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Covenants, by John Carberry

The first covenant God makes with humanity is with Adam and Eve. While disobedience to God
brought suffering and death to humanity in the Third Chapter of Genesis, God also promised a
redeemer, an offspring of Eve, and Mary, who will strike at Satin’s head (Gn 3:15).

With Noah, God promises never to destroy all humanity again with a flood (Gn 9:13). The sign
of the rainbow will remind all of God’s promise. While God tells Noah to respect human life
(Gn 9:5-6), he does not appear to place any contingency on what mankind must do for God to
carry out his promise. However, the connection to Baptism cannot be ignored (1 Pt 3:20-22).
Evil is destroyed by the flood waters, goodness (Noah’s family) emerges. The goodness of Noah
saves his family. Through baptism and his passion, death and resurrection, Christ wipes away
the sin of those who accept him and follow him.

God promises to give Abraham land and many descendants. In return, God expects all of
Abraham’s male slaves and family members to be circuмcised (Gn 15:18-19, 17:1-22).

God promises to Moses that he will increase the Israelite’s undertakings: the fruit of the womb,
the offspring of their livestock and the produce of the soil, if the Israelites obey the voice of the
Lord, keeping his commandments and statutes that were written in the book of the law, and
returning to the Lord with their whole heart and whole being (Ex 19:5, Dt 29:8-14, 30:9-10).

God promises to bless the house of David (2 Sm 7:10-29) and bring him victories in his
undertakings (2 Sm 8:14).

God’s final covenant with the Israelites and the only covenant of the New Testament is made by
Jesus at the Last Supper where he transformed the bread and wine into his own body and blood
that would be shed the next day on behalf of all of his followers (Mt 26:26-30, Mk 14:22-26, Lk
22:14-20, 1 Cor 11:23-29, Heb 8:8-13, Jer 31:31-34). This covenant fulfills the others and
remains throughout history.

All the covenants are eternal and unending. God promises redemption, life, land, descendants,
fruitfulness, victory and finally ending again with redemption. The offspring of Eve (Jesus) will
save humanity. Justice will be given out individually rather than collectively. God’s chosen
people will be many and they will be given their daily bread, but they must mark themselves to
distinguish themselves from non-believers: circuмcision (physical) in the Old, which
foreshadows Baptism (spiritual) in the New.

With Moses, the responsibility of humanity becomes greater. They must now obey God’s law
with heart and hand. If they do so, they will be fruitful and prosperous. God will amplify the
fruit of the womb, the fruit of the livestock and the fruit of the earth if the people are obedient.

God promises David victory. This was often misinterpreted by later generations as applying to
battles and warfare, but the true warfare is against Satan and evil, not our fellow brothers and
sisters. We accomplish it through gentle persuasion and instruction until the law is written on
our hearts (Jer 31:33, Ez 36:26, Hos 1:7, Heb 10:16). How do we fight this battle? What are our
weapons? We see the true spiritual weapons are wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength,
knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (Is 11:1-3). Christ said that those who accept persecution
and endure to the end will be saved (Mt 10:22, Lk 21:19). Saint Paul teaches us that our battle is
not against human forces, but rather against the rulers of this world of darkness. These evil
spirits are fought with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the armor of truth and justice
and the sword of the word of God (Eph 6:10-17). God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but
rather of power, love and self-control (2 Tm 1:7, 1 Thes 2:2, Ps 43:2, 46:2, 68:36). Affliction
produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope, and hope does not
disappoint (Rom 5:3-5). When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; and when
slandered, we gently respond (1 Cor 4:12-13). There is an ongoing battle between the appetites
of the flesh and the fortitude of the will (Rom 7:14-25, Gal 5:17). To Saint Ambrose of Milan
(337-397), the glory of fortitude rests not only in the strength of one’s body and arms, but on the
courage of the mind (Acts 4:31, 13:46).1 Saint John Paul II says: May God give you the strength
to overcome all hatred and to conquer evil with good.2 The Church considers the symbol of
prayer as a battle of faith and a triumph of perseverance.3 For Saint Augustine, “the more peril
there was in the battle, so much the more joy will there be in the triumph.”4 Pope Benedict XVI
posits: “In the battle against lies and violence, truth and love have no other weapon than the
witness of suffering.”5

All the covenants present some eternal truths. The first and the last covenant refer to a redeemer,
one promised in the first and fulfilled in the last. Our destruction or redemption relies on the
actions of one man, Jesus Christ. If we follow him, we will be redeemed. But what does follow
him mean? Christ tells us that to follow him, one must first pick up his cross (Mt 16:24, Mk
16:27, Rm 8:17-18, 2 Cor 1:5-7, Phil 3:10-11, 1 Pt 4:13, Is 35:10). In other words, we must
follow his example: do good and avoid evil. We must separate ourselves, or mark ourselves, as
different from the rest of creation showing our faith in the redeemer through obedience to him.
If we maintain our faith and live a moral life, one that follows God’s statutes, we will be fertile
and our lives will be sustained by God. But the challenge will remain, the same as the challenge
to Adam and Eve, whether we obey God or to make our own rules. Only with our choices of
good over evil can we be victorious over evil and one with God.

In the covenant with Moses, God promises and lists good things: fruits of the womb, or human
fertility, plenty of livestock, and a fruitful harvest, while requiring obedience to the law that he
had just given to Moses. This covenant promises good things and requires our obedient response.

Fruit appears frequently in the Bible and certainly has numerous and various meanings. In
Genesis, fruit meant children: Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it (Gn 1:28).
Cain is denied the fruits of the soil (produce) as punishment for killing Abel, his brother (Gn
4:10-14). For Isaiah, the rain comes down on the earth and makes it fruitful or productive (Is
55:10-11). John the Baptist says to produce good fruits, meaning good deeds, as evidence of
your repentance (Mt 3:8-10). For Saint Paul, fruit means the effects: the fruit of the Spirit
include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
(Gal 5:22).

Jesus also uses multiple meanings for fruitfulness. Christ nourishes and sustains each member of
his body just as a vine nourishes its fruitful branches (Jn 15:4-5, Ps 3:6).6 In two of the Gospel
stories, Christ curses the barren fruit tree, and it withers and dies (Mt 21:18-22, Mk 11:12-14),
while in his parable of the barren fruit tree, the tree is allowed time to produce (Lk 13:6-9, Prv
27:18, Jn 15:2). It is doubtful that Christ is trying to show the proper conduct of plants. Rather,
our barren actions or inactions that do not bear fruit such as creating children, practicing good
deeds, or presenting truthful discussions and teachings, can be deadly to the soul. Similarly,
Jesus chose apostles and appointed them to bear fruit (Jn 15:16). Here spreading the Gospel is
the fruit. Fruit or deeds can also be a means to identify false prophets. “Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will
know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15-16, Sir 13:16, 1 Jn 4:1).

Likewise, the Church uses fruitfulness as terminology to apply to the goodness of procreation
resulting from marital love. Saint John Paul II discusses how married couples are called to be
givers of life, since human life is a gift received in order to be given as a gift: “parents recognize
that the child, as the fruit of their mutual gift of love, is, in turn, a gift for both of them, a gift
which flows from them.”7 Elizabeth recognizes the truth of this goodness in her cousin, Mary:
“… blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42).

All of these covenants reflect our relationship with God, likened to the marriage covenant. Like
the marriage between a man and his wife, the love of God is gifted to us without cost. We accept
this love when we respond with our proper actions. The link of marriage in the beginning to the
mystery of creation (Gn 1:28, 2:24) is rediscovered as the link of the fruit of the spousal love of
Christ and the Church with the mystery of redemption (Eph 5:32).8 Both relationships bear fruit:
“You are the light of the world (Mt 5:14-16) and “be fruitful and multiply” (Gn 1:28, 9:1, 35:11,
Jer 3:16, 29:4-6). Eternal life stresses the unending nature of our relationship with God, just as
the permanency of marriage is implied in the marriage vow by till death do us part.

What do we learn from the covenants? Christ, as promised, redeemed us. He gave us
redemptive sacraments, or signs, to follow similar to the signs of the covenant with Noah
(rainbow) and Abraham (circuмcision). We will each be judged individually rather than all
destroyed by the flood. But we must cooperate, and carry our cross, just as Christ, the giver of
the New Law, directs us to the Ten Commandments, originally given to Moses, but ratified by
Christ (Ex 20:1-17, Dt 5:6-21, Mt 19:17-19, Mk 10:19, Lk 18:20). The challenges confronted by
David foretell our own challenges which can only be met successfully and victoriously with
God’s help. God keeps his promises, can we?

John Carberry is the author of Parables: Catholic Apologetics Through Sacred Scripture (2003)
and Sacraments: Signs, Symbols and Significance (2023).

1 Aquilina, Mike, The Fathers of the Church, p. 199.
2 John Paul II, Slavorum Apostoli (Apostles of the Slavs), 30.
3 CCC, 741, 2573, 2725-2726 & 2752.
4 Aquinas, Thomas, The Summa Theologica, II, I, Q32, A4.
5 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, Holy Week, p. 48.
6 Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (Mystical Body of Christ), 55. Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the
Transfiguration, pp. 259-261.
7 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 92.
8 John Paul II, “The Redemptive and Spousal Dimension of Love” (12/15/1982), Theology of the Body, p. 351.