Covenant 1: Adamic

What is a covenant?

• An exchange of persons between two lovers (Isaiah 62:5).

• The Bible begins and ends with Marriage and really is caught up entirely in a love affair (Hosea 2:1-14, Revelation 19:6-9)

• The term "covenant" as we know it came from the Latin "con-venire" meaning a coming together.

  • "Berith" is the word used in Genesis, but its exact origin remains to be an enigma, it is similar to an Assyrian word meaning to bind

• Usually Consists of:

  • Content of the Promise (Genesis 26:29; 31:50,52).

  • An oath to accompany the content of the agreement (Genesis 26:31; 31:48-53). The term “oath” is sometimes used as synonymous with covenant (see Ezekiel 17:13).

  • Reward for acting in accord with the agreement

  • A curse invoked by each one upon the self should the agreement be broken (implicit or explicit)(Deuteronomy 27:15-26).

    • Damage almost of every kind, more to the one who broke it than the other.

    • Some covenants are as strong as death i.e. marriage

    • More on this when we get to Abraham

  • The formal ratification/ritual of the covenant by some solemn external act, such as circumcision

  • A witness to testify to the existence of the covenant.

• The change it brings (the positive aspect)

  • In the Old Testament, the changes are very tangible but not often instantaneous.

  • In the New Testament, it is eternal always in effect and affecting.

God's Intent and Command

Genesis 1:26-29

So we are made to be "like" and in the "image of" God but what does that mean? Who is God (what is He like)?

• God makes man in his image describing man's Divine Sonship as we learned last session

 How does this happen?

CCC 31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him...

This question intertwines itself with the question of whether God exists. We must first exist in a way to detect Him. But most of all we get to know Him

1. What we know of Who God is in our day comes from Jesus empirically

   1. We can know what God is like By listening to His words

      1. Jesus is the Word (John 1)

   2. We can know Who He is by what He does

      1. Heals us even where it means death (Matthew 8:1-4)

      2. Forgives relating to healing (John 8)

      3. Weeps/Commiserates with us (John 11:35)

      4. Prays and gives us a model (Luke 11:1-13)

      5. Invites us into His life, responding to what keeps us from Him (Matthew 4:19, Mark 10:17-31)

      6. He cares for us in every way (Matthew 10:29-31)

2. We can also conceptually and impersonally know God but not insignificant

   1. "God is Love" (1 John 4:8)

   2. He cannot be a member of any finite category in fact He is Existence Itself

   3. CCC 32 The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.

What is likeness?

 When we talk about Imago dei that correlates to the structure of our being. But what is likeness?

• Our likeness to God was "disfigured in man by the first sin" (CCC 1701)

• In loose terms, it is our holiness because likeness to God for a finite being is only obtained by participation in the mystery of God, in His "divineness". Thus, we can only become like God if we become divinized in every aspect of our being.

• He created us in this, and sin besmirched this, but God also intends to restore it to makes us gods toward which we were first tempted (Genesis 1:26).

Genesis 2:15-17

• We recall from our last session that God placed man where He would flourish

Man's Response - Genesis 3:1-7

• Man, not receiving the fullness of his freedom traded it for what seemed better to him

• The results of breaking the covenant were realized 

  • Genesis 3:8-19

This covenant image beginning with the unity of two entities is important.

The Covenant with Adam - Genesis 2:1-4

• God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.