What the Old Covenant Was

The old covenant was an agreement between God and the people of Israel concerning the keeping of His law. It did not consist of the law, but it had to do with the law, and so, for that matter, does the new covenant.DOF 229.3

When God had brought Israel out of Egypt, He led them by way of Sinai. They reached this place in the third month of their travels. (See Exodus 19:1.) It was here that the Lord called Moses to come up into the mount to commune with Him. There God revealed to His servant that He was about to speak His law to Israel, but that before doing so He wished to make a covenant, or agreement, with them. He therefore instructed Moses to return to the camp and say to Israel: “Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” Exodus 19:5, 6.DOF 229.4

When Moses repeated these words to Israel, “all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.” Verse 8.DOF 230.1

Here, then, was a definite agreement, or covenant, between God and His people. God offers to bless Israel if they will obey His voice. They agree to be obedient. Mr. Canright quotes Webster as stating that a covenant is “a mutual consent or agreement of two or more persons to do or forbear some act or thing; a contract.”—Seventh day Adventism Renounced, p. 351.DOF 230.2

Here, then, we have found the agreement made at Sinai. It consisted in definite promises made by God to His people, and in promises made by the people to God. God’s promises were good, but the people’s promises were like ropes of sand. This made the covenant faulty. It was established upon poor promises. Sinful men, with carnal hearts, had made a high agreement to keep a holy and perfect law, whereas “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7. In their agreement they had not taken the weakness of the flesh into account. The), put no reliance in the power of the Holy Spirit. They felt self-sufficient; and in their self-sufficiency they trusted not in God but in themselves.DOF 230.3

Jesus once said to the Jews of His day: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how says Thou, You shall be made free?” John 8:32, 33. It was this same spirit which led them to speak with such assurance in entering into the old covenant relationship.DOF 230.4

It was just after this agreement was made at Sinai that God spoke the law of the Ten Commandments and wrote it upon tables of stone. When this was accomplished, Moses wrote the words of the agreement, or the old covenant, that had been entered into, in a book, and once more read them in the hearing of Israel, and they reiterated their promise, saying: “All that the, Lord hath said, will we do, and be obedient.” (See Exodus 24:4-7.) Then Moses “sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord bath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord bath made with you concerning all these words.” Verses 5-8.DOF 231.1

Thus it is clear that the old covenant made at Sinai was not the commandments, but, on the part of the people, an agreement to keep God’s law, and on God’s part a promise to give them certain blessings conditional upon obedience. The law was that concerning which the covenant was made, but it was not the covenant itself. The weakness of this covenant was the fact that it was based on the principle, “Do and live,” whereas the people could not do, because they were carnal and trusted in the flesh, and therefore were unable to fulfill the covenant provisions. God knew that in their mere human strength they would be unable to keep it, and evidently the reason it was given was that it might serve as an everlasting lesson to man regarding his utter helplessness without God.DOF 231.2