The Old Testament is not merely a collection of ancient stories, laws, and prophecies—it is fundamentally a covenantal text. At its heart, the entire Hebrew Bible tells the story of God's covenant relationships with His people, inviting readers across millennia to understand their own place within the ongoing drama of divine promises and human response. When we read the Old Testament through the lens of covenant, suddenly what can seem like disconnected narratives, confusing laws, and repetitive prophetic warnings come into sharp focus as a unified story about God's faithful love and His call for humanity to walk with Him.

The word "religion" itself points us toward this covenantal understanding. Derived from Latin roots meaning "to bind again," religion is fundamentally about belonging and belief, about binding ourselves to God and to one another through sacred promises. This binding is precisely what covenants accomplish—they create relationships of mutual commitment, loyalty, and love. The Old Testament presents two towering covenant mountains that structure the entire biblical narrative: Mount Moriah, where the Abrahamic covenant was sealed, and Mount Sinai, where the Mosaic covenant was given.

The scriptures are structured on these covenants.

The logic of these two covenants is the foundation of everything written in scripture.

When you understand and read the scriptures through the lens of these two covenants, God’s enduring loyalty and love to us shines unmistakably as does His invitation for us to live in covenant loyalty with Him.

As a preview, the Abrahamic covenant is God’s unconditional covenant to provide His never-ending love for us. THIS COVENANT IS UNBREAKABLE BECAUSE IT IS GOD’S COVENANT.

The Mosaic covenant is an expression of the conditions for our covenant loyalty in order to fully unlock and access the Abrahamic covenant.

The Abrahamic covenant, centered on Mount Moriah, reveals what God promises to do for His people. When the Lord called Abraham, He made astonishing promises that echo throughout all of scripture: "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3). This covenant encompasses promises of property, posterity, priesthood, and prosperity—the four P's that structure God's commitment to Abraham and his descendants.

Remarkably, when God formalized this covenant in Genesis 15, He did something extraordinary. In the ancient Near East, covenant-making involved cutting animals in pieces and both parties walking between them, essentially saying, "May I become like these animals if I break this covenant." But in Abraham's covenant ceremony, only God—symbolized by the smoking furnace and burning lamp—passed between the pieces. This powerful symbolic act demonstrated that God alone would bear the responsibility for keeping this covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is therefore unconditional, based entirely on God's faithfulness, not on human performance.

This divine faithfulness is emphasized when God commands Abraham to "walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Genesis 17:1). The Hebrew word translated as "perfect" (tamim) doesn't mean moral perfection in our modern sense, but rather wholehearted loyalty and integrity—covenantal faithfulness. God is essentially saying: "I have made promises to you; now walk in loyalty with Me."

The pinnacle of the Abrahamic covenant story comes at Mount Moriah, where Abraham demonstrated his full trust in God being loyal to fulfill the promises made in Genesis 12:1-3 by being willing to offer Isaac. Abraham's profound statement, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:8), introduces the divine name Jehovah-jireh, "the Lord will provide." This name becomes a theological anchor throughout scripture, reminding us that God makes covenantal promises and then providentially fulfills them. The Abrahamic covenant teaches us that God is the covenant maker and keeper, that He shows us loyalty, and that this covenant protects our rights as His children.

The summary statement of this unconditional covenant, is “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” meaning this is the God you can always and without fail trust to keep His covenant promises.

If the Abrahamic covenant reveals what God promises to do for us, the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai reveals what we are invited to do in response. When God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 2:24). This deliverance was not arbitrary—it was the direct result of God remembering His covenant promises. Remembering covenants precipitates deliverance, a pattern that reverberates throughout the entire Old Testament.

At Sinai, God established a conditional covenant with Israel that followed the standard ancient Near Eastern treaty format:

The Ten Commandments and the broader Law of Moses weren't arbitrary rules imposed by a demanding deity, but rather covenantal instructions—a gracious gift showing Israel how to live in loyalty to the God who had already delivered them.

Note that this six part conditional covenant format is found as the structure of the entire Book of Deuteronomy, it frames King Benjamin’s speech, and prophet Abinadi’s critique of King Noan and his corrupt priests, it is the structure of Doctrine & Covenants 42, 58-59, and 136. God uses this framework whenever He makes promises of property and posterity that is on offer conditioned on our loyalty to live the instructions of the covenant. 

The Holiness Code in Leviticus makes this clear: "Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 18:4-5). The repeated phrase "I am the Lord" serves as a covenantal signature, reminding Israel of their relationship with the God who redeemed them. The law teaches them to be holy as He is holy, to show love, faithfulness, and trust, and to remain within the covenant relationship.

This is why the Old Testament so often warns against adding to or taking away from God's commandments (Deuteronomy 12:32). This wasn't about rigid legalism, but about preserving the integrity of the covenant agreement. The Mosaic covenant therefore focuses on our obligations and actions, teaching us to show loyalty to God and protecting God's rights in the relationship.

The summary statement of the covenant type echoes throughout scripture: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land."

Together, these two covenants form a complete picture of the covenant path. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the covenant-making God who has vowed to fulfill certain promises. The Mosaic covenant calls us to respond to that faithful God with our own faithfulness. This is why the covenantal formula "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" appears so frequently—it's shorthand for the trustworthy God who makes and keeps covenants.

This dual structure helps us understand seemingly contradictory themes in the Old Testament. How can grace and works coexist? How can God's unconditional promises be reconciled with conditional commandments? The answer lies in understanding the two mountains: God's grace flows from the Abrahamic covenant (what He does for us), while our works express our loyal response through the Mosaic covenant (what we do for Him). We are saved by grace—God's covenantal faithfulness—after all we can do—our covenantal faithfulness.

The Old Testament uses covenantal language throughout to communicate these themes. Words like "believe," "faith," "remember," "walk," "perfect," "righteous," "prosper," "love," "hate," "grace," and "mercy" are all covenant terms. To "believe" (Hebrew: aman, from which we get "amen") means to trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To be "righteous" means to be committed to a covenant with God, which is why God counted Abraham's belief as righteousness. To "remember" means to bring covenantal promises back to mind, while to "forget" means to be covenantally disloyal. To "walk with God" means to be on the covenant path, showing devoted loyalty to God and His covenants.

Understanding these covenantal foundations transforms how we read the Old Testament. The historical books become the story of how well Israel did to be loyal to God, or not, and the consequences of those choices. Incidentally, the Book of Mormon shows the same pattern. The prophets become God's covenant lawyers, calling Israel back to their promises. The Psalms become prayers saturated with covenant language. The wisdom literature becomes instruction in covenant living. Every book, whether centered on the Abrahamic or Mosaic covenant, contributes to this unified narrative of God's faithfulness and His invitation to walk with Him.

As we study the Old Testament, we discover that this isn't merely ancient history—it's the foundation for understanding God's covenant relationship with us today. The God who made promises to Abraham still keeps His word. The God who delivered Israel from Egypt still provides and supplies our needs for he is Jehovah-jireh. And the covenant path established on these two mountains still leads us home to Him.

—Taylor Halverson, Ph.D.
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