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God Makes A Covenant With Israel (Part I)

by Micky Galloway

Much false teaching is done because Bible students are not aware of the distinction made between the Old and New Covenant and the relationship they have to each other. When the Lord made the covenant with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, they became his elect or chosen people from among all the nations of the world. This relationship was highly significant in the development of the scheme of redemption. We will see that man did not keep the law and this led to its abolition and to the establishment of the New Covenant.

While it is true that a person would have to comply with the conditions or demands of a covenant to enter covenant relationship with God, it is not true that one must agree to the terms of the covenant before he is bound by that covenant. Those before Moses’ time did not have to acknowledge God’s rule over them to be obligated to worship and serve him. The Jews did not have to personally agree to the covenant given at Mount Sinai for them to be bound to keep that covenant. Certainly, the Israelites entered covenant relationship by agreeing to covenant terms (Exodus 19:3-8; 24:3,7,8), but those who did not know the law and grew up in idolatry were obligated to keep the covenant just as those who knew and obeyed it (READ Jeremiah 11:3; cf. 7:24-28). “It is a mistake to read Exodus 19:5-6; 24:7-8 as if making the covenant had to wait for the promise of obedience on the part of the people” (John Murray, The New Bible Dictionary, page 266).

God’s covenant does not necessitate a mutual agreement with man, but rather it is a sovereign, unilateral dispensation of grace on his part; a command, law, or obligation he imposes on his creatures. Please consider the following definitions of the word “covenant”:

1. Unger’s Bible Dictionary: As man is not in the position of an independent covenanting party, such a covenant is not strictly a mutual compact, but a promise on the part of God to arrange his providences for the welfare of those who should render him obedience (Third edition, 1966, page 224).

2. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament: The original meaning of the Heb. berith (covenant)... is not “agreement of settlement between two parties,” as is commonly argued. Berith implies first and foremost the notion of “imposition,” “liability,” or “obligation,” as might be learned from the “bond” etymology discussed above. Thus we find that the berith is commanded… (“he has commanded his covenant” Psalms 111:9; Judges 2:20), which certainly cannot be said about a mutual agreement. As will be shown below, berith is synonymous with law and commandment (cf. e.g., Deuteronomy 4:13; 33:9; Isaiah 24:5; Psalms 50:16; 103:18) and the covenant at Sinai in Exodus 24 is in its essence an imposition of laws and obligations upon the people (verses 3-8) (Vol. 2, page 255).

3. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Diatheke (covenant) is from first to last the “disposition” of God, the mighty declaration of the sovereign will of God in history, by which He orders (emphasis mine, mg) the relation between Himself and men according to His own saving purpose, and which carries with it the authoritative divine ordering, the one order of things which is in accordance with it (Volume 2, page 134).

4. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: In the O.T. the word (covenant) has an ordinary use, when both parties are men, and a distinctly religious use, between God and men … There are also two shades of meaning … one in which it is properly a covenant, i.e. a solemn mutual agreement, the other in which it is more a command, i.e. instead of an obligation voluntarily assumed, it is an obligation imposed by a superior upon an inferior … In general, the covenant of God with men is a Divine ordinance, with signs and pledges on God’s part, and with promises for human obedience and penalties for disobedience, which ordinance is accepted by men (Volume 2, pages 727-728).

The covenant of God is identified as ordinances, laws, commandments and words in the Scriptures. In Exodus 24:7 Moses “took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people.” This book contained the “judgments” (“ordinances” ASV) that Moses was to set before them in Exodus 21:1. In Exodus 24:12 Jehovah describes this covenant as law and commandments. NOTE: God does not have to wait till one agrees before he gives a law to which that one is accountable.

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