The Sinai Covenant: Understanding Israel's Election

The Covenant and Mission

• The book of Isaiah uses the language of the covenant to express future hope and explicitly universalize ways that include the nations.
• The anticipated new covenant picks up themes from all preceding covenants (Noah, Abraham, Sinai, and David) and expands them to include the nations within the ultimate scope of God's saving covenantal mission.

The New Covenant in Christ

• The New Testament's covenant vocabulary is not as explicit as the Old Testament's.
• Jesus and the New Testament writers considered the covenant crucial to God's purpose for Israel, just as Israel's God was the only living and true God.
• The covenant was essential to Israel's election and redemption.

Mission and the Extension of the Covenant

• Paul portrays the status of the nations outside Israel prior to the gospel as bleak covenant exclusion.
• Mission extends the boundaries of covenant membership wherever the gospel is effectively preached.
• The Great Commission is the command of the new covenant, which is a universalized covenant proclamation.

The Great Commission

• The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 contains three key covenantal elements:
  • Self-introduction of God as the great king with all authority.
  • Imperative demands of the covenant relationship.
  • Promise of blessing.
• Jesus' words are almost pure Deuteronomy, identifying himself as the one with all divine authority, giving a systematic mandate for covenant obedience, and promising his permanent presence among his followers.

Mission and the Climax of the Covenant

• The Book of Revelation is the covenantal declaration of "mission accomplished".
• The covenants form an essential part of the Christian reading of the Old Testament scriptures, which must be both Messianic and missiological.
• God's mission is to bless all nations through his people, whom he has chosen, redeemed, and bound to himself in covenant relationship.

Missional Ethics and Election

• The primary purpose of election is contained in the combination of promise and command, "you will be a blessing".
• The Abrahamic covenant is a moral agenda for God's people as well as a mission statement by God.
• Sodom is a model for our world, filled with oppression, cruelty, violence, and a lack of compassion or care for the needy.

Abraham and the Missional Goal

• Abraham was called out of the land of Babel to be a blessing to all nations.
• God's ultimate purpose is to bless all nations, and Abraham's response is significant.
• Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of the missional logic of Genesis 18:19.

The Way of the Lord

• Genesis 18:19 binds together election, ethics, and mission into a single syntactical and theological sequence.
• The missional logic of Genesis 18:19 is that God's ultimate mission is to bring about the blessing of the nations, and that is achieved by the existence of a community that lives according to the way of the Lord and righteousness and justice.

Election, Ethics, and Mission

• Election must be seen as missiological, not merely soteriological.
• The community God seeks for the sake of his mission is to be shaped by his own ethical character, with specific attention to righteousness and justice in a world filled with oppression and injustice.
• The ethical quality of life of the people of God is the vital link between their calling and their mission.### God's Covenantal Presence in Israel
• The Tabernacle was a symbol of God's covenantal presence in Israel, marking them as distinctive from other nations
• The purpose of redemption was for God to dwell among his people
• Israel's distinctiveness from other nations was the purpose of their existence and the only hope for the nations themselves

Ethical Holiness

• The Sinai covenant laid ethical demands on Israel, as seen in Exodus and Deuteronomy
• Israel was to be visibly different from surrounding nations, embodying religious and ethical distinctiveness
• Ethical obedience was motivated by the challenge to be distinct from other nations

Ritual Cleanliness

• The sacrificial system and laws of cleanliness in Leviticus ensured Israel's ritual cleanliness, a precondition for God's presence
• Holiness and cleanliness were essential for God's presence, which was the mark of Israel's distinctiveness from other nations

God's Mission and Prognosis

• Israel's failure to live in loyalty to the covenant Lord would lead to judgment and curse (Deut. 27-32)
• Israel's future history would be marked by failure, but God would ultimately vindicate his people among the nations
• The nations would be called to praise Yahweh and rejoice with his people

Davidic Covenant

• The Davidic covenant was an outworking of the Sinai covenant in the context of monarchy
• The primary focus of the covenant was on the role of David and his successors in establishing the rule of Yahweh in Israel
• The Davidic covenant had universalizing aspects, with the kingship of Yahweh extending to all nations

Missiological Dimensions

• The Abrahamic covenant was the origin of God's election of Israel as a means to bless all nations
• The covenant with Abraham undergirds Paul's theology and practice of mission to the Gentiles in the New Testament
• The trajectory of blessing moves from Abraham to all families of the earth

Universalizing Aspects

• The universality of the ultimate goal is that all families/nations of the earth will find blessing

• The particularity of the means is that blessing comes through Abraham and his descendants

• The gospel and mission both begin in Genesis### The Failure of Contemporary Jews and the Extension of the Good News to the Gentiles

• The failure of many contemporary Jews to respond to the message of Messiah Jesus led to the extension of the good news to the Gentiles.

• However, this did not mean a final rejection or replacement of the Jews in Paul's thinking.

The Sinai Covenant and its Significance

• The Sinai covenant has extensive mythological significance and provides the backbone for much of the law and the prophets.
• It is essential to consider the status and role of Israel as God's covenant priesthood in the midst of the nations and the central privilege of the presence of God in the midst of his people.
• This covenant would constitute their distinctiveness from and their witness to the nations.

The Davidic Covenant and its Universalizing Aspects

• The Davidic covenant is a particular outworking of the Sinai covenant in the context of monarchy.
• As the human king of Israel, David will carry out the purpose of Yahweh, their covenant great king.
• The primary focus of the covenant is on the role of David and his successors in earthing the rule of Yahweh in Israel through these new royal arrangements.
• The universalizing aspects of the Davidic covenant can be seen in two ways:
  • The language of praise that links the Davidic kingship to the kingship of Yahweh over all the nations.
  • The building of the temple was the focus of the worship initially of Israel but ultimately of the nations.

The Universal Reign of the Son of David

• Psalm 72:8-11,17 declares a similar expectation of the universal reign of the son of David, with a clear echo of the Abrahamic covenant in verse 17: "all the nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed."
• A king in David's line will fulfill God's promise to bless the nations.

A House of Prayer for all Nations

• 1 Kings 8:41-43: Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple asks God to pay attention to the prayers not only of the Israelites but also of foreigners.
• The motivation offered to God for answering such prayers is expressly missional: that all the peoples of the earth may know God's name and fear him, as they do his own people Israel.
• Isaiah 56:1-7: God will bring foreigners to his holy mountain, give them joy in his House of prayer, and accept their sacrifices on his altar.

The New Covenant

• The New Covenant picks up themes from all of the preceding covenants (Noah, Abraham, Sinai, and David) and expands them to include the nations within the ultimate scope of God's saving covenantal mission.
• Prophetic hopes in Jeremiah 31:31-37, Ezekiel 34-37, and Isaiah express future hope and explicitly universalize ways that include the nations.

Covenantal "Yes" in Christ

• The New Testament is light on the actual covenant vocabulary, but the covenant was crucial to the way Jesus and the writers of the New Testament thought of God's purpose for Israel.
• The covenant was essential to Israel's election and the certainty that Israel's God was the only living and true God.

Mission and the Extension of the Covenant to the Nations

• Ephesians 2:11-22: Paul portrays the status of the nations outside Israel prior to the gospel as one of covenant exclusion.
• Mission extends the boundaries of covenant membership wherever the gospel is effectively preached.
• The Great Commission is the command of the new covenant, containing key elements of the Old Testament covenant form:
  • The self-introduction of God as the great king with all authority
  • The imperative demands of the covenant relationship
  • The promise of blessing
• The Great Commission is a universalized covenant proclamation.

Mission Accomplished as the Climax of the Covenant

• The Book of Revelation is the covenantal declaration of "mission accomplished."
• The covenants form an essential part of the Christian reading of the Old Testament scriptures, which must be both Messianic (leading ultimately to Christ) and missiological (leading to repentance and forgiveness being preached in the name of Christ to all the nations).