The Compact in the Ship's Cabin

On November 11, 1620, forty-one men crowded into the cramped main cabin of the Mayflower, anchored off the coast of Cape Cod. They had spent sixty-six harrowing days at sea. Now, before a single boot touched shore, William Brewster stood and read aloud the terms of a covenant — a compact that would bind them together as one body politic. Each man listened. Each man agreed. Then, one by one, they stepped forward and fixed their names to the document. John Carver signed. William Bradford signed. Miles Standish, who was no Separatist himself, signed. Every signature was an act of commitment — not to an abstraction, but to each other and to the God they believed had called them across the ocean.

This is precisely what happened at the foot of Sinai. Moses read the Book of the Covenant aloud, and the people responded with one voice: "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." Then Moses took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the people, sealing what their words had declared. The covenant was not private or individual. It was communal, spoken aloud, and sealed with something costlier than ink.

Every time the church gathers to hear Scripture read and responds, "This is the Word of the Lord," we stand in that same ancient tradition — a people bound not by contract, but by covenant with the Living God.