Exodus - Week 4: Covenant
BY BRITTANY SCHICK
COVENANT
One of the hardest things about modern life is that almost everything feels temporary. Jobs change, relationships fracture, promises get broken, loyalty feels negotiable and commitment feels conditional. Even words themselves seem to carry less weight than they once did.
We live in a world full of agreements with escape clauses. Which is why the idea of covenant feels so startling when you really stop and think about it. This past Sunday in Week 4 of our Exodus series, we explored covenant — not as a religious buzzword, but as something deeply personal, binding, and costly.
A covenant is more than a contract. Contracts are often transactional: “you do your part, I’ll do mine.” Covenants are relational. They are rooted in faithfulness, commitment, and promise. Throughout Scripture, we see God continually making covenants with His people.
With Noah, God promised never again to destroy the earth with a flood, placing the rainbow in the sky as a reminder of His faithfulness. With Abraham, God made a covenant that would shape generations — a promise that his descendants would grow into a great nation, even through seasons of slavery, suffering, and uncertainty.
With David, God promised that his kingdom would endure forever.
Through Moses, God established a covenant law that set Israel apart as His people.
What stands out in all of these covenants is not humanity’s perfection, it’s God’s consistency. The story of Scripture is not a story of people flawlessly keeping promises. It is the story of a faithful God continually pursuing flawed people.
That matters. Especially because all of us know what broken promises feel like. Some people walked into church this morning carrying the weight of betrayal. Some know what it feels like to trust someone who disappeared when life became inconvenient. Others have experienced relationships where words were cheap and commitment was fragile. If we are honest, we have all broken promises ourselves too.
That is what makes the New Covenant in Christ so powerful.
Hebrews 9:15 says:
“That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people…”
Jesus did not come merely to improve our behavior or make us slightly more religious. He came to establish a new covenant between God and humanity — one sealed not with temporary sacrifices, but with His own blood.
That is why communion matters so deeply.
When Jesus broke the bread and lifted the cup in 1 Corinthians 11, He was not offering a symbolic religious routine detached from history. He was declaring that the rescue plan God had been unfolding since Genesis was now being fulfilled through Him.
“This cup is the new covenant between God and his people…”
Not a temporary agreement.
Not a conditional arrangement.
A covenant.
Covenants always cost something. The cross reminds us: that grace is free for us, but it was never cheap.
There is also something deeply challenging about covenant in a culture that often treats commitment casually. We are surrounded by disposable thinking — disposable relationships, disposable communities, disposable faith when things get uncomfortable.
But covenant calls us into something deeper.
It calls us to faithfulness when it would be easier to walk away. It calls us to obedience when culture celebrates self-rule. It calls us to remember that following Jesus was never meant to be shallow or convenient.
Exodus continually reminds us that God is not just rescuing people from slavery — He is rescuing them into relationship. That is still true today. God does not simply save us from sin. He invites us into covenant life with Him — a life marked by trust, surrender, remembrance, and faithfulness.
Maybe this week the challenge is simple:
Do we treat our relationship with God like a convenience or like a covenant?
Because one changes how we live on Sundays. The other changes how we live Monday-Saturday.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for being faithful even when we are not. Thank You for pursuing humanity throughout history through covenant after covenant, ultimately fulfilled through Jesus. Teach us to trust You more deeply and to live with faithfulness in a world that often treats commitment lightly. Help us remember the cost of grace and the beauty of belonging to You. Amen.