How does God care for us? How are we called to care for one another? One way to explore these questions is to revisit the four major covenants – the sacred, solemn vows – God establishes in the Hebrew Bible: those made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Each of them reveals something to us of God’s nature and marks an evolution of God’s relationship with humanity.  

We tend to treat God’s promises as guarantees for a prosperous future, but studied within their contexts, we find these covenants are wrapped in stories of struggle, sin, and suffering – they reveal just how much work goes into establishing and maintaining relationships that last.  

The good news is that no matter how drastically we forsake God and one another, God does not give up on us. And where the figures in these stories repeatedly fail to honor God’s standards, thereby continuing cycles of harm, we can learn from them and devote ourselves to more faithfully care for one another and the world around us.