The
Renewed Covenant
Jer.
31:31-34, Ezk. 36:26-27, Luke 22:20, Heb. 8:6-13
The
New Testament is Not New
The term “New Testament” is also a bit misleading in
translation as well. A better
translation would be, “The Renewed Covenant” or “Brit Chadashah” in
Hebrew. “New” gives the impression of
“brand new” and the New Testament is not “new” it is just “re-newed.” Because
God does not change and cannot lie, He said His Word, His Law stands forever
through all generations. It confirms and backs up the “Old Testament,” or as we
Jews call it, The Tanak. It is in a
sense a commentary on the Tanak. If you look at the “New Testament” through
Jewish eyes, you will find that there is nothing “new” about it! It is simply a
renewing of all the covenants mentioned in the Tanak.
Many have argued concerning the “literal” meaning of
the Hebrew word for “new.” They say Chadashah means, “new” not “renewed”.
However, a literal translation of a word does not always carry the literal
meaning. We do the same with English words. You must determine meaning upon
overall context. Here is a combined example of a Hebrew and English word used
the same way. The word or phrase “New Moon” in English, and in Hebrew, “Rosh
Kodesh,” does not mean that we literally get a new moon each month, it is just
a figure of speech denoting the cycle of the moon, and in a sense it is
refreshed or renewed each month. However, a literal translation and use of
words would lead one to believe that we literally get a “New” moon each month. The same is to be said about the “New”
Testament.
I realize all analogies are imperfect, break down
and are flawed in some way, but I liken the Renewed Covenant to a remodeled ’57
Chevy. It is an original ’57 Chevy, just
refurbished, remodeled and renewed. When this Chevy owner shows off his car, he
says, “Check out my New Car!” He is not saying that it is brand new, for it is
a 1957 model. The word “New” implies that it is New to him, and that it is a
“Renewed” car. It is not much different
with the “New” Testament. The word “Testament” is a misnomer because it implies
a legal document like a Will, “This is my last will and testament…”, or a
defendant’s testimony. Covenant refers
back to the Torah, which is the Covenant between God and the Children of
Israel, which in turn, is really a Ketuvah (marriage contract) between God and
Israel. Therefore, the term “Renewed Covenant” would be a more accurate
depiction for this important and influential document.
Some have argued that the Renewed Covenant is new,
that Yeshua did teach and promote new things. It may seem that way, but
prophecy revealed and fulfilled seems new to us because we look through a glass
darkly (I Cor. 13:12), so to speak, and do not understand the full scope of a
given prophecies fulfillment. So in the end, it is not new, it has been there
all along, it is just we could not see it until the fulfillment came.
Some may wonder why most of the commandments of the
Torah were not reiterated in the Brit Chadashah (Renewed Covenant/New
Testament). Well, what is already set in stone, what is a hard and fast rule,
what is a given, does not need to be repeated. Most of the commandments
mentioned again in the Renewed Covenant, Yeshua and the Apostles were simply
expounding on, digging out the deeper meaning, and or explaining their
application better.
Speaking of the Ketuvah (Marriage Contract), Israel,
after Solomon, was split up into two kingdoms, or two houses.
1.
The
House of Judah
2.
The
House of Israel, or sometimes referred to as the House of Ephraim, the northern
kingdom. It consisted of what is now
called the Lost 10 Tribes, with Levi and Judah mingled in.
Now Judah Israel
According to Eliezer Shulman in his book, The
Sequence of Events in the Old Testament:
“Abraham was born in the year 1948 from
creation (approx. 2050 BCE). His son of promise Yitzchak, (Isaac) was born one
hundred years later in 2048 from creation (aprox. 1950 BCE). This places the
birth of Yitzchak some 3950 years from the present time. Using 25 years as a
generation means that today we are 158 generations removed from Abraham. Using
40 years per generation, still removes us nearly 100 generations. The number of
ancestors for any single person increases exponentially with each generation
(two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, etc.). Going back
only 40 generations yields a potential of over one trillion direct ancestors
for a single individual. This number far exceeds the total number of people who
ever lived on earth since the beginning of time. With such immense numbers
involved, it should be no surprise that we are all more closely related than
might have been imagined.
Abraham
lived nearly four thousand years ago. Surely, if this statistical model is
anywhere near correct, every person on earth could conceivably be descended
from him, just as Nivrecu Theory suggests. Equally possible is the theory that
every person on earth could be descended from the twelve sons of Ya’acov
(Jacob), the progenitors of the children of Israel.” – Hebrew Roots Issue 2-2,
pg. 20
In Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea (Jer.3:6-8, all of
Hosea, Ezek. 37) the Prophets speak of Judah and Ephraim committing
adultery. Judah was labeled as an
adulteress and Ephraim was divorced from God. Further on, it speaks of Judah
being restored and Ephraim being taken back in the marriage to ADONAI. How did
this happen? By Yeshua Ha Moshiach
(Jesus Christ), the living manifestation of the Torah (The Word of God)! Yeshua, being a Jew, and according to the
Torah, cannot have an adulterous bride, an assimilated gentile bride, or a
bride who has been divorced and remarried.
The reason Adonai the God of Israel divorced Ephraim was because she
committed Idolatry (which is spiritual Adultery) and ended up practicing the
pagan religions around her. In the LORD’s sight, she was married to that pagan
deity and religion. The reason He did
not divorce Judah, but simply labeled her with the stigma of being an
adulteress is because of God’s promise to King David. (1Kings 2:4, 11:31 -40, 2 Sam. 7:12-16) So how did
Yeshua restore Judah
To clarify, many who espouse to the Two House
doctrine believe that the Gentile Christian Church is Ephraim (Israel), but
this is nothing more than another form of replacement theology, meaning that
God is finished with the Jewish people because of their disobedience and
rejection of Messiah and that the Church has replaced Israel and have claimed
all the blessings and promises given to them by God. I do believe that due to the Assyrian Captivity and exile of
Israel that the 10 Tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel are scattered
worldwide and have been assimilated into the various people groups around the
world and some of which have become Christians, but that doesn’t mean all of
Christianity are Israelites, to be sure there is pure Gentile stock in the
Christian Church as well.
The
New Testament Church
It has been said by well-intended Christians, “We
need to get back to the New Testament Church.”
In the past, I have said this very thing. However, there are two things
wrong with this statement. There are two things the “New Testament Church” did
not have. First, they did not have a New Testament. It was not written,
compiled or canonized yet. What Scriptures do you think Rav Sha’ul (Apostle
Paul) was referring to when he told Timothy, “All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2Timothy 3:16, 17 KJV)”?
He, of course, was referring to the Tanak (“Old
Testament”). Secondly, they did not have a Church. They all met in Synagogues
on Sabbath Day (Saturday), the Temple on Biblical Festivals, and in their homes
for Havdalah, a special service officially ending the Sabbath and ushering in a
new week held on Saturday evening at sunset. What the Jews considered the first
day of the Week (Acts 20:7). Because a day in Jewish thinking based on the
Genesis account of Creation which was from sundown to sundown, “and there was
evening and there was morning the first day (Gen. 1:5).”
The Jewish people of today come from (believe it or
not), the Biblical times Pharisaical movement, which is now called Rabbinic and
or Orthodox Judaism. The ancient and
modern day synagogue was modeled after the service Ezra had in the book bearing
his name. Today, it is the main meeting place for Jews, besides the home, since
the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E.
“Church” is a mistranslation in the Scriptures. It is an Anglo-Saxon word “kirke” or “kirch”
which by definition means, “a pagan place of worship.”
That word comes from the pagan deity “Circe.” The
word translated Church in the Scriptures comes from the Hebrew word, “K’hal”
and the Greek word “Ekklesia”, which both mean, “a called out assembly or
congregation.” Therefore, the “church”
did not start in the book of Acts at Shavuot (Pentecost), but B’ney Yisrael
(The Children of Israel) was called the “church” at Mount Sinai (Acts 7:38),
after the Exodus, when the Torah (Law) was given. It is no coincidence that
Shavuot is the commemoration of that very event.
So,
Who was (is) the New Testament “Church”?
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto
you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and
exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints. – Jude 1:3
“We
know from historians, prophecies in Daniel, the Targums (Aramaic loose
interpretations of the Tanach), etc., that many of the Jews in Yeshua's time
were waiting for the Messiah. There were many sects of Judaism-the best known
being the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots-and all of these groups
had many subgroups (probably 24-40 in all according to historians). Each group
had their own distinct doctrines and Judaism was much more diverse than it was
in later centuries. They had different ideas on how to keep Torah, the
inspiration of the rest of the Scriptures and books that now are not in the
Tanach, the calendar, the Messiah, resurrection, etc. They often persecuted
each other, while at times they united against an outside common enemy. They all,
however, acknowledged each other as being legitimately a part of Judaism, not
different religions. The Jews that believed in Yeshua as the Messiah were one
of these sects, totally accepted as part of Judaism.” – Reb Moshe ben Shaul,
“The Nazarenes”
In the first century you had thousands of Jews who
confessed faith in and followed Yeshua (Acts 2:41, 47, 4:4, 6:7, 9:31, 21:20).
They were zealous for Torah (Acts 15:19-21, 21:17-27) and they met in
synagogues (James 1:1, 2:2).
The Original followers of Messiah Yeshua were not
called Christians, but Nazarenes. Not only because they followed Yeshua, the
Rabbi from Nazareth (Matt.2:23) but because He was the “the Branch” which is
the Hebrew word “Netzer” the root word for Nazarene (Isa. 11:1). So the Jewish
sect of those who believed in and followed Rabbi Yeshua the Messiah from
Nazareth were called, Nazarenes, and Rav Sha’ul (the Apostle Paul) was accused
of being one of its leaders (Acts.24:5-6).
Before the term Nazarene (Acts 24:5) set in, it was
called “The Way” (Acts 9:1-2). The word Christian appears in Acts 11:26, 26:26,
and 1 Peter 4:16, but at first it was probably a derogatory name called them by
others and in reference to Gentile Believers, not Jewish Believers. However,
Believers in Yeshua didn't routinely call themselves Christians until 180 AD
and by then it was a totally different group than the group in Acts.
Jerome
The First believers in Messiah Yeshua were a Jewish
sect called the Nazarenes (Acts 11:19; 24:5). Church Father Jerome of the 4th
Century described these Nazarenes as those “…who accept Messiah in such a way
that they do not cease to observe the old Law.” – Jerome; On Isa. 8:14
Jerome got hold of a Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah
and mentions them often:
On Isaiah 8:20-21, 9:1-4, 29:20-21, 31:6-9 he said:
“For the rest the Nazarenes explain the passage in
this way…”
“The Nazarenes, whose opinion I have set forth
above…”
“What we have understood to have been written about
the devil and his angels, the Nazarenes believe…”
“The Nazarenes understand the passage in this way…”
In reference to Jerome’s commentary on Isaiah
mentioning the Nazarenes, Ray A. Pritz who wrote, “Nazarene Jewish
Christianity” says, “It is clear that the Nazarenes consider the final
authority in any such debate to be the Old Testament and not later rabbinic
interpretations.” He says of the Nazarenes attitude in regard to the Apostle
Paul, “In none of the remains of Nazarene doctrine can one find a clear
rejection of Paul or his mission or his message.”
Pritz says of Filaster Bishop of Brecia in regards
to his writings that Filaster did not mention the Nazarenes in his discourse
against heresies and heretics because he did not consider them as such.
Epiphanius
Catholic Church Father Epiphanius said of the
Nazarenes in his work (Epiphanius, “Against Heresies,” Panarion 29, 7 pp 41,
402):
“The
Nazarenes do not differ in any essential thing from the (meaning the Orthodox
Jews) since they practice the customs and doctrines prescribed by Jewish Law;
except that they believe in Christ. They believe in the resurrection of the
dead, and the universe was created by God. They preach that God is One, and
that Jesus Christ is His Son. They are very learned in the Hebrew language.
They read the Law (meaning the Law of Moses)… Therefore they differ…from the true Christians
because they fulfill until now [such] Jewish rites as the circumcision, Sabbath
and others.”
This was written in the 4th century, some
300 years after Yeshua and the original disciples. So we see that the Nazarenes
of the 4th century were the direct descendants of “the faith once
delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3)” by Yeshua and was passed down by His
disciples (apostles). But even though the Nazarenes of the 4th
Century were keeping the original faith passed down to them by Yeshua and the
disciples, they were called, “heretics” by the Church Fathers at that time
because they didn’t adopt the man made traditions of the what was becoming the
Catholic Church.
Marcel Simon and first century expert wrote in Judeo-christianisme,
pp47-48:
“They
(Nazarenes) are characterized essentially by their tenacious attachment to
Jewish observances. If they became heretics in the eyes of the Mother Church,
it is simply because they remained fixed on outmoded positions. They well
represent, (even) though Epiphanius is energetically refusing to admit it, the
very direct descendants of that primitive community, of which our author
(Epiphanius) knows that it was designated by the Jews, by the same name, of
:”Nazarenes.””
The Nazarenes wore the label “Heretic” like a badge
of honor because like Peter and Paul before them they would rather obey God
rather than men (Acts 5:29, Gal. 1:10).
Paul said:
But
this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call a sect (KJV:
heresy), so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are
written in the law (of Moses) and in
the Prophets: - Acts 24:14
No writer before Epiphanius mentions the Nazarenes
because as Ray A. Pritz believes they were not yet seen as heretics.
Justin
Martyr
In Ray A. Pritz’s book, Nazarene Jewish
Christianity, Mr. Pritz examines the writings of the early church fathers. He
said of Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, told Trypho that a
Jew who accepts and believes that Yeshua is the Divine Messiah and continues to
adhere to the Torah (Law) that they should be accepted as brothers in the
Faith. He further says that the point is, believing Yeshua is the Divine
Messiah and not whether or not they kept Torah. This hints to the fact that
they were still Torah Obedient Jewish believers in Messiah Yeshua in Justin
Martyrs time.
Origin
Of Origin, in Contra Celsum that he and Celsus both
knew firsthand of Jews among the Christian Community who believed and accepted
Yeshua as the Divine Messiah and still lived their lives according to the
Torah, but mistook them for Ebionites, who believes Yeshua is Messiah but that
He was not Divine.
Mr. Pritz says that Eusebius mentions the Ebionites
and notes that there are two different kinds of Torah Obedient Ebionites; ones
that believed Yeshua was the Divine Messiah and those who did not. Those who
did could be none other than the Nazarenes!
Taking into consideration the quotes above this
means that modern day Christianity is not nor ever was the original faith of
the followers of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
Augustine
Augustine speaks against the Nazarenes in his
writings in agreement with Epiphanius. In his Treatise de baptismo contra
Donatistas he said, “…just as they persist to the present day who call
themselves Nazarene Christians and circumcise the carnal foreskin in a Jewish
way, were born heretics…”
Theodoret
of Cyrrhus
In haereticrum falularum compendium Theodoret said,
“The Nazarenes are Jews. They honor Christ as a righteous man and use the
Gospel according to Peter…” But some think he confused the Ebionites with the
true Nazarenes because Ebionites believe Christ to be a “righteous man” but not
divine as the Nazarene did.
Jewish
Sources Mentioning Nazarene Judaism
Pritz notes that virtually all references to Yeshu
Ha-nozri (Yeshua the Nazarene) were censored from the Talmud in the middle ages
but a few passages were missed.
In the Babylonian Talmud Avodah Zarah 16b-17a
mentions Yeshu Ha-nozri (Yehuah the Nazarene) and one of his disciples, Jacob
of Kfar Sechanca.
Prayer siddurs (books), The Birkat ha-minim prayer,
censored in the Ashenazi but remains in the Sephardi siddurs, links the minim
(sectarians) to the nozrim (Nazarenes) and says, “…may all the nozrim perish in
a moment.”
The siddur of R. Amram Gaon dating from 1426 reads,
“…may the nozrim and minim be destroyed in a moment.”
Epiphanius in Pan. 29 9, 2, alludes to the cursing
of the Nazarenes in the Jewish prayer siddurs by saying, “However they are very
much hated by the Jews… Three times a day they say: ‘May God curse the
Nazarenes.’”
Jerome wrote Augustine (Ep. 112, 13) telling him
that the Jews of the Eastern synagogues curse the “Minaeans” and mentions that
they are usually called Nazarenes.
So we see not only the church fathers acknowledge
the Jewish sect of the Nazarenes and their beliefs and practices, but so did
the Talmudic and Rabbinic orthodox Jews.
Constantine
Secular History records Emperor Constantine as being
the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. The alleged conversion
supposedly took place in 312 AD while worshiping in the Grove of Apollo the sun
god (Prior to Christianity the official Roman religion was sun god worship
called Mithraism) in Gaul, which is ancient France. Constantine claims to have
had a vision where Christ appeared to him telling him to put “XP” upon the
shields of his troops and the very next day he claims to have seen a cross
superimposed over the sun and heard a voice say, “In this sign you will be
victorious.” Other say the voice said, “In this sign you will conquer.”
Shortly after the Edict of Milan was issued,
officially ending the persecution of Christians.
Despite Constantine’s alleged conversion, he still
worshipped the sun god. You see, Constantine had a divided kingdom of Roman sun
god worshippers and Jewish Believers and Gentile Christians. They lived and
worshipped differently and so in an effort to unify his empire, he simply
changed the times and seasons (Dan. 7:25) in which Christians worshipped to the
days the Romans worshipped their pantheon of gods and was in many ways the
father of the Roman Catholic Church. The various gods were simply substituted
for Mary, Jesus and the saints (apostles).
Convening the Council of Nicaea, Constantine,
through the council was able to blend Christianity and Mithraism to create what
we know today as Roman Catholicism.
Nazarenes were declared anathema to Christ seeing as
they would not submit and convert to this paganized Christianity, but stayed
true to Torah, Yeshua and the teachings of the apostles and were thus hunted
down, thrown to the lions or killed in the arena by the gladiators.
The church of Rome and the Council of Laodicea under
Constantine in Canon 29, 336 AD declared:
“Christians
must not “Judaize” by resting on the Sabbath; but must work on that day,
honoring rather the Lord’s Day [“Sun”day] by resting, if possible, as
Christians. However, if any [Nazarenes] be found “Judaizing” let them be shut
out from Christ.”
And so, ban from Jewish synagogues that denied the
Messiahship of Yeshua, and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church Empire, the
Nazarenes went underground and all but died out.
I could get into how the Roman Catholic Church is
anything but Christian and is pagan to the core, but this is the subject for
another book altogether. Suffice it to say, Protestants woke up and left
Catholicism, yet still maintained certain pagan observances and celebrations
such as Sunday worship, Easter and Christmas, which that too is a topic for
another book. All one has to do is research the pagan origins of the Catholic
Church and their holidays (holy days) and it will be abundantly clear that Easter
and Christmas has nothing to do with Christ. Ask any true pagan or Wiccan and
they will tell you the true origins of those holidays.
Protestant Christianity is like a victim, neck deep
in quicksand (the quicksand being the Catholic Church) and has managed to pull
their torso out of the muck, yet, they are still stuck below the waist. I pray
that this work you are reading will be like a branch in which the Protestant
Church can use to extricate themselves fully from the pagan quicksand of
Catholicism and return to the belief and practice of the true first century
believers, the Nazarenes.
The
Renewed Covenant Prophesied
With this in mind, let us look at the prophetic
passages predicting the Renewed Covenant.
31 Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although
I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my law
in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and
they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord: for they shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more. – Jer. 31:31-34
The word “new” in verse 31 is actually the Hebrew
word for brand new and not renewed. Knowing the previous Covenants, some
unconditional and some conditional and broken, as mentioned in this text, yet
all are still in effect. So what’s “new” about this Covenant?
It’s obvious in verse 32-33 that it is speaking of
the Mosaic Covenant, The Torah, also known as The Law. So again, what’s new,
what’s brand new about this prophetic, predicted Covenant? The difference is
not that the Covenant was annulled or changed, because verse 33 specifically
refers to the Law, the Hebrew word in this verse is Torah. So the Mosaic
Covenant, which is the Torah, still stands and is still in effect. What’s new
is HOW this Covenant is received and observed.
In the past, the Law was given and applied outwardly
and expected to change one inwardly. But we see this didn’t work because it was
broken (v.32). So to truly and fully understand the new aspect, we must look at
the prophetic passage.
26 A new heart also will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my
spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgments, and do them. – Ezk. 36:26-27
The new aspect of the Covenant is that now the Torah
is given and applied inwardly and works itself outwardly in acts and obedience.
How is this accomplished? By the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit)
which changes the heart. The Torah was never been the problem, the heart is.
“Today
under the New Covenant, our relationship to the Law has changed. No longer is
it written on tablets of stone but on our very own hearts, that we might both
intimately know the Law and desire to obey it.” – Rabbi Johnathan Bernis
15 If ye love me, keep
my commandments.
16 And I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for
ever;
17 Even the Spirit of
truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you
comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while,
and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live
also.
20 At that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him… 7 Now they have known that
all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
8 For I have given unto
them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have
known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me.
9 I pray for them: I
pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are
thine.
10 And all mine are
thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as
we are.
12 While I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept,
and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be
fulfilled.
13 And now come I to
thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy
fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy
word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil.
16 They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world. – John 14:15-21, 17:7-16
So we see, the Holy Spirit comes to enable us to
keep the Mosaic Covenant (Torah/Law).
Yeshua announced the ratification of this Covenant
at the Last Passover (supper), sealed it by His blood at the cross (Luke 22:10)
and the fulfillment came in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was delivered and
given.
6 But now hath he
obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7 For if that first
covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second.
8 For finding fault
with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my
covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the
Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not
teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A
new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. – Hebrews 8:6-13
Sadly, this passage has been grossly misinterpreted and
taken out of context, due to the antinomian disposition and bias of
Christendom. The word “better,” in the Greek actually has the connotation and
meaning of stronger, more favorable.
In verses 1-12, again the fault being not with the
Covenant itself, but as mentioned previously; how it was given and received out
to in. Now because of the Holy Spirit the script has been flipped and the
Covenant is now given from inside out. The word “new” in verse 8 is the Greek
word for “renewed.” The Covenant being renewed is the Mosaic Covenant. It’s no
mistake, the focus is the Mosaic Covenant, the Torah, because the Greek word
for law (nomos) is the Hebrew word for Torah.
This passage is virtually identical to our Jer.
31:31-34 passage:
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6 But now hath he
obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7 For if that first
covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second.
8 For finding fault
with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to
the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in
my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not
teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A
new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. – Hebrews 8:6-13
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31 Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah:
32 Not according to
the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they
brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days,
saith the Lord, I will put
my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their
God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall
teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord: for they
shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
the Lord: for I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. – Jer.
31:31-34
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Verse 13 in Hebrew 8 throws everyone off and makes
it seem as if the Torah has been done away with, but as we have clearly
established in this work, as well as in my previous book, “Get Back to the
First Century,” it has not. So then, what is “old and vanishing away?” The way
the Covenant is observed and obeyed! The first way that is “old and vanishing”
was observed outwardly and then taken internally. This did not work and why the
Covenant was broken. The new way, that renews the Covenant and makes it
“better” and more powerful and favorable is that the Holy Spirit comes into us
and enables us to inwardly receive the Torah and it changes us from the inside
out and works its way out in our works and acts that set us apart (sanctifies
us) and preserves our faith (James 1:22-25, 2:17-18).
The Renewed Covenant is all about the conditional
Mosaic Covenant of Torah. The Torah has been renewed and improved upon by the
coming of the sinless Messiah who kept the Torah perfectly and through His
atoning death showed us and enabled us to walk in His footsteps by walking and
following in the Torah.
So why is it conditional? Deut. 27-28 spells out the
blessings given us on the condition we are obedient to His Commands and curses
that will fall upon us if we are disobedient to His Commands.
Conclusion
As we have seen and proven beyond the shadow of a
doubt the Seven Covenants in the Bible are eternal, in effect and applicable to
every Believer in Messiah Yeshua. They build upon one another to form a solid
and stable ladder in which one can have and maintain a proper relationship with
God and God and have and maintain a proper relationship with us.
