Covenant signs.
To each covenant which he has made with man, God has attached some special sign or signs. And each sign has been significant, has set before the mind of those to whom it was given some great religious truth.
I. THE FIRST COVENANT SIGN WAS THE RAINBOW. God had destroyed by a deluge the whole human race, except eight persons. It pleased him, after this, to enter into a covenant with Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:8, Genesis 9:9), and through them with the human race, that he would never bring such a destruction upon the world again (Genesis 9:11). Of this covenant he appointed the rainbow to be the sign, symbolising by its brightness and beauty his own mercy (Genesis 9:14-17). Here the religious truth taught and impressed by the sign was that precious one, that God is not only a just, but also a merciful God.
II. THE SECOND COVENANT SIGN WAS CIRCUMCISION. When God selected Abraham out of the entire mass of mankind to be the progenitor of the chosen race and of him especially in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, and entered into a covenant with him, it was in these words—"Thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations—this is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee, every man child among you shall be circumcised" (Genesis 17:9, Genesis 17:10). Hence the covenant itself was called "the covenant of circumcision" (Acts 7:8). This rite of initiation, the covenant sign of the Abrahamic dispensation, shadowed forth the great truth that man has an impurity of nature, which must be put away before he can be brought near to God and received into his full favour.
III. THE THIRD COVENANT SIGN WAS THE SABBATH. Its institution to be a covenant sign is set forth in the words, "Verily, my sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations" (Exodus 31:13). It witnessed to the truth that God requires distinct and open acknowledgment at the. hands of men, and not only so, but material worship at stated times, the least that will content him being one day in seven. The nations, when they served him at all (Acts 10:35), served him irregularly. They knew nothing of a definite day, or a formal apportionment of time, for his service. By the institution of the Sabbath the Israelites were taught, and through them the world, that God is interested in man, claims his thoughts, sets a value on his worship, and will not be satisfied with mere occasional acknowledgment, but demands that a fixed proportion of our time shall be dedicated to his worship exclusively.
IV. OTHER COVENANT SIGNS. NO further covenant signs were given until our Lord came upon earth. Then two were instituted in the Sacraments. Baptism taught the same truth as circumcision—the need of putting away impurity; but taught it by a simpler rite, and one to which no exception could be taken. The Lord's Supper taught a new truth, the necessity of reconciliation through the death and atoning blood of Christ. It witnessed to the certain fact that man cannot save himself, cannot atone for his own sins, but needs a mediator, a redeemer, an atoner, to make satisfaction for him.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR