Let’s Make a Deal

Hebrews 8:6-12

We’ve seen the game show. Excited guests dressed in crazy clothes are playing a game of chance and choice. They all hope to win a prize from their endearing host. Fun and funny and often disappointing, this game is a lot like life.

Our gracious Creator has been looking to “make a deal” with human beings since their inception. This ancient “deal” was called a covenant. God entered into a covenant relationship with Noah, Abraham, David and the Hebrew people. In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s promise of a new covenant: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Heb. 8:10). Now, that’s a big deal indeed! So, what does covenant mean?

In the Bible, “covenant” is used to signify a deal, contract, or a promise that is sealed, serious and supersized. In short, a covenant is a solum agreement. Sometimes it has conditions & sometimes it is unconditional. God always gives a good deal but they can be frightful and usually are. Hebrews 9 frames Christ’s covenant of grace as a will and testament making the case that it took effect in the event of (his) death: “For a will takes effect only at death…Hence not even the first covenant was made without blood” (Heb 9:17,18).

This echoes the story of Genesis 15 where God makes his deal with Abraham and tells him to cut five animals in two. That night, as Abraham fell into a deep sleep, he awoke to a fire moving in the midst of the animal parts. This intriguing ritual is related to the Hebrew idiom, “cutting a covenant”. More intriguing still, God’s covenant with Abraham came with no law attached. It was an unconditional promised blessing. Similar to the covenant God made with David in 2 Samuel 7, all that is required is to trust God’s promise.
Conversely, there is law involved in God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai. This deal comes with conditions. In Exodus 24, Moses is ratifying the covenant. God has spoken. The people respond by accepting the terms. Moses and over seventy others see God and live. There is sacrifice and there is a meal, a covenant meal. We may not think about it much now, but when we eat real food there is always sacrifice. A living plant or animal gave its life to sustain us. The deal comes with a cost. Yet it results in reward. In ancient times (and in many places today) to eat together is to engage in a covenant of friendship.
So which is it? Is covenant about cutting or eating, sacrifice or friendship? Does God’s deal include all of these and more? Jesus sheds some light, as he always does,“Take eat this is my body broken for you”(1 Cor 11:24). Christ presents his broken body and spilt blood as the covenant meal harmonizing, uniting, synthesizing the whole of the testament of grace. God is forgiving us, transforming us through the Holy Spirit (Don’t forget God’s law written in our hearts) and delivering us life to the full forever. This is the new covenant we celebrate when we join together at the table and hopefully wherever we go. Now that’s a good deal, don’t you think?