Covenants 10

Chapter 10
The Mosaic Covenant
Readings: Ex 19:1-8, 24:1-8

Message: God made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai, the Old Covenant, which established Israel as a nation; the Old Covenant is dead and gone, and is no longer in effect, having been fulfilled by Christ, who instituted the New Covenant.

v Short Version: Moses is Dead, but Jesus Lives!

v Introductory Thoughts

v The churches today, as in days of old in the New Testament, are often caught between two opposing viewpoints, both of which are wrong.

· Antinomianism—

Ø This is the idea that there is no law for the Christian, no ethical standard, no code of conduct.

Ø People say, “I’m under grace now, you can’t judge me, how I act is between God and me.”

Ø People imagine that you can claim to be a Christian and live any way you want to live.

Ø These are false teachings. It is evident from The New Covenant Scriptures that Christians have a moral code, in fact, they have a far stricter moral code than the Old Covenant believers had.

· Legalism—Two Forms

Ø Imposing upon Christians, the Old Covenant, or (more commonly) parts of the Old Covenant.

Ø Devising lists of rules for Christian behavior that add to the Bible’s rule—Col 2:20-22

Ø Legalism is a false teaching, whatever form it takes. This is the doctrine of the Pharisee.

v Those who follow either of the heresies mentioned above have the same root problems—

· They do not understand the New Covenant
· They don’t really understand the Old Covenant
· They do not understand the relationship between the Old and New Covenants.

v Today, we are going to do an overview of the Mosaic Covenant, also called the Old Covenant, also (sometimes) called “The Law” or the “Law of Moses,” or sometimes, just “Moses.”

· In the Bible, it is often called the Old Covenant, in distinction from the New Covenant, as in Hebrews.
· The Old Covenant was a works oriented covenant—it is about doing, not about faith.

· The Old Covenant was a conditional covenant—“this do, and thou shalt live.” The requirement under the Law was obedience, perfect obedience, unrelenting obedience.

§ Luke 10:28, Gal 3:10

· The Old Covenant was not a Covenant of salvation. It was a national covenant made with the Physical nation of Israel, mostly lost people.

Ø The Old Covenant was not a Covenant intended to save, but was a covenant designed to convict and rule a stiffnecked and unruly people.

1. The Context of the Old Covenant

a. After Abraham died, God then reaffirmed the Abrahamic covenant with Isaac.

b. Isaac's wife, Rebecca, before her twin sons were even born, received from God a revelation that the eldest twin would not inherit the blessing, but the younger twin would be the recipient of the blessing.


c. And in a valley full of stones, named Luz, God came to Jacob. This, then, was where Jacob saw the ladder ascending into heaven with angels upon it. And at the top of the ladder was the Lord God Himself, and here the Abrahamic covenant was passed on to Jacob.

d. And in the last chapter of Genesis, the family of Jacob, approximately 70 people, entered into Egypt and received the Land of Goshen. And these 70 people comprised the future of what would become Israel; and with them they had the promises and the God of covenant.

e. Then Joseph, because he remembered and believed in the promise of God, refused to be buried in Egypt. And his casket was carried for hundreds of years.

f. Pharaoh of Egypt feared the Hebrews, and made them slaves.

g. Then in bondage, the Hebrews remembered God—though He had never forgotten them.

(1) “… The covenant had been in effect all along from God's point of view; God has not stopped saying, 'I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.' …” (R. Radic, ThD)

(2) And this is where Moses entered history. For Moses was, in effect, a contract or covenant attorney. God sent his attorney to the Pharaoh of Egypt to declare that the Hebrews were His people, that a covenant existed. And the attorney, Moses, provided Pharaoh with a warning.

(3) And as an attorney, Moses began his legal presentation with, 'Let my people go.' Moses was not giving a dissertation on slavery; he was citing the terms of a covenant. For 'my people' is a covenant phrase which delineates a blood covenant, i.e., a contract based upon blood that cannot be abrogated for any reason.

(4) Then followed the ten plagues, the first nine of which exhibited the patience and long-suffering of God; for nine times God allowed Pharaoh to 'harden his heart;' and then came the final plague, the judgment of the firstborn.

(5) And it should be noted that the judgment of the firstborn was forestalled only by the grace of God, for the judgment should have been immediate.

(6) Each plague involved an Egyptian false “god”.

(a) Egyptians worshipped the River Nile

(b) Egyptians worshipped the Crocodile god—that is why they threw the babies in the water, as a sacrifice.

(c) Egyptians worshipped the Nile Frog.

“…And at the conclusion of the nine plagues, the only god left was Pharaoh himself, for he believed that he was the incarnation of light. That is why Ra is the medial infix of the word Pharaoh. For Ra was the deity of light. And the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Ra-amses; and his very name spoke of his deity. And the ninth plague, the supernatural darkness that enveloped Egypt demonstrated that the last remaining god, the god of light, Raamses, was also impotent. For Raamses was impotent in the face of this darkness. Thus, the idols were dethroned….” (R. Radic)

h. After the Passover, after the Exodus, then Israel met with God at Mount Sinai.


2. The Old Covenant—God made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai, the Old Covenant, which established Israel as a nation; the Old Covenant is dead and gone, and is no longer in effect, having been fulfilled by Christ, who instituted the New Covenant.

a. The Covenant Proposed—Exo 19:3-6

(1) This was a national covenant
(2) This was a national covenant for Israel only.
(3) It was a covenant imposed by God.
(4) Unlike the Abrahamic Covenant, it was conditional—“…this do and live…”, there were a lot of “ifs.”

b. The Covenant Accepted—19:7-8

(1) The people pledged to follow all the words of God.
(2) This was an impossible pledge, but they made it anyway.

c. The words of the Covenant—Exo 20:1-3

(1) The Ten Commandments were the covenant—Exo 34:28, Deu 4:13, Deu 10:4

(2) What about the Other Laws? There were three other types of commands associated with the Old Covenant, spread throughout Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

(a) The “judgments,” which applied the ten basic laws— Exo 21:1
(i) These “judgments” were like our administrative regulations in some respects.
(ii) These judgments were like case law in other respects.
(iii) These judgments are moral in nature, and are explanations and reflections of one or more of the Ten Commandments.
(iv) Examples

(i) Exo 21:11-14— This is what we could call in our culture the difference between premeditated murder and voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.
(ii) Exo 22:2—In our system, we would call this justifiable homicide.

(b) The second general category of supplementary laws in the Old Covenant are the regulations of the tabernacle services and the priesthood—Heb 9:1-5
(c) The third general category of supplementary laws in the Old Covenant are the Dietary and sanitary laws—Deu 14:9-10
(d) Deu 22:9-11
(e) But these various laws were NOT the covenant: The ten commandments were the covenant.

d. The Covenant Made—Exo 24:3-8

e. The Covenant, and the Administration of the Covenant summed up.

(1) The Tablets of Stone—the Covenant
(2) The judgments—the commands that implemented the Covenant.
(3) Leviticus—the priesthood manual of the Aaronic priesthood.

f. Observations, category 1—the Law

(1) Every part of the Hebrew citizen’s life was regulated.
(2) The Law had no grace in it—a man who broke the Sabbath by picking up sticks was stoned to death!

Gal 4:21 "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?"

(3) The Hebrew people were rebellious about following the Law—they never really followed it.
(4) The Law was not selective—you were required to follow every little point of it—Gal 3:10 "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."
(5) Those today who want to put Christians under the Old Covenant always do it partially, picking out this law or that law—the Bible knows nothing of that method.
(6) You cannot pick out a rule from the Old Covenant and willy-nilly apply that rule in the New Covenant, unless you want to go back under the whole Old Covenant.
(7) The Old Covenant is not for the church.
(8) With the Old Covenant, it was all or nothing. If you want to go back under the Old Covenant, you must go all the way.

ü Build a stone altar
ü Don’t eat pork and catfish
ü Worship on the Sabbath (Saturday), and do absolutely nothing else on the Sabbath, even if it means your boss fires you.
ü Let your sideburns and beard grow long.
ü Wear a hat at all times.
ü Tithe 27%.
ü No blended cloth in your clothes—pure cotton or wool only.
ü Don’t mix types of grass seed.
ü Have only unleavened bread for Passover.
ü No cheeseburgers—you cannot mix cheese and meat under the Law.

Gal 4:21 "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?"

(9) The Old Covenant was for the nation of Israel of that time, not for the gentile nations at any time, and not even for Israel today!

(10) The church is under the New Covenant, and it is the New Covenant’s rules which we must learn and follow.

3. The Old Covenant Today—

a. The Law has been fulfilled—God made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai, the Old Covenant, which established and governed Israel as a nation; the Old Covenant is dead and gone, and is no longer in effect, having been fulfilled by Christ, who instituted the New Covenant.

b. Why Did God Cut The Old Covenant?

(1) Because of the sin and transgressions of stiffnecked Israel, God gave them the Law to govern them until the Messiah came. Gal 3:19-24

(2) The Law convinced and convicted men of their sins—Rom 3:19-20

c. The Old Covenant Was Never A Covenant of Salvation.

(1) It did not supersede the Abrahamic Covenant, which was the Covenant of Promise.

(2) It did not offer a viable way of salvation.

(3) The only way to salvation is through faith in Christ, and that is the only way of salvation there has ever been! Gal 3:21-22

d. The Old Covenant Was Fulfilled by Christ on the Cross.

(1) He said He would do—Mat 5:17
(2) He did what He said— Rom 10:4
(3) Heb 8:6-13 , Heb 9:11-14

e. The Church is not under the Old Covenant, the Church is under the New Covenant—Mat 26:28, Heb 9:15

f. What does the Old Covenant have to say to the church?

(1) The Old Covenant helps us understand God’s view of morality and Law. Much of our secular law in the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition comes directly from the Law of Moses.

(2) Nine of the ten commandments of the Old Covenant are repeated in the New Covenant. (The Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ—we do not worship on the Sabbath, we worship on the Lord’s day.)

(3) The Old Covenant rules can be used for applications: To apply Old Covenant rules today:

(a) Show that a particular rule has not been openly superseded.
(b) Examples: the laws of clean and unclean foods have been superseded. The laws against murder and adultery have not been superseded.
(c) Show that the rule is part of an eternal moral principle—that is, it was in effect in the Old Covenant, and it is specifically made part of the New Covenant.
(d) Example: the laws against homosexuality are re-iterated in the New Covenant, so the Old Covenant rules still apply.
(e) Example: the principle of tithing (giving God a tenth) goes back before the Old Covenant. It goes all the way back to Abram, so it is a valid idea. However, the rules and regulations specifically regarding the tithe in the Old Covenant are not for the New Covenant (the Old Covenant tithes added up to 27%!).

(4) The types and shadows of the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system are pictures of Christ.

(5) In the Old Covenant, we see how God dealt with sinful, rebellious, Israel.

(a) Paul tells us that the things that happened to Israel are for our example—1 Cor 10:5-12
(b) Hebrews uses the judgments against Israel as a warning to professing believers who ignore God’s Word and rebel against Him—Heb 3:8-12


g. What does the apostle say about the Law and the New Testament church? Law is a dead covenant—to go under the Law is to throw off freedom and return to a yoke of slavery—Gal 5:1

Applications—the Law and You

1. If you are a born again believer, the Law can inform you, but the Law does not govern you.

2. If you are lost, the Law can tell you your sin, tell you your sinfulness, and it can tell you your need of Christ, but it cannot save you.

3. Christ fulfilled the Law on the Cross.

4. The Law is a dead covenant, good for information, but not a rule of Life for anyone living today.

God made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai, the Old Covenant, which established and governed Israel as a nation; the Old Covenant is dead and gone, and is no longer in effect, having been fulfilled by Christ, who instituted the New Covenant.