SINAI COVENANT

PART ONE

by Steve and Terri White

 Exodus 1 - 24

Now, back to the study of the Biblical narrative, which does not attempt to satisfy our endless human curiosity, but instead beckons us to know the motives, wisdom, and faithfulness of a God who not only created man, but also continually reaches out to offer him redemption and fellowship.

After Joseph’s death, the Hebrews continued to live in Goshen of Egypt, where their numbers grew until they "filled the land" -- a very strong people. In time, a new ruler came into power in Egypt who enslaved and afflicted the Hebrews in the name of political control. His distrust of a people who could have been a strong ally dictated his ruthless action: he was afraid the Hebrews would join their enemies to fight against them. In spite of ever-increasing oppression from their Egyptian masters, the children of Israel continued to grow more numerous and mighty.

The life of Moses is familiar to people of many nations and religious persuasions. Rescued from infanticide by Pharaoh’s daughter, nursed by his Hebrew mother, and educated as would befit an Egyptian prince, Moses never lost touch with his heritage. His disastrous attempt at becoming a rescuer of his people caused him to endure years of exile in the land of Midian. When God finally called upon him to go back into Egypt to lead Israel out of bondage, Moses had no ambition to be a rescuer anymore. He had to be convinced to do the job. After instructing him how to appeal to the elders of Israel on the basis of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 3:13-17), God also committed Himself to show His power to Egypt by signs and wonders. Faced with Moses’ continued objections, the LORD angrily assigned Aaron to be a spokesman for Moses.

Because of Pharaoh’s arrogant refusal to free the children of Israel, God turned the Nile River into blood. Thus began a series of humiliations for the 'gods' of Egypt: the Nile River, worshiped as the "giver of life," was turned to blood; animals which represented Egyptian gods were devastated (i.e., Heka - a frog, Apis - a bull); the sun (worshiped as Ra) was blotted out as darkness covered Egypt for three days; even Pharaoh, whom the people deified, was directly affected by the death of his firstborn son. (Beginning with the fourth sign, God spared His people from being afflicted as were the Egyptians.) To cause the Israelites to remember the night that the LORD killed the firstborn of Egypt, a memorial called the "Passover" was to be kept as an ordinance by them and their descendents.

After the children of Israel gathered valuables from the Egyptians (Ex. 12:31-36), they went out of Egypt through the wilderness, the LORD leading them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night. Knowing that Pharoah’s army was in pursuit of the Hebrews, the LORD instructed Moses to have the Israelites camp by the Red Sea. The people were terrified at the sight of the Egyptians; nonetheless, they executed God’s plan and walked through the midst of the Red Sea, which divided before them as Moses stretched out his rod over the water. The Egyptians attempted to pursue them as Israel walked on dry land through the Red Sea. They were delayed, however, when the LORD caused the wheels to come off their chariots. Moses then stretched out his rod, and the sea came back together again on the chariots, horsemen, and soldiers of Pharaoh, drowning them all.

The Israelites continued their journey into the wilderness after celebrating the victory that the LORD had won over Egypt. At every test or hardship, the people murmured and complained against Moses, who tried to help them trust in the God who took care of them. This became an often-repeated scene during Israel’s trek in the wilderness.  

THE COVENANT

Three months after God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, He announced His intention to make a covenant with them. This covenant included only the tribes of Israel (Ex. 24:7,8) and was dated 430 years after the Abrahamic Covenant (Gal. 3:14 -18). The following is a description of the ratification of the covenant from Exodus 19 and 24: (You may want to refer to the model covenant described in Lesson One, also.)

• God initiated the covenant. Ex. 19:3-6

• In the terms, the Israelites were to obey God’s commandments, and, in turn, God would provide complete protection, care, provision, and leadership. Ex. 19:5,6

• God and the Israelites pledged their loyalty to each other: The Israelites agreed to obey. God said they would then be His special treasure (Hb. segulla), which means they were personally and privately owned. The Israelites would also be a kingdom of priests. As priests, every person in Israel had the privilege to not only walk in fellowship with God, but to stand before God in behalf of others. This continued the aim of the Abrahamic Covenant, bringing blessing to every family on earth. Lastly, they were to be a holy nation, meaning that they were set apart to God. All of life was to be sacred - there was to be no secular. Ex. 6:7,8; 19:4-6, 8; 24:3,7

• The twelve pillars represented the twelve tribes of Israel and the altar represented God. Ex. 24:4

• Oxen were slaughtered and their blood shed. Half of this blood was sprinkled on the altar and the other half on the pillars. Ex. 24:5-8

• Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders went up the mountain and shared a covenant meal in the visible presence of God. Ex. 24: 9-11

• Blessings and curses were attached to the Law. Deut. 28

Thus far, every covenant made between God and man had been imposed by God; man had no choice but to accept the covenant or die. This time, however, God offered a covenant to the people:

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. . . Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do.’ " (Ex. 19:4-6a,8a)

This alerts us that God is doing something different with this covenant than the others. Since the Israelites already lived under the Abrahamic Covenant, why did God initiate another covenant? 

THE LAW SHOWS MAN’S GUILT

Until the Law was given, man could not be sure what sin was.  The Law is like the carpenter’s plumbline - it shows him how straight or crooked his construction is. In Romans 7:7, Paul claimed that he "would not have known sin except through the law." (See also Romans 3:20) 

THE LAW REVEALS THE NATURE OF SIN

I John 4:8,16 state that "God is love." The Greek word for God’s kind of love is agape. Agape reaches out to all in total unselfishness. It is not a feeling, but a commitment. This love has no strings attached - it is unconditional. God loves us because we simply exist. We cannot earn His love; it is freely given because God is love, and He cannot deny who He is.

According to Gen. 1:26, man is made in the image (or likeness) of God. In others words, man was created to agape.  Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." What is the glory of God? In Ex. 33:18, Moses pleaded with God to show him His glory.  God responded by declaring to be "the LORD God, merciful, and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty . . ." This is a perfect definition of agape. The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament that is equivalent to the Greek word agape is hesed, translated lovingkindness, mercy, or unfailing love. The glory of God is, therefore, who God is - which is agape, the love of God.

The nature of sin, then, is the failure to agape - to act as God acts, who is love. Sin begins with rebellion against God, but is expressed in failing to agape others. This makes man capable of every kind of sin.

Natural man’s kind of love is called eros in the Greek. It is totally self-serving, seeking only the best for oneself. Taken to its extreme, eros is the springboard for all racism; Hitler’s Nazism is a prime example. In contrast, agape seeks only the best for others. Jesus was the perfect expression of agape on earth - the just dying for the unjust. Simply put, every kind of sin can be boiled down to one ingredient - selfishness.

The Ten Commandments appear negative to natural man because they put a prohibition on all that eros desires. A close examination of the Ten Commandments, however, reveals the true nature of the commands - love. If I agape you, I won’t kill you, lie to you, or commit adultery with your spouse. Each command simply says - love, which brings life. Conversely, the commands show that if we disobey, we reap death. Malcolm Smith shares a good illustration of this in his tape series on covenant. In New York there is a restaurant on the Hudson River. At the edge of the parking lot, the bank plunges down hundreds of feet to the river. Perched conspicuously at the bank, a sign reads, "No Parking Beyond This Point." Shall we complain that we cannot rush headlong to our destruction down the embankment? Does this "command" keep one from enjoying life? No! It preserves life. In other words, the purpose of the Law is not what we cannot do, but what we can do - love God and one another.

Since mankind has a religious bent, he will always find some way to God or gods. Interestingly, in man’s search for the God of the Bible, out of all the covenants, natural man goes to the Sinai Covenant to find his way to God. Just like the Israelites (Ex. 19 & 24) who proclaimed that they would keep the law (but as a nation, failed miserably), religious man claims to be able to keep the 'rules'. When he discovers the 'rules', he sees his guilt, but now that he knows what is expected of him, he sets out to keep the 'letter of the Law'. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were worse off than the prostitutes and tax collectors; because in keeping the 'letter of the Law', they despised everyone who did not keep the Law. Jesus boiled the Law down to two commands: love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:29-31). Sadly, you can keep the 'rules', but miss the heart of the Law, which is agape.

THE LAW WAS GIVEN SO THAT SIN MIGHT ABOUND

The more man tries to keep the Law, the more he finds desires within him to sin worse and worse (Romans 7).  In fact, he finds that he is far worse than he realized. Man might even keep the first nine commandments. It is the tenth one, though, which shows that the Law is not merely an outward observance, forbidding man to "covet" - to not even want to. As Jesus expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, the Law deals with our motives, desires, and thoughts.

CONCLUSION

"The Law is not God’s frown on us; it is the first form of His love. The Bible calls law elementary religion. It is the delicate way in which God reaches us on the only level upon which we could be reached, for love always adapts itself to situations. Being self-satisfied and self-reliant, we would see no point in being told that we need God. Very well then, God meets us where we are in our self-centeredness. [Says God,] ‘You know what you ought to be. You say you can be it. Well, be it. Here is the Law. Keep it.’ How clever and adaptable Love is. You aren’t conditioned yet for true religion [the true faith]; well, then have a religion on your own level – The Law." (The Spontaneous You, by Norman Grubb, pg. 41.)

The Law is like a mirror - it can only show man his sin. It has no more power to help man keep the Law than a mirror is able to wash one’s face. Instead, it drives man to something else altogether. Just as the mirror sends one to soap and water, the Law points one back to the Abrahamic Covenant where man rests in the work of God.

In the Abrahamic Covenant, man (1) recognizes his helplessness, (2) responds to God, (3) rests in the work of God, and (4) watches God do the saving. The Law never replaced the Abrahamic Covenant (Gal. 3:8.9,24-28; Heb. 6:113-20), but was placed alongside the Abrahamic Covenant because of Israel’s sin (Gal. 3:19). Both covenants were finalized at the cross: the Law was fulfilled and abolished; the other was fulfilled in the New Covenant in Jesus. "The Law was a tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." (Gal. 3:24,25)

The Sinai Covenant proves that man cannot keep the Law. Only God can keep the Law. In Jesus (the New Covenant), man is justified by faith as was Abraham (Gal. 3:10-16; Rom. 3:19-22; 9:30-10:6). And with the New Covenant, God pours out His Holy Spirit on those who have been justified by faith - arriving at what the Law was after by living in agape.* 

". . . the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

"For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3,4)

*The fullest expression of agape is found in the New Testament Greek word koinonia.  This word expresses an intimate relationship based on reciprocal agape.  It is not only used to describe the relationship between the Lord and the believer, but is also used to describe the type of New Covenant relationship expected between believers.