covenant v contract

What’s the difference between a covenant and a contract? In Ruth 4 Boaz makes an agreement between himself and the first in line as kinsman-redeemer. You don’t have to know what a “kinsman-redeemer” is, just notice that Boaz calls the elders of the city together to act as witnesses and pass judgment over the agreement.

In the days before the printing press (or desktop publishing) agreements were made based on a person’s word, which really means it was based on his character (women weren’t usually allowed to make covenants). The witness to that person’s character were the elders of the town. They weren’t legal experts, they were people who knew that person’s life and how he conducted himself and what his reputation was.

These days, we make agreements called contracts and if you pay a lawyer enough s/he will find a way to get you out of the agreement. That’s because the agreement is only as good as its wording. The people who make sure the wording is secure are lawyers and the people who judge if the claims about the wording are valid are judges. The character of the people entering the agreement is mostly irrelevant, as is the character of the people who wrote up the agreement.

Throughout the Bible God’s intentions toward us are expressed in covenants: with Adam, with Abraham, with David, etc. God isn’t trying to wiggle out of his expressed agreements. Instead, he backs up his intentions toward us with his character. And he calls as witnesses the multitudes of people who have found him to be faithful.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)