The covenant relationship starts with Abraham. “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you....as for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.” This is the covenant of circumcision, which came long before the law. God promised Abraham his descendants would number as the stars in the heavens.
Passover regulations, restrictions, consecration of the firstborn, all happened before the law was handed down. Moses sat as a judge over disputes among the people during their wandering in the desert. His father in law, Jethro, saw this when he visited, and suggested he appoint officials to serve as judges. Moses did this, letting the simple cases be handled in this way, and only dealing with the harder cases himself. On the third month after leaving Egypt, God says this through Moses: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
It is at this point that God gives Moses the ten commandments. Then, this: “These are the laws you are to set before them...” to Moses. There are laws for personal injuries, protection of property, social responsibility, justice and mercy, Sabbath laws, festivals, etc. Moses wrote it all down, then took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took blood from sacrificed bulls and sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
At this point, God calls Moses up to the mountain to receive the commandments in stone. Regulations for the Ark, tabernacle, table, lampstand, altar, courtyard, garments for priests, and on and on were written down. The people became a people of rules and regulations, living their lives by the strict letter of the laws that were handed down.
Years later, after inhabiting the promised land, the Hebrews had judges to settle disputes and priests to serve God. Eventually, the elders of Israel came to Samuel, and told him to appoint a king to lead them. Samuel took their request to God, and this is what God told Samuel: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”
Samuel pleaded with the people, but they insisted, so he anointed Saul as their king. Saul later disobeys, and is rejected as king by God. Samuel then anoints David as king, while Saul is still holding the position. To David, after Saul's death, God gives this promise: “Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you....Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, your throne will be established forever.”
Israel had many kings, but Hoshea was the last of them. Shalmaneser king of Assyria put him in prison, and captured the land and deported the Israelites to Assyria. 2Kings 17 gives God's reasons for this. Shalmaneser brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and sepharvaim and settled them in the land.
Judah still had their land, however, yet troubles were there as well. They had King Josiah, who became king when he was eight years old, but he did right by God. In his eighteenth year, the High Priest found the Book of the Law in the temple, and presented it to the kings secretary, who presented it to the king. King Josiah renewed the covenant, and had the book read to all the people, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. Of course, four kings later and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon overtook Jerusalem, and set fire to the temple, and broke down the walls, and sent the people into exile. They just couldn't keep the covenant.
Cyrus of Persia, seventy years later, allowed the temple to be rebuilt, and helped the exiles to return to Jerusalem. The temple was rebuilt and the people rededicated themselves.
Now that is the literal story of the covenant. It's longer, with a lot of stories, but basically it's try and fail, try and fail. The people were never able to make righteousness work within the confines of the law, they kept falling away. Now lets start to look at the prophets testimony.
“The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: 'do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare....Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.” He is our sanctuary, but for the people of the rules, he is a stone that causes them to stumble. About those from the literal covenant, Isaiah says, “See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers!” Murderers of the spirit, preventing people from gaining access to their peace.
“I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” No more spiritual insight. Just a wasteland. Isaiah is full of what has happened to the people of the law...describing them as calling evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, calling them wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. They rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah (peace). Of the remnant, he says, “will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.”
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the Lord, 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'” Notice, in this new covenant, we aren't burdened with rituals and regulations. We're not given instructions to keep. In this covenant, God has taken on all the responsibility himself. He will call us, he will teach us, he will keep us and not count any wrong against us.
That is the core of the gospel (good news). God redeemed us from ourselves, setting aside the old covenant of responsibility for ourselves, and bringing us a new covenant where he himself bears our burden and gives us rest. The old covenant of the law was fulfilled in death, as that was the only real outcome it could have. The new covenant is fulfilled in each of us individually, as we pass from death to life. Living in the old covenant leaves us in a cycle of trying and failing, and ultimately always results in failure. Living in the new covenant always ends in successful communion.
YOU can learn directly from God.
If you're religion is confusing to you, there's a reason. Get a red letter Bible, and read the words of Jesus to the priests and preachers of His day. Then understand this: There's no difference between them and the priests and preachers of our day. Why would there be? Just as there was in His day, there are some with good intent, but even they are learning from a corrupted system. Want the truth? Throw out everything you've learned from them, pick up the Bible, and read it for yourself. Not by chapter and verse as you were taught. Particularly in the New Testament, read the way they were written, as letters. And unless you're well versed in Old English, get a modern translation. One you can read and understand. Stick to the New Testament at first, so as not to be overwhelmed. And know this, it isn't the word of God the way you were taught. It's the word of God as understood by those who wrote it. Try to understand it from the point of view of those it was written to...we were taught to read it as if it was written to us!
The problem with that is, those the New Testament was written to were going through the transition from one Covenant to another. They were awaiting an event in their time. To learn about that event, one needs to consult historians, such as Josephus and his account of it in "Wars of the Jews."
The problem with that is, those the New Testament was written to were going through the transition from one Covenant to another. They were awaiting an event in their time. To learn about that event, one needs to consult historians, such as Josephus and his account of it in "Wars of the Jews."
Questioning the established theologies. The church teaches the law, just as it did when Jesus railed against it in His day. A discussion on the freedoms He gave us, and why true followers might want to operate on the outside. The truth is out there, but where?
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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A friend gave me this comment, which adds to this tremendously I think.
ReplyDeleteLuther G. Williams: I'm thinking generally that one important development in COVENANT ESCHATOLOGY is that it must in the near future deal with the covenant extending back to the beginning of creation: For example, Genesis 1:1 speaks of covenant, and the fall of Adam in Genesis, chapter 3, was the trespassing of that original covenant ( as also Genesis 2:1 and Genesis 5:1 agree). In this view, there was not so much a REPLACEMENT of covenants (as many preterists conceive of it), but rather a RESTORATION of the everlasting covenant, or perhaps a REVEALING of it! In most of the classic writings on covenantal eschatology, the contrast of covenants goes back in earnest no further than Moses! Evidently, the problem ran deeper than that! Jesus didn't solve just the Mosaic problem, but the ADAMIC problem as well (1 Corinthians 15:22)!