Uh, God's a Self-Initiated Oath

A covenant is a self-maladictory oath with attendant blessings and curses. Covenants are not something we necessarily do, but think about living in the wilderness when there were roving bands of who knows what. And you depend on your neighbors for to look out for you if they see some band of bad guys or whatever. The idea that God really depended upon his people was like he said: "Look, my family may come and strike me down"