What is God’s Historical Relationship With The People Of Israel (With Particular Reference To The Mosaic Covenant)
Man’s relationship with God can be traced back to the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden which is recorded in Genesis. The Fall led to a separation of humanity from God but the Abrahamic covenant gave a promise that this broken relationship could be restored.
As Covenantalist John Murray writes,
“It is this Abrahamic covenant, so explicitly set forth in Gn. Xv and xvii, that underlies the whole subsequent development of God’s redemptive promise, word, and action…. The redemptive grace of God in the highest and furthest reaches of its realization is the unfolding of the promise given to Abraham and therefore the unfolding of the Abrahamic covenant”
The fall signified man’s separation from God, man was created in God’s image but the story of the fall signifies how man was tempted to doubt God’s word and eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a consequence suffering and death came into the world. Mankind has had to try and regain Paradise and restore this relationship ever since. Abraham was the foundation on which this broken relationship could be restored. Abraham (formerly known as Abram before his calling) is considered as the father of faith and had led a comfortable life in Ur, Mespotamia before being called by God. God chose Abraham to leave Ur and made specific commitments to him which are known as the Abrahamic Covenant. The covenant can be understood as an unconditional covenant. God made promises to Abraham that required nothing of Abraham. There are three main features of Abrahamic Covenant:
- The promise of land. God called Abraham from his home city of Ur and promised him a territory which is laid out in Genesis 15: 18-21
- The promise of descendants. Although Abraham was 75 and childless, God promised Abraham that he would make a great nation out of him
- The promise of blessings and redemption. God promised that all peoples on earth will be blessed through Abraham
Although God blessed Abraham by fulfilling the first two promises, the third promise anticipates a future fulfilment which could be seen as a renewal by the new covenant preached by Jesus Christ.
“The Abrahamic Covenant finds its ultimate fulfilment in connection with the return of Messiah to rescue and bless His people Israel. It is through the nation Israel that God promised in Genesis 12: 1-3 to bless the nations of the world. That ultimate blessing will issue in the forgiveness of sins and Messiah’s glorious kingdom reign on earth”
I shall discuss this concept later on in the essay. The Abrahamic covenant may be seen as the restoration of mankind’s relationship with God after the Fall through Abraham and the people Israel.
Abraham is to be considered as the founder of the people Israel and his greatness lay in his faith as Soren Kierkegaard discusses in Fear and Trembling. It is through his faith he is able to restore mankind’s broken relationship with God. He was content to listen to God and trusted he could believe God in making difficult decisions such as leaving his homeland and his test of faith in sacrificing his only son Isaac. Abraham’s greatness lay in his faith and his reason. God’s relationship with the people of Israel can be said to be founded on the Abrahamic covenant and is essentially built on the person of Abraham.
God renewed his relationship with the people Israel with the Mosaic covenant. This covenant was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was a conditional covenant between God and the people Israel that built on the Abrahamic covenant without annulling it. Essentially it was based around God giving his Divine Law to Moses on Mount Sinai which was built around the Ten Commandments but there were other laws given by God. The conditional nature of the covenant meant that Israel had to be obedient to the law to fulfil their side and then God would bless Israel, however if they failed to obey the Law then God would punish them. Israel was blessed as the chosen nation to follow God’s law. The law was set down to be followed as God’s divine rules. However it can be argued that the Mosaic Covenant still pointed the way for Jesus Christ and the new covenant. In God’s omniscience Mosaic Law simply revealed people’s sinfulness and their need for redemption, humankind is fallible. The children of Israel were unable to keep God’s laws but in the book of Jeremiah God promises the nation Israel a new covenant in which they can look forward to redemption. The Mosaic covenant again highlights the special significance of the relationship between God and the people Israel. Moses was God’s chosen leader and Israel was the nation chosen to abide the law given by God, as mentioned earlier this can be traced back to the father of faith Abraham. At the time of the covenant God reminds Israel of their obligation to be obedient to his law as God’s chosen people. The Mosaic covenant can be seen as a transitional period where God is asking his chosen people to obey his Written Word before the new covenant where he sends down the Living Word, Jesus Christ when he writes the law in peoples hearts. However within Judaism the Mosaic covenant is interpreted differently. The law is not there to reveal man’s sinfulness and need for redemption through a new covenant but are laws to be strictly followed as the Written Word of God and to demonstrate man’s obedience.
However a new covenant is first spoken of in the book of Jeremiah:
“Behold, the days come saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah”
The Mosaic covenant would be superceded, In Matthew 5:17 Jesus Christ states that he has come not to abolish the law but to fulfil it and create a new covenant between God and his people.
There are the following characteristics that can be seen from the new covenant.
Firstly the law will not be written on stone but in the minds and hearts of those in the new covenant, “I will put my Law within them and on their heart I will write it”. Secondly Yahweh will forgive the iniquities and the sins of those in the new covenant. Thirdly Yahweh will be the God of those in the new covenant and they will be his people. And lastly those in the new covenant will know Yahweh intimately.
The Christian view of the new covenant is of a relationship between humankind and God reconciled by Jesus Christ for both Jews and Gentiles. It is the pledge of fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant and the third promise of redemption that God made to Abraham that all people will be blessed through Abraham. It promises the forgiveness of sins for mankind and a new relationship with God through Jesus Christ and an end to sin and death as the curse of Adam is broken. The Mosaic covenant did not prevent sin or death even if one was obedient to the law, it could not restore a perfect relationship with God. Israel can be thought of not simply as the nation of Israel but as a spiritual Israel. It is not simply the Jews of the nation Israel who accept Jesus that constitute spiritual Israel but anybody who accepts Jesus through the new Covenant is part of the promise made to the Israelites. The Apostle Paul says that “it is not the children of the flesh (i.e. the natural descendants of Abraham), who are the children of God, but the children of the promise (i.e. the spiritual descendants of Abraham).” Although God has a historical relationship with the nation Israel as founded by Abraham, the new Covenant extendeds the reach of this to all mankind with its message being one of salvation to all mankind and forgiveness of sins for all. Spiritual Israel can theoretically encompass the globe.
The new covenant is seen as realized through the death and resurrection of Christ, Abraham’s seed, a synonym for the Kingdom of God. The covenant is between humankind and God but some Christians debate membership of the covenant. Theoretically everyone can be saved but it can be argued that one has to accept Jesus Christ in one’s life in order to be a member of ‘Spiritual Israel’.
Conclusion
God’s initial relationship with Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden was in harmony until it broke down when they disobeyed God’s will and ate from the tree of knowledge of Good & Evil. They were exiled from the garden and sin and death came into the world as mankind was no longer in perfect union with God. However there was the promise that this relationship could be restored with the Abrahamic covenant because of the greatness of Abraham. As I discussed Soren Kierkegaard praises Abraham because of his faith, he is known as the father of faith, but I would praise him for his faith and for his reason. He was the founder of the nation of the Israel with whom God has a special relationship through history because of Abraham. The special place the people Israel have is built on the Abrahamic covenant. As I wrote earlier the promises God made to Abraham included the promise of land and the promise of descendants which would be fulfilled by God’s relationship with the nation of Israel and would be renewed by the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant was significant because God gave Moses the Divine Laws which were the obligations that the people Israel had to be obedient to, it set the standards and moral codes which they had to live up to. However as I discussed in the essay, it can be argued that the rules although written in stone were transitory and were waiting to be replaced by the new covenant which would be fulfilled by Jesus Christ and would be written in people’s hearts. The written word being replaced by the living word. Although within Judaism these laws are still followed today, the Christian tradition interpret it that within God’s omniscience, he was aware that the children of Israel could not keep the Law but that there is a new covenant that God has promised the nation Israel in the book of Jeremiah. Significantly in the book of Jeremiah it is written that Yahweh will make a covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah but one can interpret this in a more global sense. Jesus Christ who is of Abraham’s seed and is seen as the mediator of the new covenant can fulfil the covenant for all mankind both Jews and Gentiles. Paul argued that the nation Israel was not of as much importance as the idea of Spiritual Israel. The children of Israel were less significant than the children of the promise.
“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”
God’s historical relationship with the children of Israel can be seen to be broadened by the new covenant to the children of the promise. The nation Israel is no longer the natural descendants of Israel but can be thought of as Spiritual Israel encompassing all of mankind who are willing to enter the covenant.
Finally I would conclude that God’s historical relationship with the people Israel was founded on the person of Abraham,and was realized through his descendants with the Mosaic covenant but was fulfilled for all of mankind through the new covenant of Jesus Christ.