The Bible does present the Ten Commandments as the covenant itself. In
Exodus 34:28, it is written:
"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."
"So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone (
Deuteronomy 4:13, NKJV)
This clearly states that the Ten Commandments are the covenant. When we look at
Jeremiah 31:31-33, we see God speaking of a new covenant, but notice what He says:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
This passage does not say the law itself would change. Instead, it tells us that the ten commandments that are the covenant instead of being written on stone tablets, would be written in our hearts and minds. That means the law remains the same, but its place changes, from external tablets to internal conviction. This is why we see in the Gospels of John, Matthew, Luke and Mark, Jesus teaching the commandments and magnifying them.
Now, let's connect this with the Ark of the Covenant. In
Deuteronomy 10:1-5, God commanded Moses to place the two tablets of the Ten Commandments inside the Ark:
"At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make yourself an ark of wood... Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.’"
This shows the special place of the Ten Commandments, inside the Ark, symbolizing their central role in the covenant. But what about the rest of the law? In
Deuteronomy 31:24-26, Moses wrote the book of the law and placed it beside the Ark:
"So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: ‘Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there as a witness against you.’”
This distinction is important. The Ten Commandments being described clearly as the Covenant were placed
inside the Ark of the Covenant, showing their eternal, unchanging nature as the foundation of the covenant. The rest of the law was placed
beside the Ark, acting as a witness.
Now, when Jeremiah speaks of the law being written in our hearts, he is speaking of the same law, the Ten Commandments. The "new" part of the covenant is not that the law changes but that God Himself ensures it is within us, guiding us from within rather than being an external set of rules. This aligns perfectly with how Jesus upheld and fulfilled the law, always pointing back to love for God and neighbor as the foundation of obedience (
Matthew 22:36-40).
So, the New Covenant is not about replacing the Ten Commandments but about making them part of who we are.
Blessings
