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The TWO COVENANTS

On Mount Sinai, God has made a covenant with the Israelis ( Ex 20:8). God’s commandments have been written on two stone tablets (Ex 24:12). It was the law which was to be kept and followed by the Israelis. They were obliged to keep the Sabbath as a sign of the covenant made between God and them.

The Lord said to Moses:You yourself are to speak to the Israelis; You shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations…Therefore the Israelis shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel… (Ex 31:12-13; 16-17).

Unfortunately, the Israelis were not faithful to the covenant and as the result of it, the Sabbath, sign of the covenant, did not please God any more: ...bringing an offering is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation–I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity (Is 1:13).

God has promised to make a new and everlasting covenant with all people, with all nations.

The prophet Jeremiah has written: "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (Jr 31:31)." The prophet Isaiah rote about the new Covenant as well ….I have given you as a covenant to the people..." (Is 42:1-7).

The promise came through Jesus Christ, the true Moses, the true Mediator. The new covenant has been established when Christ has shed His Blood on the Cross on Mount Calvary. Mathew in his Gospel wrote: Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins…” (Mt26:27-28).

Saint Paul speaks about a New Covenant in his First Letter to the Corinthians: “ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (1Cor 11:25).

Since God has established the New Covenant, a crucial question arises: What about the Old Covenant with its sign, the Jewish Sabbath (the seventh day of the week – Saturday)? Paul gives us the answer in his letter to the Galatians speaking about the parallel regarding Sara (Abraham’s free wife) and Hagar (Abraham’s slave wife).

Abraham has been told by God to expel Hagar (the slave wife) who represented the Old Covenant: "… Here are Gods words: “ Drive out the slave and her child, for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman" (Gal 4: 22-31).

The Letter to the Hebrews says it more clearly: "...Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant… For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one…In speaking of “a new covenant”, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear" (Heb 7:21-22; 8: 7-13).

Christians are obliged to follow the New Covenant. The Old Covenant made with the Israelis at Mount Sinai has lost its power. There is no need for it any more. It has been replaced with a much better one – the New Covenant, established by Jesus Christ Himself.

Since the Old Covenant has lost its power, the sign of that covenant, the Sabbath (Saturday) ( Ex 31:12-13) has no relevance for Christians any more. It became only a shadow, as Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Colossi (Col 2:16-17).

It is like with a driver and his driving license. When the driver dies, his driving license loses its power, its validity; there is no need for it any more. It is the same with the Jewish Sabbath, for the Christians there is no need for the Sabbath any more.

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