PART III
(1) Old Testament Covenants Between God And Man.
(A) The term "Covenant" might be described as follows:
"a contract which comprises in the language of law every description of agreement, obligation, or legal tie whereby one party binds himself or becomes bound expressly or implicitly to another to pay a sum of money, or to do or refrain from doing any particular act. The term "covenant" is properly applied to a contract "under seal" that something has or has not been, or shall not be done. In Wilson's Old Testament word studies the term is used in the Hebrew as a noun, or a verb. The description of the noun is: "There is great probability that this word is derived from "to eat", by which act the covenant was ratified between two parties; so it applies to the eating of the sacrifice by the party offering, being at the same time when offered the bread of God. It is derived by some from "to choose", importing the selection of conditions of the covenant to be ratified; by some from "to cut or strike," as in the Latin form in covenants, it was usual to slay some
animal. The verb form means "to cut, to cut asunder. "
E.W. Kenyon remarks "The Blood covenant, or what we call the Lords table, is based upon the oldest known covenant in the human family. It evidently began in the Garden of Eden. It is evident that God cut the covenant or entered into a covenant with Adam at the very beginning."3
In light of the above definition of covenant; some type of contract, with a seal and cutting involved, the word of God will show, with diligent study, that after Adam and Eve fell from fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden by sin, that God immediately started the covenant process with Adam.. Although the covenant is passed on to different people God chooses to deal with throughout the Bible, the method is the same. In the Old Testament, in "cutting" the covenant involves slaying an animal. The "Blood" from the animal is the seal until God starts dealing with the Jews who are to be circumcised as a seal of faith in God. The shed blood of the animals that are sacrificed will atone for the covenant people's sins temporarily. The "eating" part of the covenant is completed as the covenant people eat the meat of the sacrificed animals as will be shown. In order to not leave the reader "hanging" at this point, the New Testament covenant should be touched upon to show the permanent completion of the covenant.
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ was the final sacrifice which done away with animal sacrifice as described in the Eleventh chapter of Hebrews. His shed blood on the cross atoned for all sin permanently for Gods covenant people. The Bible tells us "that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." 4 Therefore, blood, is the main ingredient all through the Bible, whenever mixed with faith from the heart that brings atonement for sin and salvation. The seal of faith in the shed blood in the New Testament is water Baptism, rather than circumcision of the Old Testament. The eating takes place at the Lord's table in the eating of the bread, symbolically of the Lord's body. The "cutting" was done once and for all at the Cross of Calvary. This will all be dealt with in depth with references in a later thesis under New Testament Theology. However, the covenant picture would have been incomplete without, at least sneaking a preview of Jesus Christ, as the final sacrifice in God's covenant with man.
(B) The first place in scripture where any indication of God's future covenant with man is indicated; is the Solaric Covenant that was made between God and man. This covenant was made between God and man. It promised that he would have eternal seasons of fruitfulness and that he would continue forever, as long as the solar system indures. Some scripture to support this statement is as follows: "Then God said, "Let there be lights in the exponse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years." 5 "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."6 "My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips. It shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful."7 "Thus says the Lord, "who gives the sun for light by day, and the
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