Are the Ten Commandments the first covenant?
Question:
The Bible directly states that the Ten Commandments are the first covenant. Do you disagree?
Answer:
If the Bible directly states that the Ten Commandments are the first covenant, you could cite where it is found, but you did not. You made an assertion without proof and challenged me to decide whether I agree.
The first mention of a covenant was when Noah and his family entered the Ark (Genesis 6:18). That covenant did not involve the Ten Commandments, which were given to Israel over a thousand years later.
Question:
Sorry that I didn't give references. I thought you could look them up.
- Exodus 34:28, "And he wrote upon the tables, the WORDS of the COVENANT the TEN COMMANDMENTS."
- Deut 9:11, "that the Lord gave me the TWO TABLES OF STONE, even the TABLES OF the COVENANT."
- Deut 4:13, "and he declared unto you HIS COVENANT which he commanded you to perform, even TEN COMMAMDMENTS."
I didn't include all of the individual scriptures to save time. But each is a DIRECT STATEMENT that the covenant is the TEN COMMANDMENTS. Go to Exodus 24:12, and you will see that God called the commandments a LAW. You need to understand that the TEN COMMANDMENTS are the LAW of God. The laws, statutes, and ordinances God gave Moses are written in a book. Yes, the Ten Commandments were written by Moses in his book, but they are still separate from the rest. The book of Moses was kept beside the ark, but the tables of stone were put in the ark.
Thank you for commenting.
Answer:
I know the Scriptures, but your citations do not prove your point. You claimed that the Ten Commandments were the first covenant. Yes, the Ten Commandments were part of God's covenant with Israel, but they were not the first covenant. Notice that you completely ignored my point that there were covenants before the Ten Commandments were given.
You also try to make a distinction where God does not. There are multiple words to describe a covenant. See "Is the covenant different from the Law?" Your distinction is arbitrary. Regarding why the tablets were placed in the ark but the entire law (including the Ten Commandments) was placed beside the ark, see "Why were the Ten Commandments placed in the Ark but the Law was placed beside the Ark?" What caused them to be separated is that God wrote on the stone tablets. It had special significance because it showed God's involvement, just as the jar of mana and Aaron's rod showed God's involvement.
Question:
The Ten Commandments were God's first covenant with Israel as a nation. The verses I gave you directly state that the Ten Commandments are the covenant. First of all, a covenant is an agreement, and a law is a regulation or rule. The first covenant between God and the nation of Israel was an agreement, and it contained the Ten Commandments. God called these commandments his law. Paul said that the law, the law of Moses, was added because of transgressions. These transgressions were sins against the Ten Commandments. If Israel had kept the Ten Commandments, added ordinances would not be needed.
Answer:
You changed your original statement. You asked about the first covenant. Having been proven wrong, you now claim that you said the first covenant to Israel, which is different.
"Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. he sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!"" (Exodus 24:3-7).
What was written by Moses in the book? Everything from Exodus 20-23. Notice that the book was called a covenant and included the words of God and His ordinances. The people agreed to the terms set before them by God through Moses. This was more than just the Ten Commandments. This initial covenant made at Horeb was later expanded. "These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb" (Deuteronomy 29:1).
The Ten Commandments are the Prelude or summary of God's covenant with Israel. They are the foundation on which all the other laws were built. They ended with the rest of the Old Covenant so that a New Covenant could take its place.
" "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." " (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
"Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God" (Romans 7:4).
Question:
Thank you for replying.
What I meant by "first covenant" was that it was the first covenant to the nation of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 says that God will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah, and he will write his law ( singular) upon their hearts. Is this the one law of the Ten Commandments or more than the Ten Commandments? What was nailed to the cross? Colossians 2. How did the converted Jews initiate the new covenant? Did the Jew consider the new covenant a requirement like the old one?
Answer:
Interesting. You want to consider whether "law" (singular) refers to the Ten Commandments, but the Ten Commandments have ten laws in that section. If "law" can refer to multiple commands, then why are you pretending to have difficulty with "Law" referring to the entire Old Testament?
"And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." Then he *said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 19:17-19).
Notice that Jesus included Leviticus 19:18 along with several of the Ten Commandments to illustrate what "keep the commandments" meant. James points out that you can't pick and choose. "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law" (James 2:10-11).
What was nailed to the cross?
"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:13-14).
"For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:14-16).
"Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covent'" (Romans 7:4-7).
"But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it" (II Corinthians 3:7-10).
Paul talks about the ending of the Old Covenant in each of these passages. The Law created a barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles. It had to be removed so that Jews and Gentiles could be united under one Law, the Law of Christ, that makes no distinction between the nationality of people.
The Jews have access to the New Covenant in the same way that the Gentiles gain access. "But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again" (Romans 11:17-23).