2.4 The Mosaic Covenant
We have learned that God continues to involve surrendered followers to reclaim godly dominion over the earth. He arranges circumstances and raises leaders who participate in the dance of the feast, which is the call of God and a willing and faithful response. The words in Jeremiah 29:13 represent His call to every person in every generation:
1 Jeremiah 29:13
13 You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
God sovereignly raised Moses to fulfill His covenant with Abraham. Even so, for all God accomplished through Moses, God recognized a constant rejection from Israel, the children who were intended to receive Abraham's blessings.
Let us review some key passages about the Mosaic covenant; however, note that the Mosaic covenant is simply the enactment of the Abrahamic covenant, to take the land after the iniquity of the Amorites had become insufferable to God and required judgment.
Exodus 6:2-5 occurred after Moses had been called by God in the wilderness to return to deliver Israel from Egypt. God reassured Moses and Israel about his covenant with Abraham before sending the plagues that would lead to Pharoah's release of Abraham's enslaved children:
4 Exodus 6:2-5
2 God spoke to Moses, and said to him, "I am Yahweh.
3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.
4 I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens.
5 Moreover I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant.
God charged Moses to share these words with Israel to increase their faith and trust in God in Exodus 6:6-8:
3 Exodus 6:6-8
6 Therefore tell the children of Israel, 'I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.
7 I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8 I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am Yahweh.'"
After their deliverance from Egypt, Moses went up to Mount Sinai where God first called him out of the burning bush. This was the setting for Exodus 19:3-6. Note how God spoke about obedience and keeping the covenant in verses 5-6 to make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation:
4 Exodus 19:3-6
3 Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him out of the mountain, saying, "This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.'
We find a New Covenant fulfillment of this in Revelation 1:4-6 in John's prophetic letter to the seven Asian churches, written both to Jews and Gentiles:
3 Revelation 1:4-6
4 John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood—
6 and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father— to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Moses went back down the mountain to share the words of God's covenant with Israel and in Exodus 24:7-8:
2 Exodus 24:7-8
7 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "We will do all that Yahweh has said, and be obedient."
8 Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words."
Look how closely coupled this is with Jesus' words regarding taking communion in Matthew 26:26-28:
3 Matthew 26:26-28
26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."
27 He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, "All of you drink it,
28 for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.
Afterward, Moses went back up the mountain with the leaders of Israel as described in Exodus 24:9-11:
3 Exodus 24:9-11
9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.
10 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness.
11 He didn't lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.
This was significant because, in verse 10, God revealed Himself to the leaders with a clear picture of a heavenly sight, a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness. The description of the glass sea in Revelation 4:6 is very similar to this.
1 Revelation 4:6
6 Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal.
In addition, God let the leaders come up with Moses without penalty. I like the analogy that can be made to Jesus returning to the disciples in John 21:12-13 after He had been resurrected and ate and drank with them:
2 John 21:12-13
12 Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast!" None of the disciples dared inquire of him, "Who are you?" knowing that it was the Lord.
13 Then Jesus came and took the bread, gave it to them, and the fish likewise.
God wasn't done yet. He summoned Moses in Exodus 24:12:
1 Exodus 24:12
12 "Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them."
After Moses went up the mountain, God also instructed Moses to make God a sanctuary so that He could dwell among the Israelites in Exodus 25:8:
1 Exodus 25:8
8 Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
God provided elaborate and detailed instructions to build the ark of the covenant as his dwelling place saying in Exodus 25:16:
1 Exodus 25:16
16 You shall put the covenant which I shall give you into the ark.
Elaborate instructions were given for building the Tabernacle, making it accessible only to the High Priest and portable so that it could be used wherever God called Israel to go, but what did God mean by the covenant? Exodus 31:18 explains:
1 Exodus 25:18
18 When he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant, stone tablets, written with God's finger.
The covenant was the words written by God on the tablets of stone. However, while God was equipping Moses to go down the mountain, the children of Israel became impatient and rebelled against God in Exodus 32:1-10:
10 Exodus 32:1-10
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."
2 Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."
3 All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
4 He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh."
6 They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!
8 They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"
9 Yahweh said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.
10 Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."
God's anger reached a boiling point. He was ready to forsake His covenant with all of Israel and to make an exclusive covenant with Moses. It boiled down to Him saying, "What right do you think you have in my covenant with Abraham if you return to the very thing that Abraham detested?" However, this was an object lesson for Moses and us today.
Moses knew Israel was on the verge of being abandoned and severely judged by God. Moses had become attached to Israel. Despite their sins, he did not want to see them destroyed. Moses learned to have compassion for them. His prayer of intercession for them reflected the very heart of God. However, Moses' heart of compassion and prayer for mercy could never exceed that of God's. Moses understood the nature of God's covenant. "How could God destroy the descendants of Abraham who walked in rebellion when the covenant seemed to overrule pronouncing such judgment?"
Maybe we can understand why God sent his Son to pay the penalty for our sins. He had to take the judgment of mankind upon his own beloved Son. It was the difference that would propel mankind into the New Covenant.
Let's look at Moses' response in Exodus 32:11-14:
4 Exodus 32:11-14
11 Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, "Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, 'He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
14 So Yahweh turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.
James 2:13 sums it up by saying:
1 James 2:13
13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
After Moses went down the mountain and saw firsthand what God had already revealed, he returned to the Lord thinking he could make an atonement for their sin as described in Exodus 32:30-32:
3 Exodus 32:30-32
30 On the next day, Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."
31 Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."
Moses had the amazing notion that he might be able to make atonement for Israel's sins. The Mosaic covenant revealed that while God guided and protected Israel as corporate descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He held each person accountable for their sins. God has saved ALL Israel from Egypt, but at this point, we begin to understand the limitations of the Mosaic covenant. Each person needed a savior to rescue them from the oppression of internal sins and not just the oppression of evil empires like Egypt.
The Lord responded to Moses in Exodus 32:33-35:
3 Exodus 32:33-35
33 Yahweh said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.
34 Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."
35 Yahweh struck the people, because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.
This is the first reference to God's "book." It was a prophetic picture of the Lamb's book of life described in the New Covenant in Luke 10:20:
1 Luke 10:20
20 … Rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
In Exodus 33:1-5, God said that it was time to move on. Still, He again made it very clear that he would drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, not because of Israel's righteousness, but because of the sin of the people that the Israelites were dispossessing:
5 Exodus 33:1-5
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your offspring.'
2 I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
3 Go to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way."
4 When the people heard this evil news, they mourned; and no one put on his jewelry.
5 Yahweh had said to Moses, "Tell the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.'"
Israel was very demoralized when they heard this, but once again Moses interceded for them in Exodus 33:12-17 and won God's heart back toward Israel:
6 Exodus 33:12-17
12 Moses said to Yahweh, "Behold, you tell me, 'Bring up this people;' and you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'
13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your way, now, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight; and consider that this nation is your people."
14 He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
15 Moses said to him, "If your presence doesn't go with me, don't carry us up from here.
16 For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?"
17 Yahweh said to Moses, "I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
As a result of Moses' intercession, God relented and agreed to go with them. It was a beautiful picture of what Jesus would accomplish in the New Covenant in Romans 8:34:
1 Romans 8:34
34 It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
In Exodus 33:18-23, Moses asked to see God's glory, which God agreed to do, but He told Moses that He would not show his face. That no one can see His face and live:
6 Exodus 33:18-23
18 Moses said, "Please show me your glory."
19 He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh's name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
20 He said, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live."
21 Yahweh also said, "Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22 It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;
23 then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
This was yet another distinction between the Old and New Covenant because when Jesus came, the earth saw the face of God in human form. Through the Son of God, God becomes approachable.
In Exodus 34:10-11, after Moses has chiseled God's word onto the replacement set of stone, God reiterated His covenant and recommissioned for Israel to take the promised land:
5 Exodus 34:10-14
10 He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.
11 Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12 Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you;
13 but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles;
14 for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
In Exodus 34:27-28, we get a better answer to what God's covenant was:
2 Exodus 34:27-28
27 Yahweh said to Moses, "Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
28 He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
These were all the words God gave to Israel for their covenant responsibility beginning with the Ten Commandments. These would be placed in the Ark of the Covenant. When Moses finally came down the mountain in Exodus 34:29-35, Israel noticed a glory on Moses' face and Moses had to put on a veil to hide it:
7 Exodus 34:29-35
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.
30 When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
31 Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
34 But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
35 The children of Israel saw Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone; so Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
It wouldn't be until Jesus came that Israel could see God with an unveiled face. When the New Covenant was introduced in the New Testament, the glory of Jesus far exceeded the fading glory of Moses.
The continuing story of Israel's obedience and disobedience to God, taking some of the land but not all of it, is a drama that played out from Exodus to Joshua and into the book of Judges. Instead of growing closer to God, they grew further away from Him.
Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy lists the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience. I leave it for the reader to read. It is a stark warning to Israel, but the curses that pursued her were because of her disobedience. It is the same story as in the garden: obey and be blessed, disobey, and be cursed.
It also provides a powerful picture of what it meant for Jesus, the spotless Lamb who alone can atone for the sins of the world, to become a curse for us in the New Covenant. It's easy for us to see in a rear-view car mirror, but at the time Israel was experiencing an inferior covenant compared with the New Covenant in which we now live and experience eternal life.