Old Covenant, New Covenant

What do you think of when you hear the word “covenant”?  In my biblical worldview, it is a core rock-solid promise with a gentle wrapping of love and boundaries for safety, and security.  It has positive vibes all around it.  It’s unconditional love and always a good thing.

God’s covenants were special because God establishes covenants and God keeps them—both those He promised to the world in general and unconditional to Israel, in specific. 

There is one that came with strings regarding our behavior for a period of time.  The Law of Moses (Mosaic covenant) came with the fact that if you obey, blessings follow.  If you don’t, expect trouble.  God’s boundaries are for safety and security and if you cross that boundary, don’t expect God’s safety and security to follow you when you’ve abandoned Him at the border.  He is faithful to the conditions He set forth.

Exodus 24:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, 2 but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

 3 When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”

Not depending on them to remember, it was put in writing
and sealed in blood. 
They would be without excuse, having promised to obey…twice.

Exodus 24: 4 Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar.

 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”

 8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

People are always less likely to keep their end
even though they twice-promised they would be faithful.  
They abandoned God over and over again.
So God, in His grace, adapted the covenant after Jesus purchased our forgiveness.

Hebrews 8:8 God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah…10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.  I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Old Covenant, New Covenant. 
Both ratified in blood.
Now Jesus paid it all…
and opened for us that new and living way.