God’s National Covenant
With The Kings Of The Old Testament

A carefully study of the kings of the Old Testament provides the relevant data for constructing the doctrine of the national covenant.

It has been said that God has given three covenant institutions for our welfare, each governed by a covenant oath: marriage, church, and civil government. Yet there are some Reformed theologians who insist that God entered into covenant with only one nation, the nation of Israel. It is therefore impossible for any other nation to covenant with God.

However, there is a strong tradition of national covenant in Reformed Protestant history going back at least to the time of the Scottish Covenanters. When we examine the public lives and acts of the kings of the Old Testament, the doctrine of the national covenant emerges from the pages of the Bible.

The National Covenant In Israel

In the first place we know that God entered into covenant with the nation of Israel and continually renewed that covenant when Israel fell away. That was true until AD 70 when God finally closed the door on Israel as a political entity and opened it to the church. “The kingdom of God is taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits thereof,” Jesus told the Pharisees.

God established the original covenant with the elders of Israel at Mt. Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 24: 1-11. Israel immediately broke the covenant by setting up the golden calf, but God was gracious to accept their repentance and renew the covenant with a duplicate set of commandments.

The subsequent history of Israel is the story of a cycle of covenant breaking and covenant renewal. There is an example in II Kings 23:3, where “the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments….” There is another example in Neh. 9:38 to 10:29 in which the reading of the law led to the renewal of a written covenant to obey the law of God.

The national covenant was obviously a feature of life in ancient Israel, but what about the gentile nations, the other kings of the Old Testament? Were the gentile nations expected to enter into covenant with God? More important, are the gentile nations today expected to enter into covenant with God? Again, we return to the kings of the Old Testament for the answer to our questions.

What is a national covenant according to the Bible? Is there such a thing? Our Puritan forefathers certainly thought so. Consider the following chain of reasoning that links Old and New Testaments. Here are some points to consider regarding the kings of the Old Testament:

The Biblical Doctrine of National Covenant

• The nations were to admire and emulate Israel's law code (Dt. 4:6-8)
• The nations were condemned for failure to do so (Amos 1 & 2)
• The king of Ninevah entered into some kind of written proclamation of repentance and commitment to the God of Israel (Jonah 3:7-9). He was commended by Christ for doing so.
• Since God dealt with the example nation (Israel) through covenant oath to His law (eg, Neh. 9:38 to 10:29), why would he deal with other nations any differently?
• The nations are given to Christ as King of kings as His inheritance, if He would ask (Ps. 2: 8). Has He asked? (“yes” is the correct answer)
• God commands the kings/nations to "kiss the feet of the son" (Ps. 2:12). To “kiss the feet” is an act of abject and formal submission. Is this not an invitation/command to covenant from the Divine side?
• Acts 4:25-28 applies Psalm 2 to the New Testament era.

National Covenant Rejected In America

Unfortunately, the American Constitution of 1787 rejected these modern examples of civil covenant oaths as "religious slavery." The example of the kings of the Old Testament was cast aside in favor of an Enlightenment model of social contract. It was Thomas Jefferson who referred to the religious test oath of early Virginia as “religious slavery.”

With John Witherspoon pointing the way, the Presbyterian church in America condoned and cooperated with the American Spirit of independence by secularizing the role of the civil magistrate. The original Westminister Confession of Faith was amended in 1787 in Philadelphia to excise any responsibility of the civil magistrate for enforcing the truth of God's Word. The responsibility of the magistrate was limited to protecting and nurturing pluralism: "to take order, that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held without molestation or disturbance." This drove the final nail in the "Holy Commonwealth" ideal of our Puritan forefathers.

Most systematic theologies ignore the national covenant concept as it appears in a study of the kings of the Old Testament. Thus, the teaching seems strange to our ears.

In the United States a secular contract of the people (U.S. Constitution) has been substituted for the national covenant with God. The judgment of God has descended upon America as the necessary consequence. God is not mocked.

Conclusion

Civil government is one of 3 covenant institutions God has given for our welfare (family, church & state). God functions in each institution via covenant oath (such as the church oaths many churches require at baptism). Therefore, part of our responsibility under Mt. 28:19,20 is to call the nations as nations to this national commitment to Christ, the King of kings: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations….(cultures).”

Custom Search