The chapters that follow in Exodus contain specific points of the Law.
The writer of Hebrews helps us better understand the Mosaic Covenant and the all-important impact of blood in an agreement between God and humanity. These are excerpts from Hebrews 9 and 10.
The Mosaic Covenant (also known as the Old Covenant and the First Covenant) had three sections: (1) The Law of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:1-7, governing the moral life of Israel in relation to the righteous will of God, (2) The Judgments, Exodus 21:1-24:11, governing the social life of the people, and (3) The Ordinances, Exodus 24:12-31:18, governing the religious life of the people. That covers every aspect of community life: Moral, Social and Religious.
The Mosaic Covenant gave the people of Israel something new: a tabernacle and priesthood. The tabernacle was so that God could "dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8). Here's how Dr. Charles Baker described it.
"A Dispensational Theology"
God had already made a covenant with Israel through circumcision. Why another covenant? Here are some points worth pondering:
There are some things the Law cannot do:
The Mosaic Law is dead. It no longer exists. God no longer manages His household of faith through the Law and Works. He now manages through The Dispensation of Grace.
"Things To Come"
"When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who built a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne for his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever."
The New Covenant is something the world has yet to see. The promises are there. The time is coming. Israel will reign as the chief nation of the world with Christ on the throne. Israel will enter its eternal home, "The New Jerusalem," and be at peace with God.
This concludes our study of Bible Covenants. Please return to The GraceLife(tm) Menu Page for other studies about the Gospel of the Grace of God.
"Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers."
Taking God's Grace to the World!
The Mosaic Covenant
God gave His prophet Moses and the people of Israel a special covenant. It was temporary and conditional. We now refer to it as the Old Covenant because a new one has replaced it. The people of Israel came under a special covenant with God through Abraham hundreds of years before Moses came into the picture. In Exodus 24, we find that God introduced another agreement to the same people. He called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai and gave him the laws God wanted the people to obey. Here's what happened when Moses came down from the mountain and delivered God's Law to the people. "He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. 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.'"
"In the case of a will [diatheke --"covenant"] it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. [Note that the writer called the Mosaic Covenant the "first" covenant.] When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, 'This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.' In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. [That is an extremely important statement! There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.] It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."
"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. [Again, a very important statement. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away anyone's sins. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ that can cleanse every stain and forgive every trespass against God.] Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifices and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God.' First he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them' (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. [The writer refers to the first and second covenants here. The first was the Mosaic Covenant. The second is one is the New Covenant.] And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Christ Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."
"In type, Israel needed to be cleansed constantly so that God might dwell among them. It was for this reason that the tabernacle worship with its priesthood was established ... The sacrificial system of the covenant was a means of grace. The Law is the expression of God's holy character, and the breaking of it results in a curse (Galatians 3:10). On the basis of pure law the lawbreaker could hope for nothing but condemnation. The Levitical sacrifices provided the way of escape from the curse. Likewise, in this dispensation, the all-sufficiency of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ is the means whereby our relationship with God is kept unbroken in spite of sin and failures which may break in on the Christian life."
The Palestinian Covenant
This is simply a confirmation and amplification of the land promise of the Abrahamic Covenant. You can read the details in Deuteronomy 30:1-10. Dr. Dwight Pentecost had this to say about the Palestinian Covenant: "An analysis of this passage will show that there are seven main features in the program there unfolded: (1) The nation will be plucked off the land for its unfaithfulness ... (2) there will be a future repentance of Israel ... (3) their Messiah will return ... (4) Israel will be restored to the land ... (5) Israel will be converted as a nation ... (6) Israel's enemies will be judged ... (7) the nation will then receive her full blessing."
The Davidic Covenant
God delivered this unconditional covenant to King David of Israel by the prophet Nathan. [We named our son Nathan after the prophet Nathan and Christ's disciple Nathaniel. We admired both men greatly and hoped our Nathan would be like them in his spirituality and courage.] The covenant with David concerns four things: David's seed, David's house, David's throne, and David's kingdom. We find the specifics in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.
The New Covenant
Jeremiah was the first person to speak of the New Covenant by name. "'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.'" [The nation Israel split into two nations when Rehoboam was king.] You will find nine references of the New Covenant in the New Testament (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:8, 13; 9:15; and 12:24). It is new in that it fulfills, cancels, and takes the place of the Mosaic Covenant. Dr. Baker gives us an excellent breakdown of the New Covenant. He wrote that it is "unconditional, everlasting, promises a new heart and mind, provides forgiveness of sins, imparts the Holy Spirit as an indwelling presence, guarantees that the seed of Israel will never cease to be a national before God for ever, and provides for the restoration of Jerusalem and of the land to Israel." (Dispensational Theology, pg. 101).