CHAPTER 3
Examining the prophecies of the Old Testament you are soon struck by an inescapable fact; God knew Israel would not keep the Sinai Covenant. In the Book of Deuteronomy is a graphic prophecy listing the plagues which would result from that failure. One prediction was that the land would become a burning wasteland without so much as a blade of grass. Observing what happened to the land, the neighboring nations asked,
Why has the Lord done thus to the Land? Why this great outburst of anger? Then they say, "Because they FORSOOK THE COVENANT of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 29:22-25).
If God knew the Sinai Covenant was destined to fail, why did He propose it? The answer is that the Sinai Covenant was vital in preparing the way for the final plan of redemption—the New Covenant. Before Israel could accept that plan, however, the people needed training and understanding, and the Sinai Covenant was the perfect tutor.
In what areas was Israel lacking understanding? For one thing, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been intimately acquainted with God, but 400 years later, the Israelites in Egypt hardly knew Him. They knew nothing about His character or what He expected of them. They weren't aware that He was holy and required that men be holy too. Nor did they realize He held men and nations accountable for their disobedience.
In addition, the Israelites had no knowledge of sin and its power over them. The self-confident manner in which they vowed to obey God and keep all His commandments revealed their ignorance in the matter. Three times they vowed, "All the words the Lord has spoken we will do."
The Israelites believed they could live up to whatever standards God imposed. Ironically, that belief persists today—for Jews and Gentiles alike. Ask the average person why God should allow him to enter the Kingdom of heaven, and the most common response will be that he has tried to keep the Ten Commandments. Moreover, it is assumed that if you fall short of those standards, God will make allowances if you are sincerely trying.
That mentality is why God employed the Sinai Covenant. Its primary work was (1) to show Israel what constituted sin, (2) to make them aware how sin permeated their lives, and (3) to make them see how powerless they were because of it. As specific commandments were given in the Law, the Israelites gained first hand knowledge of the meaning of sin. As the Apostle Paul wrote,
I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said "You shall not covet" (Romans 7:7).
The Law also led to some unexpected discoveries about human nature. Not only did the Israelites learn they could not keep the Law, they found it actually incited greater rebellion. A personal experience will illustrate. During my army days, I was stationed at a base in Maryland. All about were signs which read, "Keep Off The Grass." Though it had never before been a strong desire, I found myself looking for opportuni ties to walk on the grass. That is how the law affects sinful men.
The lowest point in Israel's history came when God judged them for breaking the Covenant. God had sent prophet after prophet, each warning of judgment if Israel did not keep the Covenant. At last the day came when the warnings became reality. Then, every curse listed in the Sinai Covenant was brought to bear upon Israel. And to Israel's dismay, there was no relief once the judgments began. God said that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were standing in Israel's midst praying for the Nation, He would deliver only the three of them.
"I, the Lord have spoken; it is coming and I shall act. I shall not relent, and I shall not pity, and I shall not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I shall judge you," declares the Lord (Ezekiel 24:14).
It is an undeniable fact that God knew the Sinai Covenant would be broken. The prophets consistently foretold that it would happen. With tears they warned Israel to repent. Because they refused to listen, God said He would forsake the Nation and bring judgment on the Land and its people. He even identified which nation He would use to accomplish that judgment; the King of Babylon would subdue the house of Judah, and the people would be forced to serve him in exile for 70 years. Ironically, at the same time He vowed to destroy Israel through Babylon, God also vowed to destroy the Babylonians. God may raise up nations to judge Israel, but He never forgets His covenant with Abraham. (Remember how He promised Abraham, "I will curse those who curse you.")
As the judgments of the Sinai Covenant began, the message of the prophets changed. Instead of judgment and calamity, their words became filled with promises of a glorious future. This should not have come as a surprise, for God said He would not punish Israel forever. What was this message of hope? What word of comfort did God have for the Nation as it was being carried away into captivity?
"As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:28).
"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:1).
This Covenant is perhaps the single greatest key to understanding the Bible. The Book of Hebrews refers to it as "a better Covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second" (Hebrews 8:6-7).
The promises were better because this time there were no conditions attached. Unlike the covenant He made with their forefathers at Mount Sinai, Israel would have no requirements in order to receive the blessings God promised. Another improvement was that this covenant was an everlasting one. Since there were no grounds for changing the agreement, its promises would naturally endure forever.
Following is a list of God's New Covenant responsibilities. Since this covenant is unconditional, all these provisions are absolute and irrevocable for anyone in the New Covenant.
New Covenant Promises to INDIVIDUALS:
1. God will give them a new heart.
He will remove their hearts of stone and will replace them with new hearts of flesh. God will overcome their rebellious natures, and they will desire to obey and please Him (see Ezekiel 36:26).
2. God will write His Law in their hearts.
The Law of the Old Covenant had been written on tablets of stone. This time God would write it on their hearts (see Jeremiah 31:33).
3. God will put His Spirit within them.
The Holy Spirit of God will join together with the spirit of men. This Divine indwelling will produce a people whose nature is to obey the Lord. In all their activities they will be led by the Spirit of God, and they will be careful not to displease or disappoint Him. Love and gratitude will be the motives for their actions. (See Ezekiel 36:26-27).
4. "I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
In Hosea's time, God divorced Himself from the children of Israel. When the New Covenant arrives, He will receive them back (Jeremiah 31:33).
5. All Israel will know the Lord.
Under the Old Covenant, only the priests approached God. Some day He will be accessible to everyone. In that day knowledge of God will no longer be second hand (see Jeremiah 31:34).
6. Their iniquity will be forgiven and their sins forgotten.
God will cleanse all wickedness from them. The instances where they fell short will be forgotten. The evil they did do, God will remove as far as the East is from the West. (See Jeremiah 31:34). "I will sprinkle clean water on you (Israel), and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols" (Ezekiel 36:25). Moreover, in the days to come the children of Israel will no longer suffer for the sins of their forefathers. Each person will suffer only for the sins he commits. Old Covenant regulations will end when the New Covenant is established (see Jeremiah 31:29-30).
As every follower of Messiah recognizes, these are elements of what is known as being born again. Yet, they are all Old Testament promises to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It is curious that Christians know so much about being born again, and so little about the new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, when they are one in the same!
Shortly before the Babylonian captivity ended, the prophet Daniel was pondering the fate of his people, the Jews. But he did more than ponder; he also prayed. In response, the angel Gabriel delivered a comprehensive prophecy on the future of the Jewish people. In it, God revealed to Daniel exactly when and how He would establish the promised New Covenant. But you ask, since he didn't mention it, how do we know the angel was speaking of the New Covenant? We know by the content of the promises he made. Most prophecy students spend a lot of time in the ninth chapter of Daniel. Few, however, have noticed the heart of the New Covenant tucked neatly into the promises of verse 9:24. In this section the angel revealed what God had destined for Daniel's people:
Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, (1) to finish the transgression, (2) to make an end of sin, (3) to make atonement for iniquity, (4) to bring in everlasting righteousness, (5) to seal up vision and prophecy, and (6) to anoint the most holy place (Daniel 9:24).
On closer examination, we will see that the promises in Daniel's prophecy are identical with the promises of the coming New Covenant. That should come as no surprise. Since the fall of Jerusalem seventy years earlier, there was but one hope for the house of Israel and the house of Judah. That was the promise of another covenant. To confirm this understanding, let's list the promises of Daniel 9:24. After each is a well known New Covenant promise from another portion of Scripture.
(1) Finishing the transgression. The apostasy and rebellion of the Israelites will become part of the past:
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).
(2) Make an end of sin. God will remove the sins of Israel from His sight:
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols (Ezekiel 36:25).
(3) Make atonement for iniquity. God will provide an appropriate sacrifice to cover Israel's sins.
But He [Messiah], having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12).
(4) Bring in everlasting righteousness. God Himself will produce a righteousness in the people of Israel.
And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances (Ezekiel 36:27).
(5) Seal up vision and prophecy. Most of the revelation in the Old Testament concerned the Sinai Covenant. The prophets covered at length the history of Israel's unfaithfulness to that Covenant and the resulting judgments. With the coming of Messiah and the New Covenant, God closed that chapter in Israel's history.
When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
He [Messiah] takes away the first [covenant] in order to establish the second (Hebrews 10:9).
(6) Anoint a most holy place. There is no definite article, so this phrase does not refer to the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Rather, anointing here refers to a special work of the Spirit of God. It is the promise of God's pouring out His Spirit on the Jews in Israel.
And I will put My Spirit within you... (Ezekiel 36:27).
Part of Gabriel's message was a precise time table for the coming covenant. Daniel was told it would come during a specified period in the future. The period was designated as "Seventy Weeks," and it would begin on the day a decree was issued to rebuild Jerusalem. The phrase "Seventy Weeks" meant seventy periods of seven years, which was another way of saying 490 years. The angel was revealing that by the end of that period, the promised New Covenant would be in force. As we look closer at the divisions in the "Seventy Weeks," some remarkable prophecy is unearthed.
So you [Daniel] are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing... (Daniel 9:25-26)
7 weeks (49 years)..................Jerusalem will be rebuilt under distressful conditions.
62 weeks (434 years)................Messiah will be cut off and have nothing (the Old Covenant ends).
1 week (7 years).....................Begins when Messiah is cut off.
Total: 70 weeks (490 years)
A compelling demonstration of the accuracy of the Bible is found in the divisions of the seventy weeks. In his book, Armageddon, Appointment With Destiny, Grant Jeffrey, makes the following observations. He points out that 69 weeks (7 weeks plus 62 weeks) covers the period from King Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild Jerusalem, to the time Messiah is cut off. From the Talmud and from Nehemiah 2:1, he determined the exact date King Artaxerxes issued his decree. It was March 14, 445 B.C.
After Daniel's first 69 weeks (69 X 7), Messiah is cut off. That makes a total of 483 years. You find the number of days by multiplying 483 years by 360. This gives us exactly 173,880 days.
Now calculate in calendar years the period from March 14, 445 B.C., (the day of the Decree), through the day Messiah was rejected by His people, which was April 6, A.D. 32. Now, March 14, 445 B.C. to March 13, 32 A.D. = 476 years. Multiply that by 365 and you get 173,740 days. Now add the number of days from March 13, A.D. 32, to Palm Sunday, when Jewish leaders rejected Jesus as their Messiah, (April 6, A.D. 32). That is 24 days. Finally, add in the number of leap days during that period. According to the Royal Observatory, that is 116 days. When these are all totaled, we get exactly 173,880 days!
In other words, Daniel's prophecy was accurate to the day. God controlled the timing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem as well as the timing of Jesus' rejection as Messiah. This means that from the beginning, God has been in complete control of the redemptive process—down to the effective day of the new covenant. It also means the Jews who are still looking for Messiah's first coming would do well to study the writings of Daniel.
All the elements of Daniel 9:24 were accomplished with the coming of the New Covenant. In the Book of Hebrews, we are told that Messiah was the mediator of that New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15). In fact, He was anointed for that very purpose. But it was His death that put the long-awaited Covenant in force. "For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it." So, at Messiah's death, all the promises listed in Daniel 9:24 became immediately available to the people of Israel.
It is noteworthy that the Covenant was made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah—not the church. Yet, many believe that because Israel rejected Him as Messiah and king, Jesus removed the house of Israel and the house of Judah from the New Covenant and replaced them with the church. As support they quote the words of Messiah when he said that the kingdom of God would be taken away from Israel and given to a nation producing the fruit of it (see Matthew 21:43).
While it is true that the nation of Israel was set aside (temporarily), the covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah was not set aside. Think about it. Who were the first converts? Were they not all from the house of Judah? In fact, it was some time before there was such a thing as a Gentile Christian. And even then, the Apostle Paul went to great lengths to insure that those Gentile converts knew where they stood concerning the promises made to Israel.
...remember that you were separate from Christ [Messiah], excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13).
In the Book of Romans, Paul made an analogy which should have set the record straight. Gentile converts were compared to wild olive branches which were grafted into a cultivated olive tree. In other words, the Gentile believers are pictured as benefiting from what God had established for the people of Israel. The wild branches can exist because of the tree, but they certainly cannot replace the tree.
Moreover, those who hold "replacement" views are even mistaken about the disposition of the Nation itself. By focusing exclusively on the promises to individual New Covenant believers, they have completely overlooked a number of New Covenant promises for Israel as a Nation. We will examine those unfulfilled "national" promises in the next chapter.