Sermon Series “Exodus”
Exodus 20:22 – 21:1
“The Book of the Covenant”
Pastor John Bright
Exodus 20:22-21:1
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make anything to be with Me-gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. 24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 26 Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.'
21:1 "Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them:
WOW – That Old Testament has sooooo many rules!
Why? Let me ask you a question – ever sign a contract? If I was selling you a house or a car ( or just getting a car rental ) and I handed you a contract, then I say to you “There are several pages of things you have to do. But hey, don’t bother reading all that – it’s OK – just sign on the dotted line.” I slide it over to you with a pen. What would you do?
(Guess none of us have read the whole Microsoft User Agreement when we get that new upgrade)
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Our story in Exodus is going along just fine and then it gets bogged down with all those Old Testament rules – THE LAW! This section is known as The Book of the Covenant. What’s a Covenant?
“Scholars have defined covenant—translated from the Hebrew “berith” and the Greek “diatheke”—in various ways, and the context in which the word is used in Scripture will also inform our understanding of its meaning. At its most basic level, a covenant is an oath-bound relationship between two or more parties. Thus, human covenants (for example, marriage) fall under this general definition. In divine covenants, God sovereignly establishes the relationship with His creatures. There are other nuances, but a divine covenant given after the fall is, fundamentally, one in which God binds Himself by His own oath to keep His promises.”
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-covenant/
In a “Divine Covenant” - God writes the contract. Do we want to know what it means when we sign on the dotted line? YES! In the New Testament, Paul wrote “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Gal. 3:24 We need to understand the boundaries of “this is wrong” and “this is right.”
For Israel, the law was never intended to be a burden – we only feel the weight of a law when it is broken. Let me give you a modern example: you are going down the road in your car (singing, daydreaming, etc.) and then you see a state trooper. Looking down you realize that you are 10 miles over the speed limit. Then the weight of that law hits you as you watch the rearview mirror. The officer never moves and you feel the relief of that weight lifting off of you.
If you understand that weight, you can see the need for God’s Law – for the rules/boundaries.
When we take this view, the Law was a gift from God to be studied and loved - Psalm 119
Within the Book of the Covenant, we see the working out of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. These we know well:
Mark 12:29 “Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deut. 6:4
Mark 12:30 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.” Deut. 6:5
Mark 12:31 “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Lev. 19:18
All of the Old Testament Law is instruction on how to Love God and Love Neighbor. We may want to separate the Old Covenant from the New Covenant but Jesus, quoting the Old Testament, brings them together. This Book of Covenant contains some details (just like the New Testament contains details for life in the Church) of how the human side of the covenant will Love God and Love Neighbor.
Loving God
We worship what/who we love – Matt. 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Part of the Book of the Covenant is God telling the people – His people – how to worship:
20:23-24 – Worship God along & how to build an altar
22:20 – Penalty for sacrificing to other gods
22:29-31 – Grain and animal offerings
23:14f – Three festivals
Exodus 20:24 “An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen.” This verse gives instruction on how to build an altar for sacrifice. Back in the book of Genesis, they were already building altars and making sacrifices. Have 400 years of slavery in Egypt caused this knowledge to be lost to the Israelites?
God’s Covenant also contains penalties/consequences. In past sermons, we have seen that there are two parts to these laws: 1 – the moral aspect that is still in effect and 2 – the civil or penalty aspect that has been fulfilled by Jesus.
Exodus 22:20 “He who sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.” If we find someone here that wants to worship other gods today, we don’t have to “utterly destroy” him or her. But I also would be unable to tell that person The One True God approves of what is being done.
There are also sections of these three chapters that cover:
Loving Neighbor
Exodus 22:22 “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.”
21:12-27 Causing injury to another
22:21-28 Loans and burdens on another
23:1-9 Testifying to the truth
There are two verses after Ex. 22:22 that explain what God will do if they neglect to follow God’s direction to not afflict the most vulnerable of the community – Exodus 22 “23 If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; 24 and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.”
They will “reap what they sow.” Is this still true today, in the New Testament Covenant?
• Matthew 6 “14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
• James 2 “12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
If they always practiced love of neighbor, they would never break God’s law (sin). God knew they would and we would. God knew there would be a need for covenant and consequences. We need to be in covenant with God and each other, but we all have the human tendency (the old man) to love self more than God and others. We live in a day when there’s a big push to redefine the covenants that bind us together. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states. They redefined the marriage covenant.
How we live together depends on the covenant we share with one another:
• Is our covenant based on human standards of love?
• Is our covenant based on the Blood of Jesus?
The Book of the Covenant begins to define God’s covenant that would include the blood of animals shed on an earthen altar for the temporary forgiveness of sin. It would be 1,300 years later that the blood of God’s Only Son will fall upon a hill outside Jerusalem. Our Covenant – based on that ultimate sacrifice – means there would be no more animal sacrifices (which is great news for the ladies that take care of the altar area in our church!)
This ongoing teaching on Exodus has provided a lens through which we might view the current struggle in our denomination. The time is coming when each local congregation will have to vote to decide with whom will they share in a covenant going forward. How did we get here? Let me use the Israelites as an example: if some of them wanted to do the covenant one way and another group of them wanted to do the covenant a different way – could we call the whole of them “God’s Chosen People”? Of course not! We are at the same place today.
How we Love God and Love Neighbor is still defined by God – not what’s trending on social media or what gets reported on the Nightly News. It also can’t be defined by what is “popular” in the Church. God and only God can write on our hearts His Divine Covenant. Amen
TEACHING SHEET
(date)
Sermon Series: Exodus
Exodus 20:22 - 21:1
“The Book of the Covenant”
What’s a Covenant?
Scholars have defined covenant—translated from the Hebrew “berith” and the Greek “diatheke”—in various ways, and the context in which the word is used in Scripture will also inform our understanding of its meaning. At its most basic level, a covenant is an oath-bound relationship between two or more parties. Thus, human covenants (for example, marriage) fall under this general definition. In divine covenants, God sovereignly establishes the relationship with His creatures. There are other nuances, but a divine covenant given after the fall is, fundamentally, one in which God binds Himself by His own oath to keep His promises. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-covenant/
In the New Testament, Paul wrote “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Gal. 3:24
For Israel, the law was never intended to be a burden – we only feel the weight of a law when it is broken. When we take this view, the law was a gift from God to be studied and loved - Psalm 119
Within the Book of the Covenant, we see the working out of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. These we know well:
Mark 12:29 “Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deut. 6:4
Mark 12:30 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.” Deut. 6:5
Mark 12:31 “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Lev. 19:18
Loving God
We worship what/who we love – Matt. 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Part of the Book of the Covenant is God telling the people – His people – how to worship:
20:23-24 – Worship God along & how to build an altar
22:20 – Penalty for sacrificing to other gods
22:29-31 – Grain and animal offerings
23:14f – Three festivals
Loving Neighbor
Exodus 22:22 “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.”
21:12-27 Causing injury to another
22:21-28 Loans and burdens on another
23:1-9 Testifying to the truth
If they always practiced love of neighbor, they would never break God’s law (sin). God knew they would and we would. God knew there would be a need for covenant and consequences.
How we live together depends on the covenant we share with one another:
• Is our covenant based on human standards of love?
• Is our covenant based on the Blood of Jesus?
