God's Covenant with Israel

After Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, they met the Lord at Mount Sinai where He declared His intention to enter into a covenant relationship with the people. It must have been a truly awesome experience for the people of Israel to meet the Lord at the mountain, for as Exodus 19:16 says,"Everyone in the camp trembled" (NIV). It is important to point out that obedience on the part pf the people was the Lord's primary condition for them to remain in covenant relationship. This is revealed in the following statements:

1. "if you obey me fully..." (Ex. 19:5, NIV).
2. "if you keep my covenant..." (Ex. 19:5, NIV).

The presence of covenant was meant to be woven into the very fabric of Israel as a nation. Covenant regulated "the personal, social, and civil life of Israel" (Richards) and certainly spelt out the religious obligations of the people. God's intention was that "out of all nations you will be my treasured possession" (Ex. 19:5, NIV). He further stated, "Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:5,6, NIV).

Such a view has profound implications for the church of today, for if anicent Israel was to be a model of how God wanted His people to live, then how much more should the church of Jesus Christ stand out as an example of kingdom life and faith. This is why we must, in this generation, rise above our petty concerns and divisive pratices in order to discover afresh what God has always intended His church to be. There must be a restoration of covenant understanding amongst the people of God today!

It is important to consider that the strength of the Israelite community was based in large measure upon individuals in that community deciding to live in covenant relationship with God and each other. The implication, as has been said in earlier posts, is that the ability to keep covenant always begins in the heart. It follows that an inability to keep covenant reveals a problem in the heart of a person. How we need, therefore, a change in the human heart - something that the new covenant in Jesus Christ clearly promises (see Ezekiel 36:26).