Covenant is a promise, an agreement, a contract, a proclamation, a responsibility. It can be an oath, a vow, or simply saying you will do something. A covenant can be a set of instructions. When a man takes a woman to be his. She belongs to him. He has made a covenant with her to care for her and be her man. This is at the base of all marital relationships. God himself demonstrates it through His actions towards us. A covenant is often ratified or made clear with shedding of blood.
Does a man have a responsibility towards his woman when he takes her as his? Scripturally yes. Does she have expectations? Yes. Does he have expectations of her? This relationship is quite literally according to scriptural usage of the word, a covenantal relationship. If the woman was a virgin, there was likely even a token of blood shed upon the ratification of their union.
Gen 15:18
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
This was a promise. Just like a man promises to care for his new bride. She belongs to him and he has a responsibility to care for her. She is the wife of his covenant.
Gen 26:28
And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us,
even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;
Exo 23:32
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
Exo 34:28
And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Eze 16:8
Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time
was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
Jer 22:9
Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Adultery and idolatry are basically the same thing.
Isa 57:8
Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered
thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee
a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest
it.
Pro 2:17
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
The guide of her youth is the duke or master. And she forgot the covenant. What is the context? She's an adulterous woman who left her husband and abandoned the covenant of marriage that God joined together.
Eze 17:13
And hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also taken the mighty of the land:
Mal 2:14
Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet
is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Our relationship towards God and His towards us is described OVER AND OVER in scripture as a covenant. It is also described as a marriage. Or a marriage covenant.
Deu 29:12
That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: 13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and
that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; 15 But with
him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with
him that
is not here with us this day:
Deu 31:16
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go
to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
The went whoring after other gods and broke the covenant with Yah. What covenant? The allegory time and again is a marriage allegory throughout ALL of scripture.
Deu 31:20
For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.
Jos 23:16
When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
1Sa 18:2
And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.
1Sa 11:1
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
When my wife joined me, she made a covenant to obey me, and follow wherever I led.
2Ki 11:17
And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people; between the king also and the people.
This covenant made some people belong to one master. Are we seeing any parallels here?
2Ki 23:3
And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all
their heart and all
their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
What does a woman do when joining herself to a man, she makes a covenant to follow and obey only him just as we covenant with God to follow and obey only Him.
What is a covenant? It's repeated hundreds of times as God's promises and commands between Himself and His brides.
Men, when you tell your wife to get something done. That is called a covenant. When you set forth rules for how people will conduct themselves in your house, that is a covenant. When you took your woman and made her yours. You made a covenant with her before God who joined you two together, this covenant you should not break, nor should she. This covenant IS the marriage relationship. This is exactly how God has modeled it for us. This is how even a betrothal carries the same weight as a fully consummated marriage. A covenant was entered into when authority and headship is transferred from the father to the new bridegroom. Sex only seals the covenant. It's the final piece, but it is not needed to set apart the bride for the bridegroom.
The bride already belongs to the bridegroom. He has bought and paid the price, we are set aside and told to have no other master than Him. He is going to prepare a place for us, to bring us to the chamber. We are told to wait with lamps full of oil and trimmed, looking earnestly for His coming. The covenant has been made, price paid, the promise (covenant) exchanged, we belong to him in truth.
This is the quintessential beauty of covenantal relationship that God has shown us through His instruction, His commands and His example. We are to model our actions from His. And the way he enters into relationship with His bride is a covenant. The way we enter into our relationships with our brides is the same model. A covenant.
