What was the Old Covenant?

The old covenant was given by Moses and written upon two tables of stone. It was a covenant of demand and it expressed the disposition in which God as Lawgiver took up Israel. He came out to make His righteous demand known to them. The Ten Commandments were first uttered audibly in the ears of the people by the voice of God, and afterwards written by His finger upon the two tables.

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 with the children of Israel at Sinai, on the other hand, was conditional: if they were obedient and kept the law they would be blessed; but if disobedient they would be cursed. Deut. 27, 28.

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.

49 We then come to Mount Sinai — the first covenant made with Israel as a nation. And here, as the covenant was of course confined to the nation or literal seed recently delivered, so the subject matter of the promises was honour and blessing before that God whose all the earth was. This was the old covenant, as we afterwards read of the new covenant, which latter implies (as expressed in its terms) that it was made with the same people: both (whatever their character) dealing with them as a people — i.e., in reference to earth, although putting them as on earth into relationship to God. The new covenant (however its terms then might introduce new principles applicable to strangers) could not be said to be "not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt," were it not a covenant made with Israel — the same people with whom the former covenant was made at Mount Sinai. Whoever will but examine Jeremiah 31, from which this very important testimony is quoted, will at once see that the new covenant is to, and with, Israel; as moreover it is not quoted by the apostle in any epistle except that to the Hebrews.

But now we come to the question of the old and new covenants: there is one thing always implied in the covenant of the law, and that was a condition. A covenant is an agreement between two parties upon certain conditions being fulfilled. A man promises to do certain things if the other person will fulfil his engagements. That is the covenant of the law. God promises to bless His people if they on their part will obey the law. Look, for instance, at this eleventh chapter of Jeremiah. I would suggest that you read it at your leisure. In the 2nd verse, "Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem" etc., (vers. 1-4); you will find throughout the entire chapter that it is a reminder of the first covenant, of God's promises to Israel in connection with it, and of their promises to fulfil His commandments. I need hardly refer you to the engagement which Israel entered into at Sinai, and how Moses took the blood of that covenant and sprinkled it upon the book where the laws were written, and upon the people, and upon everything, and called God and man to witness that the covenant had been sealed by blood; and we need look onward but a few steps in Israel's history, to the apostasy of the golden calf, to see how they broke the first conditions of blessing under that covenant.

So far as that covenant was concerned, Israel could only get a curse pronounced upon them for disobedience. Look at Moses coming down from the mount with the table of the covenant in his arms. He carries in his arms the conditions upon which God Himself will fulfil His promise to the people. Notice the scene: God on high in His holiness and majesty; Moses with the tables of the law in his hands; and down yonder in the camp a golden calf is set up, and the people dancing in drunken shamelessness. There is a picture of the first covenant, and its futility. There you have God's holiness and man's sin, and here, in the arms of the lawgiver, the witness of that perfect law which could only bring a curse upon them.

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.

In the book of Exodus we have the historical account of Israel formally entering into a covenant with God. Jehovah undertakes to bless the people if they will obey His voice and keep His covenant. The people on their side undertake to do their part, as we read, “All the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:5-8). Later, this covenant is renewed by the people and sealed with blood (Ex. 24:6-8).

It becomes manifest that, under the old covenant, the people of Israel were set in outward relationship with God on the ground of law. If they kept the law, life and blessing on earth were promised to them; if they broke the law, they were cursed. The blessing all depended upon man doing his part. This was the weakness of the first covenant, for it is manifest that a fallen man cannot keep God's holy law. Thus a place is sought for a second covenant, of which Christ is the Mediator.

In the old dispensation, God stated the terms on which He could be with Israel and on which they could be His people. These terms were embodied in the Law or the First Covenant. In that, the opportunity was given to man to prove what he could do with God's help. The Covenant resulted in man proving unfaithful at the very first test. It depended on man's obedience which was the condition of blessing.

It could hardly be said that the old covenant of law was established upon promises at all, though there were certain promises connected with it. It was established rather upon a bargain, in which Israel undertook in all things to obey, and God guaranteed certain blessings conditional upon their obedience. The bargain was hardly concluded before it was broken by Israel making the golden calf. The fact that the new covenant is established upon promises, that those promises are God's, and that they are better than anything proposed under the law, at once differentiates it sharply from the old. To gain some idea of these better promises you must read the latter part of our chapter, which is quoted from the passage in Jeremiah 31 — where the new covenant itself is promised — verses 31 to 34. God's "I will," is the characteristic feature of it. All is a question of what God is going to do, and of what consequently Israel is going to be and have.