Systematic Theology – Covenant

Covenant Celebrations

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 09-22

Genre: Speech

Track: 9 of 22

Dictation Name: 09 Covenant Celebrations

Location/Venue:

Year:

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee that the government is upon thy shoulders and so we come to Thee as men rage against Thy church and seek to overthrow the purity of Thy word and we beseech Thee oh Lord deliver us from the hands of the enemy, confound and destroy them and make of this country again a God fearing, covenant keeping land. Bless us now by Thy word and by Thy spirit and enable us to see wonderful things in Thy word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In our first session this evening we shall concern ourselves with Covenant Celebrations. Covenant Celebrations. We have discussed the meaning of the covenant…shall I start over again? Alright. In our first session this evening we shall deal with Covenant Celebrations. We have seen that covenants are basic to the bible. There are two kinds of covenant to review very briefly: between equals in which each party declares he will be completely loyal to the other and be ready to die for the other. The other kind which is the kind we have in the bible between God and man is between unequals in which the covenant is of grace, of greater bowing down to a lesser and saying I will enter into covenant with you and I will bind myself to care for you and you will bind yourself to be faithful to my law. Wherever there is a covenant of this sort there is an act of grace but there is also an act of law because the party is bound by the law that the superior person requires of them. So a covenant is an act of law and an act of grace. Now a covenant does not mean much to modern man because we have become Adamistic. The modern world does not think in terms of anything but the individual man all by himself without any associations.

We are dissolving every kind of relationship including the family, but in antiquity and until fairly recent times covenants were basic to life. Let us imagine for a moment that we lived in a bygone era and an hostile dangerous area where to walk the roads meant endangering our lives. But supposing in that situation the great and powerful local lord or the king of the land entered into a covenant with us and said you are now under my care. Anybody who touches you must deal with me. Our situation then would be drastically different. We would be under covenant protection. Now up until at least World War I such things in many parts of the world were very, very important. For example, if prior to World War I you had gone in to some parts of the Middle East and Arabia your life would be totally liable to anything, you would be robbed or murdered without anyone thinking anything of it or regarding it as a crime even, unless some powerful person took you into his home sat down with you at the table and made you his guest. Then you would be under his protection, he would have entered into a covenant of salt with you because eating a meal together was seen until recently in most of the world as an act of communion. And so it was that many a person lost his life in those days in that part of the world and many parts of the world because they did not have a covenant of salt with anyone when they entered into the area. And many a man had his life saved because someone entered into a covenant of salt, because if a great and powerful person said this man is now in covenant with me and gave you some kind of symbol of himself, of his authority anyone who laid a hand on you had to pay.

Had to pay dearly. If he did not lose his life for even cheating you he could consider himself fortunate. I know of one business man who defrauded someone with whom a powerful Czech had entered into a covenant of salt and he was stripped and publicly whipped within an inch of his life for having done so. Just to sit at a table with a man was powerful, to have communion with him was that important. Let me give you from family experience an instance of that to indicate how important it was and perhaps some of you know by the way that to this day Orthodox Jews will not sit and eat at your table. It’s forbidden to them because that would mean entering into a covenant and communion with a Christian and it’s strictly forbidden. But during the Turkish massacres a friend of my fathers, a surgeon, was expecting any moment to be among those who were being rounded up systematically and if they couldn’t get out of the city without encountering troops so they were trapped. But he had Turkish soldiers come to his door and take him at gunpoint to the commanding officers place of residence. As it developed the commanding officer was ill and needed surgery and he didn’t trust in his own doctors so he sent for this Arminian doctor who performed the surgery, had to stay there until a few days later the man’s recovery was assured. During the time he ate there. As a result he became thereby legally a Turk and he was in covenant even though he had no desire to be with the commanding officer in the area. So instead of being massacred as he was scheduled to be his property was sold and the money given to him and he and his family were given a safe conduct of the country, because willy-nilly he had been placed into a covenant with the commanding officer.

Now that’s the meaning of a covenant. And it is a meaning that was once known in this country and there was a time, a century ago when Americans knew what a meal around a table was and what it meant to invite someone to share your table or to be asked to share a meal with an Indian who might otherwise be hostile. Now, I could go on and give you numerous illustrations of such covenants, one more a man in Iran in the 1920s who told me of his experiences there in some of the mountain country where normally anyone traveling was instantly killed if he were an outsider, but he was under the protection of a powerful chief and he carried an insignia from the chief whose name he invoked whenever there was a problem. And when he named the name of that chief and put his hand on the medallion or emblem that was it, he was always safe. Now, much of the bible is understandable if we remember that fact. For example, we read in Psalm 20:1 David declaring the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. That’s what he’s talking about. Being in covenant with God you are under His care therefore the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. The covenant man invokes the protecting name of the covenant lord and a great deal of the bible invokes the name of the Lord and we fail to understand what invoking the name means. And giving glory unto the name, why do you give glory unto the name well Psalm 29:1-2 speaks of glory unto the name.

“Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.

2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

Why do you give glory to God? Because He is your covenant Lord and you are under His care and protection, a glorious fact. This is why throughout the bible the covenant is the fact of joy, it is a fact of feasting, festivals, of celebration. The annual festivals of Israel celebrated the glory of the covenant with God. The same was very definitely true of the week by week Sabbaths. The Sabbath was a day of rejoicing, it was the covenant day, the king’s day when you celebrated the fact that you were under the name of the Lord. You carried His name. This is why Christians were early known by the name Christian. Belonging to Christ. They were in covenant with Him and therefore belonged to Him. So much so was the Sabbath regarded as exclusively a time of joy that [unknown] noted and I quote:

“So far as we can gather the religious observance of Purim commenced with a fast, the fast of Esther on the thirteenth of [unknown]. But if Purim fell on a Sabbath or a Friday the fast was relegated to the previous Thursday as it was not lawful to fast either on a Sabbath or the day preceding it.” Unquote.

The Sabbath had to be a day for joy. It was also a day for weddings, but never a funeral. Now a days you do find some funerals on the Lord’s day. I can remember a few years back, not too many years ago, my shock when I found a funeral had been scheduled for Sunday because for countless generations Christians regarded it as wrong on the day of rejoicing to do anymore. Sorrow, joylessness, and grief were not to be a part of the Sabbath. It was a sin even to wear the marks of mourning sometimes in some areas on the Lord’s day.

It was a day for joy, you celebrated the fact that God was in covenant with us. He had given His only begotten Son in terms of that covenant. Again turning to [unknown] who was one of the great Christian converts from Judaism of the last century and a scholar at an English university and I quote:

“The return of the Sabbath sanctified the week of labor. It was to be welcomed as a king or with songs as a bridegroom and each household observed it as a season of sacred rest and of joy. Sure Rabbinism made this all a matter of mere externalism, converting it into a unbearable burden by endless injunctions of what constituting work and what was supposed to produce joy thereby utterly changing its sacred character. Still, the fundamental idea remained like a broken pillar that shows where the palace hall stood and what had been its noble proportions. As the head of the house returned on the Sabbath Eve from the synagogue to his house he found it festively ordained, the Sabbath lamp brightly burning and the table spread with the riches each household could afford. But first he blessed each child with a blessing of Israel and the next evening as the Sabbath light faded out he made solemn separation between the hallowed day and the working week and so commenced his labor once more in the name of the Lord. Nor were the strange or the poor or the widow or the fatherless forgotten, how fully they were provided for, how each shared in which was to be considered not a burden but a privilege and with what delicacy relief was administered for all Israel were brethren and fellow citizens of their Jerusalem. Those know best who have closely studied the Jewish life its ordinances and its practices.” Unquote.

So the Sabbath was to be a day of joy. One day in seven, one year in seven and another year at the Jubilee. The rest was to celebrate God’s covenant grace and care and to emphasize the fact that it is not our works but the Lords work in which we rest.

Now, very few people realize that the first teaching of the Sabbath and the first mention of the Sabbath in the history of man apart from the days of creation is taught with respect to manna in the wilderness. Exodus 16:15-26. Exodus 16:15-26. The incident of manna.

“15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

16 This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto theLord: to day ye shall not find it in the field.

26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.”

Now, this is a very, very interesting fact because it tells us first that the covenant God is mindful of His people. That at all times He cares for them. We have this episode of the manna echoed in the Lord’s Prayer ‘give us this day our daily bread’. Give us this day our daily manna. Then furthermore this care that the covenant Lord gives is such that we can rest much of our lives. We need as our Lord said take no thought of the morrow, our Lord is able and He will care for us. God’s gift of care is His way of blessing and sanctifying the covenant, the covenant law and the covenant promises. But if we are faithless to the covenant God’s wrath will blaze against us. Asaf speaks of this in Psalm 78:17-25:

“And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

21 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.”

They had sinned, they had no awareness of the meaning of Sabbath, they did not trust in God to provide them and that’s the meaning of the Sabbath. You rejoice because you know it is God’s work on which we rely. He who saved us will do yet more and care for us. Thus the Sabbath is to be a joyful celebration by a victorious covenant people but sad to say it is no longer a festival of joy which is what it should be. Psalm 24 celebrates covenant joy in the Lord. It tells us:

“The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

He is the King of Glory. Nothing can withstand His power as He marches through history for he is Lord over all. Those who are wise crowd into see him and to praise him and to obey him and through faithfulness to stand in His holy place for He is the Lord, strong and mighty in battle. As the Psalmist says: He is our God forever and ever, our covenant God. Hence the joy of the Psalmist. The covenant calls for celebration. We are under protection, the protection of almighty God. Therefore wilt not we fear, the Psalmist says, though the earth be moved, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, though the mountains be moved into the midst of the sea for the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob, the covenant God. He is our refuge. Are there any questions now on our lesson on Covenant Celebrations? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. It is still the covenant day, it is our covenant day, you see because it is the day of the resurrection. And therefore it is our day for rejoicing. A note of joy is too seldom stressed with regard to the Sabbath and it should be. Incidentally the Sabbath in the Old Testament was not on Saturday, I’ve said this before and let me repeat it, it’s an important point. It was by the day of the month not the day of the week. It began on the first day of the first month and then the eight, the fifteenth, the twenty second and so on. So it was by the day of the month so it changed as far as what day it fell on just as your birthday every year is on a different day of the week. It was not until about the year three hundred that the Jews decided to make Saturday officially their Sabbath to put it on a day of a week rather than the date of the month. We still observe one day as do the Jews one day in terms of the calendar rather than the day of the week and that’s resurrection or Easter day and Passover.

Any other questions? Well if not we’ll take a recess and then reconvene to go into Oath and Covenant. Oath and Covenant.