An understanding of the concept of covenant is fundamental to a right interpretation of the whole Bible and it is absolutely imperative to a correct understanding of the Sabbath and the Sinaitic Covenant.
What is the Old Covenant?
A covenant is simply an agreement or promise between two parties. One party is the suzerain or ruling party. The other is the vassal, or ruled party. The biblical covenants in general, and the Sinaitic Covenant in particular, closely follow the form of other ancient, Near East treaties.
What are the five main parts of a covenant?
(1) the promise from the suzerain(ruler) to the ruled party,
(2) the requirements of the ruled party to the suzerain and
(3) the sign of the covenant.
(4) A list of the blessings that would occur if they were obedient to the covenant and
(5) a list of the cursings that would come upon them for disobedience to the covenant stipulations.
All of these were detailed in two identical covenant documents; one for the suzerain and one for the ruled party. The covenant partners were God and the nation of Israel only. No other people were included within this covenant.
The provisions of the Sinaitic Covenant were open to others, but only if they became circumcised, kept the Sabbath, and were willing to abide by all the covenant stipulations. The purpose of the covenant was to provide the basis of fellowship between God and Israel and to serve as a witness in case of covenant violations.
What are the three elements of the Sinaitic Covenant?
3. The Sabbath was the sign of the Sinaitic Covenant and, as such, was placed in the very center of the Ten Commandments.
Old covenant righteousness was based upon personal obedience to the law. Violations of the covenant included violations of the Ten Commandments, the other laws in the “book of the covenant,” or the signs of the covenant: circumcision and Sabbath. The Sinaitic Covenant minutely detailed as if it were written for children.
We must see the law of the old covenant as one law. While there are moral, ceremonial, and societal aspects of the law, they comprise but one law. Often these aspects of the law are intermingled. There is no sharply defined separation between moral and ritual.
Are there passages from the Scriptures that prove that the 10 commandments are integrated into the Old Covenant?
Hebrews 9:1-4 (NIV)
"Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant."
2 Corinthians 3:6-7 (NIV)
"He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant —not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was."
Galatians 4:24 (NIV)
"These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar."
What are the limitations of the Old Covenant?
The covenant partners were God and the nation of Israel only. Grace was offered in the old covenant for unintentional sin by the offering of sacrifices. However, there were no sacrifices for high-handed, willful sin. There were no sacrifices prescribed for willfully breaking any of the Ten Commandments. People who purposely broke one of the Ten Commandments were dealt with individually by God. For example, after David committed adultery and murder he did not offer sacrifice, but confessed his sin and fell into both the judgment and mercy of God. (2 Sam. 12:11–14). Old covenant righteousness was based upon personal obedience to the law.
Deuteronomy 6:24-25 (NIV)
"The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”
In what ways did the Sabbath laws of the Old Sinaitic Covenant serve as a shadow of Christ?
While the Sabbath laws of the Sinaitic Covenant pointed back to the seventh-day rest in Eden and Israel’s redemption from Egyptian slavery, there was also an element of hope for the future, especially in looking forward to the rest of the Jubilee.
Luke 4:16-19 (NIV)
"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This quotation from Isa 61:1–2 alludes to the Year of Jubilee (Lev 25:8–55) when once every 50 years slaves were freed, debts were canceled and the ancestral property was returned to the original family.
What is the New Covenant?
Compare to the Old Covenant, the New Covenant centers upon the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. While the three main aspects of the old covenant were:
(1) the redemptive deliverance of Israel from Egypt,
(2) the giving of the covenant at Sinai, and
(3) the settlement of Israel in the land of Canaan.
The dominant feature in the New Covenant is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Here we have a new saving activity and a new redemption that is greater than that experienced by Israel in the exodus. The new covenant is much better than the old in every way. The redemption from sin brought by life, death, and resurrection of Jesus serves as the moral foundation for new covenant law, the motivation for Christian living, and the theme of Christian worship.
The Christians' reason for pure living is not anymore based upon the laws of Sinai but upon the believer’s relationship with Christ. There was plenty of material in the old covenant he could have used but he chose rather use a better moral foundation: union with Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:15, 19-20 (NIV)
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."
Justification by faith in Christ is a better motivation than deliverance from Egypt.
Why is Christ the embodiment of the New Covenant?
The flickering candle of truth which lighted the shadowy pathways of Old Testament history must give way to the unveiled glory of the Risen Son!
Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV)
"In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."
The old covenant was given “to the fathers” “long ago,” for the time then present. The new is given “to us” “in these last days.” The old revelation of truth was incomplete, fragmentary: “God spoke.” In the new revelation, God speaks with finality: “God has spoken.” Jesus is God’s final word. Why? Because “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His [God’s] nature.”
How is Jesus the better Covenant?
Paul is saying that to understand the old covenant correctly we must see it from the new covenant perspective. This is a very important principle of interpretation. The new covenant, which is a better and more nearly complete revelation of truth, must be allowed to interpret, modify or transform all old covenant statements in a Christ-centered way.
Second, if we continue to read the old covenant from any other perspective it will be as though we are looking through a veil and we could come to the wrong conclusions. This means that we should not accept any old covenant laws or practices on the basis of the old covenant statements themselves. Rather, we must examine every old covenant law and the statement from the new covenant perspective: Jesus Christ.
Applying this principle to the topic of the Sabbath means that as Christians we are not to go directly to old covenant laws and statements regarding Sabbath rest. Rather, we are to discover what the new covenant teaches about God’s rest and allow it to modify or transform all old covenant Sabbath law from a Christ-centered perspective. The Holy Spirit is vitally important to a correct understanding and application of the new covenant.
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