THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

I
The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 39
And Moses returned the words of the people
will do.
unto the Lord" (vv. 7, 8). So the terms of the contract
were agreed to by both the contracting parties.
Then God spake in their hearing the "Words" they
were to keep, the Ten Commandments (Chap. XX) ;
and He also gave to Moses "the judgments" whereby
their dealings with one another were to be governed
And thereupon "Moses came
(Chaps. XXI -XXIII).
and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all
the judgments; and all the people answered with one
voice and said, All the words which the Lord hath said
we will do" (Ex. 24:3).
Accordingly the contract was reduced to writing and
was executed in a most solemn manner ;
it being a blood
covenant, which was the most binding sort. For Moses
took "the book of the covenant," that is the scroll of
parchment on which the terms of the contract were inscribed,
and read in the audience of the people, and
took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said,
"Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath
made with you concerning all these words" (24:6-8).
Here is where we read of the blood of the old covenant
; with which we should compare what is written
concerning the "blood of the new covenant" (Mat. 26:-
28; Heb. 13:20).
Within the space of forty days that covenant was
broken by the abominable idolatry of the golden calf
and the shameless rites with which the people, led by
Aaron, worshipped it (Chap. XXXII) ;
and it should
be noted that the terms of that covenant were never
again ratified with that people. We shall see presently
what were the terms of the substituted covenant that
God made with the children of Israel, but we would
impress upon the reader, as truth of the highest im-