Week 24 The Mosaic Covenant

Exodus 24:1-8

Review of Covenants

-  Covenants are oaths divinely administered.  God or gods ultimately responsible for enforcement of covenant

-  Different types:

  1.  Suzerain-Vassal covenants - The vassal performs certain duties for the suzerain.  In   

   return the suzerain provides protection for the vassal.

  2.  Royal Grant covenant - The suzerain grants the vassal something as a gift.

Parts of a Covenant

   1.  Preamble - Identifies the suzerain

   2.  Historical Prologue - Gives a history of the relationship between the suzerain and vassal.  Establishes motivation for obedience.  

   3.  Stipulation - The requirements of the vassal

   4.  Sanctions  - The rewards and penalties of following or not following the stipulations.

   5.  Documentary Clause -  Directions for where covenant was placed.  

   6.  Ratification Oath - The vassal binds himself to keep all the stipulations.  Often

involved ritual sacrifice.

-  Law is not just a list of rules like a legal code, it is a covenant:

1.  Laws are given to a particular group of people

2.  Sanctions based on performance of stipulations

Q.  What does this mean for how me apply the covenant today?

-  Lets see how this fits in with other covenants we have studied.

Q.  The first covenant we studied was the covenant with Adam.  What were the terms of the Adamic covenant?

-  Adam would tend and keep the garden, be fruitful and multiply, and not eat of the forbidden fruit.  He and his descendants as God’s images, would develop the kingdom given to them by God, the earth.  Just as God had worked to create the universe, man would develop the earth and enter into Sabbath rest along with God enjoying His presence and access to the tree of life.  This covenant is a works covenant similar to the suzerain-vassal treaties.

-  This covenant man broke and so God could have thrown up his hands and given up but instead he establishes a remedial covenant.  It is promised first in Genesis 3:15 and sketched out more fully in the covenant made with Abraham.  So this is a covenant of redemption.  This is a promissory covenant and similar to the royal grant covenants.  

-  This covenant of redemption is established between the seed and His people.  It continues through the covenant with Abraham and through the New Covenant and Christ until the present age.

-  The covenant of redemption is based on the principle of grace.  All that is required is to put your faith in Christ if you are a New testament believer or in the seed or messiah to come if you are an Old Testament saint. 
-  Looking at salvation from a covenantal standpoint, we are submitting ourselves to Christ and trusting in Him to be the obedient vassal who will, as the second Adam, complete the task given to Adam and thus obtain the offered Sabbath rest and access to the tree of life.  

-  God’s kingdom does is in effect earned, it is earned through works, but it is Christ who completes the work.  We gain the benefit of Christ’s work by submitting ourselves to Him and putting our faith in Him as God’s vassal rather than standing before God ourselves as God’s vassals.  

-  This is the first step in understanding why God gives us the law and something like the Mosaic covenant.  We must understand that salvation can only be obtained by grace, however it is also earned through Christ’s work. 

Q. Is the Mosaic Covenant a Suzerain-Vassal Covenant of a Royal Grant Covenant?

-  It has always been controversial to assign a category to the Mosaic covenant.  It seems works based but there are aspects that point to Jesus like the sacrificial system.  Also because of the fall man’s sinfulness prevents him from having the ability to earn salvation.

Q.    Adam at least had the ability not to sin, why would God assign a covenant where the terms were impossible to keep?  

-  In response, some theologians assign it as another administration of the covenant of grace and make it a promissory covenant.  

Q.  What happens if you decided that the Mosaic Covenant is a Royal-Grant Covenant?

However, there are a lot of mental gymnastics to make the Mosaic covenant fit into this category and they do not seem to be very satisfying.  You also have to ignore a lot of what Paul says about the contrast between law and grace.

-  There is also the problem of the point of a promissory covenant.  The point of a promissory covenant is that the blessing is guaranteed.  However, what was the blessing of the Mosaic covenant?  The blessing of the Mosaic covenant was continued existence in the promised land.  What ultimately happened to the people under the Mosaic covenant?  Israel was exiled specifically because they did not follow the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant.  

Q.  If the Mosaic covenant is a promissory covenant, what does Israel’s exile mean?  

-  It means that those under the terms of the New Covenant can lose their promised blessing.  However, we know there is no condemnation for those under Christ.  

-  The O.T. also uses the image of divorce.  The prophets condemn the Israelites for their infidelity comparing Israel to a prostitute until God issues a bill of divorce.  The bill of divorce results in the exile.

-  However, the church as Christ’s bride, can never be divorced from Christ.  There is something fundamentally different between these two covenants.  To try to make them the same creates more problems than it solves.  

-  Leviticus 18:5, the principle of “do this and live” 

-  The blessings and the curses shouted at Mt. Gerazim and Mt. Ebal

-  It makes more sense to think of the Mosaic covenant as a suzerain-vassal covenant operating under a works principle. 

-  The key is who takes the oath.  Under the Mosaic covenant it is the people who take the oath.  Yet they are unable to keep the stipulations and so they cannot benefit from the blessings and instead are subject to the curses.  That is why Paul saws the law is a curse.

Republication

-  There are striking similarities between the Mosaic covenant and the covenant with Adam.  

-  Both Adam and the Israelites are given a land and a mission and rules.  The land of milk and honey looks back to the abundance of the garden in Eden.

-  Both Adam and the Israelites were promised blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.  The penalty for disobedience was exile which represented separation from the presence of God and death.  

-  There is a difference though.  Adam’s disobedience led to actual death.  The penalties of the Mosaic covenant deal with continued existence in the land of Israel and not questions of eternal salvation and damnation.  

Leviticus 26:3-13

-  The Mosaic covenant is only a picture, it is a type and shadow of reality.  

-  For example Daniel suffers the penalty of exile.  He spends his whole life after he is taken away as a child in Babylon.  However, few would doubt that his eternal salvation is secured because of his faith in God.  

-  Daniel suffers the picture of death and exile but not the reality.   

-  At the same time, certain aspects of the Mosaic covenant still present grace in type and shadow that point toward Christ.

Q.  What are some examples of this?

1.  Priesthood

2.  Sacrificial System

-  These two things allow us to draw near to God.  Ultimately that is God’s purpose in the covenant - we would be His people and He would be our God.  

-  On one hand the Mosaic covenant looks back to the covenant with Adam, but also looks ahead to the New Covenant.

-  The Mosaic Covenant does not annul the covenant of grace that begins with the promise in Genesis 3:15 and comes to fullness in Abraham.  The Mosaic covenant is rather built on top like an overlay.  

1.  Jeremiah 31:31-33 - Shows contrast between Old Covenant and New Covenant.  Note that this passage specifically describes the old covenant as the one made when Israel was led out of Egypt.  Later when Jesus introduces the Lord’s Supper, He says that the wine is the blood of the New Covenant referring to this passage.

Q.  What is the basic difference between these two covenants? 

-  The new covenant cannot be broken

2.  Romans 10:4-10 - Moses taught both works and truth. Levitcus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30.  Grace principle was not suspended during the time of the Mosaic covenant.  Paul is actually quoting from a section in Deuteronomy that introduces the New Covenant for the first time.

-  We see this in the ministry of the prophets.  The prophets spent a lot of time condemning Israel for their failure to live out the Mosaic Covenant.  However, these same prophets also proclaimed a new covenant, return from exile, restoration and renewal.

So if the Mosaic Covenant is doomed to failure and Christ and the New Covenant are ultimately superior, what is the point of the Mosaic Covenant?

1.  Communicates the righteousness and holiness that is needed to earn entrance into the kingdom of Heaven.  Heaven must be earned.  It comes at a cost.  The unrighteous do not have a right to the kingdom.  

2.  Law is a pedagog.  A pedagog is not a teacher or a didaskalos.  A pedagog was a slave who beat the child to get him to go to school and do his work.  It drives us to Christ by showing our inability to keep the law.  

3.  Gives us context so we can understand Christ’s work.  Galatians 4:4-5