Covenants and the Number Eight

I learned from a lesson recently that the number eight in the gospel is symbolic of covenants. For example, in the covenant God made with Abraham He gave this instruction: “And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations” (Genesis 17:12). He further explained this to Abraham, “And I will establish a covenant of circumcision with thee, and it shall be my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations; that thou mayest know forever that children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old” (JST Genesis 17:11). So circumcision took place at the age of eight days, and baptism, the first covenant we make in this life with God, is first available when eight years of age: “And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of the hands” (Doctrine and Covenants 68:27). The number eight here is clearly an important indicator of the covenants we make with God.

               There are a few other indications in the scriptures the number eight is symbolic of covenants. One that someone pointed out in a lesson is this description when the Lord made His covenant with Abraham, “And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not…. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram” (Genesis 15:8-10,17-18). Reading carefully there were eight pieces of carcass that were laid out as a sign of the covenant (two each from the heifer, goat, and ram which were divided, and one each from the two birds). In another scriptural passage about John the Baptist we read, “For he was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:28). He who came to usher in the new covenant through Christ was ordained to his calling at the age of eight days old.

Lastly, when the Lord sent the flood, there were exactly eight who survived: “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:20). To these eight God covenanted that He would never again send a flood to destroy the earth: “And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:12-13). The rainbow—which, we might even say has eight colors if you count its seven colors plus the sky it is backdropped against—is still today a powerful sign of God’s covenants with us and should remind us of this supernal promise from the Lord: “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Isaiah 54:10).