Jealous Covenants of Commandments and Grace

Exodus 34:10-28 

10 And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. 11 Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. 13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.
    17 “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.  18 “The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.  19 “All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. 20 But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. “And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.  21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.  22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end.  23 “Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.  25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.  26 “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”
    27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

God initiated the old covenant agreement with His people, based on His promises and faithfulness.  As they were promised the new country, they were also charged with obedience to Him.  He is a jealous God, one who wants His creation for Himself and no other; this is not human jealousy which is full of hate and selfishness, but the sole love and care of the Creator for His beloved and precious creation.  He warned the people never to make their own covenants with the ungodly, nor make other gods to worship; we are not to bow to any idol in place of the one true and living God.  The Lord therefore laid out the Ten Commandments, the words of His covenant according to His will for our good and His glory as a Creator and Master.  All was to be given in sacrificial living to Him, and He would watch over and lead them, He would wonderfully lead them.  He had Moses write the Law down so there was no forgetting the promises and expectations of this trustworthy agreement, taking forty days to do so, which number of days our Savior would later endure temptations to break these laws of God’s old covenant to create a new one based on His faithful obedience and not our flawless keeping of the law (James 2:10), since we could never fully keep the old (Jeremiah 31:31-34, 2 Corinthians 3:6-7, Hebrews 8:8, 13, 12:24).  Our hope is in the eternal new covenant based on Christ’s work alone, and we respond in His power and will to work out that salvation to do the works designed for us to carry out because of that work of His faithfulness (Philippians 2:12-13, Ephesians 2:10).