Salvation History. Chapter 6. The Covenant with Adam.

Chapter 6. The Covenant with Adam.

THE CONCEPT OF COVENANT.

1. Background.

The concept of covenant in the Bible is largely modeled on what has become known as SUZERAINTY TREATIES. These were treaties made between victorious invading kings (the "Great King") with the kings of cities they defeated, or their suzerains. The form of treaty is very old and is seen in its developed form in the treaties of the Hittite empire in the times of Abraham.

These treaties defined the rights and duties of the suzerain in the relationship. As such covenants are always LEGAL documents, defining the relationship in LEGAL terms. This is an important factor to remember.

In one sense the covenant was imposed on the conquered king, he had to comply or else, but there was always some sense of voluntary agreement.

In these covenants the kings always acted on behalf of their country. They, as the ruler, were the legitimate HEAD, or leader, of their people, so could make decisions for them. The people, or the BODY, were bound to obey the decisions of their CORPORATE HEAD. The corporate nature of covenant is an important factor to remember.


Suzerainty Treaties had a standard Form of six parts:

(1) Preamble: - Identifies the Great King, and gives his titles:
"These are the words of Nebuchadnezzar, Great King of Babylon, King of Kings and Lord of Lord, King of all the lands of the Earth, Son of Marduk (the Great God),...." and so on.

(2) Prologue: - The Great King talks of his prior relationship to the Suzerain, stressing his benevolent acts towards him, and recording the Suzerain's eternal gratitude.
(He usually doesn't mention that he had to starve the Suzerain into surrender, nor the massacre of his forces and the plunder of his coffers).

(3) Stipulations of the Covenant: - Details the obligations imposed on the suzerain, and accepted by him even though he had no real say in it. This usually includes:
(a) Forbidding similar relationships with other kings.
(b) Requirement to come to the aid of the Great King in battle.
(c) Suzerain to put all trust in the Great King.
(d) Suzerain to appear annually before the Great King with tribute.

(4) Remembrance of the Covenant: - Provision is made for a copy of the covenant to be deposited in the Suzerain's shrine and to be read publicly at set times.

(5) Validation: - The god's are invoked as witnesses.

(6) Consequences: - Blessings and curses that the gods will bring on the Suzerain depending on his conformity, or lack of it, to the covenant.


2. Application.

This model was adopted by Israel to define their relationship to God. In the Bible we find that God's relationship with man is always defined in terms of covenant, i.e. in terms of a legal relationship. This is so obviously true that we divide the Bible into two halves, the Old Testament, or Covenant, and the New Covenant.

In fact, in all encounters of God with men the central, and underlying, theme is the covenant. Even where the word "covenant" is not mentioned the idea is there. Even if all of the elements of covenant are not present this does not mean that the covenant is not present. The presence of a few elements is sufficient reason for seeing covenant there.

Key words which identify the presence of a covenant are: blessing, curse, faithfulness, mercy, lovingkindness, trust, obedience, etc.

Biblical covenants follow the same literary form as the Suzerainty Treaties of ancient times.

In the Bible we find:

(a) God, the GREAT KING, is seen imposing a covenant on men, who are his Suzerains, his UNDER RULERS (Genesis 1:26-28).

(b) There is an element of voluntary acceptance - but rejection of the covenant means ultimate consequences.

(c) Each Bible covenant was made with ONE man, who was the leader, or CORPORATE HEAD of a group, or body, of people who in turn became bound by the terms of the covenant their Head made with God.


3. Illustration:

The Old Covenant, made with Moses as head of Israel at Sinai.

Exodus 20.

Preamble - "I am the Lord your God".
Prologue - "who brought you out of the Land of Egypt".
Stipulations - v2-17.
v2 – “thou shalt have no other gods instead of me”. No other king.

Exodus 23:14-17 - annual tribute.
"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
"Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.
"Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
"Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD.”

Deuteronomy 31:9-13. A copy to be placed at the shrine and read.
“So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them: "At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing.”


Deuteronomy 4:25,26. Witnesses.
“After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time- if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.”


Deuteronomy 28. Blessings and curses.
28:1,2 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

28:15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:…”

Suzerainty treaties were made at cultic ceremonies and were sealed with sacrifices to the gods. Sharing in the blood of the sacrifice bound the parties together.

Exodus 24:3-8.
“When Moses went and told the people all the LORD's words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD.
Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

Often this was enacted by the sacrifice being divided and the parties to the covenant walking between the pieces.

Genesis 15.
15:9,10 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram,
each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon." Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.

15:17,18 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot
with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates…”


4. The Seven Covenants.

There are seven covenants in the Bible which have particular relevance to us as Christians:

(1) With Adam, and the whole of mankind, Genesis 1,2.
(2) With Noah, and the whole of mankind, Genesis 9.
(3) With Abraham, and his seed, Genesis 15.
(4) With Abraham and his seed, Genesis 17.
(5) With Moses and the nation of Israel, the Old Covenant, Exodus 20ff.
(6) With David, and his descendants, particularly his GREATER Son, 2 Samuel 7:1-17.
(7) With Christ, and his seed, the Church, called the New Covenant.


THE COVENANT OF GOD WITH ADAM.


There is an "Agreement" God entered into with Adam, often called "The Covenant of Work", or "The Adamic Covenant".

Genesis 1-3.

The word "covenant" does not appear here, but there are enough of the elements of covenant present for us to be able to acknowledge it is the basic underlying idea here when we talk of Man's relationship to God. Other passages of scripture hinge on the understanding that what we are seeing here is a covenant (as we shall see later on in this book).

1. Adam a Representative.

Covenants are made with representative men, and all people under the headship of that man are bound by it. His acceptance, or rejection, of the covenant brought blessings, or curses, on the whole group.
The NT (Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15) clearly sees Adam as a representative man in this way. He is head of a corporate mankind, and we are all members of him.

Romans 5:12-21.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned - for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was
justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."


In this passage Paul clearly uses this idea - both Adam and Christ are representative men, corporate heads, and both, by their actions, bring blessing or cursing on their corporate bodies. Paul emphasises this by saying Adam was a pattern of the one to come (Christ). Adam’s actions had consequences on all men who followed him, just as Christ’s actions has consequences for all who choose to follow him. Christ’s actions come to us through a covenant relationship we have with him, we need to understand our relationship with Adam to be a covenant also for this parallel to be complete.

2. God gives the Covenant.

The Great King, in this case God, defined the covenant, and it remained for Adam, as the suzerain, to simply toe the line.

3. The Six Features of Covenant:

(i) Preamble.

Genesis 2:7. "God breathed into him the breath of lives (plural)".

Imagine Adam waking up, eyeball to eyeball with God. What do you think they would say? Wouldn't God identify himself?

(ii) Prologue - Wouldn't God tell Adam about his great acts in Creation, especially of Creating Adam?

(iii) Stipulations.

Genesis 1:26. To rule the earth.
“Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Genesis 1 :28. To Fill the Earth.
“God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Genesis 2:16,17. What not to do.
“And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

(iv) Provision for a copy of the covenant to be kept in the shrine:

Genesis 1:14.
“And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,…”

"signs” The Hebrew word is a technical term and means “astrological signs.”

The heavens are God's temple. The message in the stars tells of God's purposes (Psalms 19). We shall comment more on this in a later chapter.

(v) Witnesses: God himself is witness.

(vi) Blessings and Curses.

Genesis 1:26-30, 2:15-25.
The account of Genesis 3, where man breaks the covenant is clear on this idea - God spells out what "death" means in the form of the covenant curses.

Blessings:
* rulership,
* food,
* procreation,

Curses:
* death – whatever that means.


So clearly the relationship between God and man was, from the beginning, a relationship of covenant. Covenant is one of the principles God has built into the very fabric of the universe he has created. Relationships between God, people, the physical universe, the animals and the spiritual realm are all controlled by covenant. And, as we shall see, God continues to be faithful to his side of the covenant and, in the final analysis, he will renew the covenant.