“For finding fault with THEM ….”  With these words the Lord declared the future eradication of the Old Covenant and the implementation of a New Covenant because the Israelites–God’s chosen people (“them”)–refused to fulfill their part of it (Heb. 8:9).  If, as we are told repeatedly, the fault was with the Law, then the Law would not have been perfect.  But David said: “THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT” (Ps. 19:7).  The Apostle Paul wrote that the Law is holy, just and good (Rom. 7:12).  James said that those who heard the Law but did not obey it were deceiving themselves (1:22).  The Prophet Isaiah said that the Messiah would come to earth to magnify the Law and make it honorable (42:21).  Jesus said that in order to abide in His love we must obey the Law, just as He abode in God’s love by obeying the Law (Jn. 15:10)  He also said that the only way to receive eternal life was to obey the Law (Mat. 19:17).  Obviously, the flaw was not in the Law.

A New Covenant was created in order to correct the flaw in the people, not the Law.  David called the Law “perfect.”  Perfection does not need to be corrected.  How does one correct that which is perfect?  In this series we will see what the Old Covenant was and how the New Covenant would correct its fault while remembering that the fault was with the people, not the Law.  To do so we must understand exactly what a covenant is and how it is implemented.

A covenant as a legal understanding to do or to refrain from doing a specific act or acts.  A covenant is A DOCUMENT CONTAINING THE TERMS OF A MUTUAL AGREEMENT.  Scripturally, the Old Covenant was an agreement God made with Israel as recorded in Exodus 19:5,6.  First came Israel’s part of the agreement in which God said: “IF you will OBEY MY VOICE indeed and KEEP MY COVENANT ….”  Then came God’s part of the agreement: “THEN you will be unto Me a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND A HOLY NATION.”  Then the people said that they would fulfill their part of the agreement: “And all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken WE WILL DO'” (Exo. 19:8).

To fully understand the covenant God made with ancient Israel–the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38/1 Cor. 10:4))–we must realize that the covenant was, in the eyes of Jesus, a marriage agreement that was organized as a church/state entity–the perfect form of government.  God governs.  His Word (covenant) is the written Law by which He governs.  He reveals His ownership of the Old Covenant church and the New Covenant church by saying: “I entered into a covenant with you and you became Mine” (Eze. 16:8).  In Jeremiah 31:32 we read: “My covenant they broke, although I was a HUSBAND to them ….”

The Old Covenant was not just the Ten Commandments, it was an AGREEMENT/COVENANT between the Word (Jesus Christ) and the Church of Israel.  The people had accepted the terms of the agreement (Exo. 19:8) and thereby bound themselves to that first covenant which called for them to avoid any spiritual affiliation with foreign people, specifically their gods (Exo. 34:12-17).  In turn, God promised to remain faithful to Israel, to provide for them and bless them “even to a thousand generations” (Deut. 7:9).  Now we will study the conditions of the Old Covenant that Israel had agreed to fulfill.

In Exodus 19 God told the nation that He would declare the terms of His covenant to them.  They agreed en masse to meet whatever conditions He required of them.  In the following chapter we find Him declaring to them the Ten Commandments–a condensed version of the Law which was perfect as stated and needed no additional input.  In Deuteronomy 5 we find Moses repeating the Ten Commandments to the Israelite nation.  In verse 22 he noted that when God had finished voicing the Ten Commandments, that He: “ADDED NO MORE, and wrote them (the Ten Commandments) in two tables of stone” (vs 22).  The Ten Commandments were a distinct part of the first covenant God proposed to Israel which she agreed to obey.  The commandments were “THE TABLES OF THE COVENANT” (Deut. 9:9,11).

But there was more to the Old Covenant than the Ten Commandments as we learn in Exodus 24:7.  Here Moses “took the BOOK OF THE COVENANT” and read it to the people.  The people then said: “ALL that the Lord says we will do, and be obedient (to what He said in the Ten Commandments & “Book of the Covenant”).  In Romans 7:14 the Apostle Paul writes about the ten basic SPIRITUAL LAWS and about the BOOK OF THE COVENANT which were the CIVIL LAWS that explained and expanded on the Ten Commandments.  In Exodus 21-23 God (Jesus) revealed the CIVIL LAWS which Moses wrote in a BOOK (Exo. 24:3,4).  These laws were based on the general principles laid out in the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant having been transcribed, forming the Old Covenant, the agreement was sealed with blood and became binding on both parties: God and Israel (Ex. 24:8/ Heb. 9:18-20).  Recall that this was, in God’s view, a marriage agreement.  This meant that Israel would obey Him as a wife obeys her husband.  Israel would remain faithful to her Husband and keep herself unspotted from the evil of the world by faithfully obeying the terms of their agreement (covenant), thereby maintaining a perfect union.

It is vitally important that we understand that when God brought Israel out of Egypt and made the first covenant with her He did not command them “concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  But this one thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and (then) I will be your God and you will be My people” (Jer. 7:22,23).  Notice that the sacrificial and ritualistic law was ADDED AFTER THE FIRST COVENANT WAS SEALED as a reminder of their sins (Gal. 3:19).  The sacrificial/ritualistic law was not part of the first covenant.  This was the “handwriting of ordinances” that was “nailed to the cross” and was never part of the Old Covenant.  The spiritual laws (Ten Commandments) defined sin (1 Jn. 3:4).  The Book of the Covenant amplified them and prescribed punishments for breaking them.  The spiritual and civil laws were not instituted by the Old Covenant.  They were already in existence and had to be included in the covenant (Gen. 26:5/ Exo. 16:28; 18:16).  L.J.