Covenant Theology Highlights

Read the Old Testament like never before

For most of my life, the Old Testament has felt incredibly intimidating. Often, I’ve assumed I just won’t understand it, so sticking to the New Testament seemed to be in my best interest. However, through reading and studying the Catholic faith, my eyes have been opened to the importance of the Old Testament in our understanding of our faith. My view of scripture has broadened, seeing how God worked with our ancestors to get us to where we are today: the New Covenant.

“[T]he New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” - St. Augustine

What is Covenant Theology

According to The Gospel Coalition, “[c]ovenant theology is a framework for biblical interpretation, informed by exegetical, biblical, and systematic theology, that recognizes that the redemptive history revealed in Scripture is explicitly articulated through a succession of covenants (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and New), thus providing an organizing principle for biblical theology.”¹

“A covenant is personal, absolute and utterly secure, because it is a holy commitment made before—and enforced by—a holy God.”² Marriage is one example of a covenant (which you can read more on here). In the Old Testament, there are a series of covenants that can be visually understood by the graphic below. It all culminates in the New Covenant, made by Jesus.

Chart taken from Scott Hahn’s book A Father Who Keeps His Promises page 35 (Servant; First Edition (March 12, 1998))

A detail from this chart that I want to highlight is the Covenant Form. Notice how, with each successive Covenant, God’s family grows. It starts with a husband and wife (Adam and Eve) and grows to become a universal family (the Catholic, or universal, Church).

Scott Hahn gives an overview of the covenants throughout the Bible in his book A Father Who Keeps His Promises:

For an overview of the divine love story that encompasses the lives of these figures, let’s describe briefly the promises God made—and fulfilled—for each one of them:

• God called Adam to share in his blessing in the covenant of marriage with Eve (see Gn 1:26-2:3), and promised to deliver them from sin through the promised “seed” by crushing the head of the diabolical serpent tempter (see Gn 3:15).

• The Father pledged to Noah to keep him and his household safe through the flood, and then promised never to wipe out the human family that way again (see Gn 9:8-17).

• God promised Abraham the Promised Land where his natural descendants might be blessed as a nation, and then a kingdom, until eventually all the families of the earth would be blessed through him and his seed (see Gn 12:1-3; 22:16-18).

• The Lord used Moses to lead the twelve tribes of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and to ratify a national covenant that made them a holy nation (see Ex 19:5-6), called to occupy the Promised Land of Canaan as their inheritance (see Ex 3:4-10).

• God’s covenant with David to build a worldwide kingdom, by establishing an everlasting throne with the son of David, who was destined to rule—with divine wisdom—over all the nations, united as a royal family in their common worship of the heavenly Father within his house, the Jerusalem temple (see 2 Sam 7:8-19).

• Finally, the Father kept all of his previous promises by the gift of his Son, Jesus, who bore all the curses of the previously broken covenants—in order to ratify the New Covenant— in the self offering of his flesh and blood that permanently binds all of us together, both Jews and Gentiles, in one universal divine family: the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church (see Mt 16:17-19).³

Lots of Big Mistakes, But God Never Gave (or Gives) Up on Us

It would be a mistake if we let ourselves believe that the people in the Old Testament are a distant, unrelated group to our lives today. They are our ancestors! Through reading on the covenants, we can be reminded of God’s constant pursuit of you and I. No matter what mistakes we make, our Father is always there waiting for us to return with open arms, like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who symbolizes our Heavenly Father.⁴

Adam

The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The LORD God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die. - Genesis 2:15-17 (NAB)

God could not have been more clear with Adam, yet Adam transgressed His command, eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Following this, one of Adam and Eve’s son’s, Cain, murders his brother Abel. Adam and Eve then have Seth, whose bloodline is seen as righteous…until they aren’t. Evil continued to multiply, but rather than giving up on humanity, God made another covenant with Noah.

Noah

See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth. God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being. When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth. God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth. - Genesis 9:9-17⁵ (NAB)

God has preserved Noah’s family from the great flood. Let’s read what comes next:

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. - Genesis 9:20-22

When Noah awakes, he curses Ham’s son, Canaan. In order to understand why Ham’s actions led to a curse, we need to look elsewhere.

If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall be subject to punishment. - Leviticus 20:17 (NRSV)

To see someone’s nakedness means to have intercourse with them. What is happening in Genesis 9:20-22 is incestuous rape. Despite this horrific action, followed by an increase of sin (yet again), God does not give up on His people.

Abraham

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said: I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless. Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly. Abram fell face down and God said to him: For my part, here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you. I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now residing as aliens, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God. God said to Abraham: For your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. This is the covenant between me and you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout the ages, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised, including houseborn slaves and those acquired with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants. Yes, both the houseborn slaves and those acquired with money must be circumcised. Thus my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. If a male is uncircumcised, that is, if the flesh of his foreskin has not been cut away, such a one will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. - Genesis 17:1-14 (NAB)

To connect back to the graphic shared at the beginning of this post, keep in mind that God’s family is now a tribe, an increase from the household that the Noahic covenant included.

Many years following the covenant were “filled with illicit sex, violence, and intrigue”.⁶ Our ancestors didn’t seem to learn.

Moses

The LORD said to Moses: You must also tell the Israelites: Keep my sabbaths, for that is to be the sign between you and me throughout the generations, to show that it is I, the LORD, who make you holy. Therefore, you must keep the sabbath for it is holiness for you. Whoever desecrates it shall be put to death. If anyone does work on that day, that person must be cut off from the people. Six days there are for doing work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Anyone who does work on the sabbath day shall be put to death. So shall the Israelites observe the sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant. Between me and the Israelites it is to be an everlasting sign; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested at his ease. When the LORD had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, the stone tablets inscribed by God’s own finger. - Exodus 31:12-18 (NAB)

Notice how the Lord always chooses one man to speak with to share what He has revealed. When the Lord speaks to Moses, he often says something along the lines of what we read above: “You must also tell the Israelites”. Additionally, it is during the Mosaic Covenant that we see many rituals and laws being formed (the Ten Commandmants and consecration of the priests in Exodus 29, for example).

“The law was given that grace might be sought; grace was given so that the law might be fulfilled.” - St. Augustine

Following the verses I began this section with is the infamous event with the Golden Calf:

When the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for that man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.” Aaron replied, “Take off the golden earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He received their offering, and fashioning it with a tool, made a molten calf. Then they cried out, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you* up from the land of Egypt.” On seeing this, Aaron built an altar in front of the calf and proclaimed, “Tomorrow is a feast of the LORD.” Early the next day the people sacrificed burnt offerings and brought communion sacrifices. Then they sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. - Exodus 38:1-6 (NAB)

This event may lead us to look down on the Israelites, but it should lead us to ask ourselves if we end up treating other things like gods when we feel impatient. This is worth some reflection!

More time passes and we eventually enter “…the period of the judges, when we find Israel falling into one crisis after another. It makes for fascinating reading, but it gets a bit repetitious after a while. Israel kept following the same vicious cycle: sin, slavery, supplication, salvation and surplus.”⁷ But again, God did not give up.

David

He it is who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. If he does wrong, I will reprove him with a human rod and with human punishments; but I will not withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from Saul who was before you. Your house and your kingdom are firm forever before me; your throne shall be firmly established forever. - 2 Samuel 7:13-16 (NAB)

A few chapters later, we read about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:4), followed by her pregnancy from said affair (2 Samuel 11:5). David then plots to kill her husband, Uriah.

Over and over again, our ancestors acted with ingratitude, but He still treats us as His own.

Jesus

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, l for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. - Matthew 26:26-28

“As the Messiah, Jesus Christ is priest, prophet and king. He is the new Adam. He is the seed of Abraham. He is the new Moses. He is the Son of David. He is the Son of God.”⁸

St. Paul articulates Jesus being the “New Adam” in his First Letter to the Corinthians:

So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. - 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (NAB, emphasis added)

To say that Jesus is the “new Adam” is typological language, referencing how Jesus’ role in the New Testament relates to Adam from the Old Testament. “If Jesus is the new Adam, then salvation is not just about saving sinners from the fires of hell. It is about undoing the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve. It is about restoring the original ‘righteousness’ which Adam had when he was created but which he lost through disobedience (Romans 5:17).”⁹

Jesus is the descendant of Abraham, which we can read in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1).

As the “new Moses”, Jesus leads us out of the bondage of Satan through his death and Resurrection, just as Moses led the Israelites out of the bondage of slavery that they were undergoing in Egypt. In John 6:32, Jesus identifies “himself as the ‘true bread from heaven’ and the ‘bread of life’, drawing a parallel with Moses through whom God supernaturally fed manna to the Israelites while forming a covenant with them after the first Passover (Ex 16:4ff).”¹⁰ “Jesus fasted for forty days and nights before teaching the new Law of God on a mountain (Matt. 4); Moses did the same (Deut. 9:9). Just as Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to receive the Decalogue, Jesus ascends a mountain to bring forth a new Law from God in fulfillment of the Old Covenant.”¹¹

As the “son of David”, Jesus is himself a king, with his kingdom being Heaven, also known as the Heavenly Jerusalem, or New Jerusalem. “The purpose of the New Covenant was not to abolish the earthly manifestations of the Old but to fulfill and expand them to their uttermost. Christ does this by establishing the New Jerusalem—one worldwide family of God, the Catholic Church.”¹² This is what else Scott Hahn has to say about the New Jerusalem:

When in Revelation 21:9-21 John describes the dimensions and adornments of the New Jerusalem, he describes the heaven enjoyed by the saints at the end of time, the ultimate fulfillment of the New Covenant. We will enter into the fullness of the New Covenant, but only in eternity. We will enter fully into the new creation and the New Jerusalem when we enter heaven in our resurrected, glorified bodies. But John’s vision can’t be interpreted exclusively as a future reality. The kingdom of God, which can never be fully realized on earth, does find partial (but real) fulfillment in us on this side of heaven. We experience the fulfillment of the New Covenant now.

How? In the Church. The Church is the New Jerusalem. When we become members of the Church, we become citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. Through the liturgy, through the sacraments, in the prayers and works of the people of God, we participate in heavenly life.¹³

The imagery Scott Hahn is bringing to mind reminds me of a short film called The Veil Removed. This film shows the unseen reality of what is happening during the Mass.

“In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims.” - Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1090

Concluding Thoughts

Much of the Old Testament can be read as the story of our ancestors.

God loves us and will never give up on us. Even though our ancestors made every mistake imaginable, He kept His promises.

Jesus fulfills all the promises made through the covenants in the Old Testament.

The Catholic Church is universal, not limited to a specific tribe or location in the world.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you walk away from this post feeling inspired to read the Old Testament, and that you feel renewed as you persevere as a disciple of Christ.

Read my previous post (on the Papacy) here:

1. Covenant Theology - The Gospel Coalition

2. A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn, pg 25, Servant; First Edition (March 12, 1998)

3. Ibid., pg 31-32

4. I find it important to note that this should never be used as an excuse to sin. God knows our hearts. We cannot fool Him.

5. See also Genesis 6:18

6. A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn, pg 120, Servant; First Edition (March 12, 1998)

7. Ibid., pg 193

8. Ibid., pg 225

9. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary by Brant Pitre, pg 16, Image

10. A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn, pg 235, Servant; First Edition (March 12, 1998)

11. Is Jesus a "Second Moses?" | Catholic Answers Magazine

12. A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn, pg 245, Servant; First Edition (March 12, 1998)

13. Ibid., pg 258