THE COVENANT MADE IN HOREB.
By G. W. Holt
"The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day." Deut. v, 2, 3. It is taught by some that the covenant here made was the ten commandments. This view we consider to be incorrect, for the following reasons: A covenant is a mutual agreement between two parties. This covenant was a mutual agreement between God and the literal seed of Israel, that came out of Egypt. While this people were in the wilderness of Sinai, "Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 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. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses laid these words before the people. 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." Ex. xix. This was the covenant made in Horeb. After this covenant was made between God and the people, the Lord said unto Moses, go and sanctify the people and be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down upon mount Sinai. This mount Sinai was situated in Horeb. "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." And God spake with his voice the ten commandments or conditions of the covenant before made. After this, they were written upon two tables of stone by the finger of God. These were called the tables of the covenant, because they contained the terms of agreement. God wrote the terms of agreement on tables of stone that the people should not forget them, and to prevent a misunderstanding. That God had commandments and laws before the children of Israel ever came to Horeb is certain. And that the same moral principles of God's government existed from the creation of the world is equally certain. It is said of Abraham that he obeyed the voice of God, and kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes and his laws. And God said to Moses, in the wilderness of Sin, thirty days before the children of Israel came to Sinai, "How long refuse ye to keep my COMMANDMENTS and my LAWS? See, for that the Lord hath given you the SABBATH." Ex. xvi, 28, 29. If the literal seed of Israel had obeyed the voice of God, and kept the terms of agreement, they would have been his peculiar treasure to this day. But they did not fulfill the agreement. Therefore they are not his peculiar treasure more than any other people or nation. The promises of this covenant pertained to the welfare of that people in this life, as we shall readily see by the following texts: "Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it." Deut. xi, 8. "And it shall come to pass if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy oil." Verses 13, 14. "For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him, then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves." Verses 22, 23. "Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day; And a curse if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God" Verses 26-28. The Lord made not this covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The promises made to them were of a different class. While one pertained to the things that were seen, which were temporal, the other pertained to things that were not seen, which were eternal. The people with whom the covenant was made failed to fulfill the terms of agreement, and the predicted curses have come upon them, their children, and their land, and there is not a promise in the Bible for literal Israel, more than any other people; nor for that land more than any part of the earth.—The covenant made with Abraham was on this wise. "Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Gen. xviii, 18, 19. This covenant is sure; there is no possibility of a failure. This covenant is evidently the gospel covenant.—God said to Abraham, "As for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations." Gen. xvii, 4. Paul, in speaking of this subject says, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. iii, 16. "For they are not all Israel which are of Israel: Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called, That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Rom. ix, 6—8. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii, 26, 29. "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not of the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom. ii, 28, 29. "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek." Rom. x. 12. The promises of God which remain, are for the true seed of Abraham, that obey the voice of God, and keep his commandments and his laws, as did their father. The Jew after the flesh said to Christ. "We have Abraham to our father." The reply was, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the deeds of your father ye will do." "For finding fault with them he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make 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." Heb. viii, 8—10. This is a better covenant, established upon better promises. They bring to view, glory, honour and immortality through Jesus Christ. And the laws of God that were written on tables of stone during the old covenant, are written in the fleshly tables of the heart. In the old covenant there was no promise of mercy in case of transgression, but death was to ensue. In the new covenant God says "I will be merciful to their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." The old, related to the welfare of literal Israel in this life, in old Jerusalem, and the land of Canaan; but the promises of the new covenant are, in this life persecution and tribulation, and in the future, eternal life in the new earth, and a City that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. "Now we, brethren as Isaac was the children of promise." "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so now." The dragon will make war with the remnant that keep the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. For the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be. But the true seed of Abraham66will delight in the law of God after the inward man. God said "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Many are they at this day that would be glad to claim heirship to Abraham's inheritance, and call him their father. But if Christ was here, he would say to them, if ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But ye seek to kill me, one that has told you the truth, for what ye have done to these my disciples ye have done to me. The new covenant commenced with the mediation of Jesus in the holy place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, and that time was signified by the Holy Spirit on the day of pentecost. There, according to the promise, God began to write his laws in the hearts of the true Israel with the Holy Spirit. This work will go on as long as Jesus is a mediator in the Sanctuary. Then they will teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for all will know him from the least to the greatest. He that is righteous will be righteous still, and he that is holy will be holy still. When Jesus leaves the Sanctuary, he will present the household of Abraham to the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The work of the High Priest in the Sanctuary is almost finished. The time will soon come when all the family of Abraham, that have kept the commandments of God, will be gathered out of all nations, tongues, and people. The last trump will soon awake the sleeping multitude, that no man can number; they will be seen rising from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious immortality, and, with the living that are changed, be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And from thence be taken to the Holy City, New Jerusalem that hath twelve foundations, to live and reign with Christ a thousand years. And then to live on the new earth and reign for ever and ever. This will be the reward of Abraham and his children. Amen. Oswego, (N. Y.), Dec. 1851.