2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
The Lord leads me to continue discussing both the principles of covenant theology and spiritual lessons in citations given in L. Berkhof’s “Systematic Theology.” When the OT was translated into Greek, the greater precision of that language over Hebrew was used to give readers a deeper understanding of God’s truths. What I mean by greater precision of Greek is that separate words were used for a word like “beriyth” [Hebrew for “covenant”] in certain verses to give the reader an understanding of what type of covenant was being discussed. Most of the Scriptures using the word “covenant” in the OT used the Greek word “diatheke,” which means a “disposition and consequently, a testament.” However, Burkhoff cites two exceptions to that rule, DT 9: 15 (which uses the Greek word, “marturion”) and 1 K 11: 11 (which uses the Greek word, “entole,” instead of “diatheke”). At this point I would suggest that we don’t let all this Greek vocabulary frighten us off from delving into these verses for a better understanding of what is meant by a covenant. Let’s look at these two verses which the Greek translators of the Bible felt didn’t fit the exact pattern of “diatheke.”
DT 9: 15, “So I [Moses] turned and went down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets on which the covenant was written. Flames of fire were coming from the mountain.” To really understand this verse, it is necessary to put it in context. Moses had been up on the mountain with God for forty days. The people had become impatient waiting for him and had no idea of the importance of what Moses was to bring down with him, other than they were waiting for their next instructions. Only God had the big picture, and He had imparted that part of it to Moses that he was able to understand. I refer her to the giving of the Law. The sight that greeted Moses as he descended from the mountain was that of the people and Aaron worshipping a golden calf that they had constructed from the jewelry and money they had taken with them upon leaving Egypt. DT 9: 17 reveals that Moses was so upset by this that he threw down the tablets upon which God had written the 10 Commandments, breaking them into pieces. How many times have we become impatient in our own lives waiting for God to respond to us? How many times have we tried the patience of God, our parents or other authority figures in our lives who are trying to give us something very important that will ultimately make our lives better? Answering these questions demonstrates how something that happened so long ago has direct application in our lives today.
We learn from the Scriptures that the evil of the golden bull incident eventually got worked out with Moses going back up on the mountain to engage in intercessory prayer on the people’s behalf and with God giving him the Law a second time for them [DT 9: 26-27; DT 10: 4-5]. Jews commemorate the day that the Law was given and this Mosiac covenant was sealed in a holiday called Shavuot. The giving of the Law took place 50 days after the Passover. It is significant that DT 9: 15 ends with mentioning “flames of fire coming out of the mountain.” That is because Shavuot foreshadows another important act on God’s part to help His children that took place 50 days after Easter-Pentecost [AC 2: 2-4], the commemoration of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the believers. Neither the Law nor the Holy Spirit themselves grant salvation. But both are designed to help the believers understanding God’s teaching well enough to decide to repent and come to faith. Repentance and coming to faith do lead us to salvation through God’s grace. The Law was designed to help the faithful know right from wrong [RO 7: 7]. The Holy Spirit indwells in the believer as a gift from God to help him understand God’s teachings, want to make righteous decisions, and to live a life “in Christ.” Without the Mosiac covenant, the people could have never matured in their obedience to God or known how to please God.
Mankind needed to know that there are serious consequences to not keeping a covenant with God. They also needed to know that God honors previous covenants He has made even when meting out punishment to satisfy His righteousness. 1 K 11: 9-13 reveals this. “Even though the Lord, the God of Israel, had appeared to Solomon twice and had commanded him not to worship foreign gods, Solomon did not obey the Lord but turned away from Him. So the Lord was angry with Solomon and said to him, ‘Because you have deliberately broken your covenant with Me and disobeyed My commands, I promise that I will take the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officials. However, for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this in your lifetime, but during the reign of your son. And I will not take the whole kingdom away from him; instead, I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant, David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have made My own.’” God’s loyalty to those who are faithful as well as His justice in fitting the punishment to the crime can really be seen in this passage. These are important lessons for us today, particularly when we get angry with God for correcting us. Two important principles of covenant theology are here as well. We can see this is a monopleuric covenant, where the greater party (God) is exercising His sovereign right to punish Solomon (the lesser party) for not keeping his part of the agreement. The righteousness of God in honoring the Davidic covenant made earlier [2 SAM 7: 12-13; PS 89: 3-4] while still punishing Solomon should not be lost on us. We can take comfort in knowing that our Lord is a righteous promise-keeper at all times.
PRAYER: O Lord, how many times we try Your patience with our impatience and sinfulness! We confess that today in the name of Jesus Christ and humbly approach You with our desire to be more obedient to You. Throughout our history You have drawn us into various covenants, because You wanted us to have the chance to be victorious over the power that sin exerts on us. If we meditate on why You show us the patience and compassion that You do, we cannot escape the profundity of Your love for us. This love which is so consistent is something we do not deserve, but comes out of Your sovereign grace. The story of the golden bull incident and Solomon’s disobedience to You help us to learn how seriously You take these covenants. Your commitment to them should be a model for our own. We acknowledge our shortcomings and Your compassionate justice. We come before You dedicating ourselves to being more obedient in exercising our covenant responsibility to You and to each other. In the name of Your Son, Who you freely gave to do the work of the cross, we offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. Amen.
Berkhof has more truths about covenant theology and more wonderful citations for us to examine, so I am led to go on with this tomorrow. If we will take the time to dig deeper into God’s word, we will discover for ourselves that many valuable lessons which often are missed will be revealed. Each lesson God gives us is a “treasure entrusted” which is to be guarded and shared accurately with others [2 TIM 1: 13-14; MT 28: 19-20]. He works hard teaching us the truth and demonstrates patience with our imperfection as long as we seek Him for His guidance. That, Dear Ones, is the kind of love we should have for each other and that He has for each of us. Peter and I send our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn