The Divine Covenants

The Sinaitic Covenant (Part 1)

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."