Trajectory

Covenants

ቃል ኪዳኖች

God binds himself to his people by promise. Trace the single thread of covenant from Eden to the New, and you have traced the spine of the whole Bible.

Eden — Genesis 1–2

A command with a consequence

Not a covenant anyone names, but the shape is already there: a word given, a boundary set, a life tied to keeping it.

Noah — Genesis 9

A bow hung in the clouds

Unconditional and universal. God promises to hold back what the world deserves — and aims the bow away from us.

Abraham — Genesis 15, 17

God walks the pieces alone

A promise to one man about all nations. When the oath is cut, only one party passes between the pieces. Both halves are his.

Moses — Exodus 19–24

Tablets with terms attached

The first covenant with conditions. A holy nation at a mountain on fire — broken before the ink dried.

David — 2 Samuel 7

A house made of descendants

David wants to build God a house; God promises to build David one instead, out of a throne that will not end.

New — Jeremiah 31, Luke 22

Written on the heart

Not a renewed tablet but a new kind of covenant. Jeremiah promises it in exile; Jesus hands it round a borrowed table.

“For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.”

Psalm 33:4