Ratifying God’s Covenant

 While he gave the Ten Commandments as an outline for what he would expect as their part of the covenant with Israel, the Israelites were more concerned with the things that were happening around them.  They asked that Moses represent them and they not have to talk to God personally.  Before going on, God reminded them that they had spoken to him personally and knew this was his command, in Exodus 20:22.  “And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.”  It wasn’t just some story Moses made up. 

 

God then proceeded to lay out a more detailed explanation of what keeping the Ten Commandments would involve, in Exodus 20:23-23:19.  To keep them from getting distracted or led astray, gd promised to send his angel to guide them, and if they followed his instructions, God would act on their behalf, as he explained in Exodus 23:20-23.  “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.  Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.  But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.”

 

Receiving God’s promises would require they follow his commands completely, not going along with the beliefs and practices of the people around them, according to Exodus 23:24.  “Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.”

 

He repeated and expanded on the promises he had made earlier about what he would do for them if they obeyed, in Exodus 23:25-30.  “And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.  There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.  I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.  And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.  I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.”

 

Not only would God eliminate sickness from among them, and ensure that their crops and herds were productive, but he would also cause their enemies to be so afraid they would flee whenever they came into conflict.  God would send swarms of hornets ahead of them to drive out the previous occupants as their need for land increased while leaving enough behind to keep the land from going back to a wild state, minimizing the difficulties of taking over the land. 

 

In Exodus 23:31 God gave a brief description of the land they would occupy.  “And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.”  Their land would extend from the coast of the Red Sea, along the gulfs of Aqaba and Suez and north along the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert east of Israel to the Jordan River.  At this point God was just describing the areas they were familiar with from their stories about the land of Canaan, having just crossed the Sinai Peninsula and being camped in the desert area east of the Gulf of Aqaba.  Later, he would give more detailed descriptions of their future boundaries.  Israel was to make no treaties with those people because such treaties would mean agreeing to ignore some of the things God had forbidden.  Exodus 23:32-33 commanded, “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.  They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”

 

When Moses told the People what God had said, they agreed to do it, so Moses wrote it out as a formal contract.  They formally ratified it in Exodus 24:3-28.  “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.  And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.  And he 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 hath 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 hath made with you concerning all these words.”

 

As proof of his commitment to the covenant, God revealed himself to the people in a vision as well, in Exodus 24:10-11.  “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.  And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.”

 

Israel’s acceptance of God’s covenant was very similar to the Person accepting salvation, as described in Romans 10:9-13.  “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  In stating that we believe Christ is the sacrifice for our sins and believe that God has raised him from the sin, we are effectively accepting God’s contract with those who believe.  We are committing ourselves to keep his commands.