True Christian Religion #285
285. Since this law is the means of linking the Lord with man and man with the Lord, it is called a covenant and a testimony. It is called a covenant because it serves as a link, and a testimony because it establishes the terms of the covenant. For covenant in the Word means linking, testimony the establishment and witnessing of its terms. That is why there were two tablets, one for God and the other for man. The link is provided by the Lord, but only when man does what is written in his tablet. For the Lord is continually present, and wishes to enter; but man must open the door by the free will which the Lord gives him. For He says:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me, Revelation 3:20.
The stone tablets on which the law was written are called the tablets of the covenant, and the Ark is called from them the Ark of the covenant; the law itself is called the covenant: see Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 4:13, 23; 5:2-3; 9:9; Joshua 3:11; 1 Kings 8:21; Revelation 11:19; and elsewhere.
Since a covenant means being joined, it is said of the Lord that He will be a covenant for the people (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8); He is called the messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1); and His blood is called the blood of the covenant (Matthew 26:28; Zechariah 9:11; Exodus 24:4-10). That is why the Word is called the Old and the New Covenants 1 , for covenants are made on account of love, friendship, association and linking.
Footnotes:
1. The author uses the correct Latin translation of the Greek word, which was erroneously translated into Latin in antiquity as testamentum, hence our Testament.
Joshua 4:5-20
5
Joshua said to them, "Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
6
that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do you mean by these stones?'
7
then you shall tell them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.'"
8
The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.
9
Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.
10
For the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Yahweh commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and passed over.
11
It happened, when all the people had completely passed over, that the ark of Yahweh passed over, with the priests, in the presence of the people.
12
The children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spoke to them.
13
About forty thousand men, ready and armed for war passed over before Yahweh to battle, to the plains of Jericho.
14
On that day, Yahweh magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.
15
Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,
16
"Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan."
17
Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, "Come up out of the Jordan!"
18
It happened, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh had come up out of the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks, as before.
19
The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho.
20
Joshua set up those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, in Gilgal.
