p. 115 | The Two Covenants by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 8, 1883

The Two Covenants.

By John Nevins Andrews

(Continued.)

NEXT, the Lord proceeds to the final contract between himself and the people. In the preliminary contract, recorded in Ex. 19, the people had solemnly pledged themselves to obey the voice of God. In Ex. 20, they heard that voice in ten precepts. And now it is worthy of notice how careful was the Most High, in this work of entering into covenant with his people, to take no advantage of them. Before hearing his voice, they had pledged themselves to obey it. But the Lord did not treat the contract as closed yet. With an invitation to a large number of persons to come up to him, he sends Moses again to the people. Ex. 24:1, 2. They had heard the voice of God. Do they still stand to their solemn pledge that they would obey it? Lest they had forgotten something of that which God had spoken, and that they might be informed of all that God had communicated to him in the mount, it is next added:—

"And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments." Ex. 24:3. The people have the chance now to refuse to close this most solemn compact if they see cause for so doing. They might have said, "When we agreed to obey the voice of God, we had not heard it. Now that we have heard it, we cannot abide by our promise." And Moses, by repeating every word again, gave them the most perfect opportunity for so doing. But, observe the answer of the people:—

"And all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said we will do." Ex. 24:3. We might suppose that this would close the contract between the parties. But not so. Further acts of ratification were to take place. The whole thing must be put in writing. And thus we read:—

"And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord." And now the solemnity of a sacrifice to God must take place. So it is added that Moses "rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord." Verses 4, 5.

The sacrifice of these victims having been thus made to God by the people, the blood itself is carefully secured for an important purpose. And so the record adds:—

"And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar." Verse 6. One half of the blood was offered upon the altar, a direct offering to God. The other half was reserved for another and most expressive solemnity.

We learn from verse 4 that Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. Now verse 7 tells us what he did with what was written. What Moses now reads is called the book of the covenant. For it contained the covenant between God and the people as far as, at that point, it had been consummated. And observe again the care of the Almighty that the people should understand every word of that to which they agree. Moses reads every word of the whole transaction in the audience of the people. Thus verse 7 states the case:—

"And he took the BOOK OF THE COVENANT; and read in the audience of the people." Here is yet another opportunity for them to say that they could not abide by their first promise. But instead of speaking thus, they give their final and unreserved assent to this solemn compact. And thus the verse continues: "And they said, All that the Lord hath said we will do, and be obedient." This closed the contract on the part of the people. But there yet remained a most expressive act on the part of Moses, and a final, solemn announcement to be made by him, which not only proclaimed the accomplishment of the work, but gave a definite idea of what had been done. And so we next read:—

"And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people." Or, as Paul states the case, he "sprinkled both the book and all the people." Verse 8; Heb. 9:19. One-half of the blood had been already offered to God upon the altar, the remaining half is that which Moses thus uses. And how solemn and expressive is this act! It is what Paul calls the dedication of the covenant. Heb. 9:18. He sprinkles both the book and all the people. And thus they enter, in the most solemn manner, into the bond of the covenant. And thus the solemn espousal of the people by the Lord of hosts having been consummated, Moses announces the result in words which define the contract with remarkable precision. Having sprinkled the book, and the people, Moses said to them:—

"Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you CONCERNING ALL THESE WORDS."

We have now the first covenant, complete and entire. And certainly it is possible for us to determine what constitutes it. We say that the first covenant, this solemn contract, or agreement, between God and the people of Israel concerning the law of God. Our opponents, on the contrary, affirm that the first covenant was simply the law itself. According to the first view, the first covenant was the contract made at Sinai between God and Israel concerning the law of God, or ten commandments, obedience to that law constituting the condition of the covenant.

According to the second view, the first covenant was simply the ten commandments.

The first view is the more comprehensive, as it presents the two leading definitions of the word covenant, and answers to them both. 1. It presents as the covenant the contract between the parties. 2. It presents the condition to the contract.

But the second view presents as the first covenant that which answers to the definition of covenant only in its secondary sense; viz., the condition on which the contract rests. Undoubtedly the word covenant is thus used in the Bible. And for that reason many persons suppose that the ten commandments answer to, and constitute, the first covenant of which Jeremiah and Paul speak. That view of this subject which is really the truth will give to every part of the testimony its proper place, and will then show a divine harmony of the whole. But error must of necessity suppress, or pervert, the truth. Here are the more important passages quoted to prove that the ten commandments constitute the first covenant:—

Ex. 34:28: "And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." Deut. 4:13: "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 9:9-11: "When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water; and the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant." 1 Kings 8:21: "And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt." 2 Chron. 6:11: "And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, that he made with the children of Israel."

These are the texts relied upon by our opponents to disprove our views of the first covenant and to establish their own. We freely admit that the word covenant is applied to the ten commandments; and further, we also admit, or, to speak more properly, we maintain that the ten commandments do sustain a very important relation to the first covenant. But all parties must agree, 1. That the ten commandments are not a covenant in the sense of being a contract or agreement, as they contain no such thing. 2. That they are a covenant in the sense of being the conditions of the agreement which God made with Israel.

It does not seem that either of these two propositions can be denied by any candid man, as they are, manifestly, the exact truth. Both parties to this controversy must here come together upon common ground. And if they each act with a pure conscience, it will be difficult for them to disagree respecting the following proposition:—

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS DO NOT CONSTITUTE THE COVENANT OF EX. 24:8.

The text reads thus: "And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you CONCERNING ALL THESE WORDS." Two palpable reasons sustain, the foregoing proposition: 1. The covenant made with Israel "concerning all these words," was the agreement which the people entered into with the Almighty, as recorded in Ex. 19 and 24, that they would keep the words spoken by him. 2. The ten commandments were the words concerning which this covenant or agreement was made. These reasons are not likely to be disputed. They establish the fact, therefore, that the covenant which was ratified or dedicated with blood by Moses was not the ten commandments. On the contrary, it is a covenant in a more extensive sense than they can be. It is an agreement between God and Israel concerning his law, and that law is elsewhere called the covenant, not because there is in it a contract between God and his people, but simply because it is the grand condition of the contract, or covenant, which Moses here dedicates with blood. It is remarkable that the people entered into formal and solemn contract to obey the voice of God before they heard it, and that having heard his voice they ratified that contract in the most solemn manner; and that to conclude all, Moses, having written the whole thing in a book, sprinkled both it and all the people, saying, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." Ex. 24:8.

Both parties to the controversy respecting the first covenant will here again certainly unite in saying that Moses uses the word covenant in this remarkable text, not as signifying the ten commandments, but the agreement made respecting them. Here we stand on solid ground, and our opponents will not attempt to drive us hence. And now that we are so happily agreed in this fact, let us advance to the important truth which lies directly before us. Here it is:—

The contract made in Ex. 19 and 24, relative to the ten commandments, which Moses (Ex. 24:8) calls "the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words," is the identical first covenant concerning which we are involved in controversy.

This proposition, our opponents stoutly deny. But so certainly as they are honest men (and we are ready to award this noble quality to every one of them who has not given palpable proof that he does not possess it), they will be constrained to agree with us here also. Providentially, we have the testimony of the New Testament in so explicit and distinct an utterance as to leave no chance for dispute on this point. Paul quotes this very record in Ex. 24:8, respecting the dedication of the covenant concerning the law of God, and makes the explicit statement that this covenant thus dedicated was the first covenant. Here are his words:— "Whereupon neither the FIRST TESTAMENT [covenant] was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the

law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament [covenant] which God hath enjoined unto you." Heb. 9:18-20.

Here, also, we have a right to ask our opponents to agree with us. In fact, the testimony is so explicit that there is no chance for them to do otherwise. Paul settles this point in dispute, and shows that the first covenant is not the law of God, but the solemn contract between God and Israel respecting that law. And that which makes Paul's testimony in this case very valuable is, that he writes as a commentator upon those words of Jeremiah which constitute the theme of this discourse.

J. N. A.