God's Influence On Israelite Identity

Covenant is promise or contract between two parties with certain set of conditions. Sometimes one of the parties involved could be stronger than the other. For example, in the case of the covenant between God and Israel, or other that, an agreement can be between two people at the same position or level. The covenants can be either conditional or unconditional. In this essay, I will discuss the use of Covenant as a way that people relate with God as well as the way people relate among themselves through Covenants.

God’s covenant with Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham, was to be the father of many nations. The covenant includes promises concerning a land covenant, a seed covenant, and a blessing covenant. The foundation will flow out of the “Seed Covenant” to his descendants Isaac and Jacob, through whom the twelve tribes of Israel were born.

The small group of people who had large impact on the history of the world were the ancient Israelite's, who were called Hebrews. The ancient Hebrew’s were acknowledged by historians to have founded the first monotheistic religion. Today this religion is known as Judaism, and the people who follow Judaism would be called Jews.

Throughout our learning of Jewish peoplehood, we have stumbled upon different people that have different ideas of what peoplehood means. However, there is one thing that is held

To the Israelites their religion was who they were; God's chosen people. Preserving their identity throughout centuries of foreign rule was at times life threatening. Although their liberties greatly varied from the Persian Empire to the Roman Empire their means of resisting both empires stemmed from the same source, their religious texts. There are many examples of texts with anti-imperial themes within Wisdom Literature, Prayer, Songs, Apocalyptic Literature and most importantly the Gospels. With the increasing threat that foreign rule posed many of these texts offered ways to understand the situations by offering their audience guidance, hope, and most of all by preserving their culture which in terms helped them resist cultural annihilation.

Ancient Israel possessed laws designed to ensure the just treatment of “strangers” and “aliens,” persons who were not ethnic members of the nation but who were protected by law (e.g. Deuteronomy 24:17-18). The law also recognised the non-assimilating “stranger” (Leviticus 19:33-34a), whose different customs were respected and protected. And, despite Israel’s commitment to racial and religious purity, these foreigners were able to share in Israel’s cultural and religious life. The story of Rahab (Joshua 6:24f) and Ruth (Ruth 1:1-22; 4:13-17) demonstrate the radical nature of Israel’s commitment to the welfare of the vulnerable and the outsider.

They were bonded by their sharing of hardship, their history, and their predetermined paths. The Jewishness within the people provided a reason for their existence and they believed in their past, “First, Jews were a people (Jewishness) because they viewed themselves as the inheritors of a common history” (pg.47). By documenting their history, they were able feel optimistic about their future. In addition, their past was suffused with hardship as they would struggle to find a place for themselves. The Jews were not a favored people, having been blamed for the death of Jesus. Furthermore, they believed that God had placed them on a destined path to fulfill his plans. Their God had pledged himself to them in a covenant and this gave them a sense of

The Christ of the Covenants demonstrates the relationship between five covenants God instigated with Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and David in the Old Testament, and how they are reflected in Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection in the New Testament. In answering four basic questions, I discovered this main idea to be true time and time again. Robertson exhibits his vast knowledge of the subject with a concisely structured index outlining one clear point for the entire novel.

many times in different texts. Some scholars my say that the word covenants is hard to find a true meaning. You will hear the word covenant throughout the Old Testament. I think sometimes when we hear the word covenant only one or two covenants come to mind. There are many covenants throughout the Bible. I will attempt to define and explain five covenants. These five covenants are: Noahic Covenant, Abrahamic Covenant, Mosaic Covenant, Davidic Covenant and the Fifth Covenant or the (New Covenant). In these particular covenants we will find the promises God made with his people. In this paper I will attempted to answer questions which of these

Understanding the dynamic concept of covenant permeates everything God says in His Word and everything He does in a believer’s life. The following word study will examine the text of Exodus 19:1-8. The text begins with an obscure and severely brutalized people who are saved from slavery and are on the verge of a new covenant between God and man. The word in study is the Hebrew word האמנה, translated “covenant.”

Studying the religion of the Ancient Israelite People must be done in a careful manner. The ways in which biblical scholars frame significant ideas can have a major effect on how their point is received. Today’s ideas about the religious lives of Canaanites have been drawn on primarily from The Hebrew Bible and archaeological evidence. In their respective works, biblical scholars Benjamin Sommer and Carol Meyers choose to interpret these pieces of religious evidence is varying ways; Meyers takes a more cultural approach while Sommer’s has a theological leaning. Recognizing these different perspectives, I prefer the approach that Meyers takes because of its focus in anthropology.

The Old Testament is a work that is saturated with the theme of Covenant. There is an ebb and flow of the epic history of the Old Testament. According to some theologists, a covenant was not just an agreement or or a contract; it was a solemn bond established between two or more parties. For example, in Exodus when God flooded the earth, He sent a rainbow to Noah to make a covenant with him and the people of the earth that he would never destroy the earth again with water. A covenant also involved a firm commitment to the relationship. There is a slight difference between a covenant and a contract, however. Covenant involves a person’s whole being for the rest of their life.

Moreover, each of these covenants has “it’s own character and scope; and each prepares for and provides the found for, the next”. Alexander and Baker hold fast in agreement and proceed to say, “ Yet the faith and varied responses of the ancestors and Israelites are best grasped in relation to covenant making, covenant breaking and renewals of covenant”. The narrative of the Pentateuch has a progressive nature, as do the covenants made between people and God.

God develops many special relationships with His people throughout the Old Testament. Another word to describe the relationship between God and his people is covenant. The word covenant goes into the details of the relationship. Within the five books of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), Historical books, Poetical books, and the Prophet books, one may pick up on the relationships being developed between God and humanity. God has an unconditional love for His people; He is always faithful to them. On the other hand, humanity has more of a conditional relationship with God. Humanity continuously falls short, making the love seem “conditional,” but are given a choice to either follow God into a relationship and receive love and benefits of the covenant or not. “No child of the covenant who presents to Him a faithless and insincere heart shall be included in its blessings.” Going off the idea of love being unconditional and conditional, this paper focuses on how the Old Testament is about God, humanity and their relationship.

Covenant making and covenant people have been a part of God’s plan since the beginning of time. In the Old Testament, and with Jesus Christ being just a foreshadow of things to come, covenants often made God and God’s holiness visible (Fehren, 1996). Furthermore, covenants were the vehicles or processes in which God used to institute promises and manage people (Korver, 2015). In the simplest terms, a covenant is an agreement between two or more parties concerning shared responsibilities and privileges, once ratified, covenants cannot be changed in any way, including the parties involved or the covenant provisions (Korver, 2015, p. 29). Covenants, may either be unconditional or conditional. Thus, an unconditional covenant, such as the one offered to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), requires no conditions to be placed on the recipient (Korver, 2015). Hence, the onus of the Abrahamic covenant was completely on God, and Abraham needed only to accept God’s offer. However, the enjoyment of the blessings made in the Abrahamic Covenant was dependent on how well Abraham and the future nation of Israel adhered to and listened to God’s commands (Merrill, 2006). Therefore, some action was required on behalf of Abraham and Israel to reap the full benefits of God’s blessing. Conditional covenants, such as the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19:1-8), requires the recipient to meet certain conditions before enjoying the benefits of the covenant (Korver, 2015). Typically, conditional covenants