Exodus 24:17-18

"And the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights."

The glorious display on Mount Sinai was visible to all Israel, but Moses declined to give any other description than the few words already written. It is not actually clear whether or not the forty days and forty nights included the six days already mentioned. Though no mention of it was made here, it must be received as certain that Moses was without food or drink during that time. Thus, as the unsurpassed Type of the Lord Jesus Christ, Moses also had his fast of forty days and forty nights, as did Jesus in the wilderness of his temptation (Matthew 4:1f). Elijah also fasted that same length of time; and significantly those two characters, Moses and Elijah, were the ones who would participate with Jesus Christ our Lord in another great theophany on the mountain of Our Lord's Transfiguration (Matthew 17).

This concludes the Scriptural record of the giving of the Old Covenant. We cannot leave this without noting the astounding declaration of Davies that, "Jeremiah corrected Moses by omitting any reference to blood in the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), our Lord corrects Jeremiah by reintroducing the blood."[20] Such "mixed up" comments by critical scholars is common, and, for that reason, we shall include a section here on The Two Covenants.

Before doing so, we should note that the alleged "correction of Moses" by Jeremiah is a colossal misunderstanding. Jeremiah, in that passage, was not discussing how that old covenant was made, but the fact that a new covenant which the Lord would make was to be "not according to the old covenant." The thing in view was the content of both covenants, not the manner of the making of either covenant! It is strange indeed that among learned men there should be such a colossal misunderstanding of so elementary a passage in the prophets!

THE TWO COVENANTS

"He (Christ) is the mediator of a better covenant. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second" (Hebrews 8:6,7).

There are visible in this passage two and only two covenants. God made a number of covenants:

1. the covenants with Noah (Genesis 6:18,9:9);

2. the two covenants with Abraham (Genesis 17:2,10; 15:18ff);

3. the covenant of salt (Numbers 18:19; Leviticus 2:13); and

4. a covenant of the everlasting priesthood (Numbers 25:13).

However there were TWO COVENANTS, covenants of so vast and comprehensive a nature that they overshadowed all other covenants, those two covenants being so preeminently superior to all other covenants that in any Scriptural reference where "the covenant" is mentioned, it must invariably refer to one of those two.

In our text for this study, there is reference to the first covenant, We shall first identify it.

It was the one made with Israel and with the house of Judah (Jeremiah 31:8,9).

It was the one that had the Decalogue as a basic component (Exodus 34:2,28).

It was the one that God made with Moses (Exodus 34:27).

Therefore, the First Covenant, as used in the Bible means the entire religious system of the Jews, the Decalogue, the Book of the Covenant, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the tabernacle rituals, the temple services (as later developed), together with all the statutes, judgments and commandments embracing the total ceremonial and moral constitutions of Judaism.

The First Covenant was abolished, abrogated, nailed to the Cross, taken out of the way. Why? God found fault with it. how could God find fault with His own work? Of course, He didn't! God removed the First Covenant because it had been, from the beginning, a temporary expedient. It was never intended to remain permanently, but much like the SCAFFOLDING that a builder erects around a construction, it was designed to be replaced by the Second and Greater Covenant (Galatians 3:19). The fault, then, that God found with it came into view after the New Israel in Christ appeared, eliminating any further utility of the Law (a code name for the First Covenant). There were also many other shortcomings of the Law in that it made no provision for the reception of the Holy Spirit by believers, provided no forgiveness whatever, and failed utterly to enable believers to keep it with any degree of satisfaction, and, in addition to all this, there was its failure to provide a suitable High Priest.

The abrogation of the First Covenant became mandatory and impending immediately upon the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest Forever after the Order of Melchizedek. As the author of Hebrews expressed it: "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the Law" (Hebrews 7:12).

Certain religious groups, desiring to retain some provisions of the First Covenant, notably the sabbatarians, and others, have vainly sought to divide the First Covenant into: (1) Ceremonial; and (2) Moral categories, with the view of keeping their favorite part of it by designating it as a part of the moral law, and by affirming that only the ceremonial part of the First Covenant was annulled. This device is utterly unacceptable. While true enough that many of the moral requirements of the First Covenant are surely binding upon Christians, their authority for Christians derives not from Moses, but from Christ. The Spanish law in Texas forbade murder, so does the current law of the United States, but the authority of that law today derives not from Mexico City but from Washington. Also, those things of the First Covenant that did not find their place in the Second Covenant, such as sabbath keeping, animal sacrifice, burning incense, etc., are at this point of time void of any authority at all and should be totally rejected. Note too that such things as the sabbath day were ceremonial rather than moral.

How was the First Covenant removed? The appearance of the New Covenant in Christ annulled and supplanted the First Covenant. "In that he saith "A new covenant," he hath made the first old!" (Hebrews 8:13). "Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances (the First Covenant) that was against us, which was contrary to us, he (God) hath taken it out of the way, nailing to His (Christ's) cross" (Colossians 2:14). There were also two other acts of abrogation that applied to the First Covenant: (1) It was conditional. All of the glorious promises of God to Israel were contingent upon their obedience and continuance in the path of duty. "If thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I say ..." (Exodus 23:22). Israel's frequent and outrageous acts of disobedience effectively cancelled the First Covenant. Many have not understood this. "God has never broken the covenant that he made with the people ... Israel may have broken it, but God never did."[21] This is of course true if understood as continuing in the terms of the New Covenant; but as regards the Old Covenant (the First), it has been finally and irrevocably destroyed. "If thou wilt obey ... I will bless," does not and cannot mean, "I will bless whether you obey or not!" The entire O.T. is filled with one account after another of Israel's disobedience and rebellion against God. As Jeremiah said it, "They continued not in my covenant" (Exodus 31:9).

When ready to abrogate the First Covenant, described also in the O.T. as a "Marriage" with Israel, God Himself died upon the Cross in the person of his Only Begotten Son, a fact that Paul amplified in Romans 7:1-6, showing that all people are now "dead to the law through the body of Christ." "Now we have been discharged from the Law" (Romans 7:6).

Let every man take another look at his Bible. It is conspicuously divided into TWO parts, THE OLD TESTAMENT, and THE NEW TESTAMENT; and the word "Testament" is exactly the same in the Bible as the word "Covenant"!