| THE COVENANT |
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| centered around a commitment to him. He needed a pure people, kept separate. The next few books of the Bible spell out the obligations, but also the rewards, of being God's chosen people, his "family." If they obeyed, the Israelites would live free from diseases, their crops would grow bountifully, their women would give birth to many children, their armies prove victorious - in short, they would enjoy unprecendented national wealth and security (23:20-28). The covenant defined those benefits - all part of being born as the children of God. Marriage Certificate Marriage is far more than a piece of paper, surely. It involves love and trust, sexuality, the thousand details involved in two people sharing life together. But in the eyes of the law, marriage requires a piece of paper. The document makes formal and legal the most intimate, personal relationship human beings ever have. Later, the prophets Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel would poignantly compare the covenant to marriage. They pointed out that Israel's treatment of God amounted to adultery, and they called the nation back to its original covenant. The laws listed in numbing detail are merely the formal expression of a love relationship between God and his people. Pieces of paper define the boundaries of a relationship, but in no way can they express it adequately. You cannot get an adequate picture of life in the United States by reading the Constitution's dry prose, nor can you understand the mystery of marriage by studying a certificate in a county courthouse. In the same way, the laws and rules in the Book of the Covenant surely do not yield a complete picture of life in a nation bound to God. But the covenant, and the context in |
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