The great promise of God’s Covenant was God Himself, dwelling in the midst of His people, receiving their worship, overseeing their lives and work, and distributing His promised blessings according to Israel’s faithfulness. The tabernacle and temple were the great symbols of God’s presence. But these were mere material objects, and could easily be lost (as we know). Yet God’s Covenant cannot be broken: His Word must be fulfilled. A day is coming when God’s people will dwell in His glorious presence forever. The psalmists are already anticipating that day (cf. Pss. 23, 84), so their forebears, who dwelled in the land before them, must have conditioned them to expect it.

God promised life through His Law (Lev. 18.1-5). Yet good people continued to die. Did God have something more than mortal life in mind when He held out the promise of life to His people? They must surely have reckoned it to be so. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as He told Moses. Those great saints must have been alive with the Lord somewhere. This is how Jesus understood this text. And if the progenitors of the promise were alive forever with God, surely those who longed for God’s promises and kept His Law would soon enough join them in His promised presence forever.

Jesus Christ came to fulfill the promise of life, which is the promise of the Law (Jn. 10.10; 14.6). By keeping the Law He opened the way to eternal life, the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ forever (Jn. 17.3). The Law thus points forward to eternal life by pointing forward to Jesus – Prophet, King, Priest, Sacrifice, Tent of the Lord, Temple of Glory. This would have been very hard for Israelites to see. Nevertheless, those who strained to understand, and who pressed forward through obedience to the next stage of God’s blessings, would, by faith, have gained the longed-for hope of everlasting life by believing in what God was going to do, as revealed in what He had already done and said.

Our study thus comes to an end. The Law of God presents the outlines of a worldview unlike any the world had seen before or sense – a worldview in which the rule of a holy, good, and loving God comes to expression through the lives and activities of a people who fear, love, and serve Him. The Old Testament allows us to see the struggle of God’s people as they sought, with varying degrees of success, to embrace and attain that worldview. The New Testament presents the embodiment of that worldview in space and time, first, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and then in His Church. Christians throughout the ages have struggled with sin, as did their Old Testament spiritual forebears, yet they have realized significant progress in bringing to expression the worldview of Scripture, which is first outlined in the Law of God. The full realization of that glorious worldview awaits the coming of the new heavens and the new earth. For now, however, the task falls to every generation of believers to understand, embrace, and work for the realization of that worldview of promised presence and blessing. For to do so is nothing other than to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

T. M. Moore

For more insight to the nature of God’s Covenant, order a copy of T. M.’s book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store. Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition.