Mosaic Covenant

Throughout Genesis we see God delivered on His promise, as Abraham’s family increased in number and arrived in the promised land. Generations passed and his family eventually moved to Egypt during a famine and became enslaved for 400 years, something that God told Abraham would happen when He uncovered the details of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 15:12-16). But God remembered His covenant with Abraham and his family (also known as the Israelites/Hebrews/Jews):

“During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23-25, NIV, emphasis added)

God then asked Moses, a descendant of Abraham, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and toward the promised land – though they would wander in the desert for 40 years as they made their way there.

Throughout the long journey, God cared for the Israelites, but they had to learn to live as a nation. The only law the Israelites had for 400 years was that of slavery. They had no code of behavior outside of what they were told by the Egyptians. With no understanding of freedom, it can rapidly degenerate into anarchy or a dictatorship. So, God was gracious to the descendants of Abraham by giving them the Law (found throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). During that time, not only did God give the Law to the Israelites, He also established a covenant with them – the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19-24). 

If they obeyed God’s commandments, they would have blessings and protection, but if they turned away from God, they would be cursed. Simply put:

Obedience = crops and kids. 

Disobedience = confusion and calamity. 

Note: It is important to note that this was a two-way covenant and agreement between the Israelites and God (Exodus 19:3-6). Oftentimes we can read something like this, and think, “Ok, so if I obey God today, I’m going to get blessings, but if I disobey He’s going to curse me.” Then when blessings don’t come our way, we start to waiver in our faith in God. This covenant was not between us and God but was a specific agreement with God and the Israelites to set them apart from other nations and keep them holy.  So we should treat it as such, and not expect that when we turn away from God, that we will be specially cursed outside of natural consequences for our actions.

The Israelites finally made it to the promised land, but they continually struggled to put their complete trust in God and follow the covenant they agreed to. In God’s mercy, He provided military and political leaders called judges who were chosen to govern the people, and then eventually put kings in place to lead the people. One of the most prominent kings in Israel’s history was King David, and we see why when we understand the Davidic Covenant.

New Covenant

While the timeline of this covenant is realized after Jesus was born (in the New Testament), the promise of it started in the Old Testament.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NIV, emphasis added)

“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers,and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’” (Ezekiel 37:26-28, NIV, emphasis added)

Do you notice something different here? This New Covenant was special. There were no “if you, then I” statements. There was nothing contingent on this covenant. God was going to restore community with humanity once and for all.

Humanity had seen that they cannot hold up their end of the bargain. No one could keep the Law perfectly (Romans 3:23). It was as if God was telling them, “I know you cannot bring anything that I need. I need you to see that you need me and that I love you, and despite that you always turn away from me, I will rescue you.” 

Repentance would delay judgment, but even if they didn’t repent, He was still going to fix things for humanity. All they had to do was trust that He keeps His promises, and as we see throughout the story of the Bible, God hasn’t wavered in keeping any of His promises (and He never will).

We finally see the New Covenant revealed in the New Testament by Jesus, Himself, at the Passover meal. Just as Passover was meant to remember God saving His people through the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb (Exodus 12), Jesus made a connection for His disciples at this Passover meal that He would be the final sacrifice that would save people from spiritual death and deliver them from spiritual bondage.

“Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:27-28, NKJV, emphasis added)

We were first introduced to the New Covenant back in the Old Testament, as the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel announced the promise of eternal right standing with God. Now Jesus is making the connection that it’s through His blood that this New Covenant will be fully realized. 

It was after this supper that the religious leaders arrested Jesus and took Him in front of Roman authorities to be crucified on a cross – the most brutal death for this Passover Lamb. But it was death He needed to experience in order to save us from our sins and give us eternal life. It’s through Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection that we don’t have to experience spiritual death and bondage!

With the New Covenant, it’s our faith in Jesus that covers our sins in totality. Jesus’ sacrifice made everything else obsolete. 

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15, NIV, emphasis added)

Covenants Realized

The New Testament authors constantly tied the events and people from the Old Testament (Old Covenant) to the New Testament (New Covenant). They made the case that Jesus was the better answer, and in fact, was the permanent answer to the problem of sin and how He, as the New Covenant, provided completion to many of the Old Testament covenant promises from God:

• • • Jesus’ genealogy could be traced back to King David and Abraham (Matthew 1) and He is the everlasting King (1 Timothy 1, Hebrews 1, Revelation 19). 
    • Jesus was superior to, and the fulfillment of, the Mosaic Covenant  (Hebrews 8:6, Matthew 5:17). 
    • Jesus blesses all people through His death and resurrection (John 3:16, Romans 5:8).