D28-3: The Key Difference Between The Abrahamic Covenant Versus The Mosaic Covenant

“If you listen closely to what Adonai your God says, observing and obeying all his mitzvot which I am giving you today, Adonai your God will raise you high above all the nations on earth…”-Deuteronomy 28:1

In terms of spiritual impact, do you wanna know what’s the most important word in the Bible?

It happens to be the very first word of Deuteronomy chapter 28.

That word is “If”.

This tiny 2-letter word carries tremendous weight in the Scriptures.

The proposition being laid out to Israel is…

…IF they will obey the terms of the covenant,

…THEN God will bestow His blessings upon them.

I’ve mentioned this before, but the Mosaic Covenant is what we would call a conditional covenant.

This is different than the Abrahamic Covenant which is an unconditional covenant.

This is also something the Apostle Paul took great pains to explain.

A simple way to understand an unconditional covenant (especially the Abrahamic covenant) is that it is first and foremost a promise that is ALL on God.

The Covenant God entered into with Abraham was NOT based on IF Abraham did this, THEN God would respond by keeping His promise.

God simply asked Abraham if he would like to have a whole series of certain blessings, and Abraham responded by saying “Yes”.

Done. 

From that point on, there was nothing Abraham had to do to receive the promises.

And there was nothing Abraham could do to cause God to go back on the promises He had already made to Abraham.

The most common way to view the Abrahamic Covenant is that it is a unilateral covenant meaning it’s a one-way deal from God to man with the Lord doing EVERYTHING and man is required to do nothing.

However, the Mosaic Covenant is NOT unilateral.

Rather it is bilateral.

Like the Abrahamic Covenant, it is from God to man but in this case, the Lord DOES demand something in return.

In other words, each party has obligations to the other.

We’ll continue this discussion the next time we meet.