The Covenants that God made with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David Essay

The Covenants that God made with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David - Essay Example A biblical covenant, however, is not one that is made between two equal parties. After reading the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, one would discover that it was always God who proposes that a covenant be made between Him and man. Apparently, this only proves that God is not one who simply imposes his decisions on man, regardless of the fact that these are always absolutely wise and infallible. The covenants show that He also respects the free will that he gifted man with. He may ask mankind to do things in his favor, but he also grants them privileges in return. Man, for his part, also gets some of his wishes from God, he also has to oblige to certain conditions explicitly stated by the Creator. There were instances though that God unconditionally enters into a covenant with man and this only proves that, unlike man, He can grant favors out of love and not out of the wish for benefits. The first most prominent covenant mentioned in the Bible is that between God and Noah. After the Great Deluge, in which He literally washed the earth to rid it of man’s wickedness, God made a promise to Noah. In Genesis 9:11, He said that he would never punish man by destroying the world with flood. To seal the covenant, God creates the rainbow and makes it the sign of a lasting covenant between Him and man. ... It basically repeated what God once agreed with Adam. The point here is that â€Å"if the relationship with Noah is a new beginning for the human race, picking up where Adam’s seed left off, so to speak, and if it can be explicitly referred to as a covenant, then it should be evident that the relationship with Adam in the garden was also a covenant.† (Smith 36) However, it is clear that the Noahic covenant is a more important indicator of the evolving relationship between God and man. It is in this pact that God manifests His love for mankind by promising not to impose harsh punitive measures. Man, for his part, must not violate the rules established by God. When God placed the rest of His creations under man’s care though, the covenant with Noah clearly governs non-human entities on earth. What is most prominent in the this covenant though is that while God promised never to flood the earth again out of love for his creation, man should also avoid committing act ions that are destructive or self-destructive in nature. While God also promised never to destroy the living creatures, He also granted man stewardship over His creation. God’s covenant with Abraham is different in the sense that it is here where the concept of chosen people is first introduced. In the covenant, God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky. God also said that Abraham’s descendants would be his chosen people. He also defined the land which is to be called by His chosen people their own. On Abraham’s part, such favor is returned by simply remaining faithful to God and become a medium through which God’s kindness and generosity would flow to others as explained in Genesis 12:1-3. This covenant with Abraham