God’s children are in a covenantal relationship with Him. It’s a committed, faithful bond in which God graciously promises to be with and for His people, and they respond with trust, obedience, and devotion. It’s not merely a contract but a living relationship marked by love, loyalty, and ongoing renewal. We’ll further unpack God’s relational nature and the covenant with Him in the next two articles, updated from the original 2021 publication.

God has sought partnership with His creation since the beginning of human time, when He charged the first man, Adam, with caring for what He had made. Adam cultivated the garden and named the animals (Genesis 1:26-30 and 2:15-20). From then on, a relational God who endowed humans with the ability to choose Him has regularly sought “I will if you will” engagements.

Probably the earliest example of a two-way covenant with God was the one He established with Abraham. In Genesis 15:1-21 and 17:1-14, we learn that God entered into a relationship with Abraham to fulfill a promise to provide a way back and to redeem creation after Adam and Eve’s rebellion. The covenant was based on an ancient Hittite suzerain-vassal framework that outlined the relationship between the lord of the land and its occupants. The lord demanded complete devotion and allegiance, along with a tithe (10%) of what the land produced. In return, subjects received protection and provision. This was the standard arrangement in Abraham’s time and included a preamble listing the parties involved and a historical prologue providing the “basis of obligation.”

Furthermore, the covenantal agreement included stipulations (terms and conditions), blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience. Regular readings of the treaty were necessary to keep it foremost in participants’ minds. That God used it should come as no surprise, given that Father and Son have always employed human language, practices, and figures of speech in communicating with us. The lord-servant arrangement was what Abraham knew, and it would have made sense to him. God continued what He had started by reaffirming the agreement through Moses 500 years later.

God remembered His covenant with the people of Israel when they were captives in Egypt (Exodus 2:24). After their rescue by Moses, God confirmed the treaty using the same suzerain/vassal framework:

1.         Preamble/Title: “I am Yahweh your God . . .”          

2.         Prologue: “. . . who brought you up out of the land” (provides obligations and motive).

3.         Stipulations/Obligations: “You shall have no other gods before me. . . .”

4.         Periodic reading of the treaty.

5.         Witnesses.

6.         Curses and blessings.

Additional covenantal artifacts exist in scriptures such as Deuteronomy 4:32-40, 6:4-25, and chapter eight.

In summary, a God who exercises choice created humans with the same ability, and He sought reciprocal relationships with willing participants in the Old Covenant (Old Testament). Next time, we’ll see that this is still the case in the New Covenant.

Blessings and peace,

Dr. Ron Braley (MDiv; DMin)