The Divine Covenants
The Sinaitic Covenant
We have come to that point in the Scriptures to the event that occurred at Mt. Sinai where God proclaimed the Ten Commandments to the nation Israel. This is an event that most every Christian is familiar with. But it has far more significance and far deeper meaning than is commonly known. It was the beginning of a new era in the history of the human race because it was a giant step in the further revelation of the Everlasting Covenant.
However, understanding the significance of this event at Sinai is very difficult, primarily because of the wide variety of opinions of biblical scholars as to its meaning. There was a bona fide covenant made there according to Exodus 19:5.
· Exodus 19:5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
Then in Exodus 24:7-8.
· Exodus 24:7-8 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."
So there can be no doubt that a covenant was made at Sinai. The debate centers around whether it was a covenant of grace, a covenant of works, or both.
In approaching a study of this covenant, several things must be kept in mind. First, it should be viewed in connection with all that has preceded it including the earlier covenants, rather than as an isolated event. Second, we need to think of it in connection with the eternal purpose of God, and the gradual unfolding of it which He gave to His people.
So what had preceded these events at Sinai? We remember that God had made it known in a previous covenant that the promised Messiah would come from the line of Abraham. So that required that the descendants of Abraham be a separate people so that the Messiah could be traced back to the original promise. Additionally, it was essential that Abraham’s descendants (Israel) be isolated from the heathen world to preserve the knowledge and worship of God until the time for the appearance of the Messiah. The Abrahamic Covenant began to unfold as the family of Jacob (seventy five in all) began to grow in Egypt. There they were to remain for 400 years and had the benefit (?) of a highly advanced civilization, and grew into a nation of several million people.
If they were to become the chosen people of God then they would need laws and precepts for regulating their corporate and individual lives, not the least of which would be their worship of God. This is what God did at Sinai. There God declared His claim on Israel and what He required of them through a “constitution “ which had their own good in mind along with glorifying His name. All of this was to be ratified in a covenant.
The problem that we face at this point is that later Scriptures seem to present real difficulties regarding the bearing of the law on those who were subject to it. On the one hand we can find passages that represent the law as coming expressly from Israel’s redeemer and aiming at a happy result.
· Deut 4:7-8, What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
But on the other hand, there are other passages which appear to point in the opposite direction. In these the law is represented as a source of trouble and even terror----a bondage.
· Rom 4:14-15, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
· 1 Cor 15:56, The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
· Ex 19:5, Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
· Gal 3:10, All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
· Gal 5:1-3, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
Notice that these views of the law are quite diverse and both could not be looking at the law from the same point of view. Now it is likely that both are accurate since they are both found in the Scriptures, but we should examine them from different points of view and we will do that later.
For now we are going to consider the place that the law has to do with what is called the Mosaic economy, or the Mosaic period.
· Ex 19:5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
This has reference to the national covenant with Israel. What is happening at Sinai is that Israel is being formed as a nation. They were being incorporated, so to speak, as a people, under the government of God. This is a very important concept to remember as we study this covenant. It was God’s plan to give the Israelites the land of Canaan and to protect them there and to make them prosperous, as long as they, as a nation, were obedient to Him.
True believers among the Israelites were to be dealt with according to the Covenant of Grace, even as Christians are today. And unbelievers were to be dealt with according to the Covenant of Works and liable to condemnation, which is also true today.
Now that probably is a strange statement to you, but think about it; an unbeliever’s only salvation is to totally keep the law, which means that his ability to keep the law depends on his works, which we know he cannot do.
The national covenant with Israel did not refer to the final salvation of individuals; nor was the covenant broken by the disobedience of a number of them, provided this disobedience was not sanctioned by public authority. You see, it was a type of the covenant made with true believers in Jesus.
· Heb 8:7-10, For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
The outward covenant was made with the Nation, and they were entitled to certain advantages, on the condition of national obedience. The Covenant of Grace was a matter of true believers personally, and there were certain spiritual blessings to them. Since all the earth belonged to the Lord, He could have chosen any people for His own instead of Israel. This selection was gratuitous, so if Israel rejected His covenant, He would reject them, and communicate their privileges to others; as in fact, He did. To the gentiles.
So you see, there was a clear line of distinction between God’s dealings with Israel as a nation, and the individuals in it. All of the Israelites were born under the condemnation of their federal head (Adam), and while they continued unregenerate and in their unbelief, were under the wrath of God. But God’s elect, upon believing, were treated as individuals in exactly the same way as they are today.
It is important to understand that in scope the Sinai Covenant was national; its design was to regulate the temporal affairs of Israel under the divine government; its limitation was determined by Israel’s obedience or disobedience.
There were two aspects to the Sinai Covenant and they need to be considered separately. There was a system of religion and government designed for the use of the Jews; and then there was a scheme of preparation for a new and better economy, by which it would be superseded when its temporal purpose was fulfilled.
The first design and the immediate end of what God revealed through Moses was to instruct and order the life of Israel, now formed into a nation. The second and ultimate intention of God was to prepare the people, by a lengthy course of discipline, for the coming of Jesus. The character of the Sinai Covenant was, in itself, neither purely evangelical nor exclusively legal. What we see here is an amazing co-mingling of righteousness and grace, justice and mercy.
This is what helps to make this covenant difficult to fully understand.
Now I want us to look at Deut 7:12-16.
· Deut 7:12-16 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land--your grain, new wine and oil--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
The covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai required outward obedience to the letter of the law. It made certain promises of national blessing if they, as a people, kept the law; and it announced national calamities if they were disobedience. The above passage makes this clear. Notice the definite reference to God’s love, which proves that He did not deal with Israel purely on the ground of a relentless law. Second, notice the reference which He made to His oath to their fathers, that is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which shows that the Sinai covenant was based upon, and not divorced from, the Abrahamic Covenant. Third, if, as a nation they were obedient, He would love and bless them in certain ways. Fourth, the specific blessings are listed. Look at the above passage and tell me what kind of blessings were promised?
All of these blessings are temporal.
Now by contrast let’s look at Deut 28:15-29.
· Deut 28:15-29 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
Now what do you see that is significant in this passage? The penalties for being disobedient are all temporal, not eternal. In both cases, the promises were outward and national rather than spiritual.
The tenor of the covenant is summed up in Ex. 19:5-6.
· Ex. 19:5-6 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
The covenant at Sinai was a definite step forward from the covenant with Abraham and at the same time was to pave the way for Christianity. Considered separately, the Sinaitic covenant was essentially the giving of a system of government designed for the immediate use of the Jews. Only if we consider these two aspects of the covenant separately can we avoid much confusion.
As we have just said above, the covenant announced certain outward and temporal blessings to Israel on the condition that as a people they would be obedient to their King, God Himself. God established a “theological government”. An example of this is Ex. 6:6-8.
· Ex. 6:6-8 "Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'"
Now, here is a good example of how we must carefully study the Word of God in order to understand the meaning being presented. Let me ask you some questions, keeping in mind what this passage specifically says: First, let’s look at Exodus chapter 6.
· Exodus 6:1-11 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country." [2] God also said to Moses, "I am the LORD. [3] I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. [4] I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. [5] Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. [6] "Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. [7] I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. [8] And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.' " [9] Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. [10] Then the LORD said to Moses, [11] "Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country."
At what point in Israel’s history is this taking place? It was obviously while they were still in slavery in Egypt. Now look at verse 8. What do you think God is referring to here? Answer, Canaan. But wait a minute. Didn’t God say later that no one over the age of 20 would enter the land that He promised to Abraham? Did God forget what He said to Abraham or was He mistaken when He said that no one over 20 would get to the Promised Land? Of course not. Then how do we reconcile the statement in verse 8? Answer: He was speaking in verse 8 of the nation Israel, not of the current slaves as individuals. This idea is most helpful in understanding the covenant made at Sinai.
Forty years later Israel did cross over into the promised land, but with very few of those who left Egypt by way of the Red Sea. So we need to keep in mind that there are legitimate answers to the apparent confusion in what God intended when He made the covenant at Sinai.
The Sinai Covenant then was a compact promising to Israel as a people certain material and national blessings on the condition of their being generally obedient to God’s laws. But some will argue that a holy God would never be satisfied with an outward and general obedience. This is true but there is a solution to this seeming difficulty. This would be true of individuals but not of nations because nations as such have only a temporary existence and therefore must be punished in the present world, or not at all.
For this reason these views of the Sinai Covenant are contrasted in Hebrews 8 from the new and better covenant. We have earlier quoted from Hebrews 8:7-10, 13.
· Hebrews 8:7-10 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
· Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
It needs to be pointed out here that in the passage we just read that God said He would put His laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. No such promise was made in the Sinai Covenant. The Mosaic covenant at Sinai was not so much an inward and spiritual obedience, as an outward and temporal obedience. What we have here is a radical difference between Judaism and Christianity. Under Judaism God dealt with one nation only; now under Christianity His grace is manifested to the elect throughout the world. Under Judaism He simply made known His requirements. Under Christianity He actually produces that which meets His requirements.
Let’s look again at Galatians 3:19.
· Galatians 3:19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.
So it is clear from this verse that the Mosaic covenant was designed to be only temporary, to last only from the time of Israel’s travels in the wilderness and Canaan until the time that Jesus would come. This temporary arrangement was necessary to preserve the pure stock from which the Messiah would come.
During the fifteen hundred years between Sinai and Bethlehem, God carried out a practical demonstration with two great divisions of the human race. The Gentiles were left to the light of nature and they walked their own way. Why do you suppose He did this? He did this in order to answer the question, “Can fallen man find God and raise himself to a higher and better life using just his own unaided reason?”
The history of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans shows us the answer to that question.
· Rom 1:21-32, For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
There are other questions, the answers to which, help us to understand the depth of the meaning of the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai. For example; Can fallen man, when placed in the most favorable circumstances, win eternal life by any doings of his own? Can he, even when he was separated from the pagans and being taken into a covenant with God, and supplied with a complete godly code for the regulation of his conduct, conquer his sin and act so as to secure his acceptance with the true God? Well, the history of Israel furnishes us with an emphatic, no. If Israel failed under this national covenant of outward and general obedience, how impossible is it for any member of the human race to give spiritual obedience.
The great bulk of the Israelites were blinded by their sense of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and they turned the Sinai covenant into a covenant of works. There are several New Testament passages that demonstrate that the Sinai covenant is subordinate to the Abrahamic covenant.
You see, many of the Israelites understood the Sinai covenant to be a covenant of works. That is, they saw the Ten Commandments just like Adam saw the one commandment. They thought their salvation was achieved by obeying the commandments. But their error was that they did not recognize the situation they were in.
We are dealing here with two covenants: the Abraham Covenant and the Sinai Covenant. Now what was the essence of the Abrahamic covenant? It was promise. There were a number of promises, but the essential promise was that of the seed, who would be a blessing to all people. So the Israelites at Sinai still had this promise. They were no longer under the slavery of the Egyptians, they had the promise of the future, but they also needed a way to govern themselves as a nation.
Therefore the Sinai covenant was an addition to the Abrahamic covenant, not a substitute for it. The Jews had come to believe that their obedience to the law was their title to the promised land of Canaan. But Paul tells us that the promise to Abraham had already done that. That God never meant for the law to interfere with the gifts and promises of the Abrahamic Covenant is clear from what He said to Israel immediately before the law was formally announced from Sinai:
· Ex 19:4-6, 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
God is here saying that they had already been blessed by Him, but there was still more that they needed to know; how they should be governed. So He prefaced the Ten Commandments with Ex 20:2.
· Ex 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
He rests His claim to their obedience on what He had already done for them. He had saved them from the plagues in Egypt, the slavery of the Egyptians, the Egyptian army, and He had cared for them as they wandered in the wilderness. So they should have been impressed and convinced of His power and promises. Further, God had dwelt among them as had not been the case with any other people.
Most people are unaware that the Ten Commandments were only part of the law that God gave at Sinai. This He did in Exodus 20, but He continued in chapters 21, 22 and 23. What we find here is the entire body of statutes that God gave for the government of Israel. This included governing their civil and religious activities.
So we have here the MORAL LAW and the CEREMONIAL LAW. They were all parts of one covenant. The Sinai covenant was the foundation of the political constitution of the nation Israel. Now this made God the King and Legislature of Israel.
It is important to note that as we study the Sinai covenant that there is no mention of any other peoples. This was a covenant with this new nation of Israel only. And I would like for you to notice that what we have seen God require of the people of this new nation is EXTERNAL. No one can become a member of the Gospel Church by virtue of an external covenant or a relative holiness. What does this mean? Well external covenant means keeping the law, or in other words, by our works. Relative holiness refers to the idea of being related to a group, such as a congregation.
The Israelites had the idea that if they obeyed the Ten Commandments and since they were “God’s chosen people that they would receive the promises that were made to Abraham. This view also presupposes an external king and an external king is a political sovereign.
Jesus has not made an external covenant with anyone or any people. He is not the king of any particular nation. He does not live in a temple made with hands. His throne is the heavenly sanctuary. The wall between Jews and Gentiles has long since been taken down so He is not related to any particular nation or people except the elect from every nation. The covenant that is now in force is entirely internal and spiritual.
· Heb 8:7-12 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Maybe you have noticed that there were no eternal rewards involved in the Sinai Covenant. That’s because the covenant was made just for Israel. Nations have no hereafter; therefore no eternal rewards were involved. Also, social relations are matters of the world and laws that regulate them deal with consequences in this world. Prosperity, peace, and material things were the rewards for national obedience; wars, famines and pestilences were the punishments of their sin. This has been the history of Israel.
So this was the nature of the constitution under which Israel was to begin its existence as a nation. But the great benefits this constitution was to provide were not the result of the Sinai Covenant. They did benefit from the covenant but their main benefit was from the covenant with Abraham. Listen to Deut 7:7-9.
· Deut 7:7-9 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh King of Egypt.
So when there were crises among the Israelites, it was to God that they turned, pleading the promises of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It was by God’s sovereign grace that the Jews were chosen as His people and their obedience was not intended to buy them any advantages that they didn’t already have as a result of the promises to Abraham. Their obedience was intended to preserve the possessions that were coming to them. This is where the moral law fit into the picture for the nation. God had already chosen, redeemed, and made them His people; and now it was their duty to live in subjection to Him.
The moral law set a standard for them as a nation, the conduct God expected of them, if they were to continue with the advantages.
· Lev 20:26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
The moral law was placed on them to teach the people that more than mechanical performance was required, something in their heart and the inward condition of the heart was necessary to get the approval of God.
The moral law (the Ten Commandments) was for most people the most distinctive feature of the Sinai Covenant. But there was much more which was of an evangelical nature. This means giving greater fullness and significance to what had already been revealed. This was done through the medium of symbols.
While the Israelites were in Egypt they were not in a situation that allowed them the means of worship. But now they were about to take their place as an independent nation, in a country of their own and the time had come for the establishment of certain institutions and ordinances which would be necessary for the regulation of their religious life. And this was made more important with the prominence of the moral law.
Now we must always keep in mind that the Abrahamic Covenant was not superseded in any way by the revelation of Moses at Sinai. Sinai was an addition to the Abrahamic covenant. The grace of the Abrahamic Covenant and the Law of Moses had an important mutual relation. They threw light on each other.
Now, how many of you have read and enjoyed the book of Leviticus? The difficult reading of Leviticus has an important bearing on the new nation of Israel. The first and most important matter was the need for public fellowship and contact with their God. A sanctuary was to be erected and the pattern of this facility was given to Moses at Sinai, including the dimensions and materials, which the people were to supply by freewill offerings. This intimated that all must be done according to God’s will but only a free and spontaneous worship from the people was acceptable.
So the tabernacle was the visible means of the people enjoying communion with God. A priesthood was appointed and this was a great contrast to the priest of other countries. Among the heathen, the priesthood was a body of men, a caste, separated from the people and antagonistic toward those over whom they had authority.
The Hebrew priesthood belonged to all the people, representing them before God. There was only one family of priests, Aaron’s family. Aaron was permitted to enter the Holy of holies only once a year and he carried the names of all the tribes of Israel on his breastplate and confessed all their sins.
An elaborate system of sacrifices was designed and these sacrifices expressed a very important concept; namely:
· Lev. 17:11-12 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.
We know that those sacrifices in themselves could not take away sins. The fact that they had to be offered over and over again was evidence of that. God was here offering grounds for hope.
At this point we can summarize by saying that the justice of the moral law (the Ten Commandments) was tempered by the mercy of the ceremonial law (the sacrifices). And the severity of the Sinai constitution was modified by the “goodness” of the Abrahamic Covenant.
· 1 Cor. 10:1-4, For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
This passage has Moses as a type of Jesus, who leads us out of bondage to sin as Moses led the chosen people out of bondage to Egypt.
At Sinai God did not give the law as a way of how the people could be justified if they were obedient to it, because we know that that would be impossible for fallen man.
So the addition of the Law of Moses did not cancel out the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. The moral law and the ceremonial law were given with evangelical needs in mind; that is, to show sinners their need of a savior, and to indicate how He would meet that need. If the moral law had been given out of God’s wrath, the object of it would have been the death of sinners. But it was to point to a Mediator whose purpose is reconciliation.
We have said that the Sinai covenant was a compact promising the Israelites as a people certain material and national blessings if they were obedient to God’s law. But something more was required to have individual communion with God. God’s glory is bound up in righteousness, and righteousness requires a heart for God.
· Ps 24:3-6, Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
Here is described the character of a true worshiper. This is figurative language that expresses spiritual access and spiritual fellowship with God. The language is plain. Regardless of however solemn the public worship may be, it produces nothing if there is not practical righteousness associated with it in the individual.. These words from the Psalm are a warning to the hypocrites.
· Isa 1:10-15, 10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-- I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah was very severe in his denunciation of the unrighteous!!!!
On the one hand there was a godly remnant among the Israelites who used the law as it was intended. But on the other hand there was a far greater number of the godless who misused the law. They shut their eyes to the spirituality of the laws requirements and were determined to become spiritual on the basis of legality. The result was an outward performance of certain rules of conduct. Obviously these did not anticipate the coming of a Savior.
We have just seen that the dominant factor in the Sinai Covenant was the Law, or the Ten Commandments. The tablets of stone on which they were written were to be kept in the Tabernacle. The most sacred vessel in the tabernacle was the ark. It was the center of all the services and was the symbol of God’s presence and faithfulness. The ark was made purposefully to house the two tablets of stone and was therefore called “the ark of the covenant”.
The center of Judaism was the tabernacle and the center of the tabernacle was the law. The law was the foundation of the tabernacle service. Now notice that there is a veiled truth involved here. The law, which was enclosed in the vessel, the ark, upon which rested the throne of God, the mercy seat, tells us that the basis for our salvation and our only hope of that salvation is the perfect keeping of the law. This reminds us of the promise made in the Abrahamic Covenant of the one who would be a blessing to all nations, the Mediator, Jesus.
Of all the articles of furniture associated with the tabernacle, the ark was superior to all the rest; the alter, the laver, the lampstand and the table of showbread. Symbolically, we learn that the moral law was superior to the ceremonial, which was represented by all of the other pieces of furniture. The law, in the ark, was inside the Holy of holies and the other pieces were outside, therefore secondary and subordinate.
The Sinai Covenant needs to be studied from three different viewpoints:
1) the relation which it had to the previous revelations by God made through covenants, being a significant advance in the unfolding of His everlasting covenant.
2) considered with regard to the peculiar relation in which it stood to the Jewish nation, furnishing as it did a unique constitution and a complete code for their guidance.
3) in its relation to the future, being designed to pave the way for the advent of Jesus and the dawn of Christianity.
We have already discussed the covenant from the viewpoint of the first two of these concerns.
God’s first and immediate purpose in connection with the Sinai Covenant was to furnish a “letter” fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham: to give him a numerous seed, to establish them in the land of Canaan, to preserve the pure stock from which the Messiah was to come, to continue them there in Canaan until Jesus actually appeared in the flesh. Therefore, the Mosaic covenant would have served its purpose when Jesus arrived.
The second, God’s ultimate plan under the Mosaic covenant, was to furnish a clear and full demonstration of total impossibility of fallen man, even under the most favorable circumstances, to meet His requirements; thereby demonstrating the need for an all-sufficient Savior.
It might appear from the history of the Israelites that the Sinai Covenant failed to achieve its purpose. Israel as a nation was not obedient to the moral law and their reaction to the ceremonial law was perverted and dishonoring to God. We are told in the New Testament that instead of leading the people to Jesus, “He came to His own and His own received Him not.” But there is no failure with God. The experience of Israel proved their need for a Savior and that the bringing in perfect obedience to the law was reserved for Jesus. How did the Sinai Covenant accomplish this?
The outstanding character of Judaism was that it was concerned with outward and objective obedience, rather than inward and subjective. The Ten Commandments were written not on the hearts of Israel but on tables of stone. The same was true of the Levitical regulations. It was all external discipline. We would say that theirs was a “worldly religion.”
The issue here was not love but fear; fear of the wrath of an offended God.
In the case of the ceremonial law there was a provision for forgiveness through sacrifices of irrational animals, who were unconscious of sin. The same must be said for the idea of worship at the tabernacle because the people were not allowed to fully enter into the presence of God in the Holy of holies. So this arrangement was only provisional and incomplete. They were able to only enter the outer court of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was an inadequate and not an appropriate representation of the dwelling place of God who owns heaven and earth.
The law was addressed to the conscience and men could not fail to see its spiritual context, once the person studied its purpose. Upon such study outward acts were far from being the only things that the law demanded because it reached into the thoughts and intents of the heart. It would create a sense of guilt.
The Law then, became an accuser, testifying against the guilty one who had broken the vows of obedience. So it kept alive in the conscience a sense of guilt, served to awaken the hearts of those who really understood its spiritual meaning of utter helplessness and a deep sense of need.
Therefore, the Law, by presenting a standard of perfect righteousness and by convicting men of their utter inability to meet God’s demands, prepared their minds for the coming Redeemer. Because the Law awakened a sense of guilt and alienation from God which the ceremonial law could not perfectly remove, because wants and desires were aroused which could not then be satisfied, the Mosaic economy was well suited to raise expectations in the worshiper of some “better things to come”, causing him to gladly receive the hint of this part of prophecy announced.
So to state it briefly, the spiritual design of the Law was to quicken the conscience, to produce a sense of guilt and a hope for the promised Savior. This would occur only in the elect!!!
Now we should understand that not until the soul is conscious that it is under the sentence of death will it understand the life that is promised in Jesus!!
When an Israelite was quickened by the spirit, he at once saw the law’s true character, became deeply aware of his guilt, and longed for something more, something higher.
The opening pages of the New Testament tell us the same thing. The way of the Savior was prepared by one who proclaimed the law’s righteousness; the ministry of John the Baptist must ever precede that of Jesus. Jesus used the law as He devoted a large portion of His Sermon on the Mount to a clear exposition of the law’s righteousness.
So that which we have seen so far in the Mosaic economy has been designed to pave the way for the introduction of Christianity. The atonement was yet future; the Holy Spirit did not operate then as He does today under the Gospel; and the idea of the “elect” was still mostly obscured. So the Jews walked in comparative darkness.
During this Mosaic period gross failure characterized the history of Israel as a nation. This was foreshadowed by the behavior of Aaron while Moses was on the mountain as he participated in the worst kind of idol worship; the making of the golden calf. They regarded the Law as oppressive. It seems significant that the behavior of the Israelites at that time was appropriately demonstrated when Moses came down from the mountain the first time with the tablets of the Law, and seeing the behavior of the people, he threw the stones to the ground, “breaking all ten of the commandments”
You remember that we have said earlier that God’s covenant with the Israelites at Sinai required governmental obedience as well as personal obedience to His instructions, and that the national blessings promised were contingent on those in authority being obedient. In other words, the governmental authorities were not to tolerate the kind of behavior that was demonstrated by many of the Israelites. This causes us to wonder how God reacts to the tolerance of sin within the church today, when the church authorities not only don’t discipline the offenders, but promotes the sinful behavior, such as we have seen in the Episcopal Church in promoting a homosexual to the priesthood.
Sentiment and fear of man’s displeasure have been common throughout the church.
· Ps 1:1-6, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. [2] But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. [3] He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. [4] Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. [5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [6] For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Had Israel been faithful to the covenant as required in Ps 1:1-6 then Canaan would have been a land flowing with milk and honey.
But the Law was despised, discipline was neglected and self-will was rampant; and as a result, famines, wars and diseases became common. So God withdrew His blessing.
Was God fooled by their behavior? Not according to Deuteronomy 28 and 29 where He predicted that the people would fail.
But how did the types that we can detect in the Mosaic period prepare the way for the dawn of Christianity? I’m glad you asked. Let me list the ways and then we will come back and take a look at each one.
· The special and peculiar relationship which Israel had with God.
· The typical significance of God’s giving the Commandments to Israel
· The circumstances of God’s placing Israel under the Law typified the fact that it was not given to unredeemed sinners in order for them to get God’s favor.
· To define the corporate character of Israel.
· Representation of the truth of sanctification.
· The teaching of the tabernacle and the ceremonial institutions.
· The significance of the promised land.
Now remember that the Old Testament types were designed to teach us by way of contrast as well as comparison. So first, let’s notice the special and peculiar relation which Israel had with God.
They were His chosen people, and He was their God in a way that He was the God of no other people! We have here a foreshadowing, a type, of God’s dealing with His people today; each of them receives mercy on a covenant basis---the Everlasting Covenant made with Jesus---and on the ground of it they are delivered from the power of Satan and become part of the kingdom of Christ.
Second, the revelation of law at Sinai did not come about independent of what had preceded it, as if it was laying the foundation for something altogether new. The law did not come from God just because He was the Creator, exercising His prerogative to do so; the law was required to be fulfilled. It was as the Redeemer of Israel that God announced the Ten Commandments. And since the Law had to be fulfilled, this was a hint of the Savior who was to come. The Law then was not given to Israel as a deliverer from evil, nor as the bestower of life. It was not designed to rescue them from bondage, nor to grant them favor and blessing from God. All of that was already theirs.
· Gal 3:16-22, The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
The net of the above is that grace took precedence over law. The idea here is not that they might by observing the law work themselves into a great relationship with God, but that, as already standing in such a relation, they might walk worthy of it, and become filled with the fruits of righteousness.
This shows us the relation that the law has to the people of God in all periods of world history. In all periods God has first revealed Himself to His people as the giver of life and blessing and then as the requirer of obedience to His commands. Their obedience does not entitle them to justification. All the blessings of Israel were solely of grace, received through faith. And faith is the acceptance of God’s gifts and the trusting in the promises He has made. The order of life’s experience by each saint is first receiving God’s mercy followed by an obligation to obey His commandments. Surely it is obvious to all of us that fallen man cannot earn anything at God’s hands, or even perform good works that are acceptable to God without the sovereign grace of God.
Next, if the circumstances of God’s placing Israel under the law is a type of the fact that it was not given to unredeemed sinners in order for them to get God’s favor, then on the other hand, it is equally clear that the redeemed are placed under the law for a reason. Otherwise, the most important past act of God’s mercy would have no effect on us today. The Christian needs the law to help control the spirit of self-righteousness. It is important to understand that our daily measuring ourselves against the high standard of the law produces humility, or should. As we realize how far short of obedience to this standard we are, we come to a greater appreciation of what Jesus did for us as individuals.
The law acts as a restraint on our behavior and tends to hold us back from breaking the law. As a rule of life, the law is always before us and is an assist to us in the matter of sanctification.Let’s look back at Ex 19:5-6.
· Ex 19:5-6 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
God said this at Sinai. Notice that there was a contingency: Israel’s entering into these blessings was dependent on them being obedient.
But the terms of the “new covenant” under which Christians live, are quite different. Here there is no contingency, but certainty because the condition was perfectly fulfilled by Jesus. God has now said:
· Jer 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
· Ezek 36:27, And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
At this point a question might arise, “How would I know which of these passages, and promises, I most nearly fit into?” The answer is that if the heart is unresponsive to God’s voice and disregards His commandments as well as being unrepentant, then we have no reason to believe that we are among those to whom the promises are made.
Let’s look now at the question of the “corporate character of Israel”.
Under previous covenants God had dealt only with particular persons and everything associated with them was uniquely individualistic. But at Sinai God established a formal bond between Himself and the favored nation. For the first time we see the people of God placed in an organized condition. Israel in their national capacity was a people set apart from all others and to the degree that they fulfilled their separation, this foreshadowed the church which Jesus would establish. Some may argue that as a type, the believing individuals within Israel were fallen and imperfect. Yes, that is true. Likewise churches, even the best of them, are imperfect shadows of the true kingdom of God.
But there will be a perfect church. That will be revealed at the second coming of Jesus. However, in the New Testament we find the clearest and fullest unfolding of the people of God in their corporate character. Here the body of Christ is revealed as the object of His love and the reward of His sacrificial work.
The truth of sanctification is the next type that we will look at. The divine blessings of justification and sanctification always go together because we are told that those whom God justifies, He also sanctifies. But we need to look at them separately.
In Romans chapters 4 and 5 we see Paul dealing with the concept of justification. This is the passage where we see Abraham justified by faith. He expands on this theme in the rest of chapters 4 and 5. In chapters 6, 7 and 8 he deals with the various aspects of sanctification.
This same order is seen in the covenants. Gen 15:6, Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Here God justified Abraham. So God began the Abrahamic Covenant by justifying His servant Abraham and clearly this is a type of the process and order that God uses in dealing with all His elect.
Then in the Sinai Covenant we see the idea of sanctification presented when God gives the Ten Commandments as a standard of obedience and personal spiritual growth. Of course, we understand the concept of sanctification as the process of growing spiritually as we grow older.
It must be agreed that one is not in a position to serve God until he has been delivered from the slavery of Satan. So the deliverance of Israel from the slavery of Egypt laid the necessary foundation for them to become God’s chosen people as a nation. This deliverance provided Israel with the obligation to follow and be obedient to their deliverer. This provides us with a further type that the God who has delivered the elect from the bondage to Satan can expect those delivered to respond by being obedient to His commands.
So, that which happened at Sinai, typified the sanctification of the church. The first words God addressed to Israel after they reached Sinai were,
· Ex 19:4-5, 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
In giving Israel the Law, God provided Israel with the rule, or standard, of conduct to which they were to adhere.
Next, the teaching of the tabernacle and the ceremonial laws were designed to prepare the way for Christianity. The significance of the tabernacle and its worship can only be properly understood when we recognize the place it has in connection with the ceremonial law. And the ceremonial law needs to be understood as subordinate to the moral law. It is true that the tabernacle in its dimensions, material and furnishings were to be understood as typical of Jesus. The more fully the ceremonial law was designed to accomplish the prime purpose of enforcing the requirements of the Ten Commandments, the more they achieved their ultimate purpose: that is causing the people to be convicted of their sin and preparing their hearts for Jesus. You see the Holy Spirit had not been available to all people at that time so this process was designed to cause them to become more aware of their need to be convicted of their sin.
Some of you recall that we have studied the tabernacle before and it is sometimes referred to as “the tabernacle of the testimony”. The tabernacle, which included the tablets of the Law, taught a couple of things. First, the holiness of God and the high standard of purity the people were required to meet. Second, they became aware of their own sinfulness, continually falling short of the standard. So they became aware of a continual struggle between God’s holiness and the sinfulness of the creatures. The outcome of this realization was that the more often they thought of their sinfulness, the more often they were required to resort to blood sacrifice at the tabernacle.
Now think of how strikingly all of this has its counterpart in the experience of the Christian. The more enlightened he is by the Holy Spirit, the more is he aware of his depravity; then the more he is made aware of the blood of Jesus which cleans him of all his sin.
The tabernacle was also called the “tent of meeting”. It was the place where God would meet His people and where they were able to come near to Him, but only so close. They would meet God only through their priest. But there is a typical picture here of the fact that Christians can approach God directly and personally by virtue of their High Priest, Jesus the Christ. And it is only through Jesus that we have access to God the Father. It is for this reason that we pray to God directly, but “in the name of Jesus”. It is because of the sacrifice of Jesus and our acceptance of that sacrifice that we can go directly and personally to the Father.
The final lesson we learn from the Sinai covenant as preparing the way for Jesus is the significance of the Promised Land. Canaan was a type of heaven. To the Israelites it was their final home-land. Canaan was the inheritance of the nation Israel. It was there that God had His home in the tabernacle and the temple. It was the place of life and blessing (the land of milk and honey). The mental impression one gets of the “land flowing with milk and honey” is one of the ideal life. While there is no ideal life on earth, the type here of heaven is an image of the perfection of our existence in heaven.
Augustine really summed up the meaning of the Sinai Covenant when he said, “The Law was given that grace might be sought; grace was given that the Law might be fulfilled.”
We began this study of the Sinai Covenant by asking a number of questions, the answers to which we will now summarize.
What was the precise nature of the covenant which God entered into with Israel?
· It was a constitution which pertained to them as a nation, and was for the regulation of their religious, political, and social life.
Did it concern only their temporal welfare as a nation?
· No. The substance of the covenant was according to the unchanging principles on which God’s throne is founded: none but those who are partakers of God’s holiness and are conformed to His righteousness can commune with Him and dwell with Him forever.
Was a radical change now made in God’s revelations to men and what He demanded of them?
· No. For it had as its foundation the Everlasting Covenant of grace, while in substance it was a renewal of the Adamic Covenant of works. Further, the Sinai Covenant must not be considered as an isolated event, but as an addition to the Abrahamic Covenant.
In saying that the Sinai Covenant was founded on the Everlasting Covenant of grace, we mean that it was owing to the eternal covenant among the Trinity, that the Lord dealt with Israel in pure grace in delivering them from Egypt and brought them to Himself. In saying that in substance it was a renewal of the Adamic covenant of works, we mean that Israel was placed under the same Law as Adam was, and that as Adam’s continued enjoyment of Eden was contingent on his obedience, so was the nation Israel.
Was an entirely different way of salvation now being introduced?
· Certainly not. Salvation has always been by grace through faith, never on the grounds of works, but always producing good works.
· The regenerated in Israel looked beyond the sign to that which was signified and saw in the shadow a figure of the substance, and obtained through Jesus acceptance with God.
Every aspect of the truth of justification is found in the Psalms just as it is set forth in the New Testament.
First, the same confession of sin and depravity.
· Ps 14:1, The fool says in his heart, There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
Second, the same acknowledgment of guilt.
· Ps 40:12, For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.
Third, the same fear of God’s righteousness.
· Ps 6:1, O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
Fourth, the same sense of inevitable condemnation on the ground of God’s Law.
· Ps 143:2, Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.
Fifth, the same cry for undeserved mercy.
· Ps 51:1-2, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. [2] Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Sixth, the same faith in God’s revealed character as a just God and Savior.
· Ps 25:8, 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
Seventh, the same hope of mercy through redemption.
· Ps 130:7, 7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
Eighth, the same pleading of God’s name.
· Ps 25:11, 11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Ninth, the same trust in another’s righteousness than his own.
· Ps 71:16, 16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.
Tenth, the same love for the Son.
· Ps 2:12, 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Eleventh, the same joy and peace in believing.
· Ps 89:16, 16 They rejoice in your name all day long;they exult in your righteousness.
Twelfth, the same assurance of God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promises.
· Ps 89:1-2, I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. [2] I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
How is the Sinai Covenant related to the others particularly the Everlasting Covenant and the Adamic Covenant of works?
Galatians 3 clears up the question of how the Sinai covenant related to the Abrahamic Covenant. It did not make obsolete the Abrahamic Covenant, but was an addition to it. The unregenerate of Israel, as fallen descendants of Adam, were born under the covenant of works (Adamic) and therefore were under the curse as Adam’s descendants. They therefore were under the Law and were hopelessly bound by the Law. But the spiritual remnant, though under the Law as a rule of life, participated in the mercy contained in the Abrahamic promises, for in all ages God has been administering the Everlasting Covenant of grace when dealing with the elect.
This twofold application of the Law, as it related to the mass of the unregenerate and the remnant of the regenerate, was significantly intimated in the double giving of the Law (the tablets of the commandments). The first time Moses received the tables of stone from God, they were broken by him on the mount---symbolizing the fact that Israel was under the condemnation of a broken law. But the second time Moses received the tables, they were deposited in the ark of the covenant and covered with the mercy seat, which was sprinkled with blood---hinting at the truth that saints are sheltered (in Jesus) from the usual penalty of sin. The Law at Sinai was a covenant of works to all the carnal descendants of Abraham, but a rule of life to the spiritual. So like the pillar of cloud, the Law had both a bright side and a dark side.
So why did God give the Law if He knew that no one could fully abide by it? Well surely God intended to impress upon the Israelites the sense of holiness and justice of the One they were dealing with, and with the spirituality and breadth of the obedience they owed to Him. All of this for the purpose of convicting them of their sins and of the utter impossibility of overcoming those sins and becoming righteous on their own. The double effect of the Mosaic Law on the carnal Israelites, and then on the spiritual seed, was strangely hinted at in the Abrahamic Covenant; he was the human father of the one and the spiritual father of the other.
You will remember that the promise was made to Abraham that he would have a son. At first, he could not have a son by his wife Sarah, so Sarah suggested that he should have a child with Hagar, her maid. Regarding family, Hagar was subordinate to Sarah. Now this prefigures the carnal Jews perversion of the Sinai covenant, putting their trust in the subordinate precept instead of the original promise. Now Israel did seek righteousness , but they did not obtain it because they sought it not by faith, but by works of the Law.
In the Sinai covenant God did not attempt to write the Law on the hearts of the Israelites, as He does in the new covenant. Under the constitution here instituted, Israel’s continued occupation of Canaan and the enjoyment of their other privileges depended on their obedience to their King.
Well, was the Sinai covenant a simple or mixed one: did it have only a “letter” significance pertaining to earthly things, or a “spirit” as well, pertaining to heavenly things?
The answer is the “letter” only when viewed strictly in connection with Israel as a nation; but “spirit” also when considered typically of God’s people in general.
Finally, what specific contribution did it make to the unfolding of God’s plan and purpose? In addition to all that has been said so far, the following points are suggested typically in the Sinai Covenant:
· By making the Sinai covenant with the nation Israel, the Church of Christ is prefigured in its corporate character.
· By communicating through Moses in all His dealings with Israel, God signified that we receive all His blessings through the mediator of the new covenant.
· By first redeeming Israel from Egypt and then placing them under the Law, God intimated that His grace reigns “through righteousness”.
· By taking on Himself the office of King, God showed that He requires obedience from His people.
· By setting up the tabernacle in Israel’s midst, God revealed that place of nearness to Himself that He has brought His elect.
· By various institutions of the ceremonial law, we learn that “without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
· By bringing Israel into Canaan, God supplied an image of our heavenly inheritance.