Doctrine of Life #60
60. That the stone tablets on which the law was written were called the Tablets of the Covenant, and that because of them the Ark was called the Ark of the Covenant, the law itself being the covenant, see Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 4:13, 23, 5:2-3, 9:9; Joshua 3:11; 1 Kings 8:19, 21; Revelation 11:19. And many other places.
The law was called a covenant because a covenant symbolizes conjunction. We are accordingly told regarding the Lord that He would be “as a covenant to the people” (Isaiah 42:6, 49:8). He is called, too, “the Messenger of the covenant” (Malachi 3:1), and His blood “the blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28, Zechariah 9:11, Exodus 24:4-10). That is why the Word is called the Old Covenant and New Covenant.
Covenants are also made as testaments of love, friendship, and fellowship, thus for the sake of conjunction.
Exodus 20:2-14
2
"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3
"You shall have no other gods before me.
4
"You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5
you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6
and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7
"You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9
You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
10
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
11
for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
12
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
13
"You shall not murder.
