What is a covenant?

What kind of book is the Bible? Is it a book of history, feel good stories, rules, promises or something else? Through the upcoming days we will see how the Bible is broken down and applies to us today.

If we open the Bible to its table of contents, we see the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are many covenants in the Bible but the Old and New Testaments are centered on two major ones, which we refer to as the old covenant and the new covenant. But what is a covenant? The word covenant comes from the Latin ‘convenire’ which means ‘to agree.’ A covenant is defined as an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified including consequences if the promise is broken.

For example, when you lease an apartment, you sign an agreement to a set time that you plan to live in the apartment and to follow all the rules that come with it. Breaking the lease, will usually lead to losing your deposit money or even owing more money. Hence the consequence of breaking the agreement.

In the Bible, God makes covenants or promises with His people. We will dig into understanding who these covenants are made with, what needs to be kept, why keep them, and even the consequences of breaking these covenants.