This Part 2 is the continuation of “Added in the Old Covenant (1)”. Most of the background material in Part 1 won’t be repeated here. In this topic, we’ve been addressing two main passages of scripture:
#1) The apostle Paul wrote in Ga.3:18-19, “For if the inheritance is based on law [Strongs g3551 nómos, Greek], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis, seven New Testament (NT) occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15]…until the Seed should come.”
The majority of Bible students think the apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added. Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added.
#2) The prophet Jeremiah wrote in Je.7:22-23, “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085 shemá, Hebrew] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”
The Lord had said of Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed [h8085] My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”. Due to transgressions of God’s pre-existing moral laws/principles (seen in Genesis), the Old Covenant Law of Moses was subsequently added for ancient Israel. (ref Part 1)
God’s Old Covenant included His pre-existing moral laws that date from Adam (which Abraham obeyed)…plus pilgrim feasts, Levitical ceremonial tabernacle/temple rituals and the sacrificial system. Gentiles in Genesis didn’t have pilgrim feasts or recurring animal sacrifices, sin/guilt offerings, etc.
Part 1 ended with two related questions: What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system for ancient Israel? Why did God add recurring burnt-sin-guilt sacrifices to the (pre-existing) moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant (OC) from Genesis?
God did so because…upon leaving Egypt, Israel proceeded to transgress and disobey God, and evidenced unbelief (prior to Ex.21 judgments at Sinai). Let’s briefly trace their history leaving Egypt:
Ex.14:11-12 Israel rebelled at the Reed Sea (ref Ps.106:7). The Lord parted the sea for them, and the pursuing Egyptian army drowned. Ex.15:22-25 Israel then grumbled about water at Maráh. So the Lord showed Moses a tree and Moses threw it into the waters; the waters miraculously became sweet.
Ex.16:27-28 Israel then broke God’s 7th day sabbath. (see the series, “Sabbath 7th Day”.) The Lord gave them manna to eat. Ex.17:1-7 Israel tested the Lord at Massáh/Meribáh; they even wanted to stone Moses! Moses obediently struck a rock and water gushed forth for them (ref Ps.106:14). Ex.18:5, 16 in the wilderness, Moses made known to them pre-existing statutes and laws of God.
The Lord kept intervening for His people Israel…yet they kept sinning in unbelief. Prior to Sinai.
Ex.20:1-18 at Sinai, Christ spoke the Decalogue. (De.4:13 the Ten Commandments or ten “words”, h1697 debarim, was the heart of the OC.) The people heard His voice! Ex.20:19-20 but they’re afraid of God and only want to hear Moses, not God. v.21 so Moses alone approached the Lord in the cloud.
The Lord won’t speak directly to His people after that; He speaks through Moses the mediator.
Then the Lord instructed Moses in Ex.21:1-ff, “These are the judgments which you are to set before them….” Civil judgments and the sacrificial system are seen in remaining chapters of the Péntateuch.
In the beginning, Adam & Eve heard (h8085) the Lord’s voice…but they hid themselves, Ge.3:8. Israel later didn’t hearken to (h8085) God’s voice. Nu.14:22 the Lord said of Israel, “Ten times you haven’t listened to [h8085] My voice”. De.4:12, 5:25, 18:16 the people didn’t want to hear (h8085) God’s voice at Sinai. Later, Joshua wrote that those coming out of Egypt didn’t obey (h8085) God’s voice, Jsh.5:6.
Again, Je.7:22-23 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”
Ge.26:5 father Abraham had obeyed (h8085) God’s voice. After God miraculously provided water at Marah for Israel, Moses told the people in Ex.15:26, “If you will earnestly heed [h8085] the voice of the Lord, and do what is right in His sight and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have put on the Egyptians”. Obedience to God’s pre-existing moral principles was expected of them…in Ex.15:26 there is no sacrificial system for sin.
Before He gave the Ten Commandments, the Lord said to Moses/Israel in Ex.19:5, “If you will obey [h8085] My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all peoples”. Later, De.5:2-3 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horéb [Sinai]. The Lord didn’t make this covenant with our fathers.” The fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob didn’t have the OC (although they knew God’s moral principles/commandments, which later became part of the OC). For example, A-I-J didn’t have individual sin or guilt/trespass offerings; none of those sacrifices appear in scripture before Le.4–6, given to Moses later at Sinai (ref Le.27:34). see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.
In Ex.24:7-8, Israel affirmed they would obey the Lord’s OC. “The people said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do and be obedient [h8085]!’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you.” The OC was a blood covenant between the Lord and ancient Israel. It was ratified.
But in Ex.32:1-10, Israel then held an idolatrous golden calf feast with burnt/peace offerings! Ps.78:10-20 they disobeyed, didn’t keep God’s covenant. Ps.78:17 “They continued to sin against Him.”
The Lord recapped in Je.11:7-8, “I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice’. Yet they didn’t obey, but each walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart.” Most of them repeatedly refused to hearken to God.
The Lord is holy. God won’t dwell with sin. Sin must be atoned. God told Moses in Ex.25:8, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them”. The tabernacle was the place of God’s Name, where Christ (the good Shepherd, Ps.80:1 & Jn.10:14) dwelt among His ancient people. (also see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)
A purpose of animal blood sacrifices at God’s tabernacle was to expiate sins. see “Day of Atonement (1)”. Thus the sacrificial system was instituted for a holy God to dwell with them. However, 1Sm.15:22-23 “To obey [h8085] is better than sacrifice, to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” Obeying the Lord is much preferable to disobeying and then having to sacrifice to expiate the sin. Where there’s no transgression or sin, there’s no need to offer an atoning sacrifice!
From Are Christians Freed from the Old Covenant?: “When Paul states, in Galatians 3:19, ‘It (the body of law governing sacrifices) was added because of transgressions,’ he is referring to a contractual provision, one that would not have been put into effect had Israel obeyed God. How do we know this? Notice Hosea 6:6: ‘For I (the Eternal) desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.’ (Also notice Psalm 40:6, 8.) But animal sacrifices were not instituted by God as an afterthought, any more than was Christ’s sacrifice.” see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.
David wrote of God in Ps.40:6-8, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. To do Your will, my God, I desired. Your Law is within my heart.” The Lord didn’t take pleasure in the flesh of sin offerings. He desires obedience to His righteous moral principles (which predate the OC) more than animal sacrifices.
Again, the Lord said in Ho.6:6, “I desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and an acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings”. By comparison, animal sacrifices were secondary in importance. JFB Commentary Ho.6:6 “God valued moral obedience as the only end for which positive ordinances, such as sacrifices, were instituted.” In Mk.12:32-34 of the NT, Jesus confirmed that to love God and to love one’s neighbor is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices!
Je.6:20 “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable. Your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.” At that time (ca 600 BC), Judah was offering them from an evil and insincere heart. Barnes Notes “God rejects not the ceremonial service, but the substitution of it for personal holiness and morality.”
So after centuries of disobedience, God eventually sent His people into captivity…Israel to Assyria, and Judah to Babylon in 597 BC. The Lord ceased to honor their feigned sacrifices, offered insincerely.
The fault was with the people…not with God’s Old Covenant! He.8:8 “Finding fault with them….” Not, “with it.” A purpose of the OC was to reflect: the Lord’s standard of law, so crime wouldn’t run rampant in the streets…a standard of order, to prevent chaos in society. The Law given to Moses/Israel also contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.
Again, Ga.3:19 “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions.”
Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law. Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [g3847].” And Ro.5:13, “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.” So there must be some form of law in existence for there to be sin/transgression (of that law), as per Paul.
Earl Henn What Was the Law ‘Added Because of Transgressions’? “For years, people have wondered how anyone could have transgressed the laws before they were given. Simply put, Paul is talking about the laws of God which have been in full force since Creation! When he writes that the Old Covenant was added ‘till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made’, he means that the Old Covenant was temporary; Christ would replace it with the New Covenant. Rather than saying that God’s [moral] laws had become obsolete, he is explaining how important it was to preserve the knowledge of God’s laws in Israel….Paul is showing that the Old Covenant was an interim, temporary addition to the [prior] covenant made with Abraham. It was necessitated by Israel’s transgressions of God’s holy laws that had been—AND STILL ARE!—in full force and effect since Creation.”
James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.207 “In the pre-Sinai narrative, Biblical law is set in the context of creation.” p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”
John Sailhamer The Law Was Added Because of Transgressions “As Israel continued to transgress the laws given to them, God continued to give them more. God did not give up on His people. When they sinned, he added laws to keep them from sinning further….The laws were added to keep them from disappearing into the world of sin around them. It thus was the transgressions of the people that provided the motivation for God’s giving the Mosaic law.”
After 39 years of wilderness experience, Moses repeated to the next generation in De.13:4. “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him, and you shall keep His commandments and obey [h8085] His voice, and remain loyal to Him.” Although they didn’t obey then either…they eventually will obey God!
De.4:30 “When you are in distress, in later time, you will return to the Lord your God and obey [h8085] His voice.” Eventually Israel will obey the Lord with a steadfast heart. Benson Commentary De.4:30 “Particularly in the days of the Messiah.” And Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel will be saved”.
Animal sacrifices and the detailed sacrificial system for Israel are no more! Yet there are righteous moral principles of God brought into the OC Mosaic Law which predated and transcend that OC.
As Paul wrote in Ro.8:4, “That the righteousness [g1345] of the Law may be accomplished in us, who live not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. Gill Exposition Ro.8:4 “By the righteousness of the law, is not meant the righteousness of the ceremonial law, though that was fulfilled by Christ; but of the moral law, which requires holiness of nature.”
Yes, Christians are able to obey God’s moral principles (also contained in the Old Covenant), via the Holy Spirit (HS). Whereas carnal-minded ancient Israel, most of whom didn’t have the HS, was unable to obey. Ro.8:7 “The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God; it doesn’t subject itself to God’s law, because it is powerless to do so.” But the HS will figuratively write God’s righteous principles, seen in Genesis also for gentiles, on the minds & hearts of New Covenant Christians (He.8:10).
Also Ro.2:26-27, “If the uncircumcised man keeps the righteousness [g1345] of the Law…if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you [Jews] who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor [g3848] of the Law?” The HS enables uncircumcised gentile Christians to obey God’s moral laws. Barnes Notes Ro.2:26 “It could not be supposed that a pagan would understand the requirements of the ceremonial law; but reference is had here to the moral law.”
That’s the moral laws, commandments and statutes which the gentile Abraham obeyed (Ge.26:5), and which Moses made known (Ex.18:16)…prior to Sinai and the OC. Meyer’s NT Commentary Ro.2:26-27 “The uncircumcised person, who observes what the law has ordained, i.e. the moral precepts of the law, shall one day be awarded the same salvation….The standard of judgment remains the [moral] law of God.” God’s moral principles/laws…seen even in Genesis for gentiles prior to Moses. see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” and “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.
bible.org The Mosaic Law “The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls ‘the righteousness of the law’ (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Ro 6–8).”
Jesus said in Jn.10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”. Unlike most of faithless ancient Israel, real believers do desire to follow and obey Christ the Lord.
The Christian isn’t under the Mosaic law as such…since it included sacrifices and Levitical rituals. Those are impossible to perform without a tabernacle/temple. Those are inapplicable today.
The Old Covenant was added for ancient Israel…added because of sins/transgressions of God’s prior eternal laws, Ga.3:19 (ref Part 1). The OC also contains judgments which governed civil society.
The Lord isn’t an anarchist! God’s moral principles/laws existed for gentiles prior to the OC. And those just principles were then put into the OC for ancient Israel. Those principles/laws of God are still valid for humanity/Christians today! The HS enables the willing heart to obey them. (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.) The character and principles of Jesus Christ, the God of ancient Israel, are the same…yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8). He is Lord and Master!
Bible Topic Exposition 