The Sinai covenant appears to be far more extensive than the covenant God made with Abraham. The motivation for the events surrounding the Exodus from Egypt is stated as being God's remembering of the covenant he had entered with Abraham. Through a long series of events that lead to a visitation of God at Mount Sinai the ancient nation of Israel was delivered from bondage and taken out of Egypt. At Mount Sinai the nation entered into another Covenant.
This covenant told the Jews what they would have to do as their side of the covenant, as it was conditional; "... if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation..." (Exodus 19: 5-6). Being conditional, it can be taken that, should Israel break the covenant, they ceased to be his own possession and gave up other rights or privileges given by God to them under the covenant. God told the people that for their part, they must dedicate themselves to serving God forever, and to making the world a better and holier place by obeying God's laws. The Jewish people agreed to do this by saying, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." (Exodus 19: 1-8). The covenant at Sinai sets out in great detail the relationship between God and the Jews. Much of Judaism can be seen as the working out of this relationship and the development of the God's rules into a complete lifestyle. The covenant is made with the Jewish People as a whole, not with each individual Jew.
According to the Book of Genesis, at Sinai a formal priesthood, government and set of national laws were put in place by God, however the Prophets have questioned how much of the Levitical Law was given by God at this time and how much was added by the Priesthood at some later date. The terms of the covenant as detailed in Exodus 19 above make no mention of the statutes of the Levitical Law.
Many Christians mistake the entire series of Old Testament covenants as the "Old Covenant" this is not so. The Sinai covenant, alone is refered to in the New Testament as the Old Covenant. The Book of Hebrews goes into extensive details about how the New Covenant supercedes the cerimonial law introduced at Sinai. Similarly, the New Testament explains that the New Covenant is simply what Abraham was looking foward to and that Christians have covenantal relationship to God's promises through Abraham's covenant.
What God would do on Israel's failureThough we consider the Sinai covenant to be a conditional covenant, breaking of the covenant in no way made the covenant non-binding. There was no way ancient Israel could escape the covenant, the covenant itself did not provide any escape clauses. Instead, by not keeping their part of the bargain ancient Israel shifted into clauses in the covenant that involved some very specific punishments, the most important for our study here involved time.
The specific time components of the covenant are recorded multiple times across the second half of Leviticus 26. Each time it is mentioned, lest anyone should miss it, the covenant stated national punishment for breaking the covenant would last "7 times." The following is an example of one of the references where this phrase is used:
Leviticus 26 24: then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.
This expression "7 times" repeats and as is typical of biblical language that repetition implies certainty. The expression "7 times" has a very precise chronological meaning. The word "times" typically means year, but as this is a nation entering into the covenant, not individuals, the days that compose that year are themselves believed to be one year long. In this case, then, the expression "7 times" means that God will punish this nation 1 year for each day there are in 7 biblical years. As the total number of days in 7 biblical years is 2550, the total number of years in this punishment period is 2550 years.
What would God do?The rest of Leviticus 26 explores in detail just what God would do. These details happened to ancient Israel at various points in her recorded history. One thing not mentioned, but important to this story, springs from the way God entered into covenant with Abraham.
Abraham had taken a series of animals, split them in two and had been prepared to walk between them as a sign of entering covenant with God. God, though, through his representation as a smoking fire pot had gone through the animals alone. This had made the covenant with Abraham unconditional. There was nothing binding on Abraham.
If Abraham had walked between the animals, he would himself been subject to division should he have broken the covenant. The symbolism of the split animals being this: If either party to a covenant entered into by walking between the pieces, should fail to keep their part of the bargain, the other party had the right to cut the offending party into two pieces, just like the animals.
The same "walking between the pieces" act at Sinai happened when the nation walked between the split waters of the Red Sea. The nation was subject to division, as well as the other features of the Sinai covenant, should the nation break that covenant. That division happened at the Civil war in Rehoboam's reign and is the start of the period of punishment.
The Possession of the land under the Sinai covenantContrary to popular belief, the land was not promised to the Children of Israel as a 'permanent possession' as part of the Sinai covenant. When God spoke to Moses at Sinai about when they would "come into the land which I give you" (Leviticus 25:2) He gave a number of instructions relating to their occupation of that land. Among them is the statement, "The land shall not be sold into perpetual ownership, for the land is mine; you are strangers and temporary residents with Me" (Leviticus 25:23). God is saying that He retains ownership and Israel's occupation of it is temporary (no doubt because the promise, being part of the covenant, was conditional and would be automatically nullified if Israel broke the covenant). It would appear to be more accurately described as being like a tenancy in which certain privileges and protections are granted as part of the occupancy.
The land had been promised to Abraham and His seed, so in making the Sinai covenant, was God renegging on his previous promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in relation to the land being an ongoing heritage? The promise was given to Abraham as a result of his actions towards God (Gen 22 15-18): "because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son ...) thus God made the promise because Abraham had fulfilled his side of the conditions of the promise before the promise was given. With Isaac and Israel, they both had to deal with their own personal shortcomings before God came and renewed the covenant with them. Again, they had to fulfil the conditions before the promise was passed on to them. With the Sinai agreement, the covenant was given first, and God reserved the right to revoke it if the people failed to fulfil their part of the bargain.
God had withdrawn the right to occupy the land a number of times. In 2 Kings 21: 8 He said; "I said I will not make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; but only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them, but because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations, I will leave (walk away from) the rest of My inheritance (committed to them) and deliver them into the hands of their enemies."`
Jeremiah 17:4 says; "And you shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in a foreign land: for you have kindled the fire of my anger, [which] shall burn for ever."
In Mark 14:58, Jesus is reported as having said about God's dwelling place on Earth, "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands". 1 Corinthians: 3:16 identifies this new Temple, the new dwelling place of God on Earth, as the hearts of Christ's followers ‚ "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?‚" indicating that the land of Israel was no longer his 'home on earth' and that His temporal occupation of it, like theirs was soon to be, was over.
Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11-17 indicate that the Patriarchs knew they were but strangers, exiles and temporary residents in this land and that they interpreted the promise as a reference to "a better more desirable country, that is, a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:16). However, to their descendants, such was not and still is not their expectation and understanding of the promise.
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