Do God and men have covenant?

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Yes, we do. There are at least four that I am aware of. The Christian covenant, the Jewish one, the Islamic one, and the one that I have. Each are documented in their respective scriptures, save mine of course, though the Jewish one is spread out across lots of different works. You are free to choose which one you want to live under, or to make your own.

The concept of covenant comes from Abrahamic scripture and theology. It is a direct mapping of the human activity of deal-making applied to the divine relationship, which I have written about here: Vincent Guidry's answer to Regarding sin and salvation, assuming that we are all sinners, if I am to be made sinless then my sin must somehow be taken away from the creation of my soul continuing forever, yet how can that happen without altering the past?

The most interesting book of the Bible for me is the Book of Job, the third and final book of wisdom in the Torah. Wisdom is the knowledge of how to curry divine favor. The wisdom books start simple and get deeper as you keep reading them. Proverbs is straightforward, do these things to earn favor from the Lord. Ecclesiastes concerns itself with meaning, with a very Buddhist message that nothing stays still under the Sun, so live for the moment.

Job is a different beast entirely, it concerns itself with ignorance. The overall message of Job therefore is faith. When bad things happen to you, keep trusting in God, and it’ll work itself out eventually. Moreover, God will grant you rewards in return.

To summarize the book of Job, God makes a deal with Satan that Job couldn’t be tempted to turn away from the Lord. God takes everything away from Job, his family, his wealth. Job knows he’s done nothing wrong, but his friends aren’t so sure. Job never loses faith in the Lord, but demands an explanation. God then tells Job, don’t you dare question me, I am the Lord. Afterwards, He gives Job twice of everything He took away from him.

The parts of Job that I see that are most interesting in reference to the covenant is just how certain Job’s friends are that Job had some kind of evil in his heart, that Job is the source of his troubles, not the Lord. And how certain Job was that he wasn’t. This speaks very deeply to how the Hebrews lived back then.

Their covenant with the Lord wasn’t just some pretty words they threw around, it was something they lived and breathed. When things happened, they had a system for determining the source. Their beliefs were thus transformed into reality.

This is faith, real faith. A belief so strong you can’t possibly question it. The belief morphs reality into an ongoing story in which you are the protagonist of your own story.

The book of Job is a deep examination of what happens when that covenant fails, when God fails to uphold His end of the bargain. God did not see fit to explain to Job why God put him through the wringer. But because He’s God, He returned what He took from Job twofold. The covenant worked in the end.

You start forging a covenant with God when you start looking for divine meaning in everything. Did you not get a close parking spot you wanted? God wanted you to walk. At first it feels silly, but it feels less and less silly the longer you do it. Why? Because amazing things start happening.