The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

The New Covenant - Its Purpose and Effect

The Jeremiah text implies it is a covenant that was designed to replace the Mosaic Covenant which was described as being ‘broken’.  The Jewish nation had been under the Mosaic economy for a considerable time, and no doubt could not envisage a day when the Law would not apply, but one fact is clear – because of the weakness of the flesh the dispensation of Law did not succeed in its main aim - to prepare the nation to receive her Messiah. That a conditional covenant should be replaced because one of the parties to the covenant could not fulfill her part of the contract is quite reasonable. Especially as it is to be replaced by a new covenant which essentially was unconditional, inasmuch as the terms laid down, placed the responsibility for the fulfilling of the covenant on one party only, and that was the party that had been faithful to the previous covenant. The Lord Himself would take responsibility to ensure Israel kept the Law by engraving its demands on the hearts of His people and then indwelling them Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit to provide the motivation, energy and ability to keep it. This is new for old, and the new is so much better, so much more comfortable, so much more fruitful, so much more God-glorifying and so much more satisfying.

The promise of this new covenant was a clear indication that God is faithful to His earlier promises for it envisages a time when the Abrahamic Covenant would be fulfilled in its entirety.  The New Covenant gives an assurance to Israel that their future is safe in the hands of their God, that there is no way He has forgotten them and that they remain, as always, engraved on the palms of His hands.[1]

The question naturally arises here – if the New Covenant is to replace the Mosaic Covenant because Israel had broken the conditions of the Covenant, what law is envisaged in these prophecies? YHWH described it as ‘My law’; ‘My statutes’, ‘My ordinances’. What laws, statutes and ordinances prevail under the New Covenant? They are best described as the laws of the Messiah. Jesus Himself described them as “My commandments”. (John 14.15,21; 15.10,12) The motivation for keeping these commandments is love of the Savior. “If you love Me, keep My commandments”. (John 14:15) In this way the Jewish believer would reflect the attitude and relationship that exists between the Son of God and the Father. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”. (John 15:10) And love is at the heart of the Messiah’s law. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another”. (John 13:34) It is a high standard – to love as Christ loves – but with His command He provides the enabling – the indwelling Holy Spirit. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever”. (John 14:15-16) Again, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him”. (John 14:23) This is part of the mechanics of the operation of the New Covenant, where He promised to put His law in Jewish hearts.

Next Time : The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel

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[1] Isa. 49.15,16

The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

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

The New Covenant

There is another covenant in the T’nach, the New Covenant. It was to be made with the nation of Israel. While it was known to Isaiah it is Jeremiah that provides the greatest detail. It is not a covenant that was in place in Jeremiah’s time or applied to Jeremiah’s generation, but Jeremiah prophesied of the future when God would make this new covenant with the people of Israel. The detail is given in the 31^st chapter of his prophecy. “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— not 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. But 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. No 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.” (Jer. 31:31-34)

This text references two covenants - the Mosaic Covenant, the one which the Jewish nation had broken, and a New Covenant. The wording clearly establishes that the New Covenant, like the Mosaic Covenant, was to be made with the Jewish nation, identified as ‘the house of Israel, and the house of Judah’. This was confirmed by Isaiah. He wrote: “The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the Lord. “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”(Isa. 59:20-21) That this Isaiah text refers to the New Covenant is confirmed in Paul’s letter to the Romans, for he referenced the Isaiah quote when he wrote: And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” (Rom. 11:26-27)

These connected texts promise the regeneration of the Jewish nation under the implementation of a New Covenant, essentially because in it is the provision for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation, “from the least of them to the greatest of them”. This is a great improvement on the Mosaic Covenant; because that was only able to cover sins, not cleanse them. This aspect of the New Covenant is of the highest quality and the widest application.

In respect of the wideness of the application, there is a startling statement included in the Covenant, revealing that when the house of Israel and the house of Judah come into the full blessing of this Covenant, it will be a time when every member of the race will enjoy the fruits of salvation, for “no 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.” To put it a little more plainly, Jeremiah prophesied of a time that was still future to him when every member of the Jewish nation will have been saved.

That the blessing will be of the highest quality is evident for God declared, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Their sins and iniquities will be forgiven and forgotten. Hallelujah! While it is Jeremiah that provides the clearest description of the New Covenant, Isaiah had already indicated the blessing that it would bring to the Jewish people. He relayed the word of the Lord. “For I, the Lord … will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, And their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, That they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed.” (Isa.61:8,9)

The quality of benefit that will be enjoyed by those that come under the New Covenant is described in terms of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah quotes the Lord as saying, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts”, and Ezekiel brings the message, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances”. (Ezek. 36:27) Under the Mosaic economy the Spirit of the Lord came upon individuals for special and particular tasks. We have already remarked on the Spirit of the Lord leaving Saul and coming upon David. But the general population did not have that privilege. In this new dispensation, all of Israel, every individual Jew, will be indwelt by the Spirit of God. Joel, speaking of that day, uses the wide descriptor “all flesh” (Joel 2.28), that is, all Jewish flesh, without distinction and without exception. The failure to keep the Law will not arise; every Jew will be empowered to live righteously.

Ezekiel, who prophesied at a time when the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, provides some further intelligence. Inasmuch as the future blessings for Israel were to be anchored on earth, with a return to the Land under a Davidic king in accordance with the two covenants that provided for those benefits, it seems right and proper that the greatest blessing that God could provide would be to dwell amongst them. The Mosaic Covenant provided for a Tabernacle ‘that I may dwell among them’ (Exod.25.8). The Davidic Covenant provided for the Temple to be built. The New Covenant will provide for the presence of God upon earth in a future Temple. “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (Ezek. 37:26,27)