O come, O come, Emmanuel.

Listen to the best of the church's music for the Advent season at Lutheran Public Radio.org

At points in lonely ends I'll hear until the sun of God

Sacred music for the Advent season, Lutheran public radio.org

Goethoys. We speak of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, sometimes even refer to the Bible as the Old Testament and the New Testament.

They're words that could be swapped around for one another.

What is this notion of a covenant?

Jesus talks about a new covenant in his blood?

Well, what's the old covenant?

Or are there more than one?

How do we understand the Bible in terms of the covenants

that God has made with his people.

Welcome back to Issues, Et cetera. I'm Todd Wilkin.

Joining us to begin a series on biblical covenants, Dr. Reed Lessing.

He's the Edwin F. and Esther Lash Chair of Old Testament Studies at Concordia University,

St. Paul, Minnesota, author of Six Concordia Commentaries, and co-author with Dr. Andrew

Steinman of a forthcoming book, Wrestling with God, Understanding Difficult Old Testament Passages.

Dr. Lessing, welcome back.

Good to be with you, Todd.

How are we going to define this word covenant?

Well, yeah, it's a wonderful question to kind of lead off this series. I think a number of

people, myself included, when I hear the word covenant, I might think of the word contract or

...