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Sunday: Behold the Days are Coming… — 8 Comments

  1. Jeremiah provides us with the first mention of the idea of a new covenant. I'm presenting the passage here in its entirety in a modern translation because I think it makes the big picture clear:

    The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new contract with the people of Israel and Judah. It won’t be like the one I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a contract they broke, forcing me to reject them, says the Lord. But this is the new contract I will make with them: I will inscribe my laws upon their hearts, so that they shall want to honor me;* then they shall truly be my people and I will be their God. At that time it will no longer be necessary to admonish one another to know the Lord. For everyone, both great and small, shall really know me then, says the Lord, and I will forgive and forget their sins. Jer 31:31-34 TLB

    Clearly, God wants heart-based, not rule-based obedience. It is not an argument about which laws are binding or what is done away with at the cross. It is the strategic plan for living a saved life now; not a guide to acquiring heavenly real estate.

    It is interesting that the only other mention of the new covenant are found in Hebrews and they are clearly referring back to the words of Jerimiah.

    Jeremiah has a couple of other things to say that clearly relate to the idea of the new covenant and its big ticket issues:

    You may remain under these conditions only: If you stop your wicked thoughts and deeds and are fair to others; if you stop exploiting orphans, widows, and foreigners, and stop your murdering; if you stop worshiping idols as you do now to your hurt, then, and only then, will I let you stay in this land that I gave to your fathers to keep forever. Jer 7:5-7 TLB

    And finally Micah's message:

    He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV

    When we get this love for God and one another right, then we have a case for keeping Sabbath. Otherwise, all we have is a cerebral argument

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  2. We sometimes summarize the 2nd renewed Covenant with God's people in the following theological terms:
    Sanctification
    Reconciliation
    Knowledge of God
    Justification

    However what do they really mean and how do they affect our daily lives? Secondly why are they listed in that order? And thirdly are these concepts also found in the 1st Covenant with Israel?

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  3. Today we have two class of Sabbath keepers.
    1.The law being inscribed in their heart is an internal matter that is felt only by that faithful believer whose heart pumps that sanctified blood and he knows who he is.
    2.This class is merely a Saturday keeper and goes to keep the day because the Bible says so.

    People with sanctified blood acts in mysterious ways that is only provoked by the spirit that works with this blood type. You might mistaken them as being radical to your religious class#2.

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  4. “Behold the Days are coming ..” is spoken as Israel suffers through her time of exile, having been scattered to all nations and isles afar off. He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock– Jer.31:10KJV.
    How will God change the heart and mind of Israel when He returns them to their homeland, what will make the difference between the old Covenant and the new one?
    Israel’s Shepherd will transfer His laws from the tablets of stone and put them in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.. Jer.31:33KJV.

    Whose law is this? It is the Creator God's law, transfering it through His spirit onto the willing believer’s heart and mind. The new Covenant reflects God’s original guidance for righteous living as it works in us, establishing in us the new heart and mind by our faith. Now we can know God with our heart and mind as we live according to his Will.
    Now, everyone searching for God’s Truth and Righteousness can recognize His voice. This is the crucial difference between the old Covenant’s ways of transmission of His laws versus the new one. Now God’s laws are directly accessible, imbedded in our conscience; being our companion wherever we are to alert us or to confirm us in our ways.

    Rom.2:13-29KJV speaks to the difference between the law written on tablets of stone verses the law written on the hearts and minds of man.
    v.14-15 -”For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts between themselves while accusing or else excusing one another;
    v.28-29 - ”For he is not a Jew, which in one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

    (6)
    • Hello Brigitte Humphrey,
      Your contribution really helped me get the Sunday Lesson very well but I want a little more light.
      You said:

      Now that I am under the new Covenant, we can know God with our heart and mind as we live according to his Will and that everyone searching for God’s Truth and Righteousness can recognize His voice

      and then you said

      This is the crucial difference between the old Covenant’s ways of transmission of His laws versus the new one

      you went further to say that

      Now God’s laws are directly accessible, imbedded in our conscience; being our companion wherever we are to alert us or to confirm us in our ways.

      How was it then under the Old Covenant?

      (1)
      • I appreciate your inquiry, Bawa – After reading Rom.2:13-29, I understood the context of Rom.2:15KJV better. My comments quoted those Scripture verses which state the difference between observance of the letter of the law versus observance by the spirit of the Law best – the old Covenant versus the New Covenant.

        You ask: How was it then under the Old Covenant?
        As I understand it, this depended on the person either living by the spirit of the law – establishing a Father-Child relationship with God - or just living/observing the letter of the law/covenant by obedience to the law and not to the Lawgiver. Rom.28-29 states this best - the law gradually became separated from its Lawgiver.
        Living under the Old Covenant - observing the letter of the law became limited to fulfilling the demands of the on stone written words, promoted and enforced by the priesthood and the religious system of that time through punishment; the reward was not immediately observable, but the punishment administered through their religious system was. In a way, the Law became their god.
        But even then, living by the Spirit of God’s law had the power to built the individual’s personal relationship with the Lawgiver. Yes, God's transformative spirit was at work at that time as well, but the heart and mind of most of them were still encased in the hard shell of the old ways of living and religious observances.

        The new Covenant -
        The Father’s spirit endeavors to inspire us to live His way because we love Him, are greatful in return for our salvation, not out of obedience through fear of retribution or some type of reward.
        He wants us to experience His Glory by the motivation of faithful love for Him as His plan for our Salvation is being worked out in our inner parts, our heart and mind.
        Now, through Christ Jesus’ living testimony, the aim of the law has become clear. It is meant to establish the personal, spiritual, transformative relationship with the Father through His Son and His way of Life and Light which transforms us into His Image.
        His way becomes our ‘natural’ way as we are being sanctified.

        (4)
  5. I know I am posting this a bit late. What I do not understand is why this lesson does NOT deal with Ezekiel 36:16-37. It gives the back ground and reason for the New Covenant.

    “16 ¶ Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. 18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: 19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. 20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. 21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. 22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 ¶ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 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. 28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. 36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. 37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.” (Ezekiel 36:16-37)

    They, His people brought shame upon the God they CLAIMED to serve no matter where they were! God had to vindicate HIS name because of HIS people! Has anything changed?

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  6. Behold the Days are Coming…..

    My question. Those words were spoken more than 2500yrs ago. The days are coming, but are we still looking for those days? Has those days here already and we miss the 'boat'? What does those words in Jer 31:31-34 meant, and at what time is its fulfilment, or were they already fulfilled, or are they ongoing? Or are the yet to come?
    To me, when did/does the New Covenant began? All of those words and language points to Jesus who would have/came and was a perfect example, showing us that it is possible to live a life without sin although we are sinners by birth and by nature. Christ came as humans with all the tendencies to sin, yet he choose not to sin. He was the perfect example and the perfect fulfillment of have the laws dwell within his heart. No one told him how to live or how to keep his father laws. He lived a sinless life. We, humans choose to sin. Many times we doubt the power of Jesus to keep us from sinning.

    (2)

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