We have traced the Lord’s dealings with
Israel from their call in Abraham, and their deliverance from Egypt, to their
arrival at the wilderness of Sinai (Exod.xix.1). Sinai marks a crisis in the history of this
people, and is of fundamental importance in their typical story. Israel are to show once and for all the utter
inability of the flesh to enter into blessing by a covenant of works. This necessitates the new covenant with its
better promises and its better sacrifices, which is the theme of the epistle to
the Hebrews. “The law made nothing
perfect.”
In
Exod. xix. 3, 8, & 20 we have
three ascents of Sinai by Moses, culminating in the giving of the law. Three more ascents are recorded in Exod. xxiv. 9 - xxxii. 14, xxxii. 31-33 & xxxiv. 4-28, culminating in the building of the
tabernacle, the ark receiving the tables of stone written the second time, and
so bearing witness to Israel’s failure and their need of Christ. There is therefore a distinct connection
between the old and the new covenants as
Jer. xxxi. 31-34 reveals.
The Old and
the New Covenants.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah” (Jer.xxxi.31).
Let us observe how definite the Scripture
is with regard to the covenanting parties.
“The Lord” on the one hand, and “The house of Israel and the house of
Judah” on the other. It is a covenant
properly drawn up, and not one who is not of the house of Israel or Judah, or
who cannot show full Scriptural warrant for being reckoned with such, can have
part or lot in it. Romans xi. reveals the method whereby some believing
Gentiles came within the bounds of the new covenant. They are spoken of as wild olive branches
grafted into the true olive, and, with the branches that remained unbroken,
“partaking of the root and fatness of the olive tree” (Rom. xi. 17). Such is the widest extension of the bounds of
this covenant. The moment Israel as a
nation passed off the scene, that moment the new covenant and all pertaining to
it was withdrawn, to be reserved until the day when:--
“All Israel shall be saved . . . . . For
this is MY COVENANT UNTO THEM” (Rom. xi. 26, 27).
We now proceed with the statement of Jeremiah xxxi.:--
“Not according to the covenant that I made
with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt” (verse.32).
Here we see the close connection between
the old covenant made at Sinai, and the new covenant to be made in the
future. The reference to the Exodus from
Egypt is important. Every year this
deliverance was remembered by the observance of the feast of the passover. Israel remembered that old covenant in the
very year that our Lord was crucified.
It was at the passover that Christ instituted the memorial of another
and greater exodus, by another and greater passover lamb, and established
another and better covenant:--
“They made ready the Passover … and He
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, DRINK YE ALL of it; for this is My blood of the NEW COVENANT,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt.xxvi.19-30).
The Lord’s supper is a memorial feast
exactly similar to the passover, but differing in this, that the Passover was a
typical memorial connected with the old covenant, whereas the Lord’s supper is
connected with the new covenant. For
Gentile believers to partake of this new covenant memorial while unassociated with Israel appears to us
to be an unwarranted intrusion.
Jeremiah xxxi. continues
regarding the first covenant:--
“Which My covenant they break, although I
was an husband unto them, saith the Lord” (verse 32).
The LXX reads “I regarded them not”
instead of “I was an husband unto them”.
This reading is followed by the N.T. quotation in Heb. viii. 9,
which proves that this is the true interpretation. The Hebrew ba’al has two meanings
(1) to be lord, master, or husband;
(2)
to disdain, reject, or disregard.
The A.V. of Jeremiah xxxi. chose the wrong meaning. The inspired writer of “Hebrews” gives the
true meaning. Israel broke the old
covenant, and they were disdained, disregarded, all hope being henceforth centred
in the Messiah:--
“But this shall be the covenant that I
shall make with the house of Israel; After
those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write
it in their hearts: and will be their
God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. xxxi. 33)
It is impossible to read these words
without remembering Paul’s argument in
II Cor. iii. & iv.:--
“Written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in
tables of stones, but in the fleshly
tables of the heart ... God ... has made us able ministers of the NEW COVENANT” (II Cor. iii.
3-6).
The Corinthians were already instructed
regarding their connection with the new covenant, as I.Cor.xi.25
will show. Here in the second epistle
the apostle feels under the necessity to warn his children concerning Judaism
that would lead them back to bondage.
Therefore he institutes a comparison which it will be helpful to
observe.
II Corinthian iv. 3 needs a fuller explanation than we can give
in this tabular form:--
“But if indeed our gospel be vailed, by
those things which are perishing they have been vailed.”
The “perishing” things are the things of
the old covenant which are said to be “done away” and “abolished”. The god of this age uses the old covenant and
ministration of death to vail the light of the glory of the gospel that shone
in the face of Christ. One further word
from Jeremiah xxxi. and then we must return to Exodus xix.:--
“If these ordinances (see verse 35) depart
from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed
of Israel also
shall cease from
being a NATION before
Me all the
days” (Jer. xxxi. 36).
It is not possible to hold to the
inspiration of Scripture and deny the national
character of the new covenant. We do not
wish to be aggressive or controversial, but in an article purporting to deal
with fundamentals of dispensational truth we must perforce “use great plainness
of speech”, and we must state that we have no hesitation or diffidence with
regard to our attitude concerning the observance of the Lord’s supper as a
member of that elect company called into favour during the time of Israel’s
rejection. Let us now turn to Exodus xix.
and read the terms of the first covenant.
The terms of
the First Covenant.
“Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob,
and tell the children of Israel; Ye have
seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and
brought you unto Myself. Now therefore
IF ye obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, THEN ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto Me above all people; for
all the earth is Mine: And ye shall be
unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words that thou shalt speak
unto the children of Israel” (Exod. xix. 3-6).
Moses descended from the mount, called for
the elders of the people, and laid before them the words commanded him. There was an unanimous acceptance of the
conditions. “And all the people answered
together, All that the Lord hath spoken
will we do” (Exod. xix. 8). From this point
on to xxiii. 33 we have the preparation of the people, the
descent of the Lord to Sinai, the giving of the 10 commandments, and the
judgments. Then Moses came once more to
the people and told them all the words of the Lord and all the judgments, and
once more all the people answered with one voice, “All the words which the Lord
hath said will we do” (Exod. xxiv. 3).
The people having re-asserted their
agreement, Moses next put the words of the Lord unto writing (Exod. xxiv.
4). He then built an altar on twelve
pillars, one for each tribe, and caused sacrifices to be made. Half of the blood shed Moses reserved in
basons. He then took the book of the covenant,
and read it over in the audience of the people:
and they again replied, “All that
the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exod. xxiv. 7). Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on
the people, saying:
“Behold the blood of the covenant, which
the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words” (Exod. xxiv. 8).
A
covenant instituted with such solemnity, framed with words of such weight and
far reaching effect, demands a respectful study. We cannot hope to do more than point the way
in articles such as these, but we earnestly trust that the reader will be stirred
up to see something of the heights and depths of this revelation of the
righteousness of God.
The Ten Words
(Exod.
xxxiv. 28 margin).
The ten commandments are pre-eminently the
basis of the covenant:--
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou
these words; for after the tenor of
these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel … And he wrote
upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments” (Exod. xxxiv.
27, 28).
“He declared unto you His covenant, which
He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments, and He wrote them upon two
tables of stone” (Deut. iv. 13).
Let us summarize these ten commandments. There are quite a variety of ways in which
the commandments have been divided and numbered, for it must be remembered that
there is no numeration in the original. Some
think that numbers.I.-IV. belong to the first table and relate to God,
and numbers.V.-X. belong to the second table and relate to
man. This would place number V. as “the first
commandment with promise” at the head of the list, and remove the difficulty
created by the apparent promise found in
Exod. xx. 6. On the other hand
“that thy days may be long upon the land” (verse 12) is the first definite
promise in the covenant.
The
Companion Bible draws attention to the fact that the first five
commandments contain the title “The Lord thy God”, but that no title or name of
God appears in the second set. This
seems to fall under the natural division of two sets of five, the one dealing
with love to God, the other with love to neighbour. If this be accepted, the honouring of parents
is placed upon the table devoted to the honouring of God, and demands serious
thought.
The
Covenant and the
Commandments.
Each of the commandments are vital parts
of the covenant, and in many cases passages may be found where this connection
is definitely stated. On others it is
clearly implied. We will not occupy
space in printing the commandments, but the reader with Exodus xx.
open before him may find some help by noting the following facts and
particulars.
I. “No other God.” — It is implied in the
expressions, “Thy God”, “I will be their God”, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob”, that there is a covenant relationship between the two parties
named. This is established by such a
passage as:--
“Behold, I make a covenant . . . . . thou shalt worship no other god . . . . . lest
thou make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land” (Exod. xxiv. 10, 14, 15).
II.
“No graven image.” — Had this
command been observed by Israel, it alone would have made them a separate
people on the earth, for idolatry and image worship was practically
universal:--
“Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget
the covenant of the Lord your God,
which He made with you, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything …”
(Deut.iv.23,24).
“Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto
the land? . . . . . because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers . . . . . FOR THEY
WENT and served OTHER GODS” (Deut. xxix. 9-28).
III.
The covenant Name. — When the
Lord bade Moses hew two tables of stone in order that the words of the covenant
might be written thereon, we read:
“And the Lord descended in the cloud, and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the NAME of the Lord . . . . . and He
said, Behold, I make a covenant”
(Exod. xxxiv. 1-10).
The name here proclaimed is “The Lord
God”, and the title “The Lord thy God” occurs in each of the commandments on
the first table. It is the covenant
name, and therefore sacred and central.
IV.
The sabbath. —
The sabbath was a sign of the covenant:--
“Wherefore the children of Israel shall
keep the sabbath . . . . . for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of
Israel” (Exod. xxxi. 16, 17).
V. The honouring of parents. — The
honour due to father and mother is a marked feature of the Old Testament, and
it gains in importance when we see that this command finished the first table
that deals with Israel’s relation to God.
We may the better understand the Lord’s words in Matt. xv. 4-6
when we see the place of this fifth commandment. The Pharisees transgressed this commandment
by their tradition. They taught that if
a man declared that all his possessions were given to God, saying, “It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by
whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free” (Mark.vii.11).
This the Lord condemned as transgressing
the commandment of God. It is not
possible to honour God by the dishonour of parents. Let us now notice the relation of the
commandments the one to the other:--
A | I.
No other gods before Me. “The
land of Egypt.”
B |
II. No image or likeness. “Heaven”,
“earth”, “water”.
C |
III. The Name.
B
| IV. The Sabbath. “Heaven”,
“earth”, “sea”.
A | V.
Father and mother. “The land
the Lord giveth.”
This arrangement not only shows the relation
of the first and the fifth, but also shows how an intelligent observance of the
sabbath was a preservative from idolatry.
It would not be possible to bow down to images of things in heaven or
earth if one remembered that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea and all that in them is.
The
Second Table.
VI.
Thou shalt not kill. — Although
the name of God is not mentioned in the second table, it becomes abundantly
clear upon examination that a right conduct towards our neighbour is governed
by, and is a reflection of, our conduct toward the Lord. “Thou shalt not kill” takes our mind back
to Gen.ix.6, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his
blood be shed, for in the image of God
made He man”. Murder aims at the heart
of the purpose of creation, the destruction of the image of God on earth. Murder links man with Satan, who was a
murderer from the beginning (John viii. 44), and with Cain, who was of that
wicked one (I John iii. 12).
VII.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. —
If murder aims at destroying the image of God, adultery is calculated to
corrupt the seed:--
“Judah hath profaned the holiness of the
Lord which He loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this
. . . . . the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth,
against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet she is thy consort, and the
wife of thy covenant. Truly did He not make (the twain) one
(flesh)? Yet had He the residue of the
Spirit (and so could have made more than one wife for Adam). And wherefore one (emphatic)? Because He desired a SEED OF GOD” (Mal. ii.
11-15).
The discerning reader will perceive Genesis iii. & iv. in a clearer light by remembering the comment
of Malachi. The universal association
between immorality and idolatry throughout the Scriptures from Genesis to
Revelation, the story of Genesis
vi., the two attacks upon Sarah before
Isaac’s birth, the downfall of Solomon, the vehement protest of Nehemiah, these
and similar examples reveal the place that adultery takes in the attack upon
the purpose of the ages.
So vital is this relationship, that the
Lord uses it as the most fitting figure of His covenant relationship with
Israel. Their very land is to be called
Beulah or “married”, and the climax of revelation, apart from the mystery, is
“the marriage of the Lamb”, with its Satanic counterpart, “the whore” of Revelation xvii. & xviii. Even
the members of the church of the one body may manifest the love of Christ and
the church in their own married relationship (Ephesians v.). Idolatry and adultery are convertible terms
in the Scriptures.
If holiness is involved in the sin of
adultery, righteousness is involved in the sin of stealing.
VIII.
Thou shalt not steal. — Satan
was a murderer from the beginning. Satan
has sought down the ages to corrupt the true seed. Satan entered into Judas, who betrayed his
Lord, and Scripture says Judas “was a thief” (John.xii.6). Malachi whose words we have quoted above
says, “Will a man rob God?” (Mal. iii. 8).
The weights and measures of Israel were
not beneath Divine legislation, for in them were set forth the equity and
righteousness of the Lord. “Just
balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin, shall ye have” (Lev. xix.
36), and this command is immediately followed by a reference to the Lord Who
brought them “out of the land of Egypt”.
Deuteronomy xxv. 15 puts the same truth in connection with the
land of promise:--
“Thou shalt have a perfect and just
weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee.”
Righteousness is the foundation of the
throne of God, the basis of the covenant with Israel, the bed rock of the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the lasting character of the new heavens
and earth, “wherein dwelleth
righteousness”, when “the tabernacle of God will be with men and He will dwell with them”. Any system of interpretation that juggles
with good and evil, until at last their distinct difference is bedimmed, must
stand condemned before the simple example of “the just weight and balance”.
IX.
Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour. — Satan, the breaker of the commandments already
cited, is also the arch-false witness.
“He is a liar, and abode not in the truth.” Ephesians iv. 25 & 28 bring together two of the commands of this
table:--
“Wherefore putting away the lie, speak
every man truth with his neighbour … Let him that stole steal no more.”
Stealing transgresses righteousness, false
witness transgresses truth. The new man
of Ephesians iv. created in righteousness and holiness of
truth. If Satan entered into Judas the
thief, he inspired Ananias; “Why hath
Satan filled thy heart to lie?” (Acts v. 3).
It appears from Zech. v. 3 that among the last phases of the curses of
Babylon to the earth is the condoning of stealing and false swearing. The Hebrew word naked should be translated declare innocent or let off:--
“For every one that stealeth hath been let
off (is written) on the one side according to it (the curse or the scroll), and
everyone that sweareth (falsely) hath been let off (is written) on the other
side according to it.”
X. Thou shalt not covet. — It has been said
that covetousness breaks all the commandments.
It certainly breaks the first, for Mammon is its god. It breaks the second, for Col. iii. 5
calls a covetous man an idolator.
We can well see how many if not all of the others can be sacrificed upon
the altar of this idol. “This love of
money is a root of all evil” (I Tim. vi. 10).
This brief survey enables us to perceive
something of the depth of the terms of the covenant made by God, and entered
into by Israel. Israel broke that
covenant even before Moses could reach them with the two tables of stone. It is a feature of the utmost importance to
remember that those broken tables of stone were re-written, and placed in the ark.
This ark is called the ark of the covenant (Deut. x. 8), and the ark of
the testimony (Exod. xxx. 6). Exodus.xxxi.18 tells us that the two tables of
stone were the tables of testimony. Exodus.xxxiv.28&29 calls them both the “tables of the covenant”,
the “two tables of the testimony” and the “ten words”.
The ark and the mercy seat together
represent the perfect redemption of Christ.
The new covenant does not set aside the ten commandments, but fulfils
them. As we look through the epistles we
find practically every one of the commandments re-stated with one exception,
namely, the sabbath.
The IVth commandment is the exception. During the Acts period Paul wrote to the
Galatians, “Ye observe days . . . . . I am afraid of you” (Gal. iv. 10, 11). To the Romans he wrote, “One man esteemeth
one day above another; another esteemeth
every day alike. Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind” (Rom. xiv. 5).
After the Acts period Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Let no man judge
you . . . . . in respect of the sabbath days, which are a shadow . . . . .”
(Col. ii. 16, 17). These words could not
have been written had the sabbath observance continues.
Exodus xxxi. 13 tells us that the sabbath is a sign between
Israel and the Lord. Like the other
sign, namely, circumcision (Rom. iv. 11), and the signs, namely, the miracles
wrought during the earthly life of the Lord, and the Acts of the Apostles (I Cor. i. 22; xiv.
22), these together with the sabbath
belonged to Israel, and cease with the setting aside of that nation. Let us conclude this survey of the ten
commandments with the apostle’s comment in
Romans xiii.:--
“Owe no man anything, but to love one
another; for he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not
bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other
commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, viz., Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself” (Rom. xiii. 8, 9),
and
with the Lord’s words in Matthew
xxii.:--
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt.xxii.37,40).
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