A Bible lesson by Ivor Jefferies
1. God revealed his covenant with Israel through Moses. What did He promise and upon what condition?
Read Exo. 6:3-8, 19:5-6, Deut. 4:13, 5:33, 28:1-2, 15.
The Ten Commandments are an example of a suzerainty covenant, which was common in those days. Imagine a great king rescuing an inferior prince from his enemies. He would draw up a suzerainty covenant as follows:
He would announce his name and title to the inferior prince (Exo. 20:2).
Next he would review how he saved him to remind his inferior that he owes him his full allegiance (Exo. 20:2-3). He would then spell out the terms of the covenant, i.e. what he demands of his inferior (Exo. 20:3-17).
He would then announce certain blessings for obedience, and curses if the inferior prince ever decided to rebel (Exo. 20:5b-6, 7b, 12).
These terms of the covenant were inscribed in a book. The inferior prince received a copy for regular review, and the king owned a copy as proof of the covenant (Exo. 24:4, 7).
This means that the stone tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments did not contain four commandments on one stone, and six on the other. All Ten Commandments were written on the front and the back of each stone tablet (Exo. 4:12, 32:15-16). This was indicate that nothing could be added to, or removed from the covenant (Deut. 4:2, 13).1
2. How did God seal his covenant with Israel, and what did it symbolize?
Read Exo. 24:5-6, 8, Heb. 9:16–22.
3. What did Israel do soon after God made a covenant with them, and how did He respond to their behaviour?
Read Exo. 32:1-6, 9-10, 11-14, 19, 34:4, 27-28, Deut. 31:16, 20, Judg. 2:1-2.
4. Why did the people of Israel continue breaking God’s covenant? and how did He promise to fix this?
Read Deut. 29:4, 30:6, Jer. 31:31-34, Heb. 8:6-13, Ezek. 36:25-27, Gal. 4:4-6.
5. We can apply the doctrine of the new covenant in several ways. How does it help the following persons:
- Those who want to return to the law of Moses for salvation? Rom. 7:10-11, 24-25, Gal. 3:10-14, 2 Cor. 5:21.
- Those who think that faith in Christ is not enough, but they need to keep the ceremonial law to be saved? Gal. 4:10-11, 5:1-6, Col. 2:16-17, Rom. 10:4.
- Those who want to make some kind of sacrifice in order to be forgiven? Heb. 9:26, 10:1, 4, 10, 14, 17-18.
- Those who say that since salvation is by grace, we can therefore be lawless? Gal. 5:1, 13, 1 Pet. 2:16, Jude 4, Rom. 6:1-2, 14, 8:3-4, Heb. 8:10.
- Those who lack assurance of salvation, and fear they won’t persevere to the end? Acts 13:39, Eph. 1:13-14, Heb. 8:10, 7:22, 25, 9:12, 13:20.
- Those who have repented but still feel guilty, or those who believe they cannot be forgiven? Matt. 26:28, Heb. 8:12.
- Those who have an evil conscience? Heb. 9:14, 10:22.
- Those who live wickedly, but believe they are part of God’s covenant people? Heb. 8:10-11, 2 Cor. 3:17.
1 John D. Currid, An EP Study Commentary: Exodus—Volume 2 (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2001), 141. Also see https://www.fivesolas.com/suzerain.htm