TRUTH LESSONS—LEVEL TWO

LESSON FIVE

THE OLD COVENANT WHICH GOD MADE
WITH THOSE
WHO DID NOT KNOW THEMSELVES

OUTLINE

1. The One who made the covenant—Jehovah:
   1. The One who set up the Passover to redeem the children of Israel.
   2. The One who delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt by His mighty hand.
   3. The One who led the children of Israel through the wilderness with the heavenly and spiritual provision.
   4. The One who would lead and dwell among the children of Israel according to the way of His redemption and the grace of His promise.
2. The ones with whom the covenant was made—the children of Israel:
   1. Those who had kept the Passover.
   2. Those who had been delivered out of Egypt.
   3. Those who had passed through the wilderness.
   4. Those who did not know themselves.
3. The background against which the covenant was made:
   1. The children of Israel having enjoyed God’s redemption but not knowing God’s grace.
   2. The children of Israel not knowing their corruption, weakness, and inability to keep God’s commands.
4. The contents of the covenant:
   1. Commandments.
   2. Statutes.
   3. Ordinances.
5. The purpose in making the covenant:
   1. The law causing the offense to abound that man may know sin.
   2. The law guarding and shutting up God’s chosen people.
   3. The law being the child-conductor of God’s chosen people unto Christ.
6. The consummation of the covenant:
   1. By the offering of burnt offerings and peace offerings.
   2. By the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices on the book of the covenant and on the people.
7. The result:
   1. The covenant being broken before its consummation.
   2. The children of Israel disobeying the covenant throughout their generations.
   3. The just men who were perfected by God among the children of Israel being kept by the covenant.

TEXT

After God through Moses delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt’s oppression and slavery, He brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai, where He made a covenant with them, the fifth covenant that He made with man (Exo. 20—23).

I. THE ONE WHO MADE THE COVENANT—JEHOVAH

A. The One Who Set Up the Passover
to Redeem the Children of Israel

The One who made this covenant was the God who redeemed the children of Israel. When the children of Israel were under the tyranny and slavery of the Egyptians, God heard His people’s cry and came down to deliver them. Because Pharaoh would not allow the children of Israel to go out of Egypt, God through Moses sent ten plagues to punish the Egyptians. After the first nine plagues, the Egyptians, who were still hardened in their hearts, would not allow the children of Israel to go out from them. Therefore, God sent the tenth plague, through which He smote all the firstborn, in order to demonstrate His power and accomplish His saving way. He instructed the children of Israel that each household should prepare a lamb without blemish, kill it in the evening on the fourteenth day of the first month, and take its blood and put it on the upper doorposts and on the side posts, for the angel of Jehovah would go through the land at midnight and enter the houses which were not sprinkled with blood to smite the firstborn. Therefore, at midnight Jehovah slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, but He passed over the children of Israel, since the blood of the Passover lamb had been sprinkled on the upper doorposts and side posts of their houses (Exo. 12:1-14). Hence, Jehovah, the God of Israel, rescued them out of His judgment through the Passover.

B. The One Who Delivered the Children of Israel
out of Egypt by His Mighty Hand

Jehovah God not only delivered the children of Israel from His judgment through the Passover, but He also rescued them by His mighty hand from the Egyptians’ oppression that they might be delivered out of the tyranny of Pharaoh. First, God used His mighty hand to smite the firstborn of Egypt and thus subdue Pharaoh and the Egyptians so that Pharaoh drove the children of Israel out of Egypt (Exo. 12:31-33). Afterwards, when Pharaoh regretted and led an army to pursue after them, God used the pillar of cloud to separate the pursuing army and the children of Israel. Then God divided the water of the Red Sea with His mighty hand and led the children of Israel through the Red Sea. Finally, God used His mighty hand again to bury Pharaoh and his army under the water of the Red Sea (Exo. 14:5-9, 15-30). Therefore, it was with His mighty hand that Jehovah God rescued the children of Israel from Egypt, bearing them as on eagles’ wings and bringing them to Himself (Exo. 19:4).