And it shall be a sign of the covenant

between Me and you. Genesis 17:11

I believe we should have some understanding of the covenants that God made with His creation if we want to comprehend His purpose for our lives. To gain some understanding we will look at a few covenants in the Old Testament and then compare them to the “new covenant” that Christ instituted before He went to the cross. Hopefully, this will help us to understand the new covenant, the sign of the covenant, and the consequences for someone who violated the covenant.

We will begin by looking at God’s covenant with Abraham. The word covenant is mentioned at least nine times in the first fourteen verses of Genesis 17. The covenant God made with Abraham was not only for the Jewish people, but for all believers, even those who would live under the new covenant. We can accept this as truth because the text speaks of an everlasting covenant. It was a spiritual covenant as well.

The sign of the covenant was circumcision. Genesis 17:10 says, “Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.” The penalty for violating the covenant could end in death for the transgressor.

Because Moses failed to keep the covenant of circumcision, God was going to kill him. Genesis 4:24 says, “And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.” It would appear that Zipporah (Moses’ wife) was not in favor of circumcision.

Her father (Jethro) was a priest of Midian, and is believed to be one of the founders of the Druze religion. Apparently, the religion she and her father had was against circumcision. Because of the anger of God against her husband, she submitted to the Jewish requirement and circumcised her son(s). Her submission to God’s requirement saved her husband’s life.

Another covenant we want to consider is the Mosaic or Sinaitic covenant mentioned in Exodus 19:5-6 and 31:12-18. The covenant was made with Moses but was for the nation of Israel, and was accepted by them in Exodus 24. Some people call it the Mosaic or Sinaitic covenant, others refer to it as the covenant God made with Israel.

The sign of the covenant was the Sabbath day which was to be set aside as a day of rest for Israel. The penalty for violating the Sabbath was death for the person who was caught. In Numbers 15:32-36, a man was found gathering sticks on the sabbath day. The people brought him to Moses and Arron and he received his condemnation; he was stoned with stones outside the camp for violating the Sabbath day, which was the sign of the covenant.

So here is my question: As we consider the new covenant that Jesus made before He went to the cross, what was the sign of the covenant? Another question we could ask is, what is the penalty for violating the covenant? If this is a covenant similar to the others, then we should be able to respond to those questions.

We will try to answer those questions in the next article. We will also see that those answers fit in perfectly and complement the rest of Scripture. We don’t have to put our ideas into the Word of God, they are already there for us to learn and grow spiritually.

Contact the author at thoughtsonword@gmail.com if you have any comments or questions.

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Lyndon Stimeling, of Richfield, has been writing about faith and family for many years. He has self-published four books, Common Thoughts on The Word in 2016, Eye of a Needle in 2017, Common Thoughts on The Word II in 2019 and A Bridge Between in 2023. He has also had articles published in The Coming Home Journal and local newspapers and has written a children’s book.