That brings us to the Sinai Covenant, the collective covenant God made with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As one of three major covenants recorded in sacred scripture, the Sinai Covenant remains operative to this day, embracing all who desire to become a people of God. Although it was broken in times past by his people Israel—causing God to withhold his goodness from them—“all nations of the earth” among whom Israel’s lineages were scattered may partake of the covenant’s blessings.
The evil consequences of Israel’s former rebellion against God, and his scattering his people among the nations of the world, in other words, God turns to good in the end by making their covenant curse a blessing to the Gentiles (see Romans 11:11–12). That is because Israel’s scattering and assimilation among the nations over many centuries has to a degree resulted in the Gentiles’ becoming literal inheritors of Israelite lineages and therefore legitimate candidates for participating in Israel’s spiritual heritage.
That heritage subsists first and foremost in the Sinai Covenant, God’s collective covenant with his people Israel in which he made them a special people to himself: “I will have respect to you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. . . I will be your God and you will be my people.” (Leviticus 26:9, 12); “You are a holy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to be a peculiar people to himself above all the nations that are on the earth.” (Deuteronomy 14:2)
Israel’s scattering among the nations of the world, moreover, facilitated adoption of non-Israelites by birth into God’s covenant people. Of such adoption, Israel’s history is replete with examples. Thus, Isaiah depicts God’s endowing with extraordinary blessings even the lowest rung of Israelite society—foreigners and eunuchs—who keep his commandments that are the terms of his covenant; while at the same time he pronounces a curse on their highest rung of society—his people’s blind ecclesiastical leaders:
Isaiah 56:3–11Let not the foreigner who adheres to Jehovah say, Jehovah will surely exclude me from his people. And let not the eunuch say, I am but a barren tree. For thus says Jehovah: As for the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose to do what I will — holding fast to my covenant — to them I will give a handclasp and a name within the walls of my house that is better than sons and daughters; I will endow them with an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
And the foreigners who adhere to Jehovah to serve him, who love the name of Jehovah, that they may be his servants— all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, holding fast to my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain and gladden in my house of prayer.
Their offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be known as a house of prayer for all nations. Thus says my Lord Jehovah, who gathers up the outcasts of Israel: I will gather others to those already gathered.
All you wild beasts, you animals of the forest, come and devour! Their watchmen are altogether blind and unaware; all of them are but dumb watchdogs unable to bark, lolling seers fond of slumber. Gluttonous dogs, and insatiable, such indeed are insensible shepherds. They are all diverted to their own way, every one after his own advantage.
The Sinai Covenant came into being after Moses led Israel out of bondage in Egypt into the Sinai wilderness. There, God declared the terms of his covenant, which the people of Israel accepted: “Jehovah said to Moses, Write these words, for after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with you and with Israel. And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights. He ate no bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.” (Exodus 34:27–28).
Unlike God’s individual covenants with Israel’s ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which were unconditional covenants—made after they had offered their whole souls to God—the Sinai Covenant was a conditional covenant. As a collective covenant, one made with an entire people, its blessings were contingent upon their obeying its terms. God’s blessings pertaining to the Sinai Covenant, therefore, were offset by a series of covenant curses, misfortunes that accrued to his people in the event they broke its terms:
“If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then shall you be a peculiar treasure to me above all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you will speak to the people of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid in their presence all these words which Jehovah had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do.” (Exodus 19:6–8)
Isaiah 1:19–20If you are willing and obey, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you are unwilling and disobey, you shall be eaten by the sword. By his mouth Jehovah has spoken it.
Included in the Sinai Covenant were Israel’s descendants—future lineages who were yet unborn: “Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath but with him who stands here with us this day before Jehovah our God and also with him who is not here with us this day.” (Deuteronomy 29:14–15); “Know therefore of Jehovah your God that he is God, a faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and observe his commandments to a thousand generations.” (Deuteronomy 7:9)
The blessings and curses of the Sinai Covenant reflect God’s justice and mercy—justice for those who break its terms and mercy for those who keep them: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and flocks of sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your store. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.” (Deuteronomy 28:3–6);
“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall you be your basket and your store. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land, the increase of your herds and flocks of sheep. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed when you go out. Jehovah will send upon you cursing, vexation and rebuke in all you set your hand to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me.” (Deuteronomy 28:16–20)
We see the consequences of God’s end-time people’s breaking the terms of the Sinai Covenant as the world ultimately divides into those who love God, who keep his commandments, and those who hate him. There comes a time in human history when the fate of the wicked of God’s people and the nations hangs in the balance. Instead of choosing life under the terms of God’s covenant, they choose death by breaking its terms, making agreements with human institutions that God has destined to pass away:
Isaiah 24:5–6The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants: they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, set at naught the everlasting covenant. The curse devours the earth, for those who dwell on it have incurred guilt; because of it the population of the earth shall be diminished and little of mankind remain.
Isaiah 28:14–15Hear the word of Jehovah, you scoffers who preside over these people in Jerusalem. You have supposed, by taking refuge in deception and hiding behind falsehoods, to have covenanted with Death, or reached an understanding with Sheol, that, should a flooding scourge sweep through [the earth], it shall not reach you.
Isaiah 48:18–19Had you but obeyed my commandments, your peace would have been as a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been as the sands in number, your descendants as many as their grains. Their names would not have been cut off and obliterated from my presence.
Isaiah’s end-time scenario thus shows humanity polarizing into those who renew God’s covenant and those who seek to destroy them. True to the terms of his covenant, God saves his righteous people from a worldwide destruction at the very time his judgments come upon the wicked of his people and the nations. In his Day of Judgment that overtakes humanity, God intervenes by baring his “arm”—his end-time servant—who initiates the return of God’s elect from throughout the earth in a new exodus to Zion:
Isaiah 51:9–11Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power, O arm of Jehovah! Bestir yourself, as in ancient times, as in generations of old. Was it not you who carved up Rahab, you who slew the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the Sea, the waters of the mighty deep, and made of ocean depths a way by which the redeemed might pass?
Let the ransomed of Jehovah return! Let them come singing to Zion, their heads crowned with everlasting joy; let them obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away.
Isaiah 43:2When you cross the waters, I will be with you; [when you traverse] the rivers, you shall not be overwhelmed. Though you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; its flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 52:10–12Jehovah has bared his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, that all ends of the earth may see our God’s salvation. Turn away, depart; touch nothing defiled as you leave [Babylon]. Come out of her and be pure, you who bear Jehovah’s vessels. But you shall not leave in haste or go in flight: Jehovah will go before you, the God of Israel behind you.
Israel’s former blessings accrue to an even greater degree than in the past as those who return from dispersion prove loyal to him under all conditions. Their gaining life experience during a prolonged exile, overcoming evils in the world when empowered by God, and returning to promised lands at his imminent coming, qualifies them for his covenant’s blessings. Indeed, his coming to reign is made possible because of his people’s righteousness as they learned to trust in him amidst their trials and afflictions.
For the same reason, God’s collective covenant with them turns from being a conditional covenant to an unconditional one. Blessings of lands, fertility, peace, and prosperity enhance the lives of those who gather to Zion—God’s refuge of his end-time elect. In the God of Israel, the world at last receives rest from wars and disasters which humanity had brought upon itself. For the first time in Israel’s history, a covenant people of God, separated from the world’s wicked inhabitants, inherits a millennial peace:
Isaiah 60:21–22Your entire people shall be righteous; they shall inherit the earth forever — they are the branch I have planted, the work of my hands, in which I am glorified. The least of them shall become a clan, the youngest a mighty nation.
Isaiah 33:20, 24Behold Zion, the city of our solemn assemblies; let your eyes rest upon Jerusalem, the abode of peace —an immovable tent, whose stakes shall never be uprooted, nor any of its cords severed. None who reside there shall say, I am ill; the people who inhabit it shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah 58:11–12Jehovah will direct you continually; he will satisfy your needs in the dearth and bring vigor to your limbs. And you will become like a well-watered garden, like a spring of unfailing waters. They who came out of you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the foundations of generations ago. You shall be called a rebuilder of fallen walls, a restorer of streets for resettlement.