Rev. Don Campbell
Exodus 22-24
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2018: IF THERST COVENANT HAD BEEN FAULTLESS
In addition to the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20, laws about the treatment of slaves, laws of restitution for the destruction of another’s property, laws about stealing and the punishment for it, laws about the treatment of sojourners, spreading false reports, perverting justice, and others are laid out in chapters 21-23. In chapter 24, the covenant is confirmed: “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words’” (vv.7-8).
Four things should be noted: It was a covenant of rules (v.3a). It was a covenant of human promises (v.3b; 7). It was ratified by animal blood (v.8). It was made with the fleshly descendants of Abraham who had come out of Egypt and with their descendants (Gal 4:21-25). Because of this, it was a flawed covenant.
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.’
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Heb 8:7-13).
We note five things about the new covenant: It is based on better promises—God’s promises to write his laws in our hearts and minds and to forgive all our sins (Heb 8:8-13). It is ratified with better blood, that of Christ (Heb 9:11-17). It provides a better fellowship in that we can enter boldly into God’s presence (Heb 10:19-25). It is the basis of a better inheritance (Rom 8:12-17). In contrast to circumcision of the flesh, which was a seal of the old covenant, we have a better seal. “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:11-12). “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:13-14).
CONNECTIONS
1. God made a new covenant with what part of the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Rom 11:1-6).
2. In spite of God’s saying that he would make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, some teach that the new covenant was made with the entire world. How does Paul say we become partakers of the new covenant (Rom 11:17-24)?
