It may be that some will be called upon to spend and be spent in the service of the

truth, but there is no merit in "wearing out with intolerable weariness" through missing

the wise counsel of Jethro, or the simple sense of that unnamed child of Israel who

provided a seat for the great mediator--Moses.

We have traced the Lord's dealings with Israel from their call in Abraham, and their

deliverance from Egypt, to their arrival at the wilderness of Sinai (Exod. 19: 1). Sinai

marks a crisis in the history of this people, and is of fundamental importance in their

typical story. Israel are to show once and for all the utter inability of the flesh to enter

into blessing by a covenant of works. This necessitates the new covenant with its better

promises and its better sacrifices, which is the theme of the epistle to the Hebrews. "The

law made nothing perfect."

In Exod. 19: 3, 8, and 20 we have three ascents of Sinai by Moses, culminating in

the giving of the law. Three more ascents are recorded in Exod. 24: 9 - 32: 14,

32: 31-33 and 34: 4-28, culminating in the building of the tabernacle, the ark

receiving the tables of stone written the second time, and so bearing witness to Israel's

failure and their need of Christ. There is therefore a distinct connection between the old

and the new covenants as Jer. 31: 31-34 reveals.

Let us observe how definite the Scripture is with regard to the covenanting parties.

"The Lord" on the one hand, and "The house of Israel and the house of Judah" on the

other. It is a covenant properly drawn up, and not one who is not of the house of Israel or

Judah, or who cannot show full Scriptural warrant for being reckoned with such, can have

part or lot in it. Rom. 11: reveals the method whereby some believing Gentiles came

within the bounds of the new covenant. They are spoken of as wild olive branches

grafted into the true olive, and, with the branches that remained unbroken, "partaking of

the root and fatness of the olive tree" (Rom. 11: 17). Such is the widest extension of the

bounds of this covenant. The moment Israel as a nation passed off the scene, that

moment the new covenant and all pertaining to it was withdrawn, to be reserved until the

day when:--