Covenant, God's at Sinai

God's faithful commitment, made in pursuance of his promises to Abraham, to acknowledge the newly-redeemed Israel as his own special people. Israel's required response to the grace of God in election was to be holiness and obedience to the law.

The occasion of the covenant

The covenant fulfilled God's promises to Abraham

Deuteronomy 29:12–13 See also Exodus 2:24, Exodus 6:4–8; Deuteronomy 7:8

so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath, and so that He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The covenant followed Israel's redemption from slavery

Jeremiah 34:13 God's covenant at Sinai was made in the context of his historical acts of deliverance. Covenants (“treaties”) between a supreme (suzerain) overlord and a subordinate ruler (vassal) are well known in ancient Near Eastern writings. They are not “agreements” but “requirements”. See also Exodus 20:2 parallel Deuteronomy 5:6; Leviticus 26:45

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying:

The covenant was mediated through Moses

Exodus 34:27; Leviticus 26:46; Deuteronomy 29:1; John 1:17

The covenant was accompanied by signs of God's presence

Exodus 19:18–19, Exodus 20:18–19, Exodus 24:16; Psalm 68:8

Sealing the covenant

The covenant relationship

Israel as God's people

Deuteronomy 7:6 See also Exodus 19:5–6; Leviticus 26:12; Deuteronomy 14:2; Jeremiah 13:11

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

Israel adopted into God's family

Hosea 11:1 See also Deuteronomy 1:30–31, Deuteronomy 8:5; Isaiah 63:16; Malachi 2:10

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

Israel as God's bride

Jeremiah 2:2 See also Isaiah 54:5–8; Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 16:8; Hosea 2:14–16

“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

The blessings of the covenant

Inheriting God's promises

Deuteronomy 6:3, Deuteronomy 26:18–19, Deuteronomy 28:9; Joshua 23:5

Provision and protection

Leviticus 26:3–13; Deuteronomy 28:1–14 This pattern of blessings and curses is also a feature of Near Eastern political treaties.

The requirements of the covenant

Obedience to the law

Exodus 24:7, Exodus 34:27–28 See also Deuteronomy 4:13; Joshua 8:31; Nehemiah 8:1

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

The LORD also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant — the Ten Commandments.

Holiness

Deuteronomy 14:2 Israel has been made holy through her election as the covenant people of God. The ensuing call for holiness is a call to work out the implications of that relationship and to live in accordance with its demands; Leviticus 11:45 See also Leviticus 20:26

for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt so that I would be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

Wholehearted devotion

Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 10:12 See also Exodus 23:32; Deuteronomy 4:23, Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 10:20; Joshua 24:14–15

For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

Breaking the covenant

The consequences of breaking the covenant

Disease: Leviticus 26:15–16; Deuteronomy 28:21–22; Leviticus 26:19–20; Deuteronomy 28:23–24; Leviticus 26:17, Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:25; Leviticus 26:32–33; Deuteronomy 28:36–37; Joshua 23:16; Ezekiel 17:19–20

Israel's unfaithfulness to the covenant

Psalm 78:37 See also 2 Kings 18:12; 1 Chronicles 5:25; Jeremiah 3:8, Jeremiah 11:10; Ezekiel 16:32; Hosea 6:7

Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

God's commitment to the covenant

God's covenant of love

Deuteronomy 7:9 “love” translates the Hebrew word “hesed”, which here expresses God's loyalty and faithful commitment to his covenant people. See also Nehemiah 1:5; Daniel 9:4

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

The everlasting covenant

Ezekiel 16:60 God's faithfulness to the covenant at Sinai will result in a new covenant that will never come to an end. See also Isaiah 61:8; Jeremiah 32:40

But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Renewing the covenant

Leviticus 26:40–45; Deuteronomy 29:1; Joshua 24:22–25; 2 Kings 23:3 parallel 2 Chronicles 34:31