Lesson 5: “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant”

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Text Under Consideration: Exodus 20-40

Scriptural & Historical Context:

The Lord “remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” when He delivered Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. Significantly, the Lord instructed Moses that when he brought Israel out of Egypt he was to bring them to the same mountain where the Lord had appeared to him (Exodus 3.12). Moses obeyed the Lord and when Israel arrived at the mountain, He had this message for the people: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4–6, ESV)

The focus of this lesson is the covenant the Lord formed with Israel. This covenant was formed almost immediately following the Exodus (circa 1440 B.C.), but would determine the course of Israel’s history throughout the remainder of the Old Testament.

Key Verses & Events:

• Ten Commandments are given, the preamble to the entire Law (Exodus 20).
• Israel enters into a covenant relationship with the Lord (Exodus 24).
• Israel violates the covenant by worshipping a golden calf (Exodus 32).
• A tabernacle is constructed according to God’s specifications. The Lord’s presence fills the tabernacle (Exodus 40).

The Story

1. Covenants are God’s method of relationship. A covenant is a binding agreement through which God establishes a relationship with humanity, requiring both parties to fulfill their obligations.
2. The Mosaic covenant was grounded in grace, not law. A common misunderstanding is that the Sinai covenant was purely about law. In reality, its foundation was God’s grace — what He had already done for Israel (deliverance from Egypt) and what He promised to do for them going forward.
3. The heart of God’s grace was relational. The greatest blessing of the covenant wasn’t physical prosperity but that Israel would be God’s people, His holy nation, His priests — symbolized by God’s presence dwelling in the tabernacle among them.
4. Obedience to the Law was Israel’s covenant obligation. The Law — including moral, distinctive, and cultic categories — was not about obedience for its own sake, but about Israel reflecting God’s holiness: “Be holy, for I am holy.”
5. Faith was essential under the Mosaic covenant, not just the New. Israel’s failures (like refusing to enter Canaan) were failures of faith. Faith has always been required to please God (Hebrews 11.6).
6. Covenants are ratified with blood. Both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants were sealed with animal blood, serving as a serious warning against covenant unfaithfulness.
7. The Mosaic covenant was never intended to be the final means of redemption. Its limitations were built in: it applied only to Israel, its sacrifices couldn’t truly forgive sin, and the tabernacle’s design signified ongoing separation between God and humanity.
8. Israel’s consistent covenant-breaking did not derail God’s plan. Despite Israel’s faithlessness, God promised a new covenant (Jeremiah 31.31-34) — one written on hearts, available to all, and offering genuine forgiveness of sins.
9. The gospel story is the story of this new covenant. The entire arc of Scripture points toward how humanity can enter into a true, lasting covenant relationship with God.

This is not the first time we have considered the Scriptural concept of “covenant”. As we noted in lesson 3, a covenant is how God establishes a relationship with man. It’s a binding agreement where God will keep His promises if man meets His requirements. While the term “covenant” is not used in Genesis 2, God had clearly formed a covenant with man which was broken when they ate of the forbidden tree. God made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15.18) by which He gave assurance that the promises would be fulfilled. Abraham’s part in the covenant, i.e. righteousness, was believing God and acting on that belief (Genesis 15.6). Thus, it isn’t surprising that when the Lord brought Israel to Mount Sinai He did so to establish a covenant with the descendants of Abraham (Exodus 19.4-6). If we are to properly understand the Gospel Story we need to examine this covenant in greater detail, for God’s covenants are how key concepts such as grace, law and faith are to be understood.

It’s a tragic misunderstanding that many associate the Mosaic covenant with ONLY law, for the basis of the covenant was not law but grace. Grace is best defined as God doing for man what he cannot do for himself and God’s relationship with Israel was founded on His grace. First, there was the grace Israel had already experienced: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself.” (Exodus 19.4) Second, there was the grace they would experience if they kept God’s covenant: “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19.5-6) God would go on to enumerate the blessings of the covenant in passages like Leviticus 26.1-13 and Deuteronomy 28.1-14, but the real nature of God’s grace was not the physical blessings of being in a covenant. Rather, true grace was relational: they would be God’s people, His nation, His priests. All of the physical blessings flowed from that core grace. This fact is emphasized by the fact that much of Exodus is concerned with the building of God’s tabernacle, “a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” (Exodus 25.8) And once construction was completed, “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40.34). The tabernacle was a visual reminder of the grace found in God’s covenant; He was their God and they were His people.

However, covenants are most often not one-sided agreements. God would be righteous and keep His part of the covenant, but for Israel to receive His grace they must keep their part of the covenant; they must “obey my voice and keep my covenant” (Exodus 19.5). The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) are the best known of Israel’s covenant obligations, the preamble of God’s entire law that emphasized how the Lord’s people should love their God and love their fellow man. While the rest of the Law would touch on every aspect of Israel’s life, the various laws would fall in a few broad categories:

1. Moral laws regulating how Israel should act like their Lord.
2. Laws that emphasized Israel’s distinctive nature.
3. Cultic laws regulating how Israel would worship and honor the Lord and atone for covenant violations.

It’s important to note that the purpose of the Law was not obedience for obedience sake, rather the Lord was calling for His people to be like Him: “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11.45). Holiness was Israel’s requirement to remain in a covenant with their Lord.

Recall that Abraham’s covenant obligation was to believe in the Lord (Genesis 15.6). It may surprise many to learn that faith was also essential to Israel’s covenant. When the Lord delivered His people from Egypt, the result was “the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” (Exodus 14.31) Tragically, when the people refused to enter the promised land it was because they lacked faith: “How long will this people despise Me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” (Numbers 14.11). In the New Testament the Hebrew writer reflected on how God’s good news “was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.” (Hebrews 4.2, NIV) Faith is not a concept reserved for the New Testament, but has always been a necessity for those who would please God (Hebrews 11.6).

Covenants must be ratified in order to be binding and God’s covenants are ratified with blood. God’s covenant with Abraham was made after numerous animals were cut in two (Genesis 15.9-10) and God’s covenant with Israel was made after the people swore “all that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24.7) and the blood of numerous oxen was cast upon the Lord’s altar and then the people (Exodus 24.6,8). The shedding of blood was not a mere formality, but a warning against covenant unfaithfulness: “And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts—” (Jeremiah 34:18, ESV).

The Lord’s covenant with Israel will play a central role as we continue to see how the gospel story develops in Scripture. But as we conclude this lesson it’s important to note that Scripture makes it apparent that God’s covenant was Israel was NOT how He would redeem mankind.

• This covenant was with one nation, NOT all people (cf. Psalm 147.19-20).
• The sacrifices of this covenant could not truly forgive sin (cf. Hebrews 10.1-4).
• The tabernacle itself and the Levitical priesthood signified that there was still a separation between God and the people (cf. Hebrews 9.1-10). 
• As we will consider in subsequent lessons, Israel consistently broke the covenant.

Israel may have proven faithless, but the Lord’s plan to redeem mankind would not fail. Thus, He promised to establish a new covenant with His people (Jeremiah 31.31-34). This covenant would not be contained on external tablets, but on the hearts of the people. This covenant would be one in which every member of the covenant would have a relationship with the Lord. And this covenant would be one in which sins were truly forgiven. The gospel story is about how man can enjoy this covenant relationship with the Lord.

For Further Consideration:

1. According to Hebrews 8.6, Jesus mediates a better covenant, one based on better promises. How does understanding God’s covenant with Israel help us to appreciate the covenant relationship we enjoy through Christ?
2. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper He said that the cup “is my blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26.28). How should our understanding of covenant impact our observance of the Supper?