THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

                                                                 CHAPTER TWO

              THE EVERLASTING COVENANT IDENTIFIED

Now the biggest challenge that we face is in the area of identifying The Everlasting Covenant. We have already clearly established the crucial role that it plays and the central role that it occupies in the Grand Plan of Salvation. Let the Bible speak to us about this matter.

Exodus 19:5 is very clear that The Ten Commandments plus all the other laws that God gave at Mt Sinai Constitutes the terms and conditions of The Everlasting Covenant (Exodus 20 to 23). This is very strange because most people understand the Ten Commandments to be a mere set of laws which cannot qualify to be referred to as terms and conditions of such a covenant. It is however important for all of us to appreciate that the Ten Commandments are general summaries defining the complex and indescribable will of God.  

It is important to point out at this point in time that although the specifications or the terms of the Everlasting Covenant were well defined at Mt Sinai, the terms have been applicable since the fall of man in Eden as is evident from 1Chronicles 16:15-20 which says it is the same Covenant which God also gave to Abraham and Jacob and the entire Church throughout history. The terms of the Covenant will always apply as long as the Plan of Salvation is not consummated by the second coming.

The Ten Commandments also define the glorious character of God in a parabolic manner. In His wisdom, God designed the Ten Commandments to sound like rules and regulations in order to ‘appeal’ to sinful humanity. We put our signatures on the terms of the Covenant when the Church of Israel took an oath binding themselves and all future saints to the terms of the Covenant (Exodus: 24:5-8).

STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS

Exodus 24:3-4 is very clear that all the words that God spoke amidst that awful grandeur of Mt Sinai constitutes the terms of The Everlasting Covenant. These words are recorded from the 20^th to the 23th chapter of Exodus. These words constitute the Ten Commandments as well as the 70 or so other laws whose work is to help in the operationalization and implementation of the Ten. Since the Ten are general summaries, God found it wise to provide other statutes and judgments to explain the summarized Ten Commandments.

It is not possible to obey any of the Ten Commandments without getting directions and guidance from the added statutes and judgments which are recorded from the 21^st to the 23^rd chapter of Exodus. For instance, the sixth Commandment simply says “Thou shall not kill” but it does not give details as to what should be done to anyone who breaks that law. It is the work of the added statutes and judgments in Exodus 21 to 23 to provide such missing details and information. Every one of the Ten Commandments has added details in the statutes and judgments. The Ten are not complete without the added statutes and judgments. The Ten cannot work without the added statutes and judgments. The Ten and the added statutes are like Siamese twins sharing the same heart.

One of the greatest teachers of the Bible had this to say about the added statutes and Judgments.”That all obligations of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) might be more fully understood and enforced, additional precepts were given illustrating and applying the principles of the Ten Commandments. These laws are called judgments (P &P pg 310)”. Most of us christens do not see the connection between the Ten and the statutes. We see them as two different sets of laws. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Some have even erroneously baptized them as ‘ceremonial laws’.  The Bible is very clear that all the words that God uttered at Mt Sinai are part and parcel of the Everlasting Moral law or the Decalogue. What we should baptize ‘ceremonial laws” are the laws which were given one year after the awful grandeur of Mt Sinai. Those laws talked about offerings and sacrifices. We call them the Levitical laws.

The entire Covenant is designed in such a manner as to be sufficient in meeting all the spiritual and social needs of the Church at any given time. God’s expects that His people should use these set of laws as their constitution wherever they may live. God expects that His people will be guided by the principles established by the terms of the Covenant to establish themselves safely wherever they settled.

You will realize that so important was the Covenant that Moses was instructed to write all the terms of the Covenant in a book which was called the Book of The Covenant. This book contained all the Ten Commandments plus the 70 or so added statutes and judgments. This means the Covenant Book contained all the laws recorded from the 20^th to the 23th Chapter of Exodus. In other words, the Book of The Covenant contained all the words that God uttered at Mt Sinai.

The book of the Covenant was supposed to be read in the seventh year during the Feast of The Tabernacles of that 7^th or Sabbatical year. This is the only time that everyone, women and children included were required to gather in the temple and listen to the public reading of the Book of The Covenant (Deuteronomy 31:10). This means every seven years God took time to remind the entire Nation of Israel concerning their lofty expectations and obligations under the terms and conditions of The Everlasting Covenant. This was a law as serious as the one on the seventh day Sabbath. There is no other book in the entire Bible that God instructed should be read regularly as a law apart from the Covenant book.

TABLETS OF STONE

There was also the two tablets of stone on which were written all the words that God uttered at Mt Sinai. This included the Ten plus the added 70 or so other statutes and judgments which explain the details of the Ten. I believe the first four laws were written in front of the 1^st stone while the other six were written in front of the second stone. Then the 70 or so statutes were written on the back of those stones (Exodus 32:15).

You must be well aware of the fact that most people (maybe including yourself) believe that it is only the Ten Commandments which were written on the stone tablets with four on one tablet and six on the other but many do not believe there were others written at the back but the Bible is very clear that all the words that God uttered in Mt Sinai on that day were written on the two stone tablets in front and at the back and put inside the Ark to show how everlasting they are (Exodus 32:15-16).