2. Covenant: A Definition
“A covenant is an agreement of mutual obligation, regardless of how asymmetrical: one party promises to do these things, the other party those things. … Whatever promises and obligations are involved, each party is understood as being accountable in acting to uphold his or her side of the covenant. Each party is an ‘agent,’ that is, one who has the ability and the responsibility to act.” (Sherman, Covenant, Community and the Spirit, 57)

3. Noahic Covenant (Gen 9; Acts 15; Lev 17).
God's covenant of grace through Jesus Christ
Noahic Covenant (Gen 9; Acts 15; Lev 17).
Abrahamic covenants (Gen 15 ;17; Rom 4; Gal 3)
Mosaic covenant (Exod 19-24; Jer 31:31-34, Luke 22:20)
Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7; Luke 1:32)
Covenant of peace (Ezek 37:26; Eph 2:14-15)

4. The Paradoxes of the Covenant
Conditioned vs. Unconditioned
Human Agency
Repentance and Lament
New Community: Continuity and Discontinuity

5. Conditioned vs. Unconditioned
The Mosaic conditioned covenant as an explanation of the exile (Exod 19:4-8)
Treaties in the ancient Near East
“parity” (between two equal powers)
“suzerain-vassal” (between a major power and a lesser nation).

6. Treaties and Deuteronomy
Preamble (Deut 1:1-5);
Historical prologue (1:6-11:32);
Stipulations (12-26);
Curses and Blessings (28:23-35);
Invocation of earth and heaven to be witnesses (4:26; 30:19);
The deposition of the document (Deut 10:1-5; 31:24-26) and
Provision for periodic reading (31:9-13)
Making copies (17:18-19)

7. Conditioned vs. Unconditioned
Old and new covenants in Jer 31:31-34
Continuity: both covenants are initiated by God
Discontinuity: the former is conditioned, the New Covenant is not conditioned.

8. Human Agency Covenant, Law, Narrative (Terence Fretheim)
Law as a gracious gift
Personal character of the law
Human obedience is a response
Human obedience is being involved in divine activity

9. Human Agency Moral agency in Jeremiah (Jacqueline Lapsley)
Devotion to the covenant (Jer 2:2)
The ability of the people to repent (Jer 13:13-14); repentance as a missed opportunity (Jer 25:4-7)
The problem lies in the human heart (Jer 17:1)

10. Human Agency
The covenant and the law will not be an external entity that the people try to memorize and remember; rather they will be internalized, thus deepening the people’s knowledge of God and giving the people a new moral identity.

11. Repentance vs. Lament
Nehemiah’s prayer of confession is bracketed by God’s faithfulness to the covenant
Repentance
Change in inner disposition
Change in external activity
Self-righteousness vs. Cheap grace

12. Repentance vs. Lament
How do we take seriously human accountability that is intrinsic in repentance without blaming the victim and without sacrificing justice?

13. Repentance vs. Lament
The language of repentance creates a space for us to deal with the shame that surfaces when we reflect on the ways we have abused our power, while the language of protest and lament creates a space for us to deal with the anger that results from the ways we have experienced oppression and marginalization.

14. Covenant of Peace I will be their God and they will be my people.
“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Ezek 37:26-27).

15. The Paradoxes of the Covenant: Summary
When we become weary of the weight of the judgment, shame and guilt of our alienating disobedience, the love, faithfulness, and mercy of the God of the covenant reaches out to us to graciously liberate and transform us.

16. The Paradoxes of the Covenant: Summary
When we become too confident in our human ability to act righteously, the covenantal relationship gently nudges us and sometimes prophetically shakes us to confess our limitations as human beings calling us to rely on God’s grace and not our self-righteousness.

17. The Paradoxes of the Covenant: Summary
When we are feeling incompetent and unworthy to be called God’s people, the covenantal relationship teaches us to see our value as humans in the way God calls to be God’s partners by embodying divine love and justice in the world.

18. The Paradoxes of the Covenant: Summary
When injustice in the world is too much to bear and when life is too chaotic to handle, when we become at the cusp of hopelessness, the covenantal relationship assures us that God is faithful and loyal to intervene and deliver.

19. The Paradoxes of the Covenant: Summary
When we become complacent to or participate in oppressing God’s creation, or when we become oblivious to the suffering around us, the covenantal relationship does not only create a space of lament and protest before God and the church, it also holds us accountable as agents of change calling us to repent and change our evil ways.