What Was the "Old Covenant" That Was Done Away?
By H. F. Courter
MENTION of the old covenant, with a statement of the new covenant, was given by Jeremiah the prophet (Jer. 31: 31-34), and reiterated in the New Testament in the following words: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make ["complete entirely."—Strong.] 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 lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." Heb. 8: 8-13.5 The question is, What was the old covenant that was done away? Was it the Scriptures, called "the Old Testament," or old covenant? Was it "His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone"? Deut. 4: 13. Remember that wherever we find the word "testament," it might just as properly have been translated "covenant," according to the Greek. There are a number of covenants recorded in the Scriptures. We must therefore with great care search for data by which we can determine what that "old covenant" was. The above scripture gives us abundance of data: - The first or old covenant was faulty. Heb. 8: 6.
- It was given in the wilderness. Heb. 8: 9.
- It was made with Israel, as is the new. Heb. 8: 9, 10.
- When Moses dedicated it, "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: 19, 20.
Was It the Old Testament Scriptures?
First, let us examine the four tokens given above as applied to the Scriptures written before Christ made His appearance in the flesh. Whatever may be thought of the first and third tokens given above as applying to those Scriptures, no one can claim that the second and fourth apply to them; for but very little of the Scripture was written at that time. Again, Christ and the apostles always called them by such titles as "Scriptures," "Holy Scriptures," "the law and the prophets," etc., but never did they call them the old covenant (testament). Therefore it is clear that the Scriptures written before Christ are not the old covenant that was done away. It was very unfortunate that man should have given the two divisions of the Bible the names "Old" and "New" Testaments; for many have thus concluded that all that was written before Christ, including the Ten Commandments, was done away. Second, let us examine the data, or tokens, to see if they can all be applied to the law, or covenant, which He commanded them to perform, the Ten Commandments. David says of this law, or covenant, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." It could not be "faulty" and still be "perfect." Ezekiel refers to this law thus: "I gave them My statutes, and showed them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. 20: 11, 12. Paul speaks of God's Ten Commandment law in these terms: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Rom. 3: 31. "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. . . . The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. . . . For we know that the law is spiritual." Rom. 7: 7, 12, 14. We see, therefore, that the first datum, or token, by which we know the old covenant, does not apply to the law of God, the commanded covenant. There is no use of examining further data in regard to this; for if it fails to meet the requirement in one point, it can not be the covenant referred to as the "old covenant" that was done away. But what is a covenant? — A covenant is usually an agreement between two or more parties. In Ex. 19: 3 to 24: 8 we have the making and dedication of the old covenant that was done away. All the data given by which we should know the old covenant are found here. Let us notice for a moment the condition of the people. They were ignorant, having always been in slavery. When they saw the wonders wrought in Egypt, the opening of the Red Sea, and the wonderful provision of food in the wilderness, they thought that they could do anything such a God would require of them. Therefore God gave them an opportunity to try, thereby teaching them their utter helplessness without Him. Notice the conditions God required of the people of Israel, and the promises He made upon the conditions being fulfilled: "Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; . . . 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." Ex. 19: 3-6. Here God proposed to make a bargain, or covenant, with Israel to keep His covenant and obey His voice. And after Moses explained the terms of the proposed covenant, "all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The Commandments Reiterated
Now the terms of the agreement having been accepted by the people, God directs the people to prepare to hear His covenant, the Ten Commandments, reiterated from the holy mount. I say "reiterated," for the same law was from the beginning. Cain was guilty of breaking it in killing his brother. The antediluvians broke it and perished. Gen. 6: 5-7. But Abraham kept it. "Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26: 5. God's law then contained the Sabbath, as it did when He spoke it from the mount. "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no." This admonition concerning the law and the Sabbath was more than one month before the law was proclaimed from Sinai. Before the Lord seals the bargain, or old covenant, with the people, He comes down and proclaims in awful grandeur His covenant, which they were ready to covenant to perform. He also gave them other instruction in the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-third chapters of Exodus. No Excuse for Misunderstanding
After Moses had repeated God's covenant, the Ten Commandments, and all the other instruction found in those chapters, the people again said, "All the words which the Lord hath said will we do." Ex. 24: 3. Then Moses wrote all that he had repeated to them, in a book, called the "book of the covenant," and read it to them. The people could have no excuse for not understanding it, and now they entered fully into the agreement. "And they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." Moses prepared to seal, or dedicate the covenant with blood. "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." Verse 8. Notice that this old covenant was not those words, the Ten Commandments and other instruction God had given them, but it was a covenant made "concerning all these words." If it is possible to make this last point plainer, let us suppose that to Charley are given certain chores to do, among which, he is required to milk, feed, and water two cows, attend to a span of horses, feed the chickens, and bring in the wood. But Charley is so full of play that his father frequently has to remind him of some of his chores. Now it is Charley's duty to attend to all those chores; but in order to help him form the habit of attending to his duties without being prompted, the father makes a bargain, or covenant, with his son, that if he will attend to all these duties for six months without having to be told, he, the father, will get him a bicycle. If the boy fails to keep his covenant, it does not release him from attending to those chores. Likewise, when Israel failed to keep their covenant with God, it did not release them from the duty to keep God's commanded covenant and obey His voice. Notice that in the old covenant there is no promise of help or forgiveness. The new covenant promises help and forgiveness. It is therefore founded on better promises. The new covenant contains God's law, the commanded covenant, written in the heart. It is therefore perfect.