In the last four sessions of this unit we are going to be learning about the important concept of covenant. This theme of covenant weaves its way through the whole biblical story like a boldly colored thread through a cloth fabric. Studying it helps us to understand the character of God's relationship with the whole creation.

In early biblical times a covenant was a formal agreement between people, an agreement with two sides, each side making promises and commitments. In some ways it was like a deal or contract that might be drawn up by a lawyer to seal an agreement. In church, baptism, profession of faith (confirmation), the Lord's Supper, and marriage all have that aspect of covenant.

However, there is one huge difference between God's covenant and all human covenants. God's covenant is established by God alone; it's not a mutual agreement between equal partners. It's an act of pure grace. God doesn't need to make a deal with humankind. God certainly doesn't need to bind himself to us. But that's exactly what God does in making a covenant with us.

Of course, all covenants bind both parties, and so does God's covenant. In covenanting with us God expects us to love him and keep his commandments. But God commits to much more, and that's what we see in the covenant stories we are looking at today.

The first time we ever encounter the word covenant in the Bible is in the story of Noah and the flood (Gen. 9:15). God makes a staggering commitment to every living creature: "never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood" (9:11). Then God gives the sign of the rainbow, which, interestingly, was given to "remind" God (rather than us) of this covenant promise. The covenant is sheer grace, not based on any hope that Noah's children will somehow be better (8:21). God is no wishful thinker. God hereby commits himself to work within this continuing evil state of affairs on earth to finally bring forth salvation.

Many years later God makes a covenant with Abraham. This is not a brand-new covenant but a working-out of God's covenant after the flood. Moving ahead on his plan to save the whole world through Christ, God decides to concentrate this gracious action on a single family and its descendants. God also gives a covenant sign to Abraham (circumcision) to separate God's chosen people from all the nations on earth.

We can see the continuity of the covenants by looking at their "bottom line." Just as the covenant with Noah blessed all of creation with a future, God's covenant with Abraham was established so that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:3).

Eventually God will make a new covenant with the creation. When Jesus sat at the table with his disciples at the Last Supper, he said to them, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Mark 22:20). By virtue of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, God acts to reconcile the world to himself. The world that suffered God's judgment in the flood is now promised salvation by God's own self-giving love in Jesus Christ. In tracing the story of God's covenant through history, we trace the story of God's persistent, unrelenting, unmerited love for his creation.