Comparing Abramic and the New Covenant
Today is the last of the summer season re-posts of the Covenant Series. It has been a very busy summer for myself and my family with moving across country, getting sick and unpacking to set up house. I still have not found the box with all my recording equipment! Hoping to get to recording some new material soon. But for now, it never hurts to visit God's word again to glean something new.
Blessings to you and yours as you study to show yourself approved by God.
Moni
Abrahamic and New Covenant Compared.
Have you ever felt like living a holy, sanctified, set apart life and being pleasing to the Lord is a waste of time? I mean, what if it’s all just not true? What if in the end it’s all a big joke? Well, I’m sure you are not alone in those feelings. It’s run across my mind a few time throughout my life. However, that’s all they are feelings.
Yes, God made us with feelings, but the feelings are not what our lives should be run by. One reason not to base our lives on feelings is that they change at the most inopportune moments.
We can be sad, glad or mad all in the time it takes to sit through a news story while waiting in the Dentist office.
What if I decided that my new acquaintance, would feel better with a big bowl of ice cream and all the toppings? Sounds like fun doesn’t it? However, the FACT is that she is a diabetic, and sick right now and that big bowl of sugar would not be helping her, but in fact, hurting her. The more I know about another person, or a situation, the more solid foundation I have of the facts concerning my friend or situation.
The FACT is that God loves us, in fact He loved us before we ever knew Him. God knew centuries ago that you would be here today, doubting His love because feelings got in the way. So He left some love letters for us to read to remind us of the Facts, as well as the reminder that He loves you and made away for those who love Him to be with Him forever.
Yes, that is through Jesus, the Better, and New Covenant. Jesus is the New Covenant. As we delve into the New covenant a bit deeper today, we will see that not only does God make a way for our salvation from a fallen world, but a way to be holy through Jesus, and bring others along with us to a New and Holy City where we will life with our Beloved forever.
From the New to the Old
Comparing the Promise to Abraham and to Jesus
There are some that say that the Church has replaced the Nation of Israel as God’s people. It might make some feel better to think this way, but the facts of the Bible nullify any feelings in such a direction.
If we compare the Nation of Isreal to the Body of Christ regarding the promise that was given to Abraham, the same promise was given to Israel, but it was fulfilled through the Church.
In Genesis 12:3 God told Isreal that He would make them a great Nation, and bless them that blesses them and curse them who curse them and in them all the families of the earth would be blessed.
However, this came with conditions. For God also told them “If you will obey and keep My Covenant, the you will be a peculiar treasure to Me, as well as a Kingdom of priests and a holy Nation. (Exodus 19:5-6) Well, like Moses had predicted Israel would not obey.
In 1 Peter 2:5,9) God tells His Beloved that you are lively stones, built up as a spiritual house, a holy priest hood, You are a chosen generation, a royal or kingly priesthood, a holy Nation, a peculiar people.
Both were chosen Nations, as Isaiah 51:4 and 1 Peter 2:9
Pay attention to Me my people and listen to Me, O My Nation, for a law will go out from Me and I will set My Justice for a light to the peoples.
And to the church God tells us: we are lively stones being built up as a spiritual house…a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of the darkness and into His marvelous Light. Yes, Jesus really is the light of the world. Does He shine brightly through you?
There is a distinction between the Physical Nation of Isreal and the Spiritual Body of Christ.
The citizens of Israel are of natural birth and the citizens of Heaven, the Beloved Bride of Jesus is of a spiritual birth.
A deeper distinction of the two is the spiritual state of the citizens of each realm. The Nation of Isreal still includes saved and lost souls. Romans 9:6-8 But, it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Isreal belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, remember, Through Isaac will your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the Promise that are counted as offspring.
Compared to the Body of Christ, in Hebrews 8: 10-13
For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Isreal after those days declares the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Never again will everyone teach his neighbor of his brother by saying, “Know the Lord” because all of them will know Me, from the least important to the most important. For I will be merciful regarding their wrong deeds, and I will never again remember their sins. In speaking of a “new Covenant, He has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging, will soon disappear.
And then there is the comparison in the Word of God regarding the proof of citizenship in the physical Nation as circumcision of the flesh, and of the spiritual Kingdom a circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit.
Both being the seed of Abraham at birth, but the Nation of Isreal remains the physical seed and the Body of Christ becomes born again, and a spiritual seed.
Which makes the covenant relationship different. Israel is loved, and chosen redeemed and adopted, as a physical Nation on Earth through the Abrahamic Covenant which continues through to the Millennium. The Body of Christ through the New Covenant, is loved, chosen, redeemed and adopted as a spiritual family in Jesus, beginning at the day of salvation into eternity.
Both were redeemed, the Nation of Israel was physically redeemed from Egypt and The Church is redeemed spiritually from sin. Both are called, Israel from out of Egypt, and the Church is called out of the world.
The Old Covenant through Abrahm is conditional and tells physical Israel to do and live or disobey and die, a condition of the Abrahamic Covenant of works. Whereas the New Covenant sacrifice of Jesus for our salvation covers those in the Covenant with His own precious blood and calls it finished, we need only believe, with a blessing of grace through faith.
The Governmental rule over the physical Nation of Israel still stands the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants while the Body of Christ is ruled by the whole law of Christ which is summed up by Jesus when He explains that we should Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves and against this, there is no law.
The goal for both of these groups is to become the true Holy Nation of God. This goal has not been realized by Israel.
Ex 19:4-5 God tells Moses to tell the Nation of Israel, You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. And now IF you carefully obey Me and keep My Covenant, you are to be My special possession of all the peoples, For the whole earth belongs to Me. This covenant promise has not been realized, because the IF, the condition of obedience has not bee fulfilled on Israels part.
As for the Body of Christ, which includes any of those who choose to leave the old covenant of Law and choose to who live under the New Covenant of Grace, the goal of being a citizen and ambassador of the Holy Nation of God is already realized by every citizen.
I touched on the time frame of both of these Nations existence but let’s take a closer look at the details.
Isreal began back in Ex 24:8 at Mt Sinia when Moses Took half the blood in bowls of the animal sacrifice and sprinkled it on the altar as a sacrifice to God and He took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people of Isreal. They said, All that the LORD has spoken, we will do and obey. Moses then took blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD made with you based on all these words.
The end of the time of frame of Israel as a Nation is recorded in Matt 27:51 when Jesus had cried out in a loud voice and died and then suddenly the curtain in the sanctuary was torn in tow from the top to the bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split open, and many saints who had died were brought back to life! After Jesus resurrection, they came out of their tombs and went into the Holy City and appeared to many people! When the Centurion and those guarding Jesus with him, saw the earthquake and the other things that were taking place, they were terrified and said, This man certainly was the Son of God!
These were eyewitnesses to what had happened. Sounds like solid proof to me.
The Church begins at a different time in History known as Pentecost, when For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, form a single body, so it is with the Messiah. For by one Spirit all of us…Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, were baptized into one body and were all privileged to drink from one Spirit. For the Body does not consist of only one part, but of many. You can find that in I Cor 12:12-14 and it continues forever!
Now, Ephesians 2 seems so much more clear after going through these comparisons, where the two nations becoming one in Jesus, who has broken down the middle way of partition between us.
I used to think of this chapter describing how me, myself, and I, as a sinner used to be far off from Jesus but now am part of His forever family because of faith in the finished work of Jesus.
And a call for all believers to be in unity.
However in LIGHT of the New Covenant, Paul was reminding his country men about so much more.
Have you ever seen a diagram of the Tabernacle in the wilderness? If you remember us talking about it a few episodes ago it was the Tabernacle that the Israelites made according to the precise directions that God gave Moses. All the tribes of Israel would camp around the tabernacle with the entrance Gate due east and the Levites camped all around and next to the Tabernacle with the rest of the tribes outside that perimeter.
Due west was the Gate, The Way into the the tabernacle
Let’s remember the Jesus the Way, the truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him.
Walking into the tabernacle you would see the bronze altar where substitutionary animals would be sacrificed, before Jesus became the Better, the New Covenant.
Beyond the Bronze Altar was the Bronze Laver
Remember our minds are to be washed in the pure water of the word of God
Stepping further inward only Jews at the time of the desert tabernacle were allowed to enter the outer court.
Then there was the inner tent inside the outer skins of the tabernacle that were covered in pitch, kafir, the same thing that Noah’s Ark was covered in. As god looked down upon the Tabernacle from Heaven, he saw this pitch, which came from a henna plant which dried a dark red, like the color of blood.
This inner tent had a door on the west that only the priests were allowed to enter for this was known as the Holy place.
Stepping inside the Priest would see the Lampstand on the left and the Table of Showbread on the right.
Straight ahead would be the Golden altar or Altar of Incense. Beyond that a beautiful Veil hung from the top to the bottom, embroidered and colorful.
Only the High priest entered beyond the Veil once a year to make atonement first for himself and then for all the people of Israel with in the Holy of Holies.
Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat was on top of it.
In this holy of holies, was the cloud spoken of in Exodus 40, connecting heaven and earth. It was this cloud that Israel followed during the day and a pillar of fire during the night.
All this was merely a copy of the Heavenly Tabernacle.
The earthly tabernacle was only a temporary shadow and parable used to represent spiritual truths and point us to the New and Better Covenant that was to come, that being our Beloved Jesus.
From that moment forward, it was the blood of Jesus Christ that forgave sins, and set the Levitical system and animal sacrifices aside.
At that very moment when Jesus died on the cross, the Veil before the entrance to the holy of holies, in Matthew 27, an enormous four inch thick, 45-60 foot high, beautifully embroidered curtain, tore in two from top to bottom.
God describes what has taken best in Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The tearing of the veil is profoundly significant and provides a pictorial foundation for how we can approach God today. God has torn down the barrier between Himself and us through the work of Jesus.
The physical Tabernacle was a way for the the physical nation of Israel to enter into a covenant relationship with God. But now because of Jesus, ALL who enter through the Messiah, the physical and the spiritual descendants of Abraham, are now become One in the Spiritual Body of Christ!
No matter what our feelings may be about the situation, the Facts are clear.
For through Jesus, both of us have access to the Father by one Spirit.
We are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.
So wether we are sad, mad or glad about the truth, we must face the truth and make a decision regarding our future.
Will you fall in love with the lover of your soul and become part of the spiritual Kingdom? For God has made a way to reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, on which He eliminated the hatred between us, the adversary of our souls.
Jesus is all we need.
Learn more at the Blog, Momentswithmoni.com
Closing song by Brad & Moni Hardy "Jesus I Believe"
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