When God has chosen people to belong to Him, He has usually made a special agreement with them. This agreement ties or binds those people to God. Since the agreement is so strong it is called a covenant. Covenants are like contracts. They help people to know where they stand with each other. For example, when a man and woman marry they enter a marriage covenant. They know they belong to each other. They should feel sure about their relationship. They know what each should give and receive. They go forward in life with more certainty about the right direction.
One of the most famous covenants God made was with Abraham and his family (Genesis 17). The Israelites were Abraham’s children through his son, Isaac. When the Israelites had grown large enough to become a nation, God sent Moses to them. When God brought them out of Egypt, He made His special covenant with all Israelites (1 Kings 8:9,21). The Ten Commandments were an important part of this covenant.
And the Lord said to Moses, ”Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”… And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:27-28).
Many people have misunderstood this covenant. They have thought that it was meant for all people. But God Himself spoke of it as the special agreement between Him and the Israelites (Exodus 34:27; Leviticus 20:23-26; 26:46; Malachi 4:4).
Many have thought that it would go on after Christ. Yet even the Old Testament pointed ahead to a great change. The Old Covenant would be replaced by a New Covenant.
”Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant [agreement] with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt… (Jeremiah 31:31-32).
Notice that the New Covenant would be quite different. It would “not be like” the covenant that God had made with them when they came from Egypt. Scripture is very clear on this point. The New Covenant would not be the old one continued or repeated. The two covenants would be different in important ways.