Testimony and Law

Testimony and Law

12/28/14          D. Marion Clark

Introduction

The message of Psalm 78 is straightforward: Each generation is to teach the next the deeds and commandments of God so that they will be faithful to him and not stray away. Most of the psalm is a history lesson of how this lesson was not carried out. Instead of exhorting one generation to be like the previous, it is a warning not to be like the generation of their fathers. Their fathers were anything but the Greatest Generation.

What was to be the solution to turning things around? Teaching the next generation.

Text

He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,

First, we are going to have a lesson in Hebrew poetry. This first half of verse 5 is an example of Hebrew parallelism. The first line presents a thought, and the second line repeats it in slightly different language. So, for example in Psalm 19:1:

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

“Sky” is synonymous with “heavens” and “proclaims” with “declare.” And then you will notice that “glory of God” and “handiwork” are slightly different. “His handiwork” corresponds to “the glory of God.” Looking at the glorious sky we see the glory of God who made the sky.

In like manner our two lines repeat and reinforce each other. “Established” and “appointed” are synonymous, as are “Jacob” and “Israel.” As you know, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Then “testimony” and “law” are synonymous. Testimony is another word for law. The NIV translates the Hebrew word as “statutes” and the NRSV as “decree.” In verse 56, the Israelites are criticized for not keeping God’s testimonies, the same word as in verse 5 in the plural.

And yet, there is a slight distinction between the two terms which the translation “testimony” more clearly brings out. Let me read another passage where the same word is used and translated testimony.

And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. ²² There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel (Exodus 25:21-22).

The testimony will be placed inside the ark, which will be covered by the mercy seat. It is there, over mercy seat that God will make his presence dwell. (Remember our discussing the term of presence of the Lord, when we first studied Jonah and his effort to flee from the presence of the Lord.) What is the testimony that was placed in the ark?

With apologies to Indiana Jones, it has nothing to do with creepy supernatural beings that turn humans to ashes. Rather, it was composed of two stones in the form of tablets, what we know as the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 31:18 we read, “And [God] gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”

So, the testimony is composed of the two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments. Why are they given the name “testimony”? It is because they served as a witness to the covenant made between God and his people. We do not have time to go through the details of ancient covenant making, but understand the basic idea that when a covenant was made between two parties, some tangible sign or testimony was given that would hold each party accountable to the covenant made. As in our present day legal system, the agreement might be written out and then a copy made so that each party had the agreement. If either failed to keep their end of the bargain, the “testimony” could be appealed to.

This is the purpose that the two tablets served. We think of the Ten Commandments filling up both tablets. More likely the complete set of commandments were written on each stone – one stone for the people and one for God. These two were then placed in the ark to be a testimony to the covenant made. We see this in the descriptors of the ark. It is referred to as the ark of the testimony and also as the ark of the covenant.

So, when the psalm speaks of God establishing a testimony in Jacob, it does mean appointing a law in Israel, but also that the law is witnessed to by a testimony literally written in stone. That testimony tells us something more. It tells us that the law was not merely a collection of laws devised to keep a society together; the law itself is what identifies the people as belonging to God and accountable to him. It is what identifies them as God’s covenant people. And so, to break the law is to break faith with God. It is to rebel against God as their king.

The testimony served also as a visible reminder. In the wilderness it could be seen daily as the people traveled. When they camped, they could see the “tabernacle of the testimony” which housed it. When the temple was built, the temple itself served as an emblem of the testimony, and Jerusalem, the home of the temple, represented the temple.

Reminders were important to God. The feast of the Passover was established to remind the people of their deliverance by God from Egypt. All the feasts and sacrifices were announced by the blowing of two silver horns to remind the people that the Lord was their God. Pillars of stones were made for reminders of special events. The reference to Ebenezer in “Come Thou Fount,” alludes to a pillar built for such a purpose by the prophet Samuel after a military victory. Israelites were commanded to wear tassels on the hems of their garments to remind them of the law. Remember, remember was God’s ongoing message. Unfortunately forget, forget was the covenant people’s tendency. And so the psalmist laments, “They forgot his works and the wonders he had shown them” (v. 11). And because they forgot, they continually broke the Lord’s law and rebelled against him.

Are you able to follow the line of thought so far? It goes like this. God gave his law to his people that prescribed how they were to live as his covenant people. He wrote a summary of the law known as the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone to serve as a testimony to the covenant. The testimony served as a reminder of the agreement that God and his people had made, so that the people would not forget their obligations and would remain faithful to him. Unfortunately, the people still broke faith.

The psalmist does offer a solution to this failure of the previous generations’ failure. It is in the previous verse:

We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

Teach the children what the Lord has done for his people. Teach them specifically the story of the exodus, of God delivering his people from Egypt and leading them into the Promised Land. The fathers were supposed to teach the commandments of the Lord to their children and so on through the generations. But interest in the commandments died away. Why? Again, because the glorious deeds of the Lord were not passed on. When the deeds are forgotten, the laws lose their hold on hearts.

And so, the psalmist throughout the remainder of the psalm testifies to the glorious deeds of the Lord. He recounts the miracles in Egypt. He recounts the miracles in the wilderness journey. He recounts how the Lord settled his people in the land he had promised. He also recounts the people’s rebellious and how God nevertheless would forgive. “Remember what the Lord has done for you,” is his message. The last deed the psalmist testifies to is the Shepherd-King that the Lord appointed to lead his people back to him

Lessons

This is the tenth year that I have preached on Psalm 78 on the Sunday following Christmas. I find it a good psalm for reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the next. This passage from the psalm is no different. Consider these lessons from it.

Our children need testimonies and signs.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:4-6).

Our children are covenant children. They too need to know and to obey the commandments of the Lord. Do not deny them that privilege. And if you have grandchildren, even great-grandchildren, then do not deny them that legacy as well. Pass on, to as many generations the Lord grants you, the testimony of the Lord.

And we need testimonies and signs for our own sake. Faith can grow stronger as we grow older; it can also grow weaker. We, who were once far from God, can recall the time we were brought near in Christ. There was the freshness of first love; there was the excitement of discovering our Savior, the overwhelming joy of knowing forgiveness of sin. We vowed that we would go wherever, do whatever our Lord asked of us.

And then time moves on. Practical living takes over. We have to get an education, build a career, raise a family. Sometimes tragedy invades; with or without tragedy, though, it is the everyday grind, the everyday trials that takes its toll. What was it we had vowed to do? Oftentimes, it is the lure of the world that pulls us away. There are the outright lusts of the flesh, greed, and ambition of the world that tempt our sinful desires. And then, without us realizing it, there is the problem of good that trips us up. We meet good unbelievers; we experience the blessings that come from unregenerate neighbors, teachers, professionals, and artists. We like them; maybe we like them more than the Christians and churches we have become tired of. What was it we had vowed to do?

God seems to grow less real – no miracles, no victories. We had aimed to do great things for God, but what can we testify to? What lives were changed because of our ministry or prayers? And yet we can testify to broken relationships, to believers who walked away from the faith, to failures in our own lives. What was if we had vowed to do?

We had vowed to believe in and to follow Jesus Christ our Lord because he had died to save us from our sins. And we need, in order to keep the course, to look to the testimonies given to us. Consider what they are.

We have the written Word of God. Like our Jewish kin, we are people of the Book. It is there, as we read of the glorious deeds of the Lord and commandments and teachings of the Lord, that we are reminded of our covenant vows and strengthened in our faith. Have you not experienced it? Have you never been discouraged; the world seeming to make more sense than your faith, and then you come across a Scripture passage that you knew was God’s word to you at that time. It brought you back to reality. It lifted you up, or maybe it convicted you and woke you up to your folly. Maybe it brought to you that comfort you needed at just the right time. Maybe it reminded you of a character trait of God that you needed to hear, or of a deed of God that testified to what God has done for you in the gospel. That testimony reminded you of what you were letting die out, and it kept you faithful to your Lord.

We have the sacraments. I love, as Minister of the Gospel, administering the sacraments. As circumcision and the Passover were given to remind the Israelites that they belonged to God and that he was their Redeemer, so baptism and the Lord’s Supper is given to us for the same purposes. They are signs and seals that we belong to God, that our Lord Jesus Christ died for us so that we would belong to God. I love standing behind the Table and offering to God’s people the signs of the body and blood of Christ sacrificed for us. I love sprinkling water on a covenant child’s head testifying the anointing of the Spirit and the cleansing power of Christ’s blood. Such sacraments are testimony to the wondrous redeeming work of our Savior.

We have the church – yes, the organized church. What other kind is there that the New Testament recognizes? Who actually becomes more faithful, more obedient to Christ by cutting themselves off from his visible body? We were never saved to be individual followers of Christ, living our lives alone. We are made to need one another so that we might build up one another’s faith and hold each other accountable to faithfully follow our Lord. The church is testimony to the covenant nature of God’s salvation.

There are testimonies that have been developed through the church. The reciting of the Apostles’ Creed and other confessions is a testimony to the facts of the gospel and central tenets of the faith. The symbol of the cross is a testimony to Christ’s atoning work. Hymns are sung to glorify God and to keep before the truths of the Word and of the gospel. Every worship service is testimony that we belong to God and are followers of Jesus Christ.

As with others, my faith can take a beating. I doubt the gospel; I doubt the power of the gospel. The teachings of the world can seem so real, truer than what God’s Word teaches. I read a well-written novel that makes unbelievers seem kinder, more reasonable than Scriptures let on. Is the gospel really so necessary? I meet good people who do not believe in Christ. Is faith necessary? And then I come into the sanctuary with God’s people. I hear the hymns sung by those who believe those hymns. I recite together with God’s people our common faith. And my faith grows strong again.

And then there are testimony testimonies. Again, my faith may be down. Where is the power of the gospel? And I hear another testimony. The woman who had told her father that she could never believe, and one day, while vacuuming her house is struck with the holiness of God and bows before him. The young man in the midst of a dangerous overdose rage, who remembers the hymns of his youth and was brought to the Lord. Even the “boring” testimonies from numerous individuals testifying to how their parents did teach them the glorious deeds of the Lord and his commands. Such testimonies renew my faith and keep me focused on the power of God.

All of these testimonies are necessary to pass on the faith to our children and grandchildren. They are necessary to pass on the faith to unbelievers. But understand that they are necessary for us who have believed for years. The psalmist lamented the loss of faith of the generation that did know the deeds and commands of the Lord, who had even witnessed the deeds. It was that generation – the covenant people of the Lord – that forgot what he had done for them.

But God never forgot his people, and he would accomplish a far greater redemption for them than the redemption from Egypt, a far greater redemption accomplished by a far greater deed. For the God, who was accountable to no one, would take upon himself to see that the testimony was fulfilled and that the sin of the people fully stoned for. This second redemption would redeem the people from their sins forever. How would he do this? Psalm 78 concludes by speaking of the Shepherd-King whom God sent to lead God’s people back to him.

God would send his Son through the line of David, who unlike David would live the perfect life fulfilling the testimony. Thus the testimony would bear witness not against him but for him, declaring him to be keeper of the covenant law. And then, as the Keeper of the Testimony, the Shepherd-King would act as High Priest offering his very blood as the sacrifice for those who broke that testimony. The Father gave his Son; the Son gave his life for breakers of the testimony. And then, this Son mediated a greater covenant, one that was based on his obedience and his work; one that did not need sacrifice after sacrifice to make an ineffectual atonement.

Remember where the tablets of the testimony were kept? They were in the ark, which was covered by the Mercy Seat and located in the Holy of Holies. Once a year the High Priest would enter to sprinkle the Mercy Seat with blood from a sacrifice to make atonement for the people. But what was actually happening is that the High Priest was entering before the testimony, which testified against him and his people that they were guilty. The mercy seat was a judgment seat. But our High Priest has entered the Holy of Holies in the heavenly temple with his own blood, making one full atonement for our sins, so that we enter we find not judgment but mercy.

As the year ends and a new year begins, let us commit ourselves to keep all the testimonies that point us to this testimony – the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us not forget this glorious deed of our God, but rather be faithful to teach it to our children, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren; to teach it to our neighbors and one another; to teach it to ourselves. Let us testify to the great work of Christ on the cross and to the ongoing work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our lives.

Psalm 78:5-8                           Testimony and Law

12/28/14          D. Marion Clark

Introduction

The message of Psalm 78 is straightforward: Each generation is to teach the next the deeds and commandments of God so that they will be faithful to him and not stray away. Most of the psalm is a history lesson of how this lesson was not carried out. Instead of exhorting one generation to be like the previous, it is a warning not to be like the generation of their fathers. Their fathers were anything but the Greatest Generation. What was to be the solution to turning things around? Teaching the next generation.

Text

He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,

First, we are going to have a lesson in Hebrew poetry. This first half of verse 5 is an example of Hebrew parallelism. The first line presents a thought, and the second line repeats it in slightly different language. So, for example in Psalm 19:1:

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

“Sky” is synonymous with “heavens” and “proclaims” with “declare.” And then you will notice that “glory of God” and “handiwork” are slightly different. “His handiwork” corresponds to “the glory of God.” Looking at the glorious sky we see the glory of God who made the sky.

In like manner our two lines repeat and reinforce each other. “Established” and “appointed” are synonymous, as are “Jacob” and “Israel.” Recall that God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Then “testimony” and “law” are synonymous. Testimony is another word for law. The NIV translates the Hebrew word as “statutes” and the NRSV as “decree.” In verse 56, the Israelites are criticized for not keeping God’s testimonies, the same word as in verse 5 in the plural.

And yet, there is a slight distinction between the two terms which the translation “testimony” more clearly brings out. Let me read another passage where the same word is used and translated testimony.

And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. ²² There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel (Exodus 25:21-22).

The testimony will be placed inside the ark, which will be covered by the mercy seat. It is there, over the mercy seat that God will make his presence dwell. What is the testimony that was placed in the ark?

With apologies to Indiana Jones, it has nothing to do with creepy supernatural beings that turn humans to ashes. Rather, it was composed of two stones in the form of tablets, what we know as the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 31:18 we read, “And [God] gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”

So, the testimony is composed of the two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments. Why are they given the name “testimony”? It is because they serve as a witness to the covenant made between God and his people. We do not have time to go through the details of ancient covenant making, but understand the basic idea that when a covenant was made between two parties, some tangible sign or testimony was given that would hold each party accountable to the covenant made. As in our present day legal system, the agreement might be written out and then a copy made so that each party had the agreement. If either failed to keep their end of the bargain, the “testimony” could be appealed to.

This is the purpose that the two tablets served. We think of the Ten Commandments filling up both tablets. More likely the complete set of commandments were written on each stone – one stone for the people and one for God. These two were then placed in the ark to be a testimony to the covenant made. We see this in the descriptors of the ark. It is referred to as the ark of the testimony and also as the ark of the covenant.

So, when the psalm speaks of God establishing a testimony in Jacob, it does mean appointing a law in Israel, but also that the law is witnessed to by a testimony literally written in stone. That testimony tells us something more. It tells us that the law was not merely a collection of laws devised to keep a society together; the law itself is what identifies the people as belonging to God and accountable to him. It is what identifies them as God’s covenant people. And so, to break the law is to break faith with God. It is to rebel against God as their king.

The testimony served also as a visible reminder. In the wilderness it could be seen daily as the people traveled. When they camped, they could see the “tabernacle of the testimony” which housed it. When the temple was built, the temple itself served as an emblem of the testimony, and Jerusalem, the home of the temple, represented the testimony as well.

Reminders were important to God. The feast of the Passover was established to remind the people of their deliverance by God from Egypt. All the feasts and sacrifices were announced by the blowing of two silver horns to remind the people that the Lord was their God. Pillars of stones were made for reminders of special events. The reference to Ebenezer in “Come Thou Fount,” alludes to a pillar built for such a purpose by the prophet Samuel after a military victory. Israelites were commanded to wear tassels on the hems of their garments to remind them of the law. “Remember, remember” was God’s ongoing message. Unfortunately “forget, forget” was the covenant people’s tendency. And so the psalmist laments, “They forgot his works and the wonders he had shown them” (v. 11). And because they forgot, they continually broke the Lord’s law and rebelled against him.

Are you able to follow the line of thought so far? It goes like this. God gave his law to his people that prescribed how they were to live as his covenant people. He wrote a summary of the law, known as the Ten Commandments, on tablets of stone to serve as a testimony to the covenant. The testimony served as a reminder of the agreement that God and his people had made, so that the people would not forget their obligations and would remain faithful to him. Unfortunately, the people still broke faith.

The psalmist does offer a solution to this failure of the previous generations’ failure. It is in the previous verse:

We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done (v. 4).

Teach the children what the Lord has done for his people. Teach them specifically the story of the exodus, of God delivering his people from Egypt and leading them into the Promised Land. The fathers were supposed to teach the commandments of the Lord to their children and so on through the generations. But interest in the commandments died away. Why? Again, because the glorious deeds of the Lord were not passed on. When the deeds are forgotten, the laws lose their hold on hearts.

And so, the psalmist throughout the remainder of the psalm testifies to the glorious deeds of the Lord. He recounts the miracles in Egypt. He recounts the miracles in the wilderness journey. He recounts how the Lord settled his people in the land he had promised. He also recounts the people’s rebellious ways and how God nevertheless would forgive. “Remember what the Lord has done for you,” is his message. The last deed the psalmist testifies to is the Shepherd-King that the Lord appointed to lead his people back to him

Lessons

This is the tenth year that I have preached on Psalm 78 on the Sunday following Christmas. I find it a good psalm for reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the next. This passage from the psalm is no different. Consider these lessons from it.

Our children need testimonies and signs.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:4-6).

Our children are covenant children. They too need to know and to obey the commandments of the Lord. Do not deny them that privilege. And if you have grandchildren, even great-grandchildren, then do not deny them that legacy as well. Pass on to as many generations the Lord grants you the testimony of the Lord.

And we need testimonies and signs for our own sake. Faith can grow stronger as we grow older; it can also grow weaker. We who were once far from God can recall the time we were brought near in Christ. There was the freshness of first love; there was the excitement of discovering our Savior, the overwhelming joy of knowing forgiveness of sin. We vowed that we would go wherever, do whatever our Lord asked of us.

And then time moves on. Practical living takes over. We have to get an education, build a career, raise a family. Sometimes tragedy invades; with or without tragedy, though, it is the everyday grind, the everyday trials that takes its toll. What was it we had vowed to do? Oftentimes it is the lure of the world that pulls us away. There are the outright lusts of the flesh, greed, and ambition of the world that tempt our sinful desires. And then, without us realizing it, there is the problem of good that trips us up. We meet good unbelievers; we experience the blessings that come from unregenerate neighbors, teachers, professionals, and artists. We like them; maybe we like them more than the Christians and churches we have become tired of. What was it we had vowed to do?

God seems to grow less real – no miracles, no victories. We had aimed to do great things for God, but what can we testify to? What lives were changed because of our ministry or prayers? And yet we can testify to broken relationships, to believers who walked away from the faith, to failures in our own lives. What was if we had vowed to do?

We had vowed to believe in and to follow Jesus Christ our Lord because he had died to save us from our sins. And we need, in order to keep the course, to look to the testimonies given to us. Consider what they are.

We have the written Word of God. Like our Jewish kin, we are people of the Book. It is there, as we read of the glorious deeds of the Lord and commandments and teachings of the Lord, that we are reminded of our covenant vows and strengthened in our faith. Have you not experienced it? Have you never been discouraged; the world seeming to make more sense than your faith, and then you come across a Scripture passage that you knew was God’s word to you at that time? It brought you back to reality. It lifted you up, or maybe it convicted you and woke you up to your folly. Maybe it brought to you that comfort you needed at just the right time. Maybe it reminded you of a character trait of God that you needed to hear, or of a deed of God that testified to what God has done for you in the gospel. That testimony reminded you of what you were letting die out, and it kept you faithful to your Lord.

We have the sacraments. I love, as Minister of the Gospel, administering the sacraments. As circumcision and the Passover were given to remind the Israelites that they belonged to God and that he was their Redeemer, so baptism and the Lord’s Supper is given to us for the same purposes. They are signs and seals that we belong to God, that our Lord Jesus Christ died for us so that we would belong to God. I love standing behind the Table and offering to God’s people the signs of the body and blood of Christ sacrificed for us. I love sprinkling water on a covenant child’s head testifying the anointing of the Spirit and the cleansing power of Christ’s blood. Such sacraments are testimony to the wondrous redeeming work of our Savior.

We have the church – yes, the organized church. What other kind is there that the New Testament recognizes? Who actually becomes more faithful, more obedient to Christ by cutting themselves off from his visible body? We were never saved to be individual followers of Christ, living our lives alone. We are made to need one another so that we might build up one another’s faith and hold each other accountable to faithfully follow our Lord. The church is testimony to the covenant nature of God’s salvation.

There are testimonies that have been developed through the church. The reciting of the Apostles’ Creed and other confessions is a testimony to the facts of the gospel and central tenets of the faith. The symbol of the cross is a testimony to Christ’s atoning work. Hymns are sung to glorify God and to keep before us the truths of the Word and of the gospel. Every worship service is testimony that we belong to God and are followers of Jesus Christ.

As with others, my faith can take a beating. I doubt the gospel; I doubt the power of the gospel. The teachings of the world can seem so real, truer than what God’s Word teaches. I read a well-written novel that makes unbelievers seem kinder, more reasonable than Scriptures let on. Is the gospel really so necessary? I meet good people who do not believe in Christ. Is faith necessary? And then I come into the sanctuary with God’s people. I hear the hymns sung by those who believe those hymns. I recite together with God’s people our common faith. And my faith grows strong again.

And then there are testimony testimonies. Again, my faith may be down. Where is the power of the gospel? And I hear another testimony. The woman who had told her father that she could never believe, and one day, while vacuuming her house, is struck with the holiness of God and bows before him. The young man in the midst of a dangerous overdose rage, who remembers the hymns of his youth and was brought to the Lord. Even the “boring” testimonies from numerous individuals testifying to how their parents did teach them the glorious deeds of the Lord and his commands. Such testimonies renew my faith and keep me focused on the power of God.

All of these testimonies are necessary to pass on the faith to our children and grandchildren. They are necessary to pass on the faith to unbelievers. But understand that they are necessary for us who have believed for years. The psalmist lamented the loss of faith of the generation that did know the deeds and commands of the Lord, who had even witnessed the deeds. It was that generation that forgot what he had done for them.

But God never forgot his people, and he would accomplish a far greater redemption for them than the redemption from Egypt, a far greater redemption accomplished by a far greater deed. For the God, who is accountable to no one, would take upon himself to see that the testimony was fulfilled and that the sin of the people fully atoned for. This second redemption would redeem the people from their sins forever. How would he do this? Psalm 78 concludes by speaking of the Shepherd-King whom God sent to lead God’s people back to him.

God would send his Son through the line of David, who unlike David would live the perfect life fulfilling the testimony. Thus the testimony would bear witness not against him but for him, declaring him to be keeper of the covenant law. And then, as the Keeper of the Testimony, the Shepherd-King would act as High Priest offering his very blood as the sacrifice for those who broke that testimony. The Father gave his Son; the Son gave his life for breakers of the testimony. And then, this Son mediated a greater covenant, one that was based on his obedience and his work; one that did not need sacrifice after sacrifice to make an ineffectual atonement.

Remember where the tablets of the testimony were kept? They were in the ark, which was covered by the mercy meat and located in the Holy of Holies. Once a year the High Priest would enter to sprinkle the mercy meat with blood from a sacrifice to make atonement for the people. But what was actually happening was that the High Priest was entering before the testimony, which testified against him and his people that they were guilty. The mercy seat was a judgment seat. But our High Priest has entered the Holy of Holies in the heavenly temple with his own blood, making one full atonement for our sins, so that as we enter we find not judgment but mercy.

As the year ends and a new year begins, let us commit ourselves to keep all the testimonies that point us to this testimony – the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us not forget this glorious deed of our God, but rather be faithful to teach it to our children, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren; to teach it to our neighbors and one another; to teach it to ourselves. Let us testify to the great work of Christ on the cross and to the ongoing work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our lives.