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The Mosaic Law is one of six covenants that God made with Israel, all of which have five concepts in common: their authority resides in God, they were all given in a day of crisis, no covenant nullifies a previous one, salvation from sin is not oÅbtained by keeping any covenant, and significant negative events followed the instigation of each.

The theological context of the Mosaic Covenant is Israel’s election by grace and the redemptive context of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The content of the covenant follows the pattern of the ancient day when a dominant power would make a treaty with a lesser or subdued power (i.e. suzerainty treaty). The covenant was the most conditional of all the covenants, and like all the covenants, it promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The covenant addressed itself to Israel and Israel alone, with its divinely authoritative rules that stipulated standards of righteousness. No one can justly separate the moral, civil, and ceremonial parts of the Law from each other, as many have attempted to; the law is a unit. The Law has no authority over Christians because it has been fulfilled by the death of Christ.

Divine revelation is saturated with pertinent theological pericopes. The pericope containing the Mosaic Covenant is an important OT passage. Exodus 19–24 had a significant impact on the writers of both the OT and NT: “There is no way to describe adequately the canonical implications of Exodus 19–24. Everyone from Moses (Deut 5:6–21), to Jeremiah (Jer 7:1–15), to Jesus (Matt 5–7), to Peter (1 Pet 2:9), and every other biblical writer who has anything to say about covenant, morality and relationship to God reflects directly or indirectly on this passage.” [i] Theologian and preacher alike should not neglect the study and proclamation of God’s revelation in the Mosaic Covenant. It is part and parcel of “the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27).[ii] By way of introduction, one must consider the identity, nature, and interrelationships of the biblical covenants.