13.0 The Old Covenant of Works
March 2008
Topics:
Human Promises without Faith
The Old Covenant Ratified
The Old Covenant Broken
Old covenant Thinking
Teaching the People
References
God Meets with the People
Exactly what is the Old Covenant? The answer to this question is critical to understanding much of what is said regarding the covenant in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Especially is it important where the old and the new are compared in Hebrews.
The people thrilled to hear the promises of God. They determined to do their part to keep the law. They failed to understand God’s intent to make these promises real in their lives by faith. Instead of humbly submitting to God’s will, they confidently promised, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). In their enthusiasm they did not understand the holiness of God and their own weakness. They forgot that they were the same weak, faulty, slaves that used to make bricks for Pharaoh.
The people’s promise: what is wrong with that? Is it wrong to keep the commandments? Is it wrong to make a commitment to serve God? No! No! That is not the point. There is nothing wrong with the intent to obey. Every Christian must make this decision to obey, but it must be in submission to God in faith. God asked Israel to “obey my voice” and “keep my covenant” as a means of becoming His peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
What did Abraham do when he received the covenant?
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
“And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying” (Genesis 17:3).
Abraham accepted the covenant, he worshiped, when given a command he obeyed promptly, and he asked questions about the promises. But he never made his own promises. He accepted the promises of God. See “The Context of the Covenants.”
What was required for Israel, too, was the response of faith. Through the same faith that Abraham showed, God intended to bring Israel into a faith relationship with Him. He would fulfill the commands of Exodus 19 and 20 through the power by which He delivered them from Egypt.
The covenant with Abraham was called the everlasting covenant, lasting from eternity past to eternity future. The covenant established the unchanging purpose and promise of God to restore man and His creation to its original perfection. It was a covenant based on the action of God Himself and cannot be broken or abrogated (1). People can reject the covenant. They can remove themselves from it. But no one can break the covenant of God (Gal 3:15). The everlasting covenant, like His mercy, “endureth forever” (Psalm 136).
Human promises can only be temporary and cannot be part of the everlasting covenant. In these promises, man presumed to offer his own covenant to God. They expected that by keeping the law they could gain the approval of a God who sought only to find fault with them. However, human promises can add nothing to the work of God (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11).
Did these human promises make up the “old covenant?” Or were they an integral part of the everlasting covenant that God gave in Exodus 19:4-6? Were these promises given in unrealistic self confidence and presumption? Or were they an expression of submission to God’s will and faith in Him? Let’s see what happens next:
It was God’s intent to bring Israel close, to worship Him in awe and yet to see that He is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Ex 34:6). Moses spoke often to the Lord on the mount. Joshua accompanied Moses and came as close as God permitted him to come. True, God speaks to each man’s heart individually. But He also desires to ransom a people. The underlying covenant promise is, “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” God would come close to the people of Israel. He would show the whole nation a glimpse of His glory.
"and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Exodus 6:7).
Immediately after the first presentation (Exodus 19:8) God came down on Mt. Sinai with a demonstration of His power.
IF the people had sanctified themselves;
IF they knew God as a loving, merciful, long suffering God;
IF they remembered Who had delivered them from bondage;
IF they knew they were sinners and could serve Him only through faith in His grace;
IF they hungered and thirsted after righteousness ...
wouldn’t they, like Moses, have taken off their shoes and bowed in faith and submission? Instead when the people saw it,
“... they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:18-19).
The people forfeited a wonderful, life changing opportunity. From this time on, Moses represented the people before God. At this point we have shown only that the response of the people was without faith.
In His mercy, God accepted their contract. He purposed to use even a faulty human covenant to bring them to a better understanding of Himself. He promised to send His Angel with them, but warned “Beware of him, and obey his voice,....for he will not pardon your transgressions” (Exodus 23:21). There was no plan to forgive sins, no grace, and no power to change the life. Such obedience coming out of an unchanged selfish heart falls far short of the glory of God.
Exodus 24:3-8 described the ceremony of accepting the old covenant. God had spoken the ten commandment law and had given Moses details of the civil law, instructions about the feasts, and promised His guidance and power as they proceeded to the promised land. These things Moses told the people. For the second time, in verse three, “all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord hath said will we do.”
Moses wrote all the words of the Lord in a book. Young men were assigned to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. The blood was sprinkled on the altar. Moses read again from the book of the covenant. For the third time they answered, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” Moses then sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the people.
The covenant of human promises, of works, was officially inaugurated. But what covenant did they ratify? It was only the promises of men. The everlasting covenant would not be ratified until Jesus, the Messiah came and died a sacrifice on Calvary. These human promises constituted the beginning of the “classic old covenant.” A longsuffering, merciful God accepted the faulty promises of men intending to lead them gently to understand more of His grace.
Understanding the “old covenant” is critical to understanding the everlasting or “new covenant.” It is in this contrast that the truth is made clear. The term “old covenant” is not actually found in the King James Bible. It is not even discussed in the Old Testament. There is no concept in the Old Testament of two covenants at all. The issue is not really raised until the writings of Paul, especially in Hebrews. However, the term “old covenant” is a convenient term, and we shall use it with a proposed correct definition.
The essence of the old covenant is to attempt to obey God in human strength. It is true that men do keep the law on a superficial basis. They do not generally steal, lie, kill, or commit adultery. The problem lies in the fallen self-centered nature of man. Man will do good things for selfish purposes. This is not acceptable to God, who looks for those who will “worship Him in spirit and in truth.” It is only by grace that man is lifted out of his selfishness and pride.
During the ratification ceremony described in Exodus 24, shouldn’t the people have recounted faith in the promises of God shown in Exodus 19:4-6 and 20:2-17? Within the forty days that Moses was in the mount, the people concocted a wild heathen festival with worship of a golden calf. It was a symbolic return to Egypt. They had defied God, broken all His commandments, and broken the covenant they had just made.
Maybe only a small part of the people took part in this event; however, there was no effective opposition from Aaron, the appointed leader in the absence of Moses, or from the rest of the camp. To consent to evil is tantamount to partaking in it. The whole camp was involved in sin.
Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8-10 speak of a covenant that was not like what was given to the fathers, one that was faulty, old, and ineffectual. Ellen White has this to say:
“Another compact – called in Scripture the “old” covenant – was formed between God and Israel at Sinai, and was then ratified by the blood of a sacrifice.” White EG: Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 371
Did this compact include Exodus 19:4-6? Or was there a separation between verses six and eight? To put this all together as “my covenant” is to say that God offered to them a faulty covenant. To include the ceremonial law as an integral part of this covenant is to admit that the covenant was ended at the Cross, including the ten commandments.
“They could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken; and now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings.” White EG: Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 372
This writer pictures a covenant that was broken and offered no hope, and the resumption of a previous covenant offering mercy and forgiveness.
The promise of the people, “All that the Lord hath said, we will do” was not the first time that man had attempted by his own methods to do God’s will. Adam tried to save Eve by eating the fruit. Cain tried to make an offering superior to “just a lamb.” Abraham offered Eliezer as a possible heir, then going a step further he had a son by Hagar. Even Moses tried to deliver Israel when he killed the Egyptian. In each case, man’s efforts were ineffectual.
The lesson of faith is hard for people to learn. It is easy to “do something.” But a man must give up his pride and selfishness in order to submit by faith to the grace and lordship of God. In spite of the faulty human promises of the old covenant, God still held out the everlasting covenant for all who would choose faith in Him.
The first, old or sinaitic covenant, a covenant of works, consisted of the presumptuous promises of the people to obey God in their own strength. It was the “classic” or historical old covenant. The essence of the old covenant is to attempt to obey God in human strength. The old covenant occurs in many forms. After the covenant of grace was reinstituted, in time, the people began to look on the sacrifices, ceremonies, traditions, and their descent from Abraham for their assurance of salvation. It was the old covenant again, in another form.
Collectively, this was termed “the law of Moses.” So pervasive was their belief in the law of Moses that in Jesus’ time, even the disciples could not see the purpose of Jesus’ life and death until after the resurrection. Even then, as the early Christian church began to grow, there were Jewish Christians who could not leave behind the “law of Moses.” Some of these “judaizers” followed Paul trying to make “Jews” of the new gentile converts.
The terms “first” and “old” used in Hebrews refer to the dispensation of ceremonial laws and traditions followed in Old Testament times. These were not a part of the covenant of God, but were used to illustrate to the people the plan of salvation.
Doesn’t Old Testament mean the same as “old covenant?” Yes and no! The words, yes. Testament and covenant come from the same Hebrew word. But dividing the Bible into an Old and a New Testament was not inspired by God. In fact, it did not happen until about 200 years after Christ lived on earth. Remember, the old covenant was broken about six weeks after it was made and it was not officially renewed.
The only part of the Bible available before the Exodus was the book of Genesis. Moses is the probable author. He was raised by Jochebed, his mother, for twelve years. After this he was taken into the home of his adoptive mother, the daughter of Pharaoh. It was only during that twelve years that Moses had opportunity to learn of the true God, and the history of Israel, the people of God. How much can a boy learn by age twelve? How much can he understand of what he is told?
After his flight into Midian, he lived with his father-in-law, Jethro, for forty years. Abraham’s second wife, Keturah, had six sons, one of whom was Midian. These sons learned of the true God from Abraham. However, Isaac was the son of promise, so Abraham sent these six sons into the east country to separate them from Isaac (Genesis 25:1-6). These people have come to be known as the “children of the east.” They maintained a knowledge of the true God for generations. Some have thought that the wise men who worshiped the infant Jesus came from this group.
Jethro was a priest of Midian. As a priest, he probably knew more of the teachings of Abraham than most. Moses may well have learned much early history from Jethro which helped as he wrote Genesis. Archeology has shown that stories, myths, and legends were common among the people. Learning these stories was not enough. Moses , guided by the Holy Spirit, had to choose which were true (2 Peter 1:20,21).
How much did the early patriarchs know of the plan of salvation? We do know that God is merciful and the patriarchs were instructed in all that they needed to know. Much information was probably carried in the oral tradition. Flood legends are found in many ancient cultures; the custom of offering sacrifices became widespread, though often corrupted.
Genesis is obviously a concise history of this period. Written 2500 years later, Genesis served as a prologue to the detailed system introduced at Sinai.
By the time they reached Sinai, how much could the people be expected to know? Was the book of Genesis available to the people? How many could read?
Moses himself spent long hours every day listening and talking to the people to “teach them the law of God” (Exodus 18:16). The tribe of Levi were specially set apart to minister the things of the sanctuary. Because of their close association with the sanctuary and with Moses, this probably included a teaching ministry too. Hand written and printed materials were scarce, so much of the teaching depended on oral communication.
What were the people taught? The blood sacrifices showed that without blood there is no remission of sins. They looked forward in faith for a Sin Bearer. The passover showed that it was the blood that protected them from evil. Abraham and Isaac demonstrated that an “only son” would be sacrificed for their sins.
Repeatedly God taught the people that He desired changed hearts and lives (2), not just empty sacrifices. Over and over again, He intervened for the people. He showed His love and constant care in giving manna for food and water from the rock to drink. He was constantly with them in the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day; as well as by the Shekinah glory in the tabernacle.
While at Sinai the tabernacle was constructed. The sacrificial system was established and the ceremonies instituted to point to the coming Messiah. These were a teaching illustration of the covenant and the plan of salvation. I must emphasize that these were NOT the covenant, but were the means of ministering the covenant in Old Testament times.
There were always the remnant who kept a living faith in God, people who really knew God, prayed to Him every day and meditated on the truth. Hungering for righteousness they had much to draw from. They looked for the Messiah, and welcomed Him when He came.
The majority lost sight of the Saviour prophesied in the sanctuary services. They focused more and more on the ceremonies and sacrifices themselves as the center of their religion. The ten commandment law was seen not as the promises of grace, but as requirements they must meet in their own strength. In short the old covenant mindset returned, and became dominant by the time Christ came.
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