Reminiscences of Horeb.
I. THE COVENANT. (Deuteronomy 5:2, Deuteronomy 5:3.)
1. Proposed by God (Exodus 19:3-7).
2. Accepted by the people (Exodus 24:7).
3. Entailed obligations on subsequent generations (cf. Deuteronomy 6:2). In this covenant, formally ratified by sacrifice (Exodus 24:6, Exodus 24:7), Israel
The new covenant in Christ, while in many respects different from, and superior to, that of Horeb, yet resembles it in several of these particulars.
II. THE LAW. (Deuteronomy 5:6-22.)
1. Holy in its nature.
2. Internally complete as a summary of duty. "He added no more" (Deuteronomy 5:22).
3. Explicative of the character of God. The absoluteness and unity of God, e.g. taught in first commandment; his spirituality, jealousy of his honor, sovereignty, love, and mercy, in second commandment; his holiness, in third commandment; his searching of hearts, in tenth commandment; while in all he appears as the Source of moral obligation, and the Guardian of rights.
4. To be kept from the motive of love (Deuteronomy 5:10). This Law is not abolished, but fulfilled in Christ, by whose Spirit its precepts are written in the minds and hearts of believers (2 Corinthians 3:3; Hebrews 8:10).
III. THE MEDIATOR. (Deuteronomy 5:5, Deuteronomy 5:22-33.) The mediation of Moses was:
1. Craved by the people (Deuteronomy 5:23-28). The manifestation of God's holiness overwhelms sinful men (cf. Isaiah 6:3-6). Moses not only endured this manifestation, but went up alone into the thick darkness where God was. How exceptionally great he appears in this!
2. Acquiesced in by God (Deuteronomy 5:28-32). This transacting through a mediator was in harmony with the principle of his dealings with them from the first. A figure of the mediation of Christ.
3. Suitable in itself. As tending to enhance in their minds the impression of God's holiness and the feeling of their own sinfulness.—J.O.
The covenant at Horeb.
Here spoken of as distinct from the older covenant made with the patriarchs (Genesis 15:1-21; Genesis 17:1-27.).
I. ITS RELATIONS TO THE COVENANT MADE WITH THE FATHERS, It was not a new thing absolutely. It rested on that older covenant, and on the series of revelations which sprang out of it. It could not disannul that older covenant (Galatians 3:17). It could not run counter to it (Galatians 3:21). It must, though "superadded," be in subserviency to it (Galatians 3:15-26). But that covenant made with the fathers was:
1. Of promise (Galatians 3:18).
2. Couched in absolute terms. God pledged his perfections that the promise conveyed in it would be ultimately realized (Romans 3:3).
3. In which an interest was obtained by faith (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3-23).
4. While yet it bound the person received into covenant to a holy life (Genesis 17:1). The new covenant could "make void" the older one in none of these particulars.
II. ITS DISTINCTION FROM THE COVENANT MADE WITH THE FATHERS.
1. It was a national covenant, having reference primarily to national existence and prosperity.
2. It was a covenant of Law. It was
Does this look like a retrograde step in the Divine procedure, a contradiction of the covenant with Abraham? Seemingly it was so, but the backward step was really a forward one, bringing to light demands of the Divine holiness which it was absolutely essential man should become acquainted with. Two points have to be noticed:
(a) that obedience was not made the ground of admission to the covenant, or aught else than the condition of continuance in privileges freely conferred; and
(b) that the requirement of obedience did not stand alone, but was connected with provisions for the removal of the guilt contracted by transgression and shortcoming. This brings into view the peculiar feature in the covenant of Horeb—the hidden grace of it. In form and letter it was a strictly legal covenant. Obedience to the Law in all its parts, and without failure, was the technical condition of the fulfillment of promise, and of continuance in covenant privilege (cf. Matthew 19:17; Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:10). The fact that atonements were provided to remove the guilt which otherwise would have broken up the covenant, is proof that such was its constitution. The same fact shows that in the structure of the covenant it was recognized that sin and shortcoming would mark the history of Israel; that, on the strictly legal basis, standing in the state of acceptance was impossible. A theoretically perfect obedience no Jew ever rendered. His standing in no case was in virtue of a perfectly fulfilled Law, but was due to forgiving mercy, which daily pardoned his shortcomings, and gave him an acceptance which these shortcomings were as constantly forfeiting. It was faith, not works, which justified him; while yet, in harmony with the unalterable law of moral life, it was his duty to aim at the realization of the ideal of righteousness which the Law presented. Just as with Abraham, the faith which justified him, and did so before a single work had issued from it (Genesis 15:6; James 2:23), was a faith which "wrought with works," and "by works was faith made perfect" (James 2:22). It follows from these peculiarities, and from the statements of Scripture, that it was:
3. A preparatory and temporary covenant. Its leading design was to develop the consciousness of sin, to awaken a feeling of the need of redemption, to evince the powerlessness of mere Law as a source of moral strength, to drive men back from legal efforts to faith, and so, finally, to prepare the way for Christ (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:23, Galatians 3:24, etc.). In this we discern the reason of the severe and threatening form in which it was couched, and of the terrors which attended its promulgation. It was a covenant which could not of itself save or do aught but kill (2 Corinthians 3:6-12).—J.O.