience that the dispensationalist view of the Bible, in many cases, often misleads adherents to false conclusions.

Dispensationalists often believe that the “church” (a very ambiguous term for dispensationalists), began in Acts chapter 2.

05:05 Not all dispensationalists believe that, but many do. Many also believe that the “church” has replaced Biblical Israel. Obviously there are more tenets to dispensational thinking, but these are some basics.

It’s my view that dispensationalism often results with the belief that God changes the way he functions and interacts (or DOESN’T interact) with people based upon the circumstances. And so to me, at its best, dispensational thinking leads to confusion and misunderstanding.

But I’ve also seen many other results from dispensational theology that are much more dire: Results that lead to nonsensical, contradictory, and sometimes even very destructive lines of thinking, thoughts, and behaviors. I have seen these things time and time again: And I’m not the only one.

Renowned Dr. E. W. Bullinger who was a very well known dispensationalist said in His appendix 195: “Nothing but confusion can arise from reading into one dispensation that which relates to another. To connect what God said, and did, in one dispensation with another, in which case His administration was an altogether different principle, is to ensure error.”

Covenant Theology

So let’s move on to covenantal theology now. Covenantal theology is very different from dispensational theology.

To begin, I would like to define the word covenant.

The word covenant is the root word of covenantal; covenantal theology. Covenant can be described as a joint pact, or compact between people. It could be described as exchanging vows or a sacred agreement.

A western way of looking at covenants might be a binding agreement between two parties. However, that definition fails to convey the thought, care, emotion, commitment, and dedication that is almost always present when two parties enter into covenant with each other.

As an example of that, one well known covenant is the Abrahamic covenant. You may have heard about that. It’s found in Genesis 15:18.

For Genesis 15:18, your Bible probably reads something similar to “in the same day the Eternal MADE, a covenant with Abram.

To us here in the West, that sounds very reasonable, doesn’t it? It’s a reasonable statement. But unfortunately, it’s not what the Hebrew language that’s behind the English translation says.

In Genesis 15:18, Smith’s Literal Translation of the Bible reads like this:
“In that day, the Eternal CUT out a covenant with Abram.”

10:06 So what’s the difference between the English translation which reads MADE a covenant, and the better Hebraic translation which reads CUT a covenant? The answer is Smith’s Literal Translation relates what the text actually says and what actually happened.

It better reflects the process of “cutting a covenant”. Of course if the translators put “cut covenant” in your Bible, most people wouldn’t know what it meant. In fact most people would probably think that it was a misprint.

On the other hand, most people have some idea of what the word covenant means and so to many people “make covenant” would make much more sense.

The point is we lose a lot of meaning in our English Bibles because we don’t understand the ancient East. So then why does the Hebrew language say “cut a covenant”?

To answer that, I’m going to list 13 steps that two men might take together when they cut covenant in the ancient East.

Cutting Covenant

1. An animal was halved, cut from nose to tail along the spine.
2. The two halves were laid out on the ground, with the blood on the ground between the halves.
3. The two men stood facing each other upon the blood with the halves of the animal on either side.
4. They pledged their lives to each other.
5. They committed all of their wealth to each other.
6. They exchanged belts and swords.
7. They named their relatives, each becoming personally responsible as “Go’ El” (Near-Kinsman) for the relatives of the other person in the event of an untimely death.
8. They pledged their HESED, “loving-kindness.” to one another. This meant they they would remain committed to each other regardless of what evil deed the other might commit in the future.
9. They walked in a “circle 8” around the halved animal, so each man stood in the place of the other one at the end of the walk.
10. They cut their wrists with a knife, grasped hands, and mingled their dripping blood as a sign of their oath.
11. They exchanged their very names, each adding to His own the name of the other person.
12. They rubbed charcoal into their cuts making them permanently visible to all.
13. Finally, they planted a tree upon the blood to mark the place where the Covenant had been cut. Source: Cover the Bible

Hallelujah! So if you consider, and I mean really contemplate, meditate upon, think about, really consider the steps of “cutting covenant” according to the steps that I just listed; if you think about that you’ll begin to see far more in the process of cutting covenant than what merely meets the eye. You’ll begin to understand what it means, in the depth of the heart, to enter into covenant with another person from an ancient Biblical perspective.

This is what we see occurring when the Eternal cuts covenant with Abram in Genesis 15:9-21

9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. 
11 And birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 
13 Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 
14 But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 
15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 
16 Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the wrongdoing of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17 Now it came about, when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, a smoking oven and a flaming torch appeared which passed between these pieces. 
18 On that day the Eternal made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the land of the Kenite, the Kenizzite, the Kadmonite, 
20 the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim, 

Conditional and Unconditional Covenants

15:09 So in regards to covenants there are two basic types of covenants. One is conditional and the other is unconditional.

The terms conditional and unconditional are really pretty self explanatory. But just really quickly a conditional covenant says this is the agreement based upon these actions or inaction.

An unconditional covenant is what we see in the rainbow covenant. God created the rainbow and said that it would be a sign of the covenant He said that He would no longer do what He did before. Basically he said that regardless of what happens, or what you do, I’m not going to do that again.

We see the same type of thing in the Abrahamic covenant. When Abram was put to sleep the Most High made the covenant with him even as Abram was sleeping. Abram really didn’t even have a part in it: It was just going to be so. That’s an unconditional covenant.

There are several covenants in the Bible: Some better known than others. Sometimes these covenants are built one upon another but they are all interconnected in order to help form the relationship between the God of Biblical Israel and the people of Israel. That’s what the Bible is all about. Among other things it’s a series of covenants that work together to form our relationship with the Most High.

Covenants Working Together

So how do these covenants work together? Let’s say that you are filling out all of the forms to buy a house. If you have ever done that then you know that there are many of them mostly because of the lender.

So lets say that a couple of years later you receive a letter in the mail saying that your contract has been sold and now you need to make your payments to such and such. The letter states that all of the original terms of the contract will remain the same except for certain provisions and we’d like you to sign here.

So every bit of that basic contract that you signed a couple years ago would still be in force except for one small part that was now deleted. The small correction that was added to the changed contract is identified as an addendum to the body of the contract. That’s kind of the way covenants in the Bible work.

In the Bible, covenants began way back in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 with the Edenic and Adamic covenants. After that there has been a number of other covenants.

20:09 There are various ways of looking at it but while there are several covenants in the Bible; generally speaking, I think most people would agree that there are seven major covenants that the God of Israel has made with His people (Biblical) Israel: And then to a degree, those covenants would be applicable to all of mankind.

Seven Foundational Covenants

1. The Edenic Covenant – Gen. 1:26-28, 2:15-17, Hos. 6:7
   A covenant made with Adam and Eve before the fall that was conditional upon their obedience.
2. Adamic Covenant – Gen. 3:14-19
   Made with Adam and Eve after the fall but before they were expelled from the garden.
3. Noahic Covenant – Gen. 8:21, 9:17, 24-27
   Made with Noah and the animals after the flood. The Noahic covenant addressed human governance over the earth.
4. Abrahamic Covenant – Gen. 12:1-3, Ch. 15,17
   Made with Abraham in regards to Israel and the promises made to Israel.
5. Mosaic Covenant – Ex. 19-24
   Made with Moses as the representative of Israel and it laid forth the relationship between the God of Israel and the people of Israel
6. Davidic Covenant – 2 Sam. 17:12-16
   Establishes the eternal house, throne, and Kingdom of David
7. Renewed Covenant Jer.31:31-34, John 14:16, Heb. 8:6-13

We’ll be spending some time on the Renewed Covenant (#7) shortly. But if you consider yourself to be in covenant with the Most High, then all seven of those covenants are important to you.

24:58 They all help to shape your relationship with your God. And so as time goes on, if this is something that you choose to pursue, you’ll want to start with those seven covenants.

But again, the last covenant that I mentioned was the Renewed Covenant. We’re going to spend a little bit of time here.

The (Re)new(ed) Covenant

If you’ve been around me for any length of time, you’ve heard me refer to the “New Testament” as the “Renewed Covenant”. You will see very shortly why I do that.

The Renewed Covenant is first identified in the Tanach / Old Testament. It’s referenced, hinted at and referred to clear back in Genesis 3:15 with the first Messianic prophecy.

But in Jeremiah 31:31-34 we see a very clear prophecy which brings the understanding that the “Renewed Covenant” would be coming.

I’m going to read from Jeremiah 31:31-34.

31  Behold, the days come, says the Eternal that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Let me pause here and address this word “new” in the phrase “make a “new” covenant”.

Your Bible is going to say something similar to “Make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah”.

If you and I were in the yard watering plants and, if I handed you a bucket that I had been using for the last year and asked you to fill the bucket with water so that we could water some plants, would I be asking you to “fill” the bucket or would I be asking you to “refill” the bucket?

Both of those would be correct wouldn’t they? I would be asking you to refill the bucket because it’s been filled before. But in another sense I’m asking you to fill the bucket because it’s empty.

Well this particular word “new” in Jeremiah 31:31 has the same type of meaning to it. It can be interpreted in the same way as the word “fill” described above: The word “new” as used in “new covenant” can be translated either “new” or “renew”.

30:12 In this way the word “new” can just as rightfully be understood to mean renewed. So for me, based upon the understanding of the Hebrew word, my knowledge of how covenants work in the Bible, and the context of the verse, “RENEW” is clearly what is being communicated.

But there is quite a lot more!

32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, says the Eternal: 

33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Eternal, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Eternal: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Eternal: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 

And so this is why I refer to what most people call the New Testament as the Renewed Covenant. The reality is He is NOT putting “new” laws on our hearts.
God never changes. They’re not new laws. He’s not changing everything. It’s just that he is putting HIS laws on our hearts.

For I am the Eternal, I change not;

Mal 3:6 

We clearly see that as we read what Yeshua lived, taught and preached; and what Apostle Paul and the others lived, taught and preached; much of the Renewed Covenant is quoted directly from the Tanakh, the Torah, the “Old Testament”.

When Yeshua was asked by the Pharisees, “what is the greatest commandment”? His answer was to quote Scriptures directly from Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

Going into detail with all of that is beyond the scope of this teaching. But if you objectively investigate how much of the “New Testament” is based upon the “Old testament” you will find that MUCH of the Renewed Covenant is taken directly from the Tanach / Old Testament, or what some people refer to as the original covenant. If you investigate the relationship there, you’ll find that it’s stunning. The entire, New Testament, Renewed Covenant is all based upon the Tanach.

And so when the Most High says that He is going to put His laws on our hearts and that He is going to Renew the Covenant that He made with us long ago, He is not talking about a new set of laws. He is referring to the same laws that He created before.

Matthew 6:33 says to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Well we read from Matthew to Revelation that righteousness is defined there exactly the way it’s defined all through the Tanakh / OT. In the eyes of the Most High, righteousness has never changed.

And so in this way it’s not really a “New Covenant”; It’s a (Re)new(ed) Covenant.

Again, Jeremiah 31:33: This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days says the Eternal, I will put My law in their inward parts. I’ll write it in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. Hallelujah!

And finally, Jeremiah 31 34: And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Eternal: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Eternal: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

34:54 So what iniquity is the Creator talking about? Well He’s referring to a lot of things that are beyond the scope of this teaching but generally speaking He is referring to iniquity as it’s defined and explained all through the Tanach / OT. So again, nothing has really changed in that regard. Sin is still sin, love is still love, transgressions are still transgressions.

The Renewed Covenant is also explained very similarly in Hebrews 8:7-13. It is almost a reprint from the Jeremiah 31 Scripture that we just read.

Hebrews 8:7. For if that first covenant had been free of fault, no circumstances could have been sought for a second.

Now verse 8 is very very, very important because it’s a common misconception that there needed to be a “new covenant” because the “old covenant” was faulty. But that’s not what the Scriptures say.

Hebrews 8:8 says “For in finding fault with the people; Again… in finding fault with the people.

You see it was the people who didn’t live up to the covenant. It wasn’t because the (“old”) covenant was faulty. It was because the people didn’t live up to it.

Moving on in verse 8, behold the days are coming, says the Eternal, when I will bring about a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt for they did not continue in my covenant. And I did not care about them (because they turned their back on Him) says the Eternal.

Verse 10. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

You see there is no replacement of Israel going on here. His heart is still towards the people of BIBLICAL Israel.

And so in verse 10 He says This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Eternal. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their Elohim, their God, and they shall be My people.

11 And they will not teach each one His fellow citizen. And each one his brother saying “know the Eternal”. For they will all know Me. From the least to the greatest of them.

12 For I will be merciful toward the wrong doing in their sins. I will no longer. Remember.

These prophecies are still in process. Yeshua came to begin the process of restoration and that restoration is still continuing yet today.

Verse 13 reads; When He said a “new covenant” He made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear.

So let’s talk about verse 13 because it’s not as it sounds. You probably noticed that this Hebrews passage is similar to the language that we see in Jeremiah except perhaps the last verse where we read “When He said a new covenant He has made the first obsolete but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear”.

40:01 What does this mean? To begin, let’s look again at the word ‘new”. Now remember, we already talked about that word from the Hebrew perspective from the book of Jeremiah. Now we’re going to address it from a Greek perspective in the book of Hebrews.

While Jeremiah was originally written in the Hebrew language, the oldest manuscripts that we have of the book of Hebrews is Greek. But what you will find is both the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated into the English word “new” have the exact same meanings.

If you would like to look at the word ‘new” from Hebrews 8:13, it is Strongs Dictionary number G2537. The definition that you will find there is “new, especially in regards to freshness”. In other words, it means “new” as in “freshen up”, enhanced, remodeled: As opposed to torn down and rebuilt.

It’s really not that difficult. Once you get past the surface, it’s really pretty self explanatory.

Along with that, this last part of Hebrews 8:13 says that “whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear”.

We don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews. But many people believe that it was Apostle Paul: The same man who wrote the book of Romans. But whether it was him or not, in Romans 7:7 we read “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! I had not known sin, but by the law.

Apostle Paul is clearly speaking favorably regarding the “law”. Yeshua says the same types of things in the Gospels as well.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. – Yeshua

Mat 5:17 

The law or O/T, or as I call it, the Tanach, is often criticized. It’s described as no longer being in effect. But over, and over, and over, and over again throughout the Renewed Covenant you will read that that’s not really the case.

I just provided three examples of that. Hebrews 8:13 regarding the word “new”, Romans 7:7, and then Matthew 5:17.

Of course Jeremiah thirty one and Hebrews chapter ten support the validity of the Renewed Covenant as well.

45:03 Hebrews 10:16-20
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Eternal, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Yeshua,
20 By a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;

Again, remember the definition of the word “new”.

It is for all of these reasons combined, and more, that I refer to the last 27 books of the Bible as the Renewed Covenant rather than the New Testament.

Summary

We read Jeremiah 31:31-34, and then Hebrews 8 which echoes Jeremiah 31, and now we just read from Hebrews 10:16-20 that reemphasizes the “freshening” aspect of the existing as opposed to creating something entirely new. Hallelujah! What a glorious story it is.

Generally speaking, when a covenant is made it’s eternally binding.

And so the Renewed Covenant includes all of the covenants that were previously mentioned throughout the Tanach / Old Testament as appropriate. Again, even the Renewed Covenant itself affirms that.

Along with the covenants themselves, it also includes all of the terms, conditions, understandings, commands, promises, and benefits, that are found in the Tanach.

The Renewed Covenant is not a standalone document. It’s a continuation of the Tanach in order to become one large covenant that explains the relationship between you and your God.

So when it comes to covenants, along with, the covenant itself, there is usually a “sign” of the covenant. In the 13 steps that I listed regarding “cutting covenant”, one of the steps that I mentioned was a tattoo that was created in the palms of the participants hands in order to mark the body as a memorial.

49:53 That tattoo was created by rubbing charcoal in the knife cut in the flesh of palm of the hand. That would be an example of a sign of the covenant.

In fact, when someone would adversely approach one of those two men they could hold their hand up to display to the adversary that they were in league with a covenantal partner. And then they could say something like “I just want to warn you: If you come against me then you’re going have other people that you’re gonna have to deal with as well”.

And by the way, that’s a type and shadow of Yeshua’s pierced palms from the cross.

Again in Genesis 9:17, regarding the rainbow, Elohim, the Most High, said to Noah. “This is a sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh”.

And then in Genesis 17:11, circumcision is the sign of the Abrahamic covenant.

You may also be aware that I’ve taught on the threshold covenant. If so you might remember that the threshold covenant didn’t originate in the Bible, but we see the threshold covenant all through the Bible. The sign of that covenant, of course, is blood in the basin, blood in the threshold, and sometimes blood on the doorpost.

And then in regards to Passover, the Passover Lamb and the Passover Memorial are two signs of the covenant as related to Passover.

Conclusion

Well in conclusion, in this teaching I’ve discussed both dispensational and covenantal theology.

But what we have seen is that beginning at the beginning of the book of beginnings: Beginning at the beginning of the book of Genesis, the Bible is saturated with the working out of covenants, and the people involved in them, all the way up through and including the book of Revelation.

I discussed the profound process of cutting covenants in the ancient East. And then I discussed the seven major covenants that helped to shape the Bible, the relationship that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel has with the people of the Bible, the people of Israel; and we concluded with the Renewed Covenant. The God of Israel has renewed the covenant with His people Israel.

This is obviously not an exhaustive teaching on the subject of covenants. But I hope that you can see how covenants are intricately interwoven all through the Bible, and how they directly affect you and your life.

For the Remnant, having at least some understanding of Biblical covenants is critically important for many reasons. But one primary reason is you can’t be an integral part of something if you don’t know exactly what it is, you’re a part of. You have to understand what you’re part of, the people you’re with, the mission of the group: All of this, comes into play if you’re going to fulfill the calling in your life that the Most High has for you.

55:06 Covenants play an exceedingly critical role in helping you to know these things. As I’ve said many times over the years, if you don’t understand covenants, you can’t understand the God of Israel who is the God of the Bible, or your relationship to Him.

At the time of- this teaching, Passover will soon be upon us. It’s yet another example of the importance of covenants. Again we have the same situation: If you don’t understand the profound depths of covenants- then you can’t understand Passover.

As far as that goes, if you don’t understand covenants, you really can’t understand any of the Biblical holy days. Not to say that you can’t respect and recognize them; but you can’t really enter into them.

But if you embrace what has been presented here today, you’ll have a good, introductory knowledge and a good, basic foundation of Biblical covenants.

But what is far more than that, is you will come to understand the God of the Bible, hopefully your God, and the covenantal relationship that you have entered into with Him. A binding covenant that will immensely bless you if you embrace it.

So today I would like to encourage you to embrace the covenants that the Most High has made with you and be blessed.

Parson Rayphe
Chosen Glory
Empowering the Remnant