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God’s covenants
One of the common reoccurring themes in the Book of Genesis is God’s covenant with people, which he uses to show His grace, to protect and to bring each person closer to Him; by creating covenants He also gives an assurance that everything He promises will come true.
This assurance is seen in God’s covenant with Abraham. In Genesis 13:14-18, God tells him: “Look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” God gives him an eternal promise without asking for anything in return. He seals His promise by “cutting the covenant”, which happens when Abraham cuts in two “a heifer three years old, a ram three years old, a female goat three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon” (Gen 15:9-21). This sacrifice can be read as evidence of the pact between God and Abraham and as evidence that Abraham will in fact “posses the land” God promised him (Gen 15-8). However, it seems like an unequal partnership because God will give a human so much land that he doesn’t even deserve, yet the human isn’t expected to give anything. The covenant is composed of grace; it is used to teach Abraham to trust the Lord, bringing the human closer to Him.
The example above shows that the covenant with Abraham wasn’t two-sided because God was the only one offering and promising Abraham land without asking for anything in return. A similar situation occurs with Noah. Except in this case, God doesn’t just establish one, he establishes two covenants: before and after the flood. In the dishonesty and violence that was spread all over the Earth God made a covenant with Noah (Gen 6:11-17). In verse 18, the Lord says: “But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your son’s wives with you.” The pronoun “you” is repeated four...