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1 9. COVENANT A N D LAW As We have Seen, the Abrahamic covenant is a promissory covenant, one that guarantees the promise of land and posterity, whereas the Mosaic covenant is pri­ marily a covenant of obligation. The giving of commandments by Yahweh, who graciously delivered the people from Egyptian bondage and took the initiative to enter into covenant with them, is fundamental to this theological perspective. Indeed, in this view covenant and law can be identified as one and the same thing. This is clear from a passage in Moses' sermon (Deut. 4:11-14,- cf. 1 Kgs. 8:21), where he holds before the people's imagination the image of the sacred mountain, "blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds." At that time, when Cod spoke to Moses "out of the fire": He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments. —Deut. 4:13 Here it is clear that covenant is inseparable from law. To keep the covenant is to observe God's statutes and ordinances in the land into which the people are moving. Furthermore, this passage indicates that the laws, preeminently the Ten Commandments, are the substance of divine revelation. The Deuteronomic inter­ preter takes pains to emphasize that Cod's revelation was not visual but auditory: "You heard the sound of words but saw no form,- there was only a voice" (4:12, 15). Human beings cannot "see" God (Exod. 33:20) but they are called to "hear." The voice does not communicate a conception of God or a future promise, but "words" that specify what God requires of the people. Obeying God's commandments is the token of a relationship with God that defines Israel as a separate community, "a people holy to God" (Deut. 7:6). Holiness is manifest in the actions of everyday life that distinguish Israel from other peoples. The Handwriting of God It is significant that here the "words" that God spoke are specified: the ten "words" (Decalogue) now found with slight modifications in two recensions: Exod. 20:1 -17 and Deut. 5:6-21. Law is the essential content of God's revelation. This is under­ scored with a bold anthropomorphism: "the tablets of stone, written with the fin­ ger of God" (Exod. 31:18). This point is also made in the Old Epic tradition of the sealing of the covenant in a ceremony at the base of the sacred mountain (Exod. 24:3-8). We read that Moses announced to the people "all the words [debarim] of Yahweh," referring to the ten commandments of Exod. 20:1-17, "and all the ordinances" (misbpatim), referring to the case laws or "ordinances" found in Exodus 21-23 (the so-called Covenant Code). The juxtaposition of "words" and "ordinances" must be the result 155 156 Contours of Old Testament Theology of editorial harmonization, for in the next act of the covenant ceremony the peo­ ple respond, "All the words [debarim] that Yahweh has spoken we will do" (24:3). Moses then proceeds to write "the words [debarim] of Yahweh" in a book (24:4). Finally, after the blood ceremony that unites the two covenanting partners, Moses concludes by saying: "See the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words [debarim]." The Decalogue (ten words) is clearly the basis of the Mosaic covenant; the misbpatim (case laws) found in the Covenant Code are supplementary. In some churches today, for example, the United Methodist, the rite of Holy Communion includes the reading of the Decalogue and the use of the language "blood of the covenant" to describe the new covenant made through the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ (Matt. 26:28,- 1 Cor. 11:25). According to the Gospel of Matthew the new covenant (some would say "the second covenant") was modeled after the first, for it too was promulgated on a mountain and included the giving of a new law (Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-8) by a new Moses who came not to abrogate the Torah but to fulfill it. Christians need to get over a negative atti­ tude toward torah (law, teaching) that has been influenced by Paul's interpretation, or possibly our misinterpretation of his polemical writing (e.g., Galatians).1 Thus the core of Israel's legal tradition is the Decalogue, around which other interpretive laws (ordinances) have gathered in the history of the tradition, as can...

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