The covenant concept is central of Scripture, establishing and defining God’s relationship with mankind in every *age of *history. The OT was established between God and the people of Israel after Freeing them from Egyptian slavery. Moses, leading them from captivity- served as mediator of this contract at Mount Sinai: (“Moses took the blood from the basins- splattered it over the people, declaring, “this blood confirms the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these instructions.(Exodus 24:8, NLT)” God promised Israel would be his chosen people, and he would be their God: (“I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt(Exodus 6:7,)” God issued the Ten Commandments and laws in Leviticus to be obeyed- If they complied, he pledged prosperity and protection in the Promised Land). To address sins, God set up a system of “animal blood sacrifices.” That system lasted hundreds of years, but it was only temporary. Out of love, God sent his only Son, Jesus, into the world; This new covenant would resolve -the #fall- once and *for *all (Isaiah). For 3 years, Jesus taught throughout Israel about the kingdom of God and his -upcoming role- as #Messiah. To support his claim as Son of God, he performed many miracles, even raising people from the dead. By dying on the cross, Christ became #Lamb of God, the #ultimate #perfect #sacrifice, whose blood has the -power- to #redeem us #forever. Jesus freely #intercedes for us before God- We now -encounter God- ourselves; no longer needing a human to speak for us. Israel struggles to find closeness with God, but the gospel illustrates the covenant now through the power of Christ’s divine blood- sacrificial love- in -manifested- spirit through his *word. While God's grace frequently broke through in the OT, its #presence manifests in #spirit through the resurrected #living christ- The free gift of redemption in Christ is available to all who choose to #receive it. Israels restoration is in the-unity with christ #messiah- in the promise land- eternal #dwelling place.
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The first mention of the ark of the testimony is in Exodus 25:10. God gave Moses specific instructions for building a tabernacle as they traveled in the wilderness. The tabernacle would be the place where the glory of God would dwell among His people (Exodus 25:8–9). Among hundreds of other descriptive instructions for this tabernacle, God told Moses to build an ark of the testimony, also called the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:21–22). The words testimony and covenant both refer to the conditional agreement made between God and the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. An ark is, literally, a box or chest. So the ark of the testimony is the “box of the agreement.”
Jesus was “the Son of God” referred to prophetically in Psalm 2:7, and during His trial (Sanhedrin). The title He used most throughout His ministry was “Son of Man.” (More than 40 times by yeshua yet The disciples called him “Lord,” “Master” or “Teacher.”)… the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”). “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”). “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”). “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26). Jesus derived this from Ezekiel and Daniel. “Son of Man” is the distinctive title applied to the Ezekiel. The Hebrew translation is “ben Adam,” literally, “Son of Adam” or “son of mankind.” Originally, when used to refer to Ezekiel, it meant only “man,” as opposed to God, and reminded Ezekiel of his humble status. By the time of Jesus, it had become an honorific title of the Messiah, passages in Ezekiel were idealized/interpreted messianically. Jesus noted the similarities to His calling: “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against Me” (Ezekiel 2:3). “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, you shall give them warning from Me” (3:17). significant were a remnant to be spared; the new heart and spirit, the new everlasting covenant, and the promise that the Gentile nations would come to know the Lord, God of Israel. All to be fulfilled by Jesus as Son of Man. Daniel 7:13-14 used the title “Son of Man.” Here- an Aramaic term, “bar enash,” instead of “ben Adam.” The meaning similar, “enash” the word for mankind in general, not an individual. In rabbinical and popular thought, the term had been highly spiritualized, indicating the ideal man, divine in nature. The Book of Enoch, that circulated during the first century, exalted the figure even beyond Daniel’s vision. It is not necessary to assume that Jesus was influenced by Enoch. Jesus knew these things prophesied in Daniel 7 would take place after His suffering on the cross, His resurrection and His return to heaven. He identified himself not only with the Hebrew nation but whole human race.
By looking at the covenants of the Bible we see God has a plan of redemption that works in time and space, history and geography. And it is not finished! A typical believer might think it goes like this: God chose Abraham and his descendents, there was the people of Israel, the land of Israel, the law, the prophets and poets which summarises the Old Testament, all culminating in Jesus – the cross, resurrection, ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. Now it is the role of the Church to evangelise and become more like Jesus in this darkening world. Then Jesus will come back. Prevalent as it may be, the outline above is incomplete. It misses the vital component of the continuing place of the Jewish people in God’s redemptive strategy, their ongoing connection with the Land of Promise and the dynamic synergy with the nations. The key to addressing this issue lies in our understanding of the Biblical Covenants. This view typically sees the Bible as a story of two covenants – the old covenant given to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, and the other which replaced it; the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus. But the problem is that there are actually five major covenants in the Bible, not just two. EACH COVENANT IS A BUILDING BLOCK covenants are the building blocks of God’s purposes, and each one has a part to play in the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan. Understanding the framework that God chose to hang this story upon is critical to understanding God and his story. The framework he has chosen is Israel – four out of the five covenants are with the people of Israel, and the fifth was given within the people and land of Israel too. What many do not realise is that most of these covenants with Israel are still in action as God’s plan continues to unfold. We will never understand the ongoing significance of the Jewish people and the Promised Land if we simplistically break the Bible down into two covenants. In order to understand all these covenants it’s important to ask the following questions:
Only the third covenant – the Mosaic covenant made with the people of Israel at Sinai – has been fulfilled and superseded by Jesus’ first coming. Hebrews chapter 8 explains it this way, quoting the prophecy from Jeremiah 31: But now Yeshua has obtained a more excellent ministry, insofar as He is the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first one had been faultless, there would not have been discourse seeking a second. For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says Adonai, when I will inaugurate a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not remain in My covenant, and I did not care for them, says Adonai. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Adonai. I will put My Torah into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And no more will they teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Adonai,’ because all will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.” In saying “new,” He has treated the first as old; but what is being made old and aging is close to vanishing. (Hebrews 8:7-13) WHICH IS THE “OLD” COVENANT?When the writer of Hebrews talks about the “old” covenant, is he referring to the covenant that God made to Noah (Genesis 8:20 – 9:17)? God promised he would never flood the earth again, and produced a rainbow to seal the deal. Nope. That covenant is still in place – it will last for all generations. “I will remember My covenant that is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Genesis 9:15) Could it have been the covenant that God made with David (2 Samuel 7:12-16)? God promised that there would always be a descendant of the House of David on the throne, for all time. Well, we know that Jesus was from the House of David, and that He now rules and reigns at the right hand of the Father. This covenant is still standing today. Don’t you know that Adonai, God of Israel, has given kingship over Israel to David forever—to him and his sons by a covenant of salt? (2 Chronicles 13:5) Perhaps it was the covenant that God made with Abraham? God promised Abraham firstly that he would be the father of many, secondly that he would inherit the land of Israel, and thirdly that through him the whole world would be blessed. He made the very same three promises to Abraham’s son Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5), and then again to his grandson Jacob (Genesis 28:12-15) father of the twelve tribes of Israel, just to be sure. This covenant still stands according to Psalm 105:8-11 He remembers his covenant for ever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.” How about the Mosaic covenant? The covenant God made with Moses at Sinai had a specific purpose – it was to show us how far we fall short of the standards of God. According to Galatians 3:19, the Law is like a “schoolmaster” to help lead us to the Messiah by showing us our need for him, and our incapacity to live how God wants us to. It shows us how we need the law to be written on our hearts, and we need forgiveness and supernatural power to live a life that pleases him. This law was a temporary and conditional covenant, and the New Covenant does not erase it, but fulfills it. Jesus completed the law for us, because we could not. So which covenant has been replaced by the coming of the Messiah? Only one. The Mosaic covenant. The coming of the New Covenant radically changed how we understand the Mosaic covenant today, but it did not change God’s promises to Noah, Abraham or David. The crucial question now is, are God’s purposes in the Abrahamic Covenant (creating the people of Israel, placing them in the land of Israel, and making them a blessing to the whole earth) supposed to continue on for some reason? THE ONGOING ABRAHAMIC COVENANT when we look at the promises that God makes not only to Abraham, but that he reiterates to Isaac and also to Jacob, we can see that there is no sense in which the promise to inherit the land has a time limit. Quite the opposite. But why was it important to give them that land? We start to see that there are things foretold in the Bible concerning places and events that have simply not happened yet, but they will come to pass – not only in a spiritual sense, but also in a real, geographical and historical sense. He used a real nation and a real land to bring us our very real Messiah in a specific location and time in history. In the same way, his purposes are continually being unfolded and fulfilled, just as he promised. Whole areas of scripture are transformed and come alive once we recognise that the Abrahamic covenant has not been terminated by Messiah’s coming. This particularly applies to huge amounts of prophecy about God’s dealings with the Jewish people through exile for disobedience and then restoration and blessing. God means what he says. When we see the Bible in this manner – reading it as if it really means what it says – we see familiar passages in an amazing new light. The twentieth century saw the fulfilment of several promises prophesied in scripture – the regathering of Israel, the revival of the Hebrew language, restoration of the shekel as currency, the speeding up of global travel and an explosion of knowledge to name just a few. There is much yet to come, but are we ready for it? Do we know what the prophets have said? Or did you think that the Old Testamentwas not important any longer? In Jerusalem, during the week of Passover, a group of Greeks who had made a commitment to follow the laws of Judaism asked to speak with Jesus (John 12). Their request for an audience caused Jesus to declare: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). The deep interest of the Greeks was evidence that the world was ready for His redemptive mission to be culminated by His atoning death: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32) All men” — Greeks as well as Jews — this is the clear implication of these profound words recorded by John. The events of Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem bear eloquent testimony to the fact that He moved resolutely toward the cross. He entered the city on a donkey, in order to fulfill the prophet Zechariah’s prediction from the Old Testament of a king who would speak peace to the nations and whose dominion would be from sea to sea (Zech9:9-10). Then He went to the temple and found greedy religious businessmen taking advantage of those that had come to worship. So He cleansed this corruption from the court of the Gentiles (the outermost court of the temple in Jerusalem that could be entered by all peoples), declaring sternly, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17). Standing in the temple, He denounced the chief priests and Pharisees, the official leaders of the Jewish nation, for having failed to be good stewards of the truths of the kingdom which had been entrusted to the chosen people, and solemnly declared, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” When asked concerning the end of the age, Jesus said, in effect: “Don’t be misled. It will not be as soon as some think. For this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all nations, and after that, the end shall come” Concerning His return in glory, He was purposely vague, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows. The next evening in the upper room with His disciples, He sealed the new covenant with them, in anticipation of His death.
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