Tag Archives: New Covenant

Redemption: The Strong Arm of YHVH to Save His People (pt 2)

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Exodus 6:6–7, I will. Now let’s explore the concept of redemption as it applies to the four cups of wine drunk during the Passover (Pesach) Seder. The first four “I wills” of Exodus 6:6–7 are central to the Passover Seder. The four cups in the Passover Seder represent the four I wills that YHVH declares over Israel:

Yeshua the Redeemer is the Lamb of Elohim

Yeshua the Redeemer is the Lamb of Elohim

1. “I will bring you out” is represented in the Cup of Sanctification.

2. “I will rid you out of their bondage” is represented in the Cup of Deliverance.

3. “I will redeem you” is represented in the Cup of Redemption.

4. “I will take you to me” is represented in the Cup of Praise or Completion. This last cup is marriage language. He is taking Israel to be his bride. We still use this type of language in our modern marriage ceremony.

The Abrahamic Covenant has seven “I wills” from YHVH as well:

“And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” And Abram fell on his face, and Elohim talked with him, saying, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations [Strong’s H14871, goyim]. Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made you. And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations [goyim, or “a nation, people, a confluence, a body politic”] of you, and kings shall come out of you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be an Elohim unto you, and to your seed after you. And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their Elohim.” (Gen 17:2–8, emphasis added)

The Renewed Covenant of the Testimony of Yeshua also has seven “I wills” from YHVH:

“Behold, the days come,” says YHVH, “that 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 bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was an husband unto them,” says YHVH, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days,” says YHVH, “I will put my law [or Torah] in their inward parts, and [I will] write it in their hearts; and will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know YHVH,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says YHVH, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31:31–34, emphasis added)

This last covenant is the one that Yeshua is in the process of making with redeemed Israel. He started the process at his last supper (Matt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:25). This process continues to this day (Heb 8:8–13), and will be finalized after Yeshua’s second coming (Ezek 34:25; 37:26; Jer 32:40; 50:5). This covenant is Yeshua’s marriage covenant with his blood-bought bride—redeemed Israel, the saints.

Please note that each successive covenant YHVH makes with his people is based on and is an expansion of the previous covenant/s. The concept of YHVH redeeming his people from sin is an ancient one, yet is constantly expanding and extending into the future. YHVH’s love and outreach to his people knows no limits!

 

The Abrahamic Covenant Revisited

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Genesis 12:1, Elohim’s covenant with Abraham. In the recent past on this blog, I inserted several teachings on the Abrahamic Covenant and how this covenant serves as the model for the process by which we as New Covenant believers are redeemed. If you didn’t have a chance to read them, or would like to refresh your understanding, I invite you to read them now.

To access these posts, either use the search and find box at the top of this page by typing in “Abrahamic Covenant,” or click on the phrase “Abrahamic Covenant” in the tag cloud on the right side of this page. Either way, all my past posts on this subject will pop up.

Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant is beneficial to your spiritual understanding in several ways.

  • It shows the character and nature of Elohim and how he relates to men legally.
  • It shows how the salvation of the redeemed believer is rooted in the Torah and, specifically, the Abrahamic Covenant. It’s not an invention of the Apostle Paul or the New Testament Christians.
  • We see the consistency  of the Word of Elohim from beginning to end, and the immutable nature of Elohim.
  • It will help you to understand the background of what Paul is saying in the Epistle to the Romans—especially in chapter 4.

Happy reading!

 

The Old Vs. the New Covenants

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According to Jeremiah 31, the new covenant will be made after YHVH has gathered (or redeemed, v. 11) all the families of Israel (v. 1; i.e., the houses Ephraim or Israel [i.e., Christians] and Judah [i.e., the Jews], vv. 9, 20, 27, 31) who will be returning from the north country, the coasts of the earth and the isles (vv. 8, 10) back to Zion with joy, singing and dancing (vv. 12–13, 24). This will occur after Ephraim repents (v. 20) of Torahlessness, and YHVH’s daughter turns away from her backsliding (vv. 21–22), and upon coming out her captivity in the end times (v. 23; in spiritual Egypt or Babylon the great).  At that time, YHVH will make a new covenant with the two houses of Israel (vv. 31–33), and all Israel will know Elohim from the least to the greatest. This prophecy has yet to be fulfilled.

The author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31–33 (Heb 8:7–13) asserting that the new covenant is the same covenant about which Jeremiah prophesied. From that author’s perspective (Heb 8:13), the new covenant isn’t fully in place yet, and the first covenant is decaying (wearing out), growing old and vanishing away (disappearing). The implication is that the old covenant has not totally gone away yet (see also 2 Cor  3:11).

We know that Yeshua initiated the new covenant at his Passover seder called the last supper (Luke 22:20). This covenant has been given to believers in Yeshua, but it hasn’t been universally applied to all Israel yet. This will occur when the two houses of Israel will return to the Promised Land after they have been set free from spiritual Babylon at Yeshua’s second coming.

YHVH’s Word tells us that no man can add to or subtract from the terms of the old covenant (Gal 3:15). Although YHVH made this covenant with men, it is a divine covenant, and YHVH himself (not men) determines its terms and conditions! When Yeshua initiated the new covenant at his Passover, the old covenant and the Torah were still in force, and not one jot or tittle will be removed from the Torah until heaven and earth pass away (Matt 5:18). The Torah determines the terms of both the old and new covenants. Any traditions that have come into the Christian (Sunday, Christmas, etc.) or Jewish religious systems that are contrary to the Torah are men’s additions, and are therefore invalid and irrelevant.

Even as there was a gradual process of phasing into the first (or old) covenant, the same is true of the new covenant. With the former covenant, the Israelites put the blood of the lamb on their door posts at Passover, prepared themselves to meet YHVH at Mount Sinai (Exod 19), were then presented with the terms and conditions of the Sinai covenant at Shavuot (Exod 20–23), and then the covenant was ratified (Exod 24). After that, subsequent generations of Israelites automatically entered into that covenantal agreement as they were born (Deut 29:12–15) even as Americans, for example, are still bound to the U.S. Constitution many generations after its ratification.

Similarly, Yeshua initiated the new covenant with Israel in his day when his blood was put on the door posts (the cross) at Passover, then wrote his Torah (the terms and conditions of the new covenant) on their hearts by his Spirit on Pentecost. This began the process of regathering scattered and adulterous Israel back to YHVH through the blood of Yeshua the Lamb of Elohim.

When the process of regathering Israel is finally completed (during the Millennium). YHVH will finalize his new covenant agreements with them. It will be called the everlasting covenant (Jer 32:40; Ezek 37:26; Isa 55:3) or the covenant of peace (Isa 54:10; Ezek 34:25; see also 59:10; Hos 2:19–19).