![]() ![]() Fortunately for us, the Biblical Suzerain, our God, has chosen to continue to re-up, either renewing (some of the OT covenants), or in the case of the new covenant, starting afresh with a new covenant, which promised to be more permanent. Thereafter, it was up to the suzerain to decide whether even to do another covenant or not. This is the very nature of a covenant with stipulations, which if they were not kept, the suzerain had obligated himself to enact the curse sanctions. Secondly, covenants while many were unilateral, were almost always conditional in nature. The point is, it is entirely at his discretion what happens in such matters. It is also true, that if the covenant is basically kept by the people in question, then the suzerain has the option to renew it on the same terms, or on different terms, if he wishes. It is entirely at the discretion of the suzerain whether he cuts a new covenant with his people if they have not kept the old one. ![]() In a suzerain vassal treaty/covenant, it is the suzerain who dictates all the terms, lays down the law, makes certain promises, and explains the sanctions if the covenant is violated. All such parity covenants, treaties, or contracts are not analogous to what we have in the Bible, because of course God does not relate to his people as equals. They are not parity agreements between equals. ![]() You can also find some resources on line from Kline as well if you Google his name.įirstly, as Kline showed in detail, there were various different sorts of covenants or treaties in antiquity, and the kinds which we find in the Bible are suzerain-vassal treaties. There are many insights that come from such a comparative study of ancient treaty making, but here are the salient points. If you want to read an interesting tiny book long out of print, read Kline's 'By Oath Consigned'. Meredith Kline, one of my OT professors was brilliant when it came to this stuff, as he had studied ANE covenanting and how it worked in detail, particularly how ancient suzerainty treaties worked, including Hittite ones and Biblical ones. One of the most valuable part of my education over thirty years ago at Gordon-Conwell Seminary was learning the nature of covenanting, or making treaties in antiquity. ![]()
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