God’s
Covenants
Lesson
32
page
l 1 l 2 l 3 l
- 2 -
____________________________________________________________________________
But Sunday is the day that
we all hold our common assembly because
it is the first day on which God, having
wrought a change in the darkness and
matter, made the world, and Jesus Christ
our Savior on the same day rose from the
dead. (Justin Martyr, First Apology of
Justin Martyr, Ante-Nicean Christian
Library, (Boston 1887) p. 187 Chapter.
67)
Christian Groups differed
in theology and practice because of
distance, the lack of communication,
regional baggage and anti-Semitism.
Sunday observance was a unique feature
that began in Rome and spread to
Alexandria. About the turn of the fourth
century, Socrates, a church leader of
that time observed.
Such is the difference in
the churches on the subject of fasts. Nor
is there less variation in regard to
religious assemblies. For although almost
all churches through the world celebrate
the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of
every week, yet the Christians of Rome
and Alexandria have ceased to do this.
(Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, Book
V. Chapter 22. Ante-Nicean Christian
Library, Vol II, (Boston, 1887) p. 132)
These facts are presented
because the Catholic Church does not
historically defend the change from
Sabbath to Sunday on the basis of
Scripture, but on the basis of church
authority. After Constantine came to
power, law in A.D.321 affirmed the
sacredness of Sunday for Christians.
Eusebius, the trusted confidant and
advisor to Constantine, defended this
action saying:
And all things whatsoever
that it was to do on the Sabbath, these
have been transferred to the Lord’s
Day, as more appropriately belong to it,
because it has a precedence and is first
in rank, and more honorable than the
Jewish Sabbath. All things whatsoever
that it was the duty to do on the
Sabbath, these we have transferred to the
Lord’s Day. (Eusebius’s
Commentary on the Psalms 92, quoted in
Cox’s Sabbath literature, Vol I,
p.361, insertion mine.)
These references are
presented because Protestants separated
from Catholicism because of conflict
between Bible truth and church authority.
Protestants claim there is no authority
on matters of faith and duty other than
what is found in Scripture. Catholics
claim that authority is found in either
the inerrant declarations of the pope or
decisions reached by scholars and church
leaders. So, the only way Protestants
have found to void the fourth commandment
that mandates the observance of Saturday,
as a holy day is to nail all Ten
Commandments to the cross. This is the
primary objective and the function of
dispensationalism. The scheme is
elaborate and complex but the net effect
is that millions of Christians have been
misled into believing that the Sabbath
commandment was nailed to the cross.
However, if you ask most Christians about
murder, adultery, stealing, they will
return to the Ten Commandments for
authority to show that these behaviors
are wrong. This is the great mystery.
Somehow, the Ten Commandments were made
void at the cross only to have nine
commandments immediately reinstated! This
doctrine is one of the harmful
contributions of dispensationalism to
Protestantism.
The Ten Commandments Are
Called a Covenant
There is sufficient
evidence in the Bible to conclude that
the Ten Commandments are a unilateral
covenant that God has imposed on all
mankind for the duration of sin. Let us
examine the evidence.
The Ten Commandments are called “the
covenant” in the Bible. “Moses
was there with the Lord forty days and
forty nights without eating bread or
drinking water. And he wrote on the
tablets the words of the covenant-the Ten
Commandments.” (Exodus 34:28) The
Israelites kept the two tablets of stone
in a golden box that was called,
“the ark of the covenant.” The
Ten Commandments are not ten suggestions
and contrary to what dispensationalists
teach, they are not included in
God’s bilateral covenant with Israel.
They are ten laws that were unilaterally
imposed upon all mankind by divine
authority when sin began! We know
that obeying the Ten Commandments will
not bring salvation. They are not a
shadow of good “things to
come.” They are not
ceremonial. They say nothing about
sacrifices, rituals or redemption.
Instead, they are ten profound
commandments from man’s creator
telling people on Earth how to live.
The first four commandments define
man’s relationship to God. The
last six define man’s relationship
to man. Even though God deposited
them with Israel as trustees of His
grace, He spoke them and wrote them down
for the benefit of all mankind. There
is nothing Jewish in the Ten
Commandments.
Consider this thought
question: When you study the New
Testament, do you get the impression that
obeying the Ten Commandments is harmful?
If so, which commandment is harmful to
Christian growth and development? Do
you find any behavior forbidden in the
Ten Commandments that is permitted or
sanctioned in the New Testament?
If you answer yes to
either question, please send the Bible
text to me. In my study of the
Bible, I have found that there is only
one new commandment in the whole New
Testament. Jesus said, “A new
command I give you: Love one
another. By this all men will know
that you are my disciples, if you love
one another.” (John 13:34,35) Have
you wondered why Jesus calla this a new
command? What makes this
commandment new and different from
anything said before in the Old
Testament? The answer is that
divine love was demonstrated through the
humanity of Jesus. Jesus gave man a
new example of what it means to love one
another. He gave His life for us,
and we should love one another enough to
do the same. Because we have a
living example to follow, a model of
perfection, we one new command, we are to
“love one another as Jesus has loved
us.”
The Ten
Commandments Are a Unilateral Covenant
I am convinced the Ten Commandments are a
unilateral covenant that God revealed to
man at the fall. Prior to the fall,
Adam and Eve were in perfect harmony with
God’s will. After all, they
were created in His image. A
written copy of Ten Commandments was not
necessary before sin occurred because
Adam and Eve had the laws written in
their hearts. Stealing or lying was
foreign to Adam and Eve before the fall.
We know from our study of the sealing in
Chapter 6 that God will remove the carnal
nature and write His laws in our hearts
and minds as He originally wrote them in
the hearts of Adam and Eve. (Hebrews
8:10-13) Although the Bible does
not specifically mention the Ten
Commandments prior to Mt Sinai, this
silence does not eliminate the presence
or knowledge of God’s law as
dispensationalists claim. Moses
says very little in Genesis about the
extent of man’s knowledge as it
pertains to God’s laws. But
Moses does explain how sin began and that
God’s patience with sin and
rebellion reached its limit during the
time of Noah. (Genesis 6:5,6) The
silence of Moses does not prove the
absence of the Ten Commandments. Moses
says nothing about adultery prior to the
flood. Does this mean adultery did
not occur prior to the flood? No!
it is inconceivable that God would wait
2,500 years after sin began to give
humanity a basic understanding of right
and wrong at Mt Sinai. Did it
suddenly become wrong to worship idols,
profane God’s name, violate His holy
Sabbath, kill, steal, lie and commit
adultery at Mt Sinai? No! If so,
were these sins unique to the Jews only?
No! From the beginning, murder was a
sinful act and Lucifer as well as Cain
knew it. (John 8:44; 1 John 3:12) It was
also a sin to steal, to commit adultery,
to profane God’s name, and to
violate God’s holy Sabbath day long
before events at Mt Sinai took place.
A knowledge of God’s law existed
prior to Mt Sinai. Noah faithfully
reminded the antediluvians about
God’s laws. Peter says that
Noah was a preacher of righteousness for
120 years! (2 Peter 2:5) If there
were no commandments defining sin and
rebellion prior to the flood,
righteousness and wickedness could not be
defined. Paul argues, where there
is no law, there is no sin. (Romans 4:15)
If there is no law establishing a speed
limit, there can be no speeding! The
wholesale destruction of the world by a
flood convinces me that millions of men
and women had a generous opportunity to
know God’s will (His laws), but they
rejected it. From Genesis to
Revelation, rebellion is the only
justification that God ever uses to
destroy anyone! If humanity was
almost obliterated from the face of Earth
because every thought was “only evil
continually,” then humanity must
have knowingly chosen a course of
rebellion. (Genesis 6:5 (KJV); 2 Peter 3)
This is why Jesus compares the end of the
age with days of Noah. When men
and women refuse to walk according to the
laws of the Almighty. He has no
other option but total destruction.
(Matthew 24:37)
Consider the words of Paul: “Therefore,
just as sin entered the world through one
(disobedient) man, and death through sin,
and in this way death came to all men,
because all (have) sinned – for
before the (Mosaic) law was given (at Mt
Sinai), sin was in the world. But
sin is not taken into account when there
is no (knowledge of) law. Nevertheless,
death reigned (because it is mandatory
that sinners die) from the time of Adam
to the time of Moses, even over those who
did not sin by breaking a (known)
command, as did Adam, who was a pattern
of the one to come.” (Romans
5:12-14, insertions mine.) Some people
offer these three
Verses
to prove that there was “no
law” before God gave the Ten
Commandments at Mt Sinai. If there was no
law, how could God condemn Adam or the
antediluvians? What were they guilty of?
They could not have been declared lawless
if there were no law. We must be careful
to understand what Paul is actually
writing in Romans 5. Paul is making the
point in Romans 5:12-14 that we cannot
escape the consequences of sin. Even if a
man does not know that he is a sinner,
even if he knows nothing about God’s
law, death still reigns over him because
the law of God demands death for all
sinners. Paul is clear that before the
law was given at Mt. Sinai, sin was in
the world. What is sin? Sin is the
transgression of God’s law. (Romans
4:15; 1 John 3:4) Paul is making the
point that God’s law was present
from Adam to Moses, but man’s
knowledge of God’s law was limited
in scope compared to what was known about
sin after Mt. Sinai. Because man’s
knowledge was limited to the Ten
Commandments, God overlooked certain sins
because man had no knowledge. God did not
destroy the antediluvians for their
sinful ignorance. Instead, he sent
“a preacher of righteousness”
who spoke plainly about the authority and
presence of God’s law and its
penalty. God destroyed the antediluvians
because they willfully rejected His laws.
God’s Ten Commandments existed prior
to the flood. In fact, the holiness of
God’s Sabbath is declared in Genesis
2! God reduced “oral law” to
written form at the time of Mt. Sinai.
The Ten Commandments existed in oral form
from the beginning. Adam and Eve
instinctively knew the contents of the
Ten Commandments for these laws were
written in their minds and hearts! They
knew it was wrong to lie or steal because
their lives were in complete harmony with
God’s character. They knew of the
holiness of the Sabbath because it was
their first full day of life with their
Creator. (Genesis 2:1-3) But the day sin
entered their souls; rebellion clouded
their hearts and darkened their minds.
The offspring of Adam and Eve became even
more ignorant of God. This is why
eventually, God wrote the law on tablets
of stone and God required the reading of
law every sabbatical year to make sure
that each generation heard “the
Word” with their own ears.
(Deuteronomy 31: 10,11)
Unilateral in
Content
It makes no sense to include the Ten
Commandments with the Mosaic covenant
because the stipulations given in the Ten
Commandments are universal and eternal.
No born again Christian will say that
worshiping other gods, committing
adultery, murder, stealing and using
God’s name in vain was permissible
before Mt. Sinai or after the death of
Jesus. Therefore, scholars who abolish
the Ten Commandments with the Mosaic
covenant have to restore nine of the Ten
Commandments by proposing these
commandments are mentioned in the New
Testament and stating that the Sabbath
commandment is not. This is foolish
reasoning. The authority of the Sabbath
commandment is affirmed throughout the
New Testament. The underlying purpose for
this dispensational maneuver is to
eliminate the obligation of the fourth
commandment. Christians do not want to
observe the seventh day Sabbath of the
Jews – actually though, it is the
seventh day Sabbath of man’s
Creator, Jesus Christ.
Thus far, we have examined six unilateral
covenants and one bilateral covenant:
Unilateral
1.
“Do not eat of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
2.
The Ten Commandments
3.
“I will put enmity between the
serpent and the women and will one day
send a Savior.”
4.
“I will demand an accounting for
each man’s life. Murderers are to be
put to death.”
5.
“I will not destroy the world again
with a flood.”
6.
To Abraham: “Through you, all
nations will be blessed.”
“I
will make you father of many
nations.”
“I will give you
and your descendants this land.”
Bilateral
1.
To Adam and Eve: “If you will be my
people, I will be your God.”
We now turn our attention
to the bilateral covenant offered to
Israel. To understand the origin of this
covenant, we must start with a visit
between Jesus and Abraham.
A bilateral Covenant for
Abraham’s Offspring
A few years after
declaring His unilateral covenant to
Abraham, Jesus visited again with Abraham
and told him that He was going to offer a
special covenant to his descendants after
400 years passed. This covenant would be
a bilateral covenant, that is, based upon
mutual agreement. (Genesis 15) There is a
sharp distinction between the unilateral
covenant given to Abraham and the
bilateral covenant that would be offered
to Abraham’s descendants 400 years
later. God intended to make
Abraham’s biological descendants a
kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
(Exodus 19:6) In other words, because of
God’s great love for Abraham, God
wanted to exalt Abraham’s offspring
as “His finest sons” on Earth.
The sons of Abraham would stand between
God and the nations of the Earth as
priests, trustees of His grace. God
intended the “Abrahamites”
would be men of faith like their father.
He wanted them to love Him with all their
hearts and their neighbors as themselves
– just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
did! God wanted the Israelites to be a
shining light to the Gentile nations in
darkness. He wanted Israel to love the
people of other nations and hate their
sin. God wanted Israel to evangelize the
world with a testimony about His love and
gather a great harvest of souls for His
coming kingdom. (Isaiah 49:6; Acts 13:47)
Israel was to be a nation of
“Jehovah’s Witnesses,” a
literal “Salvation Army,” a
“World-wide Church of God.”
At the time of this second
visit, Abraham still had no offspring.
So, Jesus did something that was
customary in ancient times. He made an
oath to Abraham assuring him that He
would offer a bilateral covenant to his
descendants. Jesus ratified this oath
when He walked through animal parts that
Abraham laid upon the ground. (See
Genesis 15, also Jeremiah 34: 19,20 on
this practice. This event served as a
witness to the oath that Jesus made to
Abraham. In other words, Abraham killed
the necessary animals for this oath and
Jesus passed through the animal parts
signifying that He would offer His
covenant to descendants of Abraham who
were not yet present on Earth. Although
Abraham knew he would not live long
enough to see god’s pans fulfilled.
Abraham was satisfied that God would keep
vigil and honors His oath. (Exodus 12:42)
By requiring blood at the declaration of
this oath, Jesus signified to Abraham
that He, the Great I AM, an eternal
member of the Godhead of the Universe,
would keep His covenant with
Abraham’s offspring upon pain of
death.
Ratification of the
Abraham Covenant
Although Jesus gave
Abraham an oath that He would offer a
bilateral covenant with his offspring,
the covenant with the heirs was not
ratified (mutually agreed upon) for more
than 400 years. (Exodus 12:41; Hebrews
9:18-21) In fact, the bilateral covenant
was not ratified until after God gave all
of the details to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
(Exodus 24:1-8) Remember, a bilateral
covenant is two-sided, based on
performance. Unlike a unilateral
covenant, both parties must agree and
both parties must be faithful to the
terms and conditions set forth in a
bilateral covenant. So, when the time
came to fulfill the oath that God had
promised to Abraham, god directed Moses
to come up the mountain and meet with
Him. Moses was required to write down all
the terms and conditions of a bilateral
covenant. This covenant would both
perpetual (until Messiah appeared on
Earth) and temporary (until Messiah
should die for mankind). This covenant
bound God and the seed of Abraham
together for more than fourteen hundred
years. When Moses completed the task, he
went down the mountain and read the words
of this covenant to all of the people.
Notice how the story unfolds in the
Bible:
“Then he {Jesus said
to Moses, ‘Come up to the Lord, you
and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy
of the elders of Israel. You are to
worship at a distance, but Moses alone is
to approach the Lord; the others must not
come near. And the people may not come up
with him.’ When Moses went and told
the people all the Lord’s words and
laws, they responded with one voice,
‘Everything the Lord has said we
will do.’ Moses then wrote down
everything the Lord has said. He got up
early the next morning 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 into
bowls, and other half he sprinkled on the
alter. 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.’” (Exodus 24: 1-8,
insertion and italics mine.
The bilateral covenant
between God and the descendants of
Abraham was ratified with the sprinkling
of blood. After hearing the terms and
conditions of the covenant, the people
voiced their agreement twice. Since third
party witnesses were not present, Moses
stacked twelve huge stones (one for each
tribe) in a pile as a witness to this
event, signifying Israel’s corporate
agreement. The shedding of the blood put
this covenant into effect. (See Hebrews
9:18-22.) The significance of the blood
is very important. A blood covenant in
ancient times was a life or death for
both parties. For God, the only way out
of this covenant was their destruction.
(Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) If one
party proved to be unfaithful, then the
faithful partner had the right to demand
the blood (death) of the unfaithful
party.
Sunset Clause
The bilateral covenant (or
Mosaic covenant) between God and
Abraham’s offspring was temporary
from its inception. It had a sunset
clause in it. (Matthew 26:28; Colossians
2:17; Hebrews 9: 15-10:4) Jesus offered a
covenant to the descendants of Abraham
because He needed a special job done.
Basically, He needed a group of informed
people to reveal whom He was about to an
uninformed world. (Acts 13:47; 26:22,23)
As with any covenant, the special
covenant that Jesus offered Israel
contained a number of laws. The Mosaic
covenant included laws regarding food
(clean and unclean), tithing, animal
sacrifices, purification ceremonies, the
observance of annual feasts days, new
moon celebrations, the observance of
sabbatical years, circumcision, the
priesthood of Aaron, and many civil laws.
All of these laws served as illustrations
of Jesus as King and High Priest, His
coming kingdom and the shadows of His
death and ministry. When “The Light
of the World” came to Earth, the
shadows expired. (Colossians 2; Galatians
3) After the covenant between Israel and
God was nailed to the cross, all
believers in Christ stand before God as
one flesh.
Israel’s Prophetic
Destiny
Because of dispensational
theology, many Christians disagree with
the previous paragraph. Christians widely
believe that God’s covenant promises
given to ancient Israel must last
forever. Many popular end-time scenarios
promoted by Christians affirm this
doctrine. But, all of the terms and
conditions put forth in the Mosaic
covenant were conditional. A bilateral
covenant is bases on good faith and the
performance of the parties involved. It
is a distortion of Scripture to teach
that God is still obligated to fulfill
promises He gave to ancient Israel during
a future 70th week. God did
not offer many promises to Israel, but
they were based on terms and conditions.
If Israel had “keep faith” with
the Lord, loved Him wholeheartedly, and
walked according to His commandments and
statutes, then God would have fulfilled
all of His promises. (Deuteronomy 6:5;
Ezekiel 20) “If” is the
key word on this topic because God is not
obligated to keep a mutual covenant with
any party that persists in rebellion.
(See Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28,
31:16-32:52; Romans 9-11; Galatians 4.)
Bible history underscores Gods behavior
regarding this fact repeatedly. For
example “the Israel” who
experienced a jubilant Exodus from Egypt
entered into a covenant with God at Mt.
Sinai (Exodus 19:4-8), but they all
perished in the wilderness because of
rebellion (except Joshua and Caleb).
(Psalms 95:10,11; Hebrews 3:7-4:1)
God’s plan for leading Israel into
the Promised Land was ultimately
fulfilled, but not for these people to
whom the opportunity was first given!
(Hebrews 3:16-19) Furthermore, honest
Bible students cannot overlook God’s
subsequent actions during 1,500 years of
Jewish history. Israel rebelled and God
sent the king of Assyria to destroy ten
tribes of Israel in 722 B.C. Then, in 586
B.C., God sent King Nebuchadnezzar to
finally destroy Jerusalem and the two
remaining southern tribes.
A Fulfilled Covenant is a
Finished Covenant
At the cross, the covenant
between God and Israel was declared void.
Jesus declared the bilateral covenant
between God and Israel, with all its
commandments and regulations, null and
void. Consequently, God abandoned the
nation of Israel because of their
persistent unfaithfulness. This is why
Jesus pronounced this final benediction
upon Israel. “Behold your house is
left unto you desolate.” (Matthew
23:38, {KJV} what did He mean with these
solemn words? The Jews regarded the
temple at Jerusalem as God’s
dwelling place. They believed they were
(a) the apple of God’s eye, and (b)
safe from the threat of any nation.
(Deuteronomy 28; Jeremiah 7:4; Luke 21:
5,6) Israel did have an opportunity to be
the apple of God’s eye, but they
forfeited this great opportunity by
rebellion. They could have been safe from
the threat of other nations, but they
chose to rebel. “The Great I
Am” came and lived in their midst,
but they rejected Him. So, what did Jesus
mean when He said, “Your house if
left unto you desolate?” He meant
that “never again” would His
presence enter that temple. Their house
of worship (the centerpiece of their
religion) was declared an empty hollow
building. A desolate house is an empty
house and the Shekinah would never return
to it. John says, “He came unto His
own and His own received Him not.”
(John 1:11, {KJV} In A.D. 70 Jesus sent
the Romans army to destroy Jerusalem. He
fulfilled the terms and conditions set
forth in the blood covenant through His
death on the cross. Not only did He shed
His blood to fulfill the covenant, He
demanded their blood for unfaithfulness.
(See Deuteronomy 28:44,45 and Daniel
9:26,27) When the Roman army burned
Jerusalem, no two stones of the temple
were left standing together. (Matthew
24:2) The Romans pulled the temple apart
looking for the gold that melted in the
great calamity. Jesus decreed an end to
the temple that bore His name and
contrary to what many Christians believe,
it will not be built again. To ensure His
decree remains perpetual, Jesus moved the
Moslems to build the Dome of the Rock on
that site.
Two Covenants Fulfilled
The blood shed at Calvary
fulfilled the unilateral covenant given
to Adam and Eve, as well as the bilateral
covenant between God and the nation of
Israel. A fulfilled covenant is a
finished covenant. The animal offerings
required under the blood covenant pointed
forward to Jesus’ death. When He
died, the covenant ended because
Jesus’ blood had been shed-the
shadow was replaced with reality!
(Colossians 2:17) God designed the blood
covenant (the Mosaic covenant) from the
beginning to be a “tutor” or
schoolmaster to explain the wonderful
dimensions of the Plan of Salvation. If
Israel had properly understood the object
lessons of salvation, it would have had
an endless supply of wonderful themes to
share with the whole world. (Galatians
3:24-26, {KJV} Incidentally, the Mosaic
covenant was not designed as something
that belonged exclusively to Israel.
While they were the trustees of salvation
and the first in line to benefit from it,
God promised to bless all nations through
Abraham by allowing Gentiles to partake
of the wonderful provisions of this
covenant. (See Isaiah 2 and 56.) This is
why God called Abraham the father of many
nations! (Genesis 17:4)
[TOP]
|
