Systematic Theology – Covenant

The Covenant and the Body

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 19-22

Genre: Speech

Track: 19 of 22

Dictation Name: 19 The Covenant And The Body

Location/Venue:

Year:

Oh Lord our God unto whom all things belong, who has made heaven and earth and has called us to be Thy people we come to Thee in a day when the heathen rage against Thee. The nations take council against our Lord seeking to overthrow His realm and to bring His people into subjection. But Thou oh Lord art on the throne and it is Thy council that shall prevail and Thou shalt hold them in derision and shake the powers of this world and hunger Thy enemies breaking them with a rod of iron. And so our God we gather together in confidence in Thy government, in Thy kingdom. Bless us by Thy word and by Thy spirit and make us strong in Thee to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Grant us this we beseech Thee in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our scripture this evening is from 1 Samuel 11:1-3 and our subject: The Covenant and the Body, The Covenant and the Body. This text may seem like a very strange one but it is very important in that it tells us something that we normally overlook about the doctrine of the covenant. The Covenant and the Body. 1 Samuel 11:1-3.

“Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.

2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.

3 And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days' respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee.”

In the world of antiquity as well as in the bible the covenant was seen as the most important and governing fact in a man’s life. Life was covenantal and every area of life which was deemed important was made covenantal. We see the important and the centrality of marriage in the bible by the fact that marriage is in scripture a covenant as Proverbs 2:17, Ezekiel 16:8 and Malachi 2:14 make very clear. This is why because marriage is seen in scripture as a covenant and as also the most important institution under God that the death penalty adheres to adultery, to the violation of marriage. Making a covenant was thus seen as a very important step with a ritual of consequence. There had to be the shedding of blood, the gift of clothing and many other things. Normally a covenant meant a commitment unto death. Hence it required a reorientation of one’s whole life and a changed life. As evidence of that changed life there had to be a changed body. Some mark in the body which signified that the man was now a different man. In the Old Testament the covenant mark in the body was circumcision. In most other religions the covenant mark with their gods or with their kings was a tattoo or some kind of scarring and this is why all such markings are strictly forbidden in scripture, not only because they mar the body God created but because they are evidences of an alien and forbidden covenant. The covenant thus marked a man spiritually and physically. This marking could be an act of grace as with circumcision whereby God said you are my people and this is the mark that identifies you as mine or it could be an act of supremacy and power.

First Samuel 11:1-3 gives us such an example. It occurred at a time when the faith of Israel was very weak or nonexistent. The Ammonites led by Nahash came up against the city and the men of the city seeing the hopelessness of their cause said to Nahash alright, we recognize your power; we will abandon our covenant with our God and make a covenant with you. And Nahash said:

“On this condition will I make a covenant with you.”

Which means that from this day forward I will protect you in a way your God is not protecting you and your covenant brothers are not protecting you. You are going to be marked in the body but my marking will be an identification that will also be a standing insult to your God and a reproach upon all Israel that the covenant they make they cannot keep and the covenant your God made He cannot keep. So, the covenant mark in the body that Nahash required of the men was a marking that disfigured them, that set them apart henceforth to be protected by him but also a reproach to say your God is not as powerful as I am and your people do not take a covenant seriously. And so the elders of the city said give us seven days respite that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel and then if there be no man to save us we will come out to thee. And Nahash was so confident that God the Lord could not compare with him in power and that the covenant people of Israel were a worthless people that he gave them that respite. Of course as we know Saul was able to deliver them. The importance of this is that the covenant required in that instance as in every instance a marking in the body.

In the place of circumcision now there was going to be a blinding because they bore still the old mark of circumcision and they were to be blinded because a false covenant, Nahash was saying, had led them astray and so they had to come into the new covenant penalized. The covenant requires some kind of mark, some kind of change in the body. There is an interesting passage in the New Testament in which Paul speaks of himself as having a mark of the covenant, different from all others, more important than any others had. In Galatians 6:17 against all the Judaizers and critics Paul asserts in his own way his unusual covenant mark or sign and the word in the Greek is literally stigma, sign.

“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

His scars from the beatings he had had for the Lord’s sake he said are my covenant marks. Now everyone understood the meaning of that because they were used to thinking in terms of the covenant and covenant marks, covenant signs or stigmas in the body. Circumcision marks the body in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have an unusual marking of the body. We are told that God writes his name on our forehead, no man can see it but the Lord knows us, we are sealed we are told unto the Lord and that means very literally in modern western terminology branded. God puts His brand upon us though no man can see it so He can identify us. There is still another factor: baptism. Baptism is presented as the covenant sign, it is a cleansing, it signifies regeneration, the change of the total body.

And we are told concerning circumcision and baptism alike in Titus 3:5, in Deuteronomy 10:16 and 30:6 and Philippians 3:3, Colossians 2:11 and many other passages that the covenant mark changes the body, sets it apart, it marks the body as now holy unto the Lord. Baptism signifies the cleansing of the body ot make it new and to indicate that this body is to be made totally new in the resurrection of the body. So that in baptism we are baptized for the resurrection as the covenant sign, our whole body is changed, our whole body is marked by the radical and complete newness. This is why in a verse that is sadly misinterpreted and used by the Mormons by the way in 1 Corinthians 15:29 Paul asks concerning those who doubted the resurrection of the body:

“Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?”

Paul is saying baptism signifies that we are going to rise from the dead! It signifies that the covenant mark upon our body is such a dramatically different one than anything any religion has ever imagined it means the resurrection of the body, it means its cleansing, its regeneration. That’s why baptism is at one point by Paul compared to a burying and to a rising up again. The resurrection of the body. So Paul says why go through baptism if the body is not going to be resurrected, why then instead of using water and immersing or sprinkling the body as the case may be or aspersing it lets just have a spiritual baptism. That’s the implication of what he’s saying.

If it’s only the spirit that is affected we don’t need a physical rite. Just have a spiritual baptism like the Quakers have a spiritual communion, they don’t serve it. But Paul says no. Baptism marks the body for cleansing, for regeneration, for the resurrection to be made new but you know the interesting thing is: when God says I put my covenant mark upon you through circumcision then baptism to be made new to be resurrected, to signify that your body shares in the covenant glory that I put my mark upon the world itself and upon time. What are the covenant markings of the earth and of time? The covenant marking that God gives the earth is the rainbow. The rainbow. It is a mark upon the physical world by God to signify His covenant. When god sees the rainbow He remembers His covenant, grace and nature are linked together in God’s covenant purpose. Man did not create the rainbow and man cannot destroy it so that man cannot change the destiny of this world, it is destined to be made again even as we are and it is to be part of a totally new creation. Then moreover we must believe that all the world, rational and non-rational, men and animals, the ground beneath our feet benefit by God’s covenant because it is with the earth, with the earth. I will no more destroy the earth and at the end I will make it anew and before the end comes I will restore the longevity of man’s lifespan. The rough places will be made straight, the desert shall bloom like a rose garden so that my covenant with the earth shall be fulfilled.

This covenant sign is given by God and maintained by God alone, man has nothing to do with the rainbow. And so we have the blessed assurance that God has a covenant with us, has a covenant with the earth and His covenant sign baptism points to the resurrection of the body and His covenant sign the rainbow points to a new creation to a new heaven and a new earth. His other sign, the rainbow, marks the earth, the physical creation. The other which marks time is His covenant sign the Sabbath. Time is to be redeemed. Time is brought under the dominion of God and His word, time stands still for us on the Lord’s day, we take hands of our works in the confidence in so doing we shall be furthered in them by the grace of God and all of time will be brought into the great rest in Him so that work and rest in the new creation are one and the same. All the covenant signs point to the same thing: the covenant has an effect on the body, on the earth, upon time itself and Sabbath rest witnesses to the great rest in the new creation as we are told in Hebrews 2:7-3:11. It is interesting that when we go to the early church and see how they regarded baptism their language is very moving. They speak of it as the ransoming of prisoners, as the forgiveness of sins, as rebirth, as the gift of adoption and the pledge of kingship so that baptism was regularly portrayed as the adoption of man into kingship and his coronation. And sometimes the crown was used, this is how they saw the covenant sign, it points to the resurrection of the body, to man’s coronation, to his fulfillment. The covenant changes the whole of reality, it changes the body itself. Are there any questions now on the Covenant and the Body?

No questions on the Covenant and the Body? Well we’ll take a recess then for ten, fifteen minutes then and resume with the covenant and the mediator.