The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

The Land Covenant - Its Purpose and Effect

Canaan was to be a home for Israel. A home that would be a place of safety and peace where they could live in comfort – a place where there would be food and drink to sustain them, and protection from outside influences. Canaan was all this to them – a fertile and well watered country that provided a balanced diet for its occupants. The peace and safety was provided by the Lord.

But since the Land Covenant, which had expanded the land aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, had made the occupation of Canaan conditional on obedience and faith, it was also an incentive to godly living. And as an incentive it was of five star quality - walk with God or lose your homeland – it could not be clearer. Moses, God’s spokesman, inspired in his oratory, reminded the nation that exile awaited any generation that turned from the Lord. Having used the carrot, that is, declaring that obedience brought blessing, he wielded the stick - disobedience brings judgment. “And it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other.” (Deut. 28:63-64) However, it is not as if the life and obedience demanded of Israel was onerous. The promise for obedience was not simply occupation of the designated territory, but blessing – blessing on the nation, blessing on families, blessing on crops. In addition, there would be protection from any nation that had ambitions to conquer. This was an agreement that was heavily weighted in favor of the nation. But sin makes a person foolish, and Israel played the fool with other gods that could neither bless nor protect. She reneged on her relationship with the Lord and was exiled as a result.

From our point in history we are very well aware of the periods of exile the Hebrew nation has suffered. The mass deportation of the ten tribes by Assyria was followed by the exile of the two tribes to Babylon. The most significant exile happened under the rule of the Romans, when Israel lost their Temple and their land for nearly two millennia. That was because they had rejected their Messiah. It was when the Babylonian exile was on the near horizon that Jeremiah prophesied of the New Covenant. The loss of Jerusalem, the Temple and the land was inevitable because, in his view, Israel no longer fulfilled their part of the Mosaic Covenant – the agreement had been broken by Israel,[1] and broken to such a degree that from that time forward it would never again function in the way it was intended.

It is true that there was a return after seventy years in Babylon, which might suggest that the nation had repented and re-embraced the Law of Moses, but Jeremiah rather suggests the return was the result of the Babylonians themselves coming under the rod of God. He predicted that after their seventy years of exile God would punish the Babylonians: “‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.’” (Jer. 25:12)

And the number of those that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem was very small – just a remnant of the two tribes that were taken there. Moreover, we have no evidence that any the ten tribes taken by Assyria returned. We will not underestimate the value of the believing remnant – but the Mosaic Covenant never resumed its rightful place in the life of the nation and consequently the nation has never since enjoyed a full, free and safe occupancy of the territory promised to Abraham and ruled over by David.

Israel, the ‘planting’ of the Lord,[2] had been planted by God in a green and fertile environment, there to be tended by the great husbandman – a specialist with the highest qualifications. For it to be fruitful and multiply, the tender plant required protection, and feeding. This the young nation received.  Alas Biblical history suggests that when the divine husbandman went to harvest the crop all he found was wild grapes.[3] Such a disappointment!

 However, this does not mean that the land element of the Abrahamic Covenant has been set aside. The land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean is the legal inheritance of the Hebrew nation, and although they have been plucked from the land for unfaithfulness, there is yet predicted a time when they will occupy it in faith. Isaiah anticipated a time when Israel would return to God under the ministry of an anointed servant and occupy the land again. When he described the ministry of the Servant of the Lord; he wrote: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isa.61.1-3) If Israel repents: “… they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.” (Isa. 61:4) These early verses of Isaiah 61 were taken up by the anointed Servant of the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, although He did indicate that His ministry then would only encompass the first one and a half verses. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”, for after that He closed the book. And only for the section that He read did He claim, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”. (Luke 4:18-21) The remainder will have to wait for His return.

Next: The Davidic Covenant

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[1] Jer. 31.32

[2] Isa.60.21

[3] Isa.5.2

The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

The Land Covenant (Continued)

The structure of Welfare

 Dividing the inheritance. Caleb and Joshua had some advantage in securing a sweet portion of the land because they had been there before. However, some of the nation sought their portion the other side of Jordan, outside the Promised Land.  They were the first to receive their allocation, but they were also the first to lose it. And the Levites, the tribe that were in the service of the Lord did not get a portion of the land as such, on the principle that the Lord was their portion, but they were allocated cities of refuge which were placed strategically throughout the territory.

Israel was to be a society ordered by God and every aspect of their possession and husbandry of the land was governed by God’s law. Examples include;

–Land division, landmarks, ownership, mortgage and redemption of mortgages.

       –A Sabbath rest for the land every seven years.

–The method of harvesting and gleaning.

–Their harvest festivals as a constant reminder.

–Their tithes and offerings.

–Control of nature and wild animals.

This aspect of righteous behavior was emphasized by Moses when he addressed the nation before he died.  What he explained was that it was not their righteousness that would obtain the land initially. It would be the grace of God. He said, “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Deut. 9:4-6) But it would be their obedience that would keep them in it. Moreover, obedience would bring them great benefit.[1] The benefit was encompassed in the word ‘blessing’ and would touch all aspects of life. They would be blessed in the city and in the country, that is, the two spheres in which their life would be lived. There would be fruitfulness in offspring, in their own families and in the animals that they owned. The produce of the ground would be blessed, as would their storehouses and domestic instruments, indeed the nation would be blessed in all its undertakings, both when under threat or at peace. The Lord would give them rain in its season, and the blessing of the Lord would make them rich so that they would be lenders and not borrowers. All these benefits when brought together would make Israel a leader among the nations.

The Covenant relationship between Israel and her God was re-enforced after Israel had begun occupation of their new homeland. As Moses addressed the nation before he died, so also Joshua. He called the leaders of the tribes to Shechem, the place that was the site of important patriarchal experiences. It was here that Abraham received the first promise of the land, whereupon Abram (as his name was then) built an altar[2] and thereby sanctified the ground under the oak (or terebinth). It was here that Jacob purified his house on his return to the land. He buried the foreign idols that had been brought with them under the tree.[3] So it would be at this very same site that the Covenant relationship would be strengthened. Joshua, speaking for the Lord, recited the history of their people beginning with the call of Abraham and ending with the giving of the land and, on the basis of this, challenged the people to choose who they would serve. Joshua, great leader as he was, led the way by declaring he had already chosen. He would serve the Lord. When the people also declared their allegiance, “we also will serve the Lord, for He is our God,” (Josh. 24:18) Joshua reminded them of the gravity of their decision and made a covenant for them which was written and preserved with the covenants previously declared.[4]

That Israel is a covenant society cannot be doubted. Beginning with Abraham, renewed with Jacob, re-established through Moses and now again with Joshua, every confidence Israel exhibits in the future must be seen as the result of their covenant relationship with the Lord.

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[1] Deut.28.1-14

[2] Gen. 12.6,7

[3] Gen.35.4

[4] Josh.24.25,26

Next Time: The Land Covenant - Its Purpose and Effect