The broken covenant and the book of the law...

Chapter I

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

In the light of the above statement to the church, by the great Apostle to the Gentiles, the writer of the following pages will reverently endeavor to point out some "scriptures given by inspiration," the bearing of which, so far as he is aware, has hitherto been unnoticed. It is not the desire of the writer to attempt to set forth any new line of truth except as the same may be fully supported by the scriptures. He makes no claim whatever to accuracy, either as to literary style or even grammatical construction. If he can succeed in making himself understood, he will have accomplished all he can hope for on that line. To explain in advance the leading thoughts of this little book would perhaps consume more time than is necessary to that end, and more than the reader would care to give to such an explanation. Therefore the writer will at once proceed to the subject, explaining as he proceeds, and leaving the reader with only such information in advance as the title of the book may suggest or imply.

In the 26th chapter of Leviticus, verses 18, 21, 24 and 28, we read of the final punishment of "Seven times," to be inflicted on Israel in the event that the lesser punishments spoken of in this chapter fail to produce the desired effect ; that is, to reclaim Israel from idolatry. These "Seven times," it is believed by by many, refer to the "Times of the Gentiles" spoken of by our Lord in the book of Luke, chapter 21, verse 24 : "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." The Times of the Gentiles, it is believed by many, refer to a period of 2,520 years , reaching from the downfall of the kingdom of Judah in the days of Zedekiah, the last king, to the final setting up of the kingdom of God. In other words, the "Seven times" of Leviticus 26, and the "Times of the Gentiles" as spoken of by our Lord in the book of Luke, both refer to one and the same event, the time of Gentile dominion intervening between the downfall of the typical kingdom, or kingdom of Israel, and the establishment of the Antitype, or kingdom of God. Preceding all the punishments mentioned in the above named chapter of Leviticus, greater and lesser, we read in verses 14 and 15 and part of 16, as follows: "But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant, I also will do this unto you." Then follows all the punishments spoken of in the chapter. Note also in verse 25: "And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant." It will be noticed that the breaking of the covenant is the one great and dominant offense leading to the infliction of all the punishments spoken of in the chapter. The breaking of the covenant, therefore, marks an important crisis in the history of Israel. If the time when the covenant was broken can be scripturally pointed out, that would show the beginning of all the punishments mentioned in the chapter, because they were to follow as a result of the breaking of the covenant.

The "Seven times" or "Times of the Gentiles" would follow after the lesser punishments were inflicted. What are we to understood by the words, "that ye break my covenant" ? Leeser's translation of verse 15 is as follows : "And if my statutes ye despise, and if my ordinances your soul loath, so as not to do all my commandments, in that ye break my covenant." Young's translation reads : "So as not to do all my commands to your breaking my covenant." The words "in that ye break," or, "to your breaking," would seem to indicate the thought of forbearance; that the Lord would not consider the covenant as broken without great provocation; but, if Israel would persist in a course of idolatry, the time would come when the forbearance of the Lord would cease and the covenant be adjudged as broken. In numerous places in the scriptures we are informed of warnings regarding the breaking of the covenant. In some places it is referred to as "forsaking the covenant." In some places it is spoken of as "transgressing the covenant." We understand these different words to refer to one and the same event, to the time when the covenant would finally be adjudged as broken. According to the Concordance, to break means "to break off." To forsake means "to leave off." To transgress the covenant, "to pass over."

It may be said that Israel broke, forsook, or transgressed the covenant as often as they fell into idolatry, and this is true; but the question is as to when the Lord adjudged it as broken. The breaking, forsaking or transgression of the covenant was an offense against the law, and therefore in order to comply with the law a trial must be held. This thought implies that, in the event that Israel broke the covenant, a trial would be instituted against them on account of the offense, and this, as we will endeavor to show, was true. The covenant was certainly broken by Israel, because the Lord informed Moses that they would break it. Also, some nine hundred years after the days of Moses, the Lord informed the prophet Jeremiah that they had broken it. We will now endeavor to show how and when it was broken, or rather, how and when it was adjudged as broken.

Beginning at the first verse of the 29th chapter of Deut., we have an account of the covenant made in the land of Moab, which covenant, we are informed, was "beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb."

Israel is here exhorted to observe and do all the commands of the Lord ; to keep inviolate the covenant. After recounting all the goodness and mercy of the Lord, as manifested toward Israel throughout the wilderness journey, they are informed as follows (verse 10) : "Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God ; captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water ; that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day ; that he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he has said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

Having entered into covenant with the Lord, and into his oath, they are next warned of the result to follow in case of their apostacy, and, in the event that they fail to keep the covenant. In verses 20, 21 and 27, they are informed that, "all the curses that are written in this book'"' would come upon them if they failed to keep the covenant. The revised version, referring to the above verses 20 and 27, reads "all the curse written in this book." The "curse" to come upon them was, as seems evident in verse 27, the desolation of the land. See verse 27 : "Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book." The "curse," therefore, seems to refer to one particular curse, the desolation of their land. In immediate connection with the curse here referred to, we are informed of the desolation of the land that would result in the event of their failure to keep the covenant. See verses 22, 23 and 24: "So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall sav, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this

8 The Broken Covenant and the Book of the Laic.

great anger?" In answer to the question of verse 24, see verse 2o : "Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, etc."

Here we are informed of what the men of some future generation will say in answer to the question as to what had caused the desolation of their land. The question above asked, in connection with the answer thereto, clearly constitutes a prophecy of events that would be true in the days when their land was made desolate. The desolation of the land would be caused by the fact that they had forsaken the covenant. Let us imagine two men, one a native of the holy land and the other a stranger, meeting each other amid the ruins of Jerusalem after the fall of the kingdom in the days of King Zedekiah, and after the beginning of the desolation of the land.

The stranger, addressing the native, enquires, "Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?" In reply to this question the native answers, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers."

Such a conversation as this, in substance, it is here in the days of Moses prophesied, would take place in the days when the land would be desolate. And, for the reason that they had forsaken the covenant, we may imagine the native, above referred to, saying in further answer to the question he had been asked by the stranger, and in order to explain the results that followed the breaking of the covenant, (verse 28): "And the Lord rooted them out of their laud in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day."

Here, then, is a prophecy of conditions that would be true in the days when the land was to be made desolate. The desolation would be a fact because they had broken, or forsaken, the covenant; and, for the reason that they had forsaken the covenant, they were to be rooted out of their land.

Now, it must follow that, as the covenant was surely broken, Israel was surely ''rooted out" of their land. Also, that all the results that were to follow the breaking, of the covenant must have been fulfilled.

Keep in mind the thought that Israel was to be rooted out of their land because they had broken the covenant. If it can be scripturally shown that they were rooted out of their land, and if the time when the rooting out process began can be shown, then it follows that at or prior to that time they had broken the covenant. The breaking of the covenant was the cause, and the "rooting out" was the effect, according to the terms of this prophecy. Therefore, we may certainly know, if the effect is found, that the cause has preceded it. It might be possible, and may be probable, that the breaking of the covenant took place at some considerable time before the "rooting out" process began, but the breaking of the covenant could not have taken place after the beginning of the rooting out process.

To assume that the covenant was broken after the beginning of the process of rooting out would reverse the law of cause and effect.

Other scriptures conveying this same thought, that they were to be rooted out of their land if the covenant was broken, will now be pointed out.

From the days of Moses down to the days of Jeremiah they were repeatedly warned against the breaking of the covenant. In the 26th chapter of Leviticus, as we have before seen, they were threatened with many punishments to come upon them in the event that they broke the covenant ; and, among the punishments there mentioned, they were warned that they would be expelled from their land as one of the results of breaking the covenant. See Deut. 4 : 25 and 26 : "When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger ; I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed." See also Deut. 28 : 63 : "And ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it." See Deut. 30 : 17 and 18 : "But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them ; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it."

Joshua, when old and about to die, gave them the following parting admonition concerning the breaking of the covenant and being rooted out of their land. See Joshua 23 : 16 : "When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and have bowed yourselves to them, then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you."

In I Kings, 14 : 15, we read of punishments to come upon the house of Jeroboam because of their idolatry : "For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken

The Broken Covenant and the Book of the Law. II

in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger."

In the days of King Solomon, when the house of the Lord had been completed, the warning in regard to their idolatry and the breaking of the covenant, with the results to follow, was again repeated.

See I Kings 9 : 6 to 10 : "But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them ; then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them ; and this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all the people ; and at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss ; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them; therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil."

See also, II Chron. 7 : 19 to 22 : "But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all nations. And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it ; so that they will say, Why hath

12 The Broken Covenant and the Book of the !.■

the Lord done thus unto this land and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them fortli out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them ; therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them." See Jeremiah 'l'l : 8 and 9 : "And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods and served them." Also, see Jer. 16 : 9 to 14.

Having seen that Israel was to be "rooted out" of their land in case they broke the covenant, and having seen that the covenant was broken at some time in their after history because the Lord said that they would break it, and that they did break it (see Deut. 31: 16 and Jer. 11: 10), we now enquire when was the covenant broken? or when did the process of rooting them out of their land begin? If we find the beginning of the rooting out process, then we may know that the breaking of the covenant occurred at or before that time, because the breaking of the covenant was the cause and the rooting out process was the effect, and cause must precede effect.

In answer to the above question, one point seems entirely clear and certain. The breaking of the covenant occurred before the fall of the kingdom in the days of King Zedekiah and their expulsion from the land , because, as shown by the above quoted scriptures, their expulsion from the land was the very event that was to result from the breaking of the covenant. It also appears entirely certain that the process of rooting them out of the land began at some time before the fall of tlu- kingdom and the beginning of the captivity, because the beginning of the captivity was the end of the process of rooting them out of the land.

It is not claimed that the scriptures show the exact point of time when the breaking of the covenant occurred. It is claimed that they do show a point of time when the covenant was broken, and that the breaking of the covenant occurred either at that point of time or prior thereto, and that it could not have been after that point of time.

The process of rooting them out of their land, as will be shown, began with the call, or appointment, of Jeremiah in the 13th year of the reign of King Josiah, and therefore we may know that the breaking of the covenant occurred either at that point of time or prior thereto ; and, that it could not have been after that point of time.

The process of rooting them out of their land, as will be shown, began with the call, or appointment, of Jeremiah in the 13th year of the reign of King Josiah, and therefore we may know that the breaking of the covenant occurred at or before that time. Coming now to the 1st chapter of the book of Jeremiah, and to verse 10, we read as follows : "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant." Jeremiah is here "set over the nations" Not the nation of Israel alone, but all the nations. The nation of Israel was the first one to be rooted out. The mission of Jeremiah to root out, etc., as it applied both to the nation of Israel and to all nations, is set forth in the 25th chapter of Jeremiah. In the 29th verse of the last named chapter, the Lord addresses the nations as follows : "For, lo, I began to bring evil on the city which is called by my name (the process of "rooting out" having already been inaugurated) and should you be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished : for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts." Some authorities have concluded that the words "root out," etc., refer to the rooting out of evil, and that the mission of Jeremiah was to root out and destroy the evils of his times. That his mission was for the ultimate destruction of evil may be true; but if the immediate object of his mission was to root out evil, then it would appear that his mission was a failure ; because evil was present during all the days of Jeremiah and is still present. As there could be no such thing as failure in the plans of the Lord, we must conclude that the words "root out," etc., have some other application. As to the real meaning of the words "to root out," as contained in the commission here given to Jeremiah, they must refer to the rooting out of Israel from their land, which event was actually completed in forty years after this time, or otherwise all the prophecies we have quoted, showing that the covenant would be broken, and that they would be rooted or plucked out of their land because the covenant was broken, have gone unfulfilled.

We have seen in Deut. 29 : 28, and in numerous other places referred to, that Israel was to be rooted out of their land if the covenant was broken. We have also seen in Deut. 31 : 16, that the Lord said they would break the covenant; further, in Jer. 11:10, that they had broken it. We know, therefore, that the covenant was surely broken at some time between the days of Moses and the days of Jeremiah ; and, that as a result thereof, the process of rooting them out of their land certainly must have followed.

We must, therefore, conclude that the beginning of the process of rooting them out of their land is indicated by the scripture in Jer. 1 : 10, or we must conclude that the covenant was not broken, and that they were not rooted out of the land, unless the fulfillment of these scriptures can be pointed out as having taken place at some other time.

The conclusion, that the words "root out" are to be applied as here set forth is confirmed by Jer. 1 : 15. Here the Lord said he would call all the families of the north, alluding to the Babylonians, who, it appears, were to execute the will of the Lord in the removal of Israel out of the land.

In Jer. 25 : 9, and chapter 27 : 6, and also 43 : 10, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon is referred to as the servant of the Lord. The work here assigned for this servant to perform, as the scriptures referred to will clearly show, includes the removal of Israel from their land, and thus indicates the natural means to be employed in "rooting them out."

Elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah we read of Israel being plucked up or out of their land. The words "root" and "pluck" are both from the same Hebrew word and refer to the removal of Israel out of the land.

See Jer. 18 : 6 and 7 : "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, etc." Also Jer. 31 : 27 and 28 : "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as / have zvatched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord."

See also Jer. 24 : 5 and 6 : "Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so will [ acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom / have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and will bring them again to this land ; and I will build them and not pull them down ; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up." Here we have the statement from the Lord to the effect that he had watched over them to pluck them up or out of their land, etc. ; also that he had sent them out of their land and into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. This shows that the process of rooting or plucking out had already been inaugurated and that it was now in operation. As the process of rooting or plucking out was here being" fulfilled, it is therefore reasonable to conclude that the beginning of the fulfillment was at the time indicated in Jer. 1 : 10, the day when Jeremiah was appointed to "root out." The construction of these last named passages is very similar to that of Jer. 1 : 10, thus showing a close relationship and conveying the idea that the reference in each place is to the same event, to the expulsion of Israel from their land. That the process of rooting Israel out of their land was a progressive work, and that it was inaugurated at the time when Jeremiah was appointed, and that it was now in process of fulfillment, would seem to be true because we have the evidence of other scriptures showing that some such work was now progressing". As evidence of this fact see the following scriptures: II Kings 21:12: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle."

Also II Kings 22 : 20 (Leeser) : "Therefore, behold, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace ; and thy eyes shall not look on all the evil which / am bringing over this place."

Jer. 25 : 29 : "For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, etc."

It is said by some authorities that the words, "I have set thee over the nations," or, as rendered by Leeser, "I have appointed thee," mean that Jeremiah was made an overseer or vicegerent. This would appear to show that he was raised up for some special and great work, different, in some respects at least, from the work of the other prophets.

That this thought is true seems evident from the 5th verse of Jer. 1 : "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Regarding this last quoted verse of scripture, the Expositor's Bible speaks as follows : "With certainty of his own Divine calling, it became clear to the prophet that the choice was not an arbitrary caprice ; it was the execution of a Divine purpose, conceived long, long before its realization in time and space. The God whose foreknowledge and will directs the whole course of human history — whose control of events and direction of human energies is most signally evident in precisely those instances where men and nations are most regardless of him, and imagine the vain thought that they are independent of him — this Sovereign Being, in the development of whose eternal purposes he himself, and every son of man, was necessarily a factor, had from the first 'known him' — known the individual character and capacities which would constitute his fitness for the special work of his life — and 'sanctified' him ; devoted and conse-- crated him to the doing of it when the time of his earthly manifestation should arrive."

The covenant being now broken, the time for the beginning of the work that was to follow as a result of the broken covenant had arrived, and now Jeremiah was sent forth on his mission to prophesy of their expulsion from the land, the captivity, the desolation of the land, and all the other events that were to follow as a result of the broken covenant, even down to the end of the times of the Gentiles, and to the time when, as the Lord said, "I will plant them, and not pluck them up."