Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Gerald Sigal, The Jew and the Christian Missionary: “The New Testament misinterprets our Hebrew Scriptures claiming that the Mosaic Covenant kills and is superseded by a new one. Instead, Scripture teaches that God’s Word doesn’t change (Isa 40:8) and that the Commandments impart life (Psalm 119).”
“By an objective reading of the text, one fails to see any reference to a substitution of a new covenant which will supersede the old… the covenant of old is of eternal duration, never to be rescinded or to be superseded by a new covenant is clearly stated in Leviticus 26.”
· Leviticus 26:44-45 “Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God…”
WHAT SIGAL LEAVES OUT: Leviticus 26:42–43 “then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.”
· Jeremiah 31:31-34 "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord… For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
MOSAIC COVENANT - Battlelines:
RABBIS NT
Adequate Inadequate
Permanent Non-Permanent
OUR RESPONSE:
Mosaic Covenant was Temporary
Mosaic Covenant was Inadequate and Showed Many Indications that it would be Superseded.
Something New Would Come in its Place
MOSAIC COVENANT WAS ONLY TEMPORARY
THE PROPHETS RECOGNISED THAT THE MOSAIC COVENANT WAS JUST TEMPORARY
· Jeremiah 3:14-16 "Return, O backsliding children," says the Lord; "for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days," says the Lord, "that they will say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord.' It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore. (Isaiah 65:17)
· LIMITED TO LAND OF ISRAEL: Deut. 12:8-9 You shall not at all do as we are doing here today--every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes-- 9for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.
· Joshua 5:5 For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.
OTHER COVENANTS ARE EVERLASTING (The Covenants of Promise!):
NOAHIC--Genesis 9:16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
PATRIARCHAL-- Genesis 17:19 Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
· Psalm 105:9-10 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, 10And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
· 1 Chron. 16:15-17 Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, 16The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, 17And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
TO DAVID--2 Samuel 23:5 "Although my house is not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; will He not make it increase? (Isa 55:3)
Jeremiah 33:20-21 "Thus says the Lord: 'If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 21then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne…
MC NEVER “EVERLASTING”!
MOSAIC COVENANT WAS INADEQUATE AND SHOWED MANY SIGNS THAT IT WOULD BE SUPERSEDED!
WOULD INEVITABLY FAIL
Joshua 24:19 But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Deut. 29:4 Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.
Deut. 30:6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Deut. 27:26 'Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen!'
Deut. 32:15-20 "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick…Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17They sacrificed to demons, not to God…18Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you. 19"And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. 20And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith.
This doesn’t reflect a human perspective:
· Self-Critical
· Israel must have had compelling reasons to accept something so belittling!
SOMETHING WOULD HAVE TO TAKE ITS PLACE
ISRAEL COULDN’T COME INTO GOD’S PRESENCE--Exodus 20:19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
TEMPLE: signified they couldn’t come before God.
· Hosea 2:18-19 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely. 19"I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy;
OFFERINGS: never achieved ultimate forgiveness. GOD WASN’T PLEASED WITH THEM.
· Hebrews 10:5-7 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. 7Then I said, Behold, I have come--In the volume of the book it is written of Me--To do Your will, O God.' "(Psalm 40:6-8)
· Repeated offerings said that they never really did the trick! Never any promise of Eternal Life.
4. “STIFF-NECKED PEOPLE”: This would have to change.
5. THE NEW COVENANT
§ Jeremiah 31:31-34 "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
· Ezekiel 36:25-27 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Jeremiah 32:39-41, Isaiah 59:21; Isaiah 54:9-10; Isaiah 61:8-9; Ezekiel 34:25-26; 37:26-27; 16:59-63)
A NEW PRIESTHOOD IS IN VIEW, NOT THE LEVITICAL.
· Deut. 32:43 "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people." Psalm 79:9; Psalm 110:4; Exodus 19:6
· GOD WILL BE THE REDEEMER Isaiah 35:9-10 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. (Zech. 3:8; Psalm 19:14)
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