“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.”
(Genesis 17:7)
The Bible tells us that God has established an everlasting covenant with His people. A covenant is an agreement, a promise, between two parties. God’s promise is that He will always guide and protect His people. Our part of the covenant is to trust and obey God. Throughout the Bible, God always kept His promise, although sometimes His people would turn away.
“For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.” (Ezekiel 16:59-60)
Even when the people broke their part of the covenant, God would re-establish it, always with the promise that it would be an everlasting covenant.
In the Old Testament there were physical signs of the covenant. From the time of Noah it was the rainbow. The people who followed Moses were instructed to build an Ark of the Covenant to hold the Law. Jesus reaffirmed the covenant, and gave us a new sign – the cup of wine during the last supper, which symbolized His blood:
“Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:20)
Faithful to the instructions of Christ, the disciples and early believers brought to mind God’s eternal covenant each time they commemorated the Last Supper. To this day, Christians around the world reaffirm their faith in Jesus, in His sacrifice, and in His renewal of God’s eternal covenant through the sacrament of communion.
“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)
Now that He has come, Bahá’u’lláh, the Glory of God, has renewed the covenant. This new covenant is for all of God’s people, who are now all of the people of the world.
“The Lord, the All-Glorified … hath, beneath the shade of the Tree of Anísá (Tree of Life), made a new Covenant and established a great Testament.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, quoted by Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 238-239)
This renewed covenant was written down, and it has a unique unifying principle, a special bounty, never previously imagined:
“As to the most great characteristic of the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh—a specific teaching not given by any of the Prophets of the past—it is the ordination and appointment of the Center of the Covenant. By this appointment and provision He has safeguarded and protected the religion of God against differences and schisms, making it impossible for any one to create a new sect or faction of belief. To insure unity and agreement He has entered into a Covenant with all the people of the world including the Interpreter and Explainer of His teachings so that no one may interpret or explain the religion of God according to his own view or opinion and thus create a sect founded upon his individual understanding of the divine words. The Book of the Covenant or Testament of Bahá’u’lláh is the means of preventing such a possibility, for whosoever shall speak from the authority of himself alone shall be degraded. Be ye informed and cognizant of this.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith, p. 248)