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INDEX
God means business with people. Every time He creates a covenant with man,
this fact is highlighted.
The first time God made a covenant with man was when He made a covenant with
Noah, to ensure their safety during the coming flood. Then He makes a covenant
with all people saying that there will never be such a widespread flood ever
again. He names the rainbow as the covenant between them. Reason? When it rains,
the rays of the sun breaks up in the rain and creates a rainbow, thereby
ensuring that every time it rains, man is reminded of the fact that God will
never allow a flood to destroy everything again.
Then God makes a covenant with Abram, giving him his own land.
Then God makes another covenant with Abraham:
GEN 17:7 And I will establish
my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for
an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;
and I will be their God.
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and
thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed
after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
This is where God establishes another sign, the circumcision. Like in the
last covenant when God established the rainbow as the sign, He establishes
another sign for this covenant for an everlasting remembrance.
God specifically states that this covenant of His will be established with
Isaac:
GEN 17:19 And God said,
Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac:
and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with
his seed after him.
And so God passes on this covenant to the next generation via specific
children of Abraham. First Isaac, then Jacob and so on. Why was this covenant
not with the other brothers and sisters as well? Because this covenant was
pointing to the eventual Child who would establish this covenant - Jesus Christ.
What is this covenant?
EXO 19:5 Now therefore, if ye
will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all
the earth is mine:
This whole covenant pointed to the fact that we would a special treasure to
Him, but we need to obey His voice.
This covenant had rules over and above the sign, and that was written up in
the ten commandments.
DEU 4:13 And he declared
unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments;
and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
This means that the rules of the Old Covenant is the 10 commandments. While
people obeyed the ten commandments, they were safe. If they sinned, they could
sacrifice and that would take care of that sin - already pointing to the New
Testament.
DEU 7:12 Wherefore it shall
come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the
LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto
thy fathers:
13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also
bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy
wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep,
in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female
barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the
evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon
all them that hate thee.
DEU 8:18 But thou shalt
remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is
this day.
If people obeyed the 10 commandments, the following would happen:
- He will love them
- He will bless them
- He will bless your children
- He will bless you in your work
- He will bless us more that the people around us
- Everything we touch will be fruitful
- He will take away all sickness
- None of the plagues that ruined Egypt will come on us
- He will lay those plagues on the people that hate us
- He will give us the power to obtain wealth
If people sin against us, we should rejoice at the opportunity to show God
that He should forgive us like we forgive them. We should also have pity on them
because everything they do will be touched by ruin.
So we have to play a part and God has to play His part.
But then something went wrong: We broke His covenant by not obeying the
rules. This was when He decided to make a new covenant with us that would
replace the old covenant:
JER 31:31 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.
The old covenant is no longer valid, and neither are the rules of that
covenant. They had the law, we have grace - which is far stricter than the law.
In the old testament people were forced by law to refrain from doing wrong and
forced to doing the right things. The new covenant now expects of us to listen to the Spirit and
obey. We no longer have a table of rules, we have the law in our hearts and the
Holy Spirit working through our conscience.
The old testament was like children living in a house with strict rules. The
new testament is like a child who has just left home and has been set free from
the rules of the household of his parents. The child no longer has the rules of
the home, neither has the child total freedom to do anything he or she wants to
do. There are still rules, but they have now become more subtle. If we
misbehave, we will attract other people that do the same. This will take us down
a hill many people has gone down to never return again.
The Lord will put His laws into our minds. We will not have to meditate on
these laws day and night, for the Holy Spirit will be in us, reminding us of
these laws, IF ONLY WE DECIDE TO BE LED BY THE SPIRIT.
He will be our deity, we will be His people. His Holy Spirit will be with us
at all times, guiding us etc. - see Holy Spirit
In this new covenant, we have been set totally free from anything that binds
us. This includes people, denominations, possessions and any other thing that
can cause us to become anxious and scared.
It is important to understand who this house of Israel and the house of Judah
is before we start this Bible study. If you do not know that this is us
(Christians) that the Bible is talking about, you need to study Abraham's
Seed.
Suffice to say that the New Covenant has been set up with the human race,
whether you choose to ignore it or not.
JOH 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
This does not state that only the rich and famous or people with high profile
jobs like Pastors will go to heaven. It states pretty clearly that it is only
those who believe on Him will never die.
It is also important to understand that the old covenant God made with the
Israelites as well as the circumcision as a sign of this covenant, has been
replaced - not because God changed His mind, but because we could not follow the
directions of this old covenant.
This new covenant now has different rules and signs. Let us look at the
Communion table:
1CO 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he
brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do
in remembrance of me.
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This
cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me.
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's
death till he come.
THE BREAD
The bread is a sign of His body that was broken for us. In the film "The
Passion of Christ", Jesus is portrayed as a person who was badly beaten. But
this film did not show you the real truth, because most people would not have
been able to stomach the real truth. Jesus was, in reality, so badly beaten that
his face was unrecognisable as one belonging to a human being.
But that is not all. If we have a look at some other Scriptures, we find
interesting things like:
ISA 53:5 But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
His suffering was not for nothing, it was part of the punishment that Jesus
took upon Himself. He not only took away our sins, but He was badly bruised in
order for us to receive physical healing.
What happens if we do not believe that we have received physical healing for
our bodies?
THE WINE
The sign of the new
covenant is the wine at the communion table:
Luk 22:20 Likewise also the cup
after supper, saying, This cup
is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
So the circumcision has been replaced by the wine. This time it is not man's
blood that needed to flow, it was the blood of Jesus Christ!
Those who are children of God are led by the Spirit of God. In order for us
to be led by the Spirit of God, we need to recognise His voice. In order to do
that, we need to spend time with Him. There are no rules that are written down
anywhere in our homes or work to state how many hours we need to spend with Him,
but the evidence is there for all to see if we do not spend enough time with
Him.
Are there rules in the kingdom of heaven? Sure there are - but we will not
find it on paper, we will find it in our hearts, because in the new covenant the
law is written on our hearts. There are however some basic rules that we need to
abide by, but more of that later.
Becoming still before God enables us to hear His voice. We do not have to
spend hours in His presence. How much time do we need to spend with Him? Until
we can hear and distinguish His voice. How will we know that we are being led by
His Spirit? We will know. We will see His blessing on our lives and everybody
else will see it too.
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