The Covenant Theme

Deuteronomy 4: 44 – 5: 22

The Great Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Max A Forsythe

Introduction:  John Phillips Sousa was once asked how he came to write his best loved composition – The Stars & Stripes Forever.  He described the scene at sea, where he was standing at dusk on the fantail of the steamer.  He said that he distinctly heard the music being played in the distance, but could not fathom from whence it came.  Checking later with the crew, he was informed that there were no other ships anywhere within the vicinity.

Ludwig von Beethoven, a man who became so deaf that he could not hear the wild applause to his Ninth Symphony labored hard and long to put his emotions into tune.  Some of his greatest works were accomplished after he lost all ability to hear.  A contemporary movie explored the legend of whom his “immortal beloved” really was – a search that remains tawdry at best.  We can almost guess the real source for his genius, but of course, I need to be circumspect, since my knowledge is incomplete in these matters of musical composition and not truly knowing the mind of the genius in question.

However, if the world and we are truthfully to admit that the greatest of our musicians were inspired geniuses, we must also allow that inspiration is not limited to mere artists, but to practitioners of every profession as well.  Indeed, I mention these examples to lead up to the statement that in our passage today we have laid out for us the greatest God given theme in human history.  Just like Beethoven’s immortal notes at the beginning of the Fifth Symphony, here we have revealed the solid foundation of the Covenant Theme of all the scriptures.  Hardly can we turn anywhere in the scriptures and not find at least an assumption of that thematic context.  In every age of the old and new covenant churches – a divine covenant is in force.  Not separate and distinct covenants, but each in its own way a development towards or from the Great Covenant here stated.

Years ago, when I first heard of Mendenhall’s exposition of the Suzerain outline, it was applied only to the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy.  Moses’ fifth, if you will!  My government notes on the web still divide that chapter into the legal outline once used in the Middle East.  It is an outline that I have regularly used to explain the national covenant between the people and their governing authorities in this fair land.  Meredith Kline observes on the fourth chapter as well that: 

“Deuteronomy 4 is remarkable in that it embodies to some extent all the features which constitute the documentary pattern of suzerainty treaties.  Within it are the identification of the Author of the covenant as speaker, references to past historical relations, the presentation of the central demand for pure devotion to the Suzerain, appeal to the sanctions of blessing and curse, invocation of witnesses, the requirement to transmit the knowledge of the covenant to subsequent generations, and allusion to the dynastic issue.  This mingling of the several leading aspects of covenant institution found here and elsewhere throughout the book is explained by the origin of the material in the free oratory of Moses’ farewell.  Deuteronomy is not a document prepared in the state office with dispassionate adherence to legal form.”

Given these examples and the Suzerain outline which defines the whole work, I am confident that using the Beethoven thematic outline as a parallel is the most appropriate observation to make upon the context of today’s chapter within the book of Deuteronomy, within the Old Covenant revelation as a whole as well as the New Covenant and the wider historic experience of mankind’s knowing who the Creator God really and truly is and all about!

Old Covenant Milieu:  Now, those of you who are following the text closely will realize that there are three verses that I have skipped over.  They are verses forty-one to forty-three which describe the cities of refuge being established in the new territories now occupied by Israel to this point.  I will have something to say about that idea later on in the series, when the subject comes up again. 

So for today, let us focus on the ending of chapter four and the bulk of chapter five.  Meredith Kline observes that verses forty-four to forty-nine are transitional.  “As a summary of the Transjordanian conquests it serves as a conclusion to the historical prologue.  But it is also immediately introductory to the stipulations.”  These stipulations shall constitute the bulk of the chapters ahead.  Kline again outlines our course of study: 

Further, he explains:  “Analyzed in somewhat more detail, this section develops the theme of the great commandment as follows:

Now it is well at this point that we put to rest a commonly mistaken appellation to this Great Covenant.  Dr Craigie helps us here:  

“The fifth book of Moses traditionally has been entitled Deuteronomy; interpreted literally, the title would mean “second law.”  The use of this title arose because of the Greek (LXX) translation of Deuteronomy 17:18; the translators apparently misunderstood the Hebrew (“a copy/repetition of this law”) and took it to mean “second law,” implying thereby a body of legislation different from that contained in the previous books of Moses. ...  The fifth book of Moses does not contain a second and distinct law.  It does, however, repeat much of the legislation contained in the preceding books, though the context and form of that repetition is peculiar to Deuteronomy.”

Certainly there are minor and sometimes subtle changes in the application of the divine principles revealed.  This does not mean that the Lord God of heaven and earth has changed His mind, but only that He has allowed His servant Moses to apply the same principles used to order the nomadic wanderings in the desert to a more settled lifestyle in the Promised Land yet to be occupied.  Dr Craigie again helps us to set this in perspective:  “The law about to be presented is then clearly identified as the same law that was proclaimed to the Israelites at Horeb/Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt; it is not a new covenant in Deuteronomy, but the renewing of an old covenant.”

There is a second popular image that must be laid to rest.  This relates to the last verse in our section today:  “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of thefire, the cloud, and the thick darkness; with a loud voice; and He added no more.  And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.”

In the popular mind, the two tablets of the law contain a portion of the Ten Commandments on either tablet and that combined they represent the whole of the ten principles.  Protestants and Catholics may argue how to divide the ten, historically Protestants divide them four and six, while the Catholic formula evenly divides them five and five.  We won’t go into any great details here, because my commentators generally would favor the idea that both tablets contained the whole of the law, thus there were two copies.  Four, if you allow for the broken set thrown down when Moses realized the sinful Israelites were worshipping a golden calf idol.

The thinking behind this concept is that just as the ancient Suzerain documents were made in duplicate, one for the king and another for the villagers, so too were the two copies kept in the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolically stood for the Oriental footstool common to ancient royalty.  No matter that those copies written by the hand of God have been lost, since in these latter days – they may be written on the hearts of men and women.  However, don’t ask to many people to recite all ten – in many cases their writing appears to be in invisible ink if surveys are any indication.  However, whenever and wherever people are willing to acknowledge their sinful nature and state their shortcomings according to the law – there the hand of the Spirit has been active.

Of course, it behooves us to memorize the ten principles if we have not already done so.  Also, whenever we prepare ourselves for communion, we should meditate upon the ten and confess before the Lord our regular and ongoing shortcomings.

We truthfully need to appreciate the timelessness of this address and that earlier at the Mountain of God.  There is a certain concept of history today that needs to be curtailed.  And that concept is that what is past is no longer important.  Trivial pursuit, one of the guidance counselors once described the work of our History Department at school.  Today, more and more historical fiction is taking the place of hard reality reported faithfully across the ages.  Moses in his faithful recordings is truly the first historian in all of recorded history.  Polybius, the Greek recorder coming some generations later is usually regarded as the father of History.  However, that claim is more prone to a humanistic denial of the reality of Moses rather than the true process of historiography.

With that said, we can more greatly appreciate the historical prologue which Moses carefully sets up to defend the covenantal process which is proved over and over in the clay tablets turned up all over the Palestinian landscape.  If the people standing before Moses could comprehend the reality of these reports, so too should be join with them and give the covenantal demands a fair hearing.  Dr Craigie echoes my concern: 

 “Thus the words in [these verses] emphasize that the covenant was not simply an event of the past, or something of historical interest: ‘the Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers.’  In a literal sense, the covenant was made with the fathers of most of those standing there on the plains of Moab.  The essence of the covenant, however, was its present reality, so that Moses drives home very forcefully the direct identification of the principally new and young generation with those involved in the making of the Horeb covenant.  It was made ‘with us, each one of us, these present today, all of us who are living’ – they syntax of this part of the Hebrew sentence is at first sight rather awkward, but it functions effectively ... to drive home the direct relationship between the people present and the Lord of the covenant”.

New Covenant Continuum:  Dr Poythress asks a few necessary questions for our consideration:  “Does Old Testament law remain in force now, or is it altered by the coming of Christ?  Are the periods of the Old Testament and New Testament continuous with one another, so that the law is the same?  Or are they discontinuous, so that the law is altered?  Must we choose between affirming continuity or affirming discontinuity?” 

This places us on the horns of a theological dilemma!  There are those who presume an “almost pure continuity of the law and [an enjoinment] to keep the same old law in the same form as always, only now empowered with the presence of Christ.”  Sounds almost like the position of the Judaisers complained about by Paul for most of his ministry. 

The opposite position in the quandary is where “some people might suppose ... that Paul primarily asserts only a discontinuity in the law.  The law is dead and gone, not to be obeyed, virtually irrelevant for Christian living.  But Paul too sees the law as comprehensively fulfilled in Christ.  When understood properly it is a most impressive means of communion with Christ.”

We have only to read the attitude of Paul himself to see what he really means:  “But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.  Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  2 Corinthians 3: 15-18

To put it simply, to become Christ like is to obey the law in spirit and in truth.  Dr Poythress again instructs us:  “The entirety of this Mosaic revelation simultaneously articulates general moral principles and symbolic particulars: it points forward to Christ as the final and permanent expression of righteousness and penal substitution (with moral overtones) but is itself, in that very respect, a shadow (with ceremonial overtones).”

“To be specific, [the law] reveals and is fulfilled in Christ, who is the fullness of the Deity, the sum of wisdom, and therefore also the comprehensive source and standard for practical righteousness both personal and social.”

The saving purpose of Christ includes not only continuity but also discontinuity in a glorious harmony not always fathomed, appreciated or understood within Christ’s Church down through the ages.  Even as the Covenant theme runs throughout all of history, we need to appreciate more and more what the God of heaven has been about.  “I will be your God and you shall be my people” is the constant covenant invitation down through the ages.  It remains for us to accept the glorious invitation.

Contemporary Application:  Dr J A Thompson observes: “At the heart of Israel’s covenant faith lay the Sinai covenant and the Decalogue.  It must be insisted that the covenant was more than a list of covenant stipulations.  It was fundamentally a relationship between Yahweh and Israel.  But the covenant stipulations were important because they defined the basic demands of the covenant.”

This is no living law as the worldly assume today.  No, the law does not grow and evolve as some jurists proclaim our own national covenant does!  Recently I read that our constitutional documents have been removed from public display so that newer more protective devices may be installed and the old documents will be carefully cleaned and repaired.  Thankfully, our national covenant is not like that of the one in George Orwell’s notorious Animal Farm, where the commandments painted on the side of the barn took on newer nuances as the demands of the ruling party so desired.

Neither should we allow the constitutional evolutionaries to rewrite our national covenant nor the very word of God, which is so offensive if publicly displayed that a copy in Indiana was recently vandalized.  Of course that worldly vandalism is no worse than the common spiritual vandalism against the law practiced in today’s church.

Too often not only the study but also the practice of the law is considered quaint at best and heretical at worst.  I can well remember the theological attitudes in Seminary where any seriousness in regard to the commandments was considered as a too rigid adherence to the past.  There was and is a continuing antinomian spirit at loose and running roughshod over a Christian’s real responsibility to please the Lord of heaven by obeying not only the commandments given through Moses, but all of those reaffirmed in the ministry of Christ who came not to change the law but to fulfill every aspect of that revealed law.

Rusas J Rushdoony well defines the antinomian in these words:  “The antinomian believes that faith frees the Christian from the law, so that he is not outside the law but is rather dead to the law.  There is no warrant whatsoever in Scripture for antinomianism.”

Two further quotes from Rushdoony are in order:  

The same God and Father of all the elect whose simple expectation for us to  “make every thought captive to the Word of God!” Yes that is a tall order, but for those who have the mind of Christ – which is revealed in and through the law, prophets and wisdom of the Old Covenant as well as directly in His own words – it is a reasonable expectation of those who claim the Name of Jesus.  So may the power of the Holy Spirit enable us to show the essential fruits of the same Spirit that calls us into an ongoing relationship with our Savior God in Christ.  Amen.

Resources Used:

Copyright (C) 2001                             Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America)

           12 August 2001                           Box 13926 - Columbus, Ohio 43213-8049

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