The God of the Old Testament — Part 14: The Eternal Covenant
By Mark L. Carlton
After the flood God entered into a covenant with the human race.[i] This is the only covenant that God made with the entire human race. It is called, “The Everlasting Covenant between God and Man and Every Living Creature of All Flesh that is upon the Earth.“[ii] It has often been referred to as the Noahic Covenant. I will be referring to it by its Biblical name, “The Eternal Covenant”.
Some have viewed the Eternal Covenant as the beginning of human government. I am sure there were human governments before the flood, but I will agree that the Eternal Covenant marks the beginning of God ordained human government. Perhaps the most significant thing about the Eternal Covenant is that it places the sword of justice in the hands of man.
With the establishment of the Eternal Covenant, God began to hold human race responsible for administering justice on His behalf. Specifically, government is to use the sword God has place in its hands to protect human life, and execute those who would prey upon the lives of fellowman.[iii]
For our purposes the delegating of justice to man is vital to an understanding of the God of the Bible. Perhaps the fullest explanation of the God ordained role of Government is found in the thirteenth chapter of Romans. There, no doubt thinking back to the Eternal Covenant, Paul affirms that God has placed the sword of justice in the hands of human government.
The specific sword Paul refers in Romans 13 is the machaira, or the executioner’s sword. Paul says the in the lawful use of this sword government is acting as “a minister of God for good.”
Paul is speaking of the sword both literally and metaphorically. In context he defines the role of government as an authority established by God to reward good and punish evil. This is actually a very nice definition of justice. True justice should include both reward and retribution. The righteous should be rewarded and the wicked punished. Justice should ultimately consist of giving every man or woman what they have coming. And in ordaining human government, God was delegating a portion of His work of justice to human agency.
I would also suggest that the proper administration of justice requires passion. Justice may be blind but it must never be indifferent. Our own sense of justice speaks of this. For example, when we read of the brutal rape and murder of a child such as Jessica Lansford, good men and women are outraged, and rightly so. Anger is not necessarily a sin, though often sin results from it. There is a righteous indignation, and there is a holy indignation. The Old Testament sometimes refers to it as the jealousy of God, but more often we speak of it as the wrath of God.
It is interesting to me that in speaking of human government the apostle Paul refers to it as, “a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.” I note that both vengeance and wrath are the proper functions of human government towards those who practice evil. The Eternal Covenant also makes it the responsibility of Government.
But as I read the Old Testament I note that God anticipates that our natural tendency to empathize with one another will make it difficult for human government to administer justice. And so we read things like this:
“But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies…you shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may be well with you.”[iv]
This tendency to feel compassion toward our own is the one of the reasons justice is so often miscarried by judges. We are often scandalized these days when a judge gives out a light sentence to someone who has committed some terrible crime, and we wonder; “How can s/he do that?”
The psychology of the judge is really more easily understood than most will admit. In fact, we might do the same thing were we in his or her place. We know only of the crime that has been committed, but as the trial unfolds the judge hears the defendant’s story. The judge sees the defendant’s family sitting on the other side of the bar. He sees the look in defendant’s eyes. He sees his fear, his remorse. He sees him smile, and maybe laugh during a lighter moment.
As the trial progresses the judge begins to feel compassion toward the defendant. The victim gradually becomes a photograph. But sitting before the judge day after day is a real, living, breathing, feeling human being, a person really not that much different from the judge in many ways. And so the judge, moved by pity, passes down a sentence that denies the victim the justice. It is hard to be a judge.
We want our judges to be compassionate, and we will allow a few mistakes. But when a judge consistently allows compassion to trump justice, then an outraged public will cry for his or her removal from the bench. Why? Is the judge a bad person? Not usually. The sorts of judges we are discussing are often very compassionate people. But they are just lousy judges, because justice requires a smoldering righteous outrage at evil, and a willingness to administer the wrath on those who practice it.
The wrath of God was pictured in the tabernacle and then later in the temple by the bronze altar. It was carefully maintained so that it was always burning. God is merciful and compassionate too, but when His goodness was revealed to Moses it is important to note that it also included justice; His unwillingness to allow the wicked to go unpunished.
Some are bothered by this aspect of the divine character, thus this series of messages. We find individuals like Oprah Winfrey telling us to lose this concept of a jealous God. What they are really asking for is an unjust God. But is this really what we want? If a human judge who winks at evil and acquits the wicked is abhorrent to us, then why would we desire it in the Judge of all the earth?
May I suggest a reason? Might the unstated reason why so many are offended by the God of the Old Testament be their fear that if God judged in the past He just might do it again?
As a mock trial coach, I am a friend of two county judges and one district judge. In fact, last year our county judge was our attorney coach. I have no fear of these judges. On the contrary, I appreciate them. I am comforted by the fact that we have such good people administering justice here in western Nebraska. But if I broke the law I would dread standing in front of them. Is our real problem with the wrath of God based on similar sentiments?
The fact that there is a God who is outraged by human wickedness and committed to dealing with it is a comfort to me. But then, through Jesus Christ I have been justified, and I have been assured that “In Christ there is no condemnation.”[v] But what of those who the Bible says are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God?[vi]
Jesus said this about them; “that the Holy Spirit is convicting them of sin, righteousness and judgment.” This means that there is a universal sense of guilt among those who do not believe; a sense that there is a righteous standard that we somehow fail to reach. And because of this we fear the judgment of God. Though a man may claim that he does not believe in God, it is a rare man who isn’t afraid to die.
Point a gun at an atheist and he or she will be as frightened as anyone else. Of what? What is so frightening about death if it is just an endless, painless sleep? Could it be that Jesus was right? Could it be that there is a conviction buried deep within us that it is appointed unto man once to die and after death the judgment?
I’ll end with this from the book, Whatever Happened to Sin? by the late Karl Menninger.
On a sunny day in September, 1972, a stern-faced, plainly dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago Loop. As pedestrian hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing to the person nearest him, and solemnly states loudly the single word, “GUILTY!”
Then without any change of expression, he would resume his stiff stance for a few moments before repeating the gesture. Then, again, the inexorable raising of his arm, the pointing, and the solemn pronouncing of the one word “GUILTY!”
The effect of this strange j’accuse pantomime on the passing strangers was extraordinary, almost eerie. They would stare at him, hesitate, look away, look at each other, and then at him again; then hurriedly continue on their ways.
One man, turning to another who was my informant, exclaimed, “But how did he know?”
“Guilty!” Everyone guilty? Guilty of what? Guilty of overparking? Guilty of lying? Guilty of arrogance and hubris toward the one God? Guilty of “borrowing,” not to say embezzling? Guilty of unfaithfulness to a faithful wife? Guilty of evil thoughts – or evil plans?
Guilty before whom? Is a police officer following? Did anyone see? Will they be likely to notice it? Does he know about it? But that isn’t technically illegal, is it?
I can make it up. I will give it back. I’ll apologize. I wasn’t myself when I did that. No one knew about it. But I’m going to quit. It’s a dangerous habit. I wouldn’t want the children to see me. How can I ever straighten it out? What’s done can’t be undone.
If Menninger is painting an accurate picture, then it is no wonder to me that modern man fears the God of the Old Testament. Indeed if He has judged before, He might just do it again.
[i] I am aware of covenant theology. But the first covenant that is actually named as such is the covenant that God made with the human race through Noah after the flood.
[ii] Genesis 9:16
[iii] c.f. Romans 13:1-7
[iv] Deuteronomy 19:11-13
[v] Roman 8:1
[vi] John 3:18
