From Their Bondage And Claims Them As His Own

Without devotion to God, violence and death would flourish in Israel. These factors would impede God’s blessings of security and life; thus, the Mosaic covenant demonstrates the continual faithfulness of God in the Old Testament. Finally, God is faithful to Israel during the people’s complaints in the desert. Rather than abandoning the nation for its faithlessness, God provides them will nourishment and protection during their journey. These acts further reinforce the faithfulness of God, even when his followers stray. In all, the Pentateuch demonstrates the theme of God’s faithfulness.

After the fall of mankind into disobedience and sin, God made the decision to deal with mankind and the problem of rebellion by establishing contracts or agreements between Himself and the people in order to communicate with and redeem his greatest creation, humanity. As we read through and study the Bible we can see that God is faithful in keeping His promises that he gave to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament having made contracts with Abraham and David and it would appear that Abrahamic and the Davidic Covenants are the mainstays leading up to the new covenant with Jesus Christ being the new

Covenant and law are both prevalent themes that are used throughout the Old Testament of the Bible. A covenant is a binding contract in which “a kinship bond between two parties” is created when each party carries out assigned expectations established in the making of the covenant (Hahn and Bergsma 1). A law is a binding rule or regulation that is used to regulate the conduct of a community or group of people and is usually enforced by some kind of authority. There are many similarities and differences between covenant and law, and in some cases covenant and law can be connected so that one supports the other. This is especially true when talking about the Mosaic Law and God’s covenant with Israel. In these two items God creates expectations through the covenant, rules and regulations through the Law, and allows for covenant-maintenance by using both together rather than a simple law code.

Foster’s devotes his research to identifying the purpose of the Old Testament covenant. The article offers insight into the establishment of where covenants originated in the Ancient Near Eastern culture. Foster provides the definition of covenant within its typical form which includes a selected relationship of mutual obligation which is guaranteed by a verbal agreement (205). The article summarizes the goal of the covenants between God and man and establishes parameters of the agreement including the security, accountability, and purpose. Throughout the article, Foster emphasis the notion of the former usage of covenants between pagan gods that only witness the agreement to Yahweh the creator establishing the agreement. The article provides a glimpse into origin of covenants and how it evolves into a relationship with

At the beginning of time, God created mankind, creatures made in his own image, with whom He could have relationship with. Unfortunately, the original humans, Adam and Eve, shattered this relationship by turning away from God and sinning, putting themselves before Him. All of the descendants of Adam and Eve, mankind itself, have and continue to suffer from the repercussions of this Original Sin. Ever since that time, thousands of years ago, God has been working through human history in order to repair His relationship with Humanity, redeeming them from the effects of sin. His plan of salvation began with a covenant He made with a nomad named Abraham, whose descendants became the nation of Israel. This covenant established the Lord's intentions to bring about redemption for humanity through the nation of Israel. Sadly though, the ancient Israelites time and again were unfaithful to their covenant with God, and would worship the false idols of the nations around them. Because of their sin of apostasy, the nation of Israel eventually split in two, and was then wiped out by foreign invaders, sending in the Hebrew people into exile. It was during this exile that the Prophets, men who would speak on behalf of God, began to predict the coming of the Messiah, an 'anointed one' of

Throughout the Old Testament I can see how humanity is drawn forward from the covenant of creation to the events concerning Jesus Christ. God connects with humankind through covenants which outline the plan of God. The Abrahamic covenant is the first covenant to show God’s unconditional love toward humankind. The Mosaic covenant is a conditional covenant that outlines the laws that we must live our lives by. The Messianic

Biblical covenant is “legal term denoting a formal and legally binding declaration of benefits to be given by one party to another, with or without conditions attached.” (Arnold) Biblical covenant is a part of God holy plan and they reveal enteral plan. Each covenant plays a part of God plan of salvation. The Mosaic covenant showed that being saved by works was impossible and reveals God’s Holy character the need of a savior. “The Mosaic Covenant was like the vassal treaties of the ancient Near East, where a more powerful king entered into a relationship with a lesser king.” Knowing the Bible)

Prior to reading The Christ of the Covenants, I was unaware of the emphasis placed on the covenants, likely due to my un-Reformed background. After reading this book, I feel that it fully demonstrates the relationship between five covenants God instigated with Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and David in the Old Testament, and how they are reflected in Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection in the New Testament. In answering four basic questions, I discovered this main idea to be true time and time again. This book forced me to think critically on how God’s five covenants relate to the entire message presented in Scripture, unity and diversity, covenant theology vs. dispensational theology, and strengths and weaknesses in the entirety of the book. Robertson exhibits his vast knowledge of the subject with a concisely structured index outlining one clear point for the entire novel: the relationship between the old and new covenants.

It states that Yahweh is the great king, (2 Sam 7:20-25) Yahweh choose Jerusalem for his dwelling place, it states an unconditional promise to the Davidic house (2 Sam. 7:16) and a conditional promise to each Davidic king (Starbuck, 10/29/15). This creates differences between the two covenants. The first three parts are a Royal covenant where the greater party, Yahweh, is bound to the lesser party, David and the people, without them having to do anything in return. This is an unconditional covenant. This is different from the Sinai covenant, but similar to the Noahic and Abrahamic covenants, both of which came before the Sinai covenant in the Bible. Yahweh promised Noah he would not send a flood again (Gen.9:15) and promised Abraham he would be the “ancestor of a multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:6). The Noahic and Abrahamic covenants are unconditional and Yahweh binds himself to Abraham and Noah without asking them to do anything in return. Some scholars say the Royal and Sinai covenants are contradictory because they believe the Royal covenant was originally written as only the first three parts, and that the fourth was added later on by the Deuteronomist (Starbuck, 10/29/15). The fourth idea is against the king’s interest; it means he has to answer to a higher power. If the covenant is unconditional they don’t need to worry about fulfilling any obligations to Yahweh. If it was against the king’s interest to answer to

Eventually, the Torah provided a tangible manifestation of covenant. Rather than a set of rules meant to punish, Torah taught the Israelites how to live within God’s covenant. Understanding and applying Torah was not without struggle, yet revealed the nature of covenant with God within the struggle. Many minds worked together over the years to tweak the expectations and understanding of God’s covenants to meet the demands of life as life changed, meaning the covenants were living and breathing

Accordingly, the New Law brings the Old Law to fulfil insofar as it supplies what the Old Law lacked. The New Law brings the Old Law to completion by conferring justification through the power of Christ’s passion. Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount: “in ancient time you have heard like this, but I say to you, this may show as a contradiction to the Old Law.” But Jesus carefully brings to the complete moral perfection, teaching them the true meaning of the Old Law as the complete representation of the Christian life.

The Christ of the Covenants demonstrates the relationship between five covenants God instigated with Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and David in the Old Testament, and how they are reflected in Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection in the New Testament. In answering four basic questions, I discovered this main idea to be true time and time again. Robertson exhibits his vast knowledge of the subject with a concisely structured index outlining one clear point for the entire novel.

In this chapter we see several events that transpire between the giving of the Mosaic Law and the establishment of the monarchy. We have the rebuilding of the Tabernacle, statutes that were taken from congregation, Levites that were consecrated, and lastly we see the special guidelines that were given to those who were deemed impure. The covenant that was best typified was based on King David. The covenant that he had with God was one that represented the humans and those that stood in-between. There was not a change within the people, places, nor the Mosaic covenant because the covenant that God made to King David is the last of the Old Testament. The significance that the dissolving of the David Kingdom had on understanding the covenant in

Roy L. Aldrich from his article, “Causes for Confusion of Law and Grace,” points out, “One of the principal causes of misunderstanding about law and grace is the failure to define terms.” He then delineates some different meanings of law in the New Testament, e.g. the Mosaic Law (Matt 22:37–40); The Law of Christ (Gal 6:2; Jas 1:25; 2:12); Law as Principle (Rom 3:27; 8:2) and The Pentateuch (Luke 24:44). He goes on to point out that there is contrasting difference between the Mosaic Law and the moral law. The Mosaic Law was filled with, “ceremonial law, civil law, criminal law, sanitary law, governmental law. But the moral law existed before Moses, and continues after the Cross.” Did Jesus bind modern day Christians to these different attributes of the Mosaic Law only or moral law only or both? Paul R. Schmidtbleicher distinguishes between two different thoughts on this. Westminster

Law. There premise is that Jesus was giving instructions to the Jews; so his words do not bind