Before discussing in detail the major covenants that God established with his people throughout history, it will be helpful to touch upon the meaning that these covenants hold for God.
In essence, covenants are what establish our kinship with God: they form God’s family through swearing oaths. It seems quite clear that God, in establishing covenants throughout history, has wished to gather his family together. Ultimately, it is in light of the New Covenant in Jesus that all these covenants of Salvation history have their fulfillment. Paul seemed to grasp this reality very clearly, understanding the context of the old covenants fulfilled in the New Covenant:
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be there God, and they will be my people” – “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:16, 18; cf. Leviticus 26:12, 2 Samuel 7:8, 14).
We are God’s family, and we are children of the Father (see 1 John 3:1-2). The story of God swearing covenant oaths with His children – which is also the history of our Salvation, the history of Israel together with the history of the Church – is outlined in the overall story of the Bible.
God gradually unveiled his desire to create an eternal covenant kinship with all of his children through the succession of the major covenants he established, as revealed in his Word:
Adam and Eve, establishing a covenant with one couple (Genesis 1:26-2:3)
Noah and his family, establishing a covenant with one household (Genesis 9:8-17)
Abraham and his descendants, establishing a covenant with one tribe (Genesis 12:1-3, 17:1-14, 22:16-18)
Moses and the Israelites, establishing a covenant with one nation (Exodus 19:5-6, 3:4-10, 6:7)
David and the Kingdom of Israel, establishing a covenant with one kingdom (many nations) (2 Samuel 7:8-19)
Jesus, establishing a covenant with one Church (all nations) (Matthew 26:28, 16:17-19)
With each succeeding covenant, the family of God is enlarged; they find their fulfillment in the New Covenant of Jesus, “the everlasting covenant” (cf. Hebrews 13:20). Salvation history is the history of these covenants. John Paul II once commented on this “unbroken history” by observing that this proves that man’s sin cannot destroy the order of Love, the order of God’s profound ability to give us Salvation despite our many faults and sins. The sense of this deep continuity between the Old and New Covenants can be seen in this Eucharistic prayer of the Church:
Father....You formed man in your own likeness
and set him over the whole world...
Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship
you did not abandon him to the power of death. . .
Again and again you offered a covenant to man and...
in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.
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