Page 135 - Through New Eyes

130 THROUGH NEW EYES
much better able to understand what is going on in our world at
the present time.
My analysis of the activity of work and of covenant-making
into five or six steps originally grew out of the observations of
Dom Gregory Dix on the four-fold action of the eucharist, as I
mentioned above. g I am not, however, arguing that this is the
only useful or Biblical way to break down the sequence.
In my initial study, I did not relate this sequence to covenant-
making or covenant-renewal in worship, but simply to the rela-
tionship between worship and work (the six-fold action of wor-
ship restoring us to a properly thankful attitude in our work).g
There is, however, a clear correlation between the five stages of
God’s work of creation and the aspects of God’s covenant-
making, which can also be grouped in a set of five. 10
Students of the nature of the covenant and of covenant-
making in the Bible have divided the sequence in various
ways. 11 We can say that in its fullest manifestations, God’s cove-
nant with man, which we can illustrate from the Mosaic cove-
nant, entails the following steps and aspects:

1. Announcement of God’s transcendence; His laying hold
on the situation (Exodus 2:24-25; 20:3).

2. Declaration of God’s new Name, appropriate for the new
covenant being installed (Exodus 3:13-15; 6:2-8; 20: 2a).
3. Statement of how God brought His people from the old
covenant and world into the new one (Exodus 20: 2b; Deu-
teronomy 1:6-4:40).
4. Establishment of the new covenant order, especially the
governmental hierarchies thereof (Exodus 18:13-27; Deu-
teronomy 1:9-18).
5. Appointment of new names for the new finished product
(Genesis 1:4-5,6-8, 9-10; at Moses’ time the new name was
‘children of Israel”).
6. Grantor distribution of an area of dominion to the covenant
steward or vassal (Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 1:19-12:31).
7. Stipulations concerning the management of this grant (Ex-
odus 20-23; Deuteronomy 5:1-26:19).
8. Statement of the terms by which God will evaluate man’s
performance: promised blessings and threatened curses
(Exodus 23:25-33; Deuteronomy 27, 28).