Moses and David

Moses, the Man of God, the Deliverer

When He was entering into His covenant with Abraham, God had said to him …

That land in which they served as slaves was the land of Egypt, and it was during the darkest days of their oppression that God raised up from among them the man called Moses to be their deliverer – to lead them out of slavery and into the Promised Land, the land “flowing with milk and honey” to which God had originally led their forefather Abraham some four centuries earlier.

Before we look at the covenant that God made with Israel through Moses, we need to think about another critical event. This is the event that came to be known as “the Passover”, which took place on the night that the Israelites were finally released from Egyptian captivity:

This event is significant for us as Christians, as the apostle Paul tells us:

The significance of this is that as the blood of the Passover lamb protected the Israelites from the wrath of God against the Egyptians, so the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, protects those who trust in Him from the wrath of God against a sinful world.

For the full story of Moses and the deliverance from Egypt, please read:

• Exodus 1 – background
• Exodus 2 – Moses birth and early life
• Exodus 3-6 – God calls and commissions Moses and his brother Aaron
• Exodus 7-12 – judgement on Egypt – the Ten Plagues
• Exodus 12-13 – the Passover
• Exodus 14-15 – Crossing the Red Sea
• Exodus 20 – the Ten Commandments
• Exodus 24 – the Covenant at Mount Sinai

The Covenant at Mount Sinai

On the night of the Passover, God led Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt and eventually brought them to Mount Sinai, in the area of eastern Egypt known today as the Sinai Peninsula. It was here, at this mountain, that God had chosen to establish His next covenant with the people of Israel. This is the covenant that we know as the Covenant of the Law, after which the Old Testament is named ('testament' being a now outdated synonym of 'covenant').

The words of verses 4 to 6 beautifully summarise the terms of the covenant that God is making with His chosen nation:

• Verse 4 – God’s credentials. He has demonstrated His willingness and His ability to be Israel’s Deliverer, their Saviour. This gives Him the right to ask for their submission, their obedience.

• Verse 5a – the condition: “if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant …”. Every promise of God has a condition. If we meet the conditions, then we will be able to enter into the promises.

• Verse 5b-6a – the promises. God promises three things to the nation of Israel: that they will be (a) God’s own special treasure; (b) a kingdom of priests; (c) a holy nation.

Words alone were not enough to establish this covenant. As we have seen before, it was usual to have something that etches the agreement into the consciousness of those who are parties to the covenant, or witnesses of it. In this case, once again we see the shedding of blood being central to the covenant ritual. The two parties to this covenant are:

1. Almighty God, represented by the altar (verse 6)
2. All of the children of Israel, men women and children, young and old alike (verse 8).

Never before did God make a covenant like this with an entire nation at one time, but this event has significance not only for the nation of Israel but for all of mankind. The reason for this will become clear in due course when we think about the Covenant of Grace.

The Covenant of the Law was very much a bi-lateral or two-sided covenant. God made wonderful promises to Israel, but Israel was required to keep God’s laws, which covered every area of life.

The Ten Commandments (which you’ll find in Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5) are the core of the law. However, when the Lord Jesus was asked what He would consider to be the greatest commandment in the law, he replied (quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18):

There are over 600 commandments in the Law of Moses. Why do you think that Jesus singled out these two in particular? What do you a think your life would be like if you were living in full obedience to them?

The Sacrificial System and the Tabernacle

Large portions of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are taken up with the specifications of the sacrifices that were to be made upon the Altar of Burnt Offering, which stood in front of the entrance to the Tabernacle, also known as the Tent of Meeting, where the presence of God was to be found.

Two things you would have been very conscious of as you approached the Tabernacle while the sacrifices were being made – the smell of burning flesh and the sight of shed blood.

There were different types of offerings for different types of misdemeanours – the guilt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace (or fellowship) offering – and you would have been acutely aware of the fact that if you realised that you had done wrong and wanted to obtain God’s forgiveness, it was not going to happen unless a sacrifice was made – unless blood was shed.

God required the shedding of blood before forgiveness could be offered.
Have you ever wondered why that should be?
Does this give you a sense of how serious sin is in God’s eyes?

Imagine yourself as an Old Testament Israelite standing in the court of God’s Tabernacle or Temple.

You know that inside that tent is the very presence of Almighty God, but you are not allowed to go in. If you want to approach the Tabernacle, you must come with one of the prescribed offerings, which the priest will offer to God on your behalf.

If you have sinned, you must bring the appropriate sacrifice – an innocent life that must be forfeited on your behalf so that you may be forgiven and accepted by God.

What might go through your mind and your heart as you stand there and watch, or as you take your turn to go forward with your offering?

The Sign of the Covenant

We saw previously that the rainbow in the clouds is a sign between God and man of the covenant that God made with Noah, and the promise that God would never again destroy all life by means of a flood.

We also saw that circumcision was a sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants.

Similarly, there is a sign of the Covenant of the Law – the sign of the Sabbath Day, as God commanded through Moses:

We find the explanation for this in the fourth of the Ten Commandments:

The word ‘sabbath’ comes from a Hebrew word meaning ‘repose’ or ‘stop working’. Why, then, would God choose the Sabbath Day to be a sign, or reminder, of His covenant? Perhaps He gives us the answer through His servant, the prophet Ezekiel:

Even in this Covenant of the Law, where God’s people are required to live by the letter of the law on a daily basis, there is already a strong hint that God is looking for something else, something deeper, something more personal, which will not be fully understood until the Covenant of Grace is revealed.

However, from the time of Moses onwards, the books of the Old Testament catalogue the failure of the Israelites to live up to their covenant responsibilities, and God’s continual attempts to win them back to Himself, whether through punishment or through mercy.

This clearly demonstrates to us the depth of God’s commitment to those with whom He is in covenant relationship, and the steadfastness of His faithfulness to His promises.

David, the King, the Man after God’s Own Heart

These words were spoken by God to king David through the prophet Nathan, after David had expressed his desire to build a house for God, because since the time of Moses worship had continued to be centred around the tabernacle, or tent, that Moses had made at Mount Sinai some 500 years earlier (2nd Samuel 7:6).

David, who loved God and wanted to honour Him, had planned to build for God a permanent home – a temple, a fitting house for Him to dwell in. But God said to him, “you will not build a house for me; instead, I will build a house for you – an enduring house that will remain for ever.”

In this prophetic word, God refers to both David’s immediate son Solomon, who succeeded him on the throne of Israel, and the Lord Jesus Christ, often called “the son of David”, who came to establish God’s kingdom upon the earth about 1,000 years later.

Many prophecies have both a short-term and a long-term fulfilment. This is an example of that type of prophetic message.

Unlike His promises to Noah, Abraham, and Moses, this promise to David was not accompanied by the normal ritual aspects of a covenant; and yet it is referred to as a covenant in a number of places:

So, if in 1st Chronicles 17, and the parallel passage in 2nd Samuel 7, the word “covenant” is not mentioned, and neither is there any shedding of blood or similar “signs” of a covenant, and yet this promise of God to David has the full force of a covenant and is treated as such, what does that tell us about what is the most important element of a covenant?

In 2nd Chronicles 13:5, David’s great grandson Abijah refers to this covenant that God made with David and his descendants as a “covenant of salt”:

What did he mean by this?

If we think of the two primary uses of salt, we may get a clue:

1. Salt is used in food to season it, to bring out the best in it, to make it more enjoyable to eat;

2. Salt is used as a preservative, particularly for meat, so that it will keep for a long time.

(I am grateful to the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia for this insight.)

The NIV Life Application Study Bible makes the following note on Leviticus 2:13:

“In Arab countries, an agreement was sealed with a gift of salt to show the strength and permanence of the contract”

An aspect of covenant that we have not seen in any of these scriptures is that when men entered into a covenant with each other they would then sit down to have a meal together.

However, we do see what may be an expression of this in Exodus 24, after Moses has sprinkled the blood of the covenant on both the altar and the people:

So the salt represents not only this close communion between the covenant parties, which is expressed by sharing a meal together, but also the enduring quality of the covenant. This is not a flash in the pan, here today and gone tomorrow, but this is a commitment for the long haul – this is a commitment for life.

The books of 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles show how, despite the attempts of the enemies of Israel, both natural and spiritual, to destroy the kingly line of David, that kingly line persisted.

However, since the people of Israel continually rejected God Himself and the covenant that He had entered into with them through Moses, the time came when God, who had warned them what would happen if they failed to keep His covenant (Deuteronomy 29:24-28), stepped in and had the last king of Israel, Zedekiah, and most of his subjects, deported to Babylon by the hand of king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.

But that was not the end of the kingly line of David. It was only a temporary pause.

There was one more king to come, one more Son of David to take his place upon that royal throne, to fulfil God’s promise that He would:

We will find out who that Son of David was as we turn now to the Covenant of Grace.