A Covenant with Israel: Choose Life
In Exodus 19 (see also Exodus 25:40) we read the account of Moses on Mount Sinai, where the Lord institutes the covenant of the law with Israel. This included the Ten Commandments and the other hundreds of commandments, which were linked to the ten. In Deuteronomy 5:2-5 it says, “The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb”, in reference to Exodus 19. This covenant is explained further in Deuteronomy 28, where God explains the blessings attached for obeying this law and the curses as a result of disobedience.
The first thing we must realize that Israel had a choice, they could choose not to go under the law or not, God always gives us a choice. But, in their pride, they told Moses to go and speak to God for them, telling him they accepted the deal and that they understood the consequences (Deuteronomy 26:16-19). Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life" God always gives us a choice; He even gave us the correct answer, “choose life”. By saying this God was still true to His word, however, He gave the Israelites every opportunity to live in the blessing rather than the curse. He gave the Jewish nation 2000 years (from Adam to Moses) to run to Him and submit their lives to Him, out of their own free will, but they didn’t, the morality of the people went from bad to worse. Something had to be done if Jesus was ever going to come from this chosen people, even though the law had serious consequences, the alternative, a lifetime of separation from God due to our sin, was not an option. A temporary solution had to be made.
What we see here is a covenant made with ISRAEL, not with us. One where they fully accepted the terms of the agreement, regarding obeying the laws, unto righteousness, and disobeying the laws, with consequences. GOD NEVER ACTS CONTRARY TO COVENANT, thus we see that when the Israelites contravened the terms of the covenant by sinning in some way, God was compelled to act in retribution, the way He promised He would, even if it meant torment on His chosen people. God is always righteous, just, merciful and true; (Ps 7:11, Ps 46:5, Ps 97:2, Ps 52:8, Ps 57:10, Ps 85:10) when He makes a promise He makes it and shows no shadow of turning, it's not in His nature to contravene His own nature. But, keep in mind, God His love (1 John 4:16), the covenant He made with Israel was out of love for all mankind.
“But their (Israel) minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” – 1 Corinthians 3:14-16
So, does God still relate to us based on the covenant He made with Moses and Israel? Does He still punish us, today, as He did with the Israelites back then? Most people believe this, but the answer is an emphatic NO. In order to understand this, though, we must take a look at the new covenant. JESUS CHANGED THE EQUATION. Everything leading up to Jesus was inferior, a type and a shadow (Hebr 10:1); it was never God's best for the people He loved, Jews and Gentiles (Hebr 8:7). Paul spends most of his time in his epistles proving that the law of Moses has no relevance to the born-again believer and that we are under the new covenant: a covenant where God is not holding our sins against us, He does not bring sickness or disease on us to make us stronger and is not angry with us. Let's take a look at how this can be possible, is it possible that God is in a good mood? (Hebr 8:13, 2 Cor 3)
More in the next post ...
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