Isaiah 49:8-13: The Covenant Is A Person

This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.

They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar—some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. - Isaiah 49:8-13

Normally, a covenant is an agreement-a sacred agreement between two parties. There is the old covenant, established between God and the nation of Israel through Moses. It establishes the agreed-upon roles and obligations of both parties, spoken or written by word. But these verses from Isaiah are different. The covenant that it talks about, the new covenant between God and people, is a person. 

The covenant has a purpose: restore and free and enlighten and nourish. The covenant-this person-will "guide them and lead them" Covenants usually describe how each side can meet the terms and become pleasing to the other party so that they will fulfill their part. But this covenant is unique, because it is not a system of rules or conditions that you meet. There is no way to "fulfill" the covenant. It is a relationship with Jesus and when you are "in him" you become acceptable to every requirement of the other party: God the Father.

Rather than spoken or written words, the covenant is the Word, Jesus Christ. Paul said: For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)