What is the Mosaic covenant?

As to Israel historically, they had accepted the promises at Sinai, on condition of their own obedience. That is the first covenant established by means of a Mediator, which supposes two parties; the enjoyment of the effect of the promise, depending as it did upon the faithfulness of man quite as much as upon the fidelity of God, was not more sure than the weaker of the two parties; and in fact the golden calf had been made even before Moses came down from the mountain. The new covenant will be established with Israel and Judah as the old one was. It will be when the Lord shall return and forgive their sins, not remembering them any more, and accomplishing His work in writing His law in their hearts, and not upon tables of stone. But the fact is of all importance that the people, at Sinai, consented to receive blessing on the condition of precedent obedience: this changed and aggravated the character of the sin, inasmuch as not only were the things themselves evil, but they amounted to a breach of the law, which formally connected God's authority with the obligation of the relationships which it forbade to violate. The relationships and obligations existed already, but the law made the breach of the latter a positive transgression against God's express will: under it, not only was human righteousness at stake, but also God's authority. The last commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," etc., as we have said, did not deal with actual sin, even in the flesh, but with its first motions, and, for a soul born of God, led to the discovery of the root of sin in the flesh. But if all were fulfilled, it was never anything more than human righteousness.

Now, as to the covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai, its terms were these: the people undertook to obey all that the Lord should command. "Now, therefore, if ye will 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 … And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord." Nothing could be more distinct and express than was this condition, "If ye will obey my voice, and keep my covenant, ye shall be," etc.; and the people undertook the terms explicitly. Now it is remarkable that the previous condition of the people had been unfolded as resting entirely upon grace. As such it was manifested in their deliverance from the power and prince of this world; in the healing of the water which they had to drink; in the giving of the sabbath in which the manna would be an abiding portion — bread given daily otherwise, the needful and surely apportioned supply of grace; in the waters given in the time of their need, though they murmured and tempted the Lord, yet freely given to them from the stony rock; in the power of mediatorial intercession against their enemies, with their discomfiture, the Lord being their banner, and Joshua their leader; in the ordering of needful government in the household of God, though this was not of principle but from a stranger.

50 But though the real ground on which they were the people of God, and were known and shewn to be such, was thus of grace before the terms of Mount Sinai and its covenants came in at all, yet for God's sure and wise purposes, and the sure (I do not say the whole) wisdom of which we can see in the exhibition of man's failure and the progressive unfolding of dispensation — in this wisdom the conditional obedience is proposed to Israel; and on that stipulation they take all the promises. How long it lasted was displayed by the noise of those who sang. The first principle and foundation of the whole system was broken and laid low before the mediator returned with the order of that obedience which was pledged in it. The covenant was gone. So much for the covenant of works of man's undertaken obedience. "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt." But the Lord was not only shewing the failure of man in obedience, and the characteristics of the perfection required under the law, but there was also, however narrowed the scene in which they were displayed, the progress therein of unfolding dispensations. The first covenant had ordinances of divine service, a holy order. It is remarkable to observe here that, coincident with the failure of man under natural principles, there arose the testimony of another foundation, and other and gracious ordinances of divine life. When I say coincident with the failure, I mean rather with the exhibition and evidence of the failure; and then is seen the evidence of the scheme of grace. Progressively had the character of the connection between God and man lowered, and progressively had man sunk to the hopeless state of having a broken law, a rejected God of glory, whose hand had been itself shewn in their favour as a covenant God. But as the natural portion of man was thus evidenced to be hopeless, the dawn immediately arose with coincident and answering clearness of that work and order of grace on which the divine purpose and mercy could stand.

51 The covenant of Israel at Mount Sinai at once contained the proof that the obedience of man was a hopeless ground, under any circumstances, for relationship with God to rest upon; and it also contained the complete typical development of that on which it surely would and could rest — on which comfort and peace and divine blessing could refresh the heart of man, weary with his own way; and this is the use which the apostle makes of it. It is not, Behold here the effects of the new covenant on earth; but the old covenant is a defective, faulty covenant. But the foundation of the new has been laid in the blood of the Mediator. It is not to us that the terms of the covenant, quoted from Jeremiah by the apostle, have been fulfilled, or that we are Israel and Judah; but that while the covenant is founded, not upon the obedience of a living people (to whom the blessing thereupon was to come, and the blood of a victim shed by a living mediator) but upon the obedience unto death of the Mediator Himself, on which (as its secure, unalterable foundation of grace) the covenant is founded.

[*I am aware that this great transaction between Jehovah and Israel consists of two parts, which for many purposes are to he considered distinct. The first part consists of the publication of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17), commonly called the moral law. The second part is the enactment of the statutes of the nation. (Ex. 21 — 23.) For many purposes these are to be treated as distinct, but they are commonly in scripture, I believe, considered as together constituting Jehovah's covenant with Israel from Mount Sinai, and which proved in the end a furnace to them. For both the commandments and the statutes alike called for obedience, and put Israel under works of law, which obedience they had themselves pledged, and which law they had voluntarily adopted (Ex. 19:8; Ex. 24:3, 7), and for breach and despite of which they are even to this day suffering the judgment of the fiery mount. The people were still standing in the presence of that mount, while the statutes of the kingdom, as well as the Ten Commandments, were delivered. (Ex. 24:17.)]

Let us compare the covenant made with the people at mount Sinai. God had brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand, and had led them with grace and blessing to the mount, providing for all their wants, and never reproaching them for their murmurings; and Israel encamped over against the mountain. This was God's message to them by Moses, "Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will 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 which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord," Ex. 19:4-8.

When Moses came to the people and told them "all the words of Jehovah, and all the judgments," all the people replied "with one voice, and said, All the words that Jehovah has said will we do!" Moses then recorded all these words in a book, spoken of in Ex. 24:7 as "the book of the covenant," and referred to in Hebrews 9:19 as "the book itself." It was according to the terms recorded in this book that covenant relations were to be established and maintained.

From this reign of grace to glory we turn in Ex. 19 to law accepted as the condition of blessing and finding themselves under curse, instead of owning their sinfulness and pleading the promises. All is changed to menace of death, to thunder, lightning, and thick cloud; to trumpet's sound exceeding loud, and a voice of words more awful still, so that Moses quaked. Then the Ten Words were spoken; and national judgments were given afterwards (Ex. 20-23). Blood sealed this covenant on the ground of the people doing all the words Jehovah had spoken: death was the solemn sanction of all; and Israel's elders eat and drink in God's presence. But Moses ascends higher to receive the tables of stone, and abides on high forty days and nights.

Moses in due course descended to the camp and communicated to Israel the judgments and instructions which had been committed to him. With one voice the people again answered, "All the words which Jehovah hath said will we do." (Ex. 24:3.) They agreed to enter the covenant, the terms of which were: obedience and prosperity; disobedience and ruin! Having their acceptance, Moses prepared for the confirmation of the covenant.

The covenant made with the people at Sinai was one of demand, presented to them on two stony tablets. On the ground of their fulfilment of these obligations they were to live. But they were unable to meet the demand of God, and therefore that which was ordained to life became death to them; it was found by them to be a ministration of death and condemnation. It could not do anything else, because men were by nature transgressors. They could not endure the word when it was spoken in their ears from the midst of the devouring fire, and as soon as the back of Moses was turned they apostatized from God, made a golden calf, and worshipped the idol. Stephen has to tell them centuries afterwards: “Ye received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7).

The covenant was the most solemn agreement made by man with God since the fall. Man in his sinfulness, weakness, and self-ignorance, undertook to obey all the commands of Jehovah, and agreed to gain the reward, or to lose it, by his own subjection or non-subjection to God's commands. Israel's history is written upon the face of the earth; the nation neither entered the land of promise nor remained there through obedience; and on the terms of the covenant, which they broke within a few weeks after receiving, they never will enjoy the favours promised to Abraham. But God will carry out His promise. He will also establish an entirely new covenant with Israel on a new basis, as we are informed — "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Jehovah: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith Jehovah, 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. 31:31-33.) Referring to these words, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, "In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old." It served its great end in demonstrating how impossible it is for man to inherit divine blessings by the right of obedience. The old covenant remained for many centuries, but "now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Heb. 8:13.)

God gave the Sinaitic law to His people Israel after their liberation from Egypt. With its juridical, ceremonial and moral commandments it was from the beginning meant for that people only (Deut. 4: 8; Rom. 9: 4), just as the Old Covenant was only made with Israel. Christians often overlook this fact.