Beginning of the End: Why God Worked With Israel

 God called Israel in order to reveal Himself through them to everyone who lived on the Earth. It was for this reason that He commanded them to keep themselves distinct from the idol-worshipping nations around them.

It was just as necessary then as it is now for God’s people to be pure, “unspotted from the world.” But God did not want His people to shut themselves away from the world so that they could have no influence on it. It was their evil heart of unbelief that led them to hide their light instead of letting it shine on the peoples around them, shutting themselves away in proud exclusiveness as if God’s love and care were only for them.

The covenant of grace was first made in the Garden of Eden. After the Fall, God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. This covenant offered to everyone pardon and the assisting grace of God to obey through faith in Christ. It also promised eternal life on condition of loyalty to God’s law, and so the patriarchs received the hope of salvation.

God renewed this same covenant to Abraham in the promise, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). Abraham trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and it was this faith that was credited to him for righteousness. The covenant with Abraham also upheld the authority of God’s law. The testimony of God was, “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Genesis 26:5). Though this covenant was made with Adam and renewed to Abraham, it could not be confirmed until the death of Christ. It had existed by the promise of God, it had been accepted by faith, yet when confirmed by Christ’s death, it is called a new covenant. The law of God was the basis of this covenant, which was simply an arrangement for bringing sinners into harmony again with the divine will, placing them where they could obey God’s law.

Another covenant—called in Scripture the “old” covenant—was made between God and Israel at Sinai and was then confirmed by the blood of a sacrifice. The covenant with Abraham, confirmed by the blood of Christ, is called the “second,” or “new” covenant, because the blood by which it was sealed was shed after the blood of the first covenant.

But if the covenant to Abraham contained the promise of redemption,  why was another covenant made at Sinai? In their slavery the people had largely lost the knowledge of the principles of the Abrahamic covenant. In delivering them from Egypt, God intended to reveal His power and mercy so that they might be led to love and trust Him. He bound them to Himself as their deliverer from physical slavery.

But they had no true concept of God’s holiness, of the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, their complete inability in themselves to obey God’s law, and their need of a Savior.

God gave them His law with the promise of great blessings on condition of obedience: “If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant ... you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5, 6). The people did not realize the sinfulness of their own hearts and that without Christ it was impossible for them to keep God’s law. Feeling able to establish their own righteousness, they declared, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). They eagerly entered into covenant with God, yet only a few weeks went by before they broke their covenant and bowed down to worship the image of a calf. Now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of forgiveness, they felt their need of the Savior revealed in the Abrahamic covenant and symbolized in the sacrificial offerings. Now they were prepared to appreciate the blessings of the new covenant.