I have read Hebrews several times, but this last time several chapters really caught my attention, it was like each word was coming off the page at me in BIG BRIGHT LIGHTS. For many years, I held this belief that the 'New Covenant' simply meant with Yeshua's death and resurrection, that the 'Old Covenant' or 'Torah' was done away with, and that we are all covered by grace. Grace is a wonderful thing, but it should not be taken for granted. Surely if you have a 'New Covenant' then the 'old' is done away with, or is it?
Hebrews 8:7 - For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: "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 when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of the them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Looking more closely at the scriptures, and reading each word, each line, yes there is a 'New Covenant', but it is a spiritual one 'written on our hearts'. Yes there is a New Covenant, but it is not the same Covenant most of us are taught in our Churches. Instead, it is a 'refreshed covenant'.
What Elohim had in store for us when he sent His Son was to do away with the Levitical Priesthood and constant sacrificial system by providing us, his beloved children, a once-and-for-all sacrifice in His Son, Yeshua. In return, He asked that 'we put His Laws in our minds and write them on our hearts'. Elohim is distinguishing his people by those who are keeping his commandments , not because they are written down in a physical sense and he told us to, but because our love for our Father and Yeshua instills a spiritual bond in us, and we want to keep His Commandments out of love. The very thing Yeshua asked us to do.........Love!
So what exactly are those Commandments Elohim asks of us? The Commandments of the 'Torah'. Elohim's teaching, or instruction, for how his people are to live. The same Torah that had been preached from Moses and carried on when Yeshua was teaching. The Torah was the instruction manual for a healthy, long-lived, and bountiful life; and it hasn't changed, not one jot or tittle!!!!
Written by: Charles S. Pindell IV
Great post, I read Hebrews 8 as well. My question to you involves the next verse that says
ReplyDelete13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
This seems to suggest a new covenant that replaces the old one. In your study what was your take on this verse?
Anonymous -
ReplyDeleteI think you are still glossing over the text in verse 10. The Church has taught to take one scripture out of a chapter and make a sermon out of it, without understanding the whole context of what is being said. The context of Hebrews is about the sacrificial system going away, not the whole Law. The New Covenant is to take the Old Commandments and insert them spiritually on our hearts. So we are now to walk spirtually with our Father, following His Commandments out of Love. You see most people I know don't have a problem with the Law, at least some of them; don't steal, don't commit adultery, etc. The problem comes in when we have to start obeying ALL of them.
He has taken those Commandments (old) and put them on our hearts (new). So not only does He do away with the sacrifical system (Hebrews 10 v8-9), as Yeshua was the last sacrifice of all time, but he asks us to 'renew' the Covenant by keeping His Commandments. John 14:15 says the same thing, "If you love me, you will keep my commands" (David Stern's Complete Jewish Bible).