This week we have been reviewing and prayerfully considering the major covenants God made with man in the Old Testament, in particular the one He made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and David. As spiritual descendants of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and David, we inherit and benefit God’s covenant with each one of them, and as believers in Christ we can enter into the full enjoyment of the promises God made to our forefathers.
As believers in Christ, we have Christ as the overcoming seed of the woman in our spirit, and we can cooperate with the Lord to be produced as the man-child, the corporate seed of the woman who executes God’s judgement on the devil.
As believers in Christ, we can stand on God’s faithfulness and claim His promises in His Word, and we are a blessed people, being fully assured that God will never destroy the earth with a flood but He will spare us and even make us His righteousness, holiness, and glory in Christ.
As believers in Christ, we have Christ being wrought into our being so that He may carry out God’s economy in us, build up the church as the house of God through us, and cause us to rule and reign with Him as kings. Hallelujah!
Today we want to see the fifth major covenant in the Old Testament – God’s covenant with His people Israel after the giving of the law, and we want to see what is the real significance and spiritual application to our Christian life.
God’s Covenant with Israel: how the Law with its Ordinances was Enacted as a Covenant
In Exo. 19-23 God gave His people Israel the law with its ordinances, and in Exo. 24 He enacted this law as a covenant.
According to the entire revelation in the Bible, God’s intention in giving His people Israel the law was not so that they would keep it and thus be His people; rather, He wanted to reveal Himself to His people, show them that they can’t fulfill His law, and come in to replace them and have Christ live in them – since only Christ can fulfill God’s law.
Moses didn’t command God’s people to keep His law; rather, in Exo. 24:4-8 he enacted the covenant with the altar, twelve pillars, sacrifices of burnt offerings and peace offerings, and blood (see Exo. 24:4-8; cf. Heb. 9:18-20). God’s desire is not that we do our best to keep His law; rather, He wants us to enter into a covenant with us by bringing us to experience the altar – the cross of Christ (Heb. 13:10).
We as fallen human beings are sinful – we cannot possibly keep the law of God; we need to be redeemed, terminated, and replaced by Christ through the cross. Then, we need to be like the pillars: a testimony of God, a reflection of what God is in His virtues and attributes as portrayed in the law.
God gave the law so that we as His people would become His testimony, showing others who and what God is; the way we can become such people is by being redeemed by Christ, terminated by the cross, and replaced and reconstituted by Christ through the cross.
The blood from the sacrifices offered on the altar typifies the blood of Christ who is for our redemption, forgiveness, and cleansing of sins (Exo. 24:6, 8; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:7, 9). We stand before God and before man to testify God based on the precious blood of Christ; the blood made it possible for us, sinful and fallen people, to be redeemed, forgiven, and cleansed by God so that we may enter into God’s presence – enter into God Himself – and remain there to be infused with God and thus be constituted pillars as a living testimony of what God is (see Exo. 24:9-18, cf. Heb. 10:19-20).
Hallelujah for the blood of Christ, who enacted the new covenant (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20) and ushered us into the better things of the new covenant, in which God gives us, His people, a new heart, a new spirit, His Spirit, and the inner law of life (see Ezek. 36:26-27; Heb. 8:10-12)! Eventually, for eternity we can enjoy God in full as the tree of life because we have washed our robes in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14, 17; 22:1-2, 14, 17).
How we praise the Lord for His precious, prevailing, covenant-enacting, new-covenant-opening, enjoyment-leading blood! In Exo. 24:1-8 we see how God enacted the law with its ordinances as a covenant, and it was through the cross of Christ, the working of God into man, and based on and covered with the precious of Christ.
Thank You Lord for showing us who You are. Lord, we admit that we cannot possibly keep the law of God, the definition of God; we come to You to be redeemed by You, terminated by You, and replaced by You through the cross. Lord, make us Your living testimony today by working Yourself into us as we are being terminated, replaced, and reconstituted with Christ through the cross. We stand on the blood of Christ, we are covered with the blood, and we have no other boast.
We Cannot Keep God’s Law: We need a New Covenant in which the Law is Fulfilled in us
God’s eternal purpose is to have a group of people to be His counterpart, His expression, and His dwelling place; in order to fulfill this purpose, God must impart Himself into us, His chosen people, and work Himself into us so that we may become His counterpart, His expression, and His dwelling place. This is God’s intention and His eternal purpose.
According to His purpose, God did not intend to give man a set of commandments to keep or to have man do things for Him; rather, He wants a group of people who are open to allow Him to work Himself into them for the producing of His counterpart, His expression, and His dwelling place.
In bringing the children of Israel to the mountain of God, God’s intention was not give them “a list of divine commandments” as requirements for them to fulfill. Rather, what God wanted to do is to bring His people into His presence so that they may be in fellowship with Him and here He could reveal Himself to them and impart Himself into them through His speaking to them (see Exo. 34:28-29).
However, God’s people Israel did not understand God’s intention; first, they said “All that Jehovah said, we will do!” (Exo. 19:8). Later we clearly see that their natural, fallen, and religious concept was that God wanted them to “do” certain things for Him, and what’s worse, they thought they were able to do these things (Exo. 24:3, 7). However, we CANNOT keep God’s law in ourselves; God’s law is who He is and what He is, and only God Himself can keep, obey, and live out His law.
But we still many times think we can fulfill what God demands of us, and so it was necessary that God would give us the commandments, enacting the law (the old covenant) to show us how high His requirements are and how unable to fulfill these requirements we are. Though we may try again and again, set our mind on it, and exercise our will to do it, we cannot fulfill God’s law; as soon as we try to fulfill God’s law apart from being in Christ, the flesh rises up and we are defeated and even killed by sin (Rom. 8:3, 7-8).
This is why we need a new covenant – of which we will hear more next week; in the new covenant, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us as we walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4).
In the new covenant, we have the inward constant working of the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) and we learn to walk according to the mingled spirit; when we walk according to the spirit, the righteous requirement of the law of God is fulfilled in us spontaneously and unconsciously! Hallelujah! All we need to do today in the new covenant is to walk according to the spirit, and the law of God will be fulfilled in us!
Lord Jesus, deliver us from our natural, fallen, and religious concept that You want us to do things for You and we have to keep Your law. Lord, we admit that in ourselves and by ourselves we cannot keep the law of God. Your requirements are too high and we are utterly unable to fulfill Your law. Lord, we need You! We come to You, we open to You, we receive You, and we trust in You. We want to live and walk by the mingled spirit so that the righteous requirement of the la will be spontaneously and unconsciously fulfilled in us! Praise the Lord for the new covenant!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 76-77 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (2), week 6 / msg 6, The Covenanting God and His Covenants (1) – Major Covenants That God Made with Man.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# The law in letters good demands / And thus our utter weakness shows; / But now the law of life sustains, / And strength for God to please bestows. (Hymns #736)
# The law of God is holy, good, / To practise good it doth command; / Its purpose is to clearly show / That we cannot meet God’s demand. (Hymns #734)
# It is by this blood of worth / The new testament was made; / For this better covenant, / ’Tis a sure foundation laid. / We have been redeemed by God, / Not with silver or with gold, / But, Lord, with Thy precious blood, / Which Thy love doth e’er unfold. (Hymns #224)
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