{"id":212,"date":"2009-06-21T19:54:55","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T00:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/?p=212"},"modified":"2016-01-18T22:44:42","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T03:44:42","slug":"the-jewish-covenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/21\/the-jewish-covenant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jewish New Covenant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know that there is a Jewish New Testament? You may have been told to avoid this heretical book and those who dare to look into its contents will be in danger of eternal fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet that statement is a bit problematic because the New Testament comes straight from the Tanakh and it should be more accurately rendered as being\u00a0 the \u201cNew Covenant\u201d or the \u201cB\u2019rit Hadasha\u201d.\u00a0 This word\u00a0 is taken from the Hebrew scriptures and was spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31.<\/span><\/p>\n

31 \u201cThe time is coming,\u201d declares the Lord,<\/span><\/strong>
\n \u201cwhen I will make a new covenant<\/span><\/strong>
\n with the house of Israel<\/span><\/strong>
\n and with the house of Judah.<\/span><\/strong>
\n 32 It will not be like the covenant<\/span><\/strong>
\n I made with their forefathers<\/span><\/strong>
\n when I took them by the hand<\/span><\/strong>
\n to lead them out of Egypt,<\/span><\/strong>
\n because they broke my covenant,<\/span><\/strong>
\n though I was a husband to them,<\/span><\/strong>
\n declares the Lord.<\/span><\/strong>
\n 33 \u201cThis is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel<\/span><\/strong>
\n after that time,\u201d declares the Lord.<\/span><\/strong>
\n \u201cI will put my law in their minds<\/span><\/strong>
\n and write it on their hearts.<\/span><\/strong>
\n I will be their God,<\/span><\/strong>
\n and they will be my people.<\/span><\/strong>
\n 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,<\/span><\/strong>
\n or a man his brother, saying, \u2018Know the Lord,\u2019<\/span><\/strong>
\n because they will all know me,<\/span><\/strong>
\n from the least of them to the greatest,\u201d<\/span><\/strong>
\n declares the Lord.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Verse 32 stresses the point that it will not be like the mosaic covenant and the reason for this was because they broke G-ds covenant.<\/span>
\n If you read in Deuteronomy about the conditions of the mosaic covenant it would either leave a person in a state of blessedness or a curse which ultimately resulted in the Israelites being ejected and vomited from the land of Israel being dispersed among the nations.<\/span>
\n If you look at biblical and Jewish history the reality of these consequences are plainly seen by means of the exile and the Diaspora.<\/span>
\n Even after thousands of years the Jewish people have not been able to uphold the mosaic covenant corporately and therefore they have failed in receiving the\u00a0 blessings of obedience. If you just take a look at Tel Aviv alone you will see the Jewish nation living in the holy land but ironically they\u00a0 are not living a holy life.<\/span>
\n A person may ask themselves why do we need something different and in verse 33 it tells us because\u00a0 this new covenant would bring about an internal change of\u00a0 heart contrary to some external form of legalistic righteousness.<\/span>
\n This internal working would be accomplished by the Spirit of G-d and this is briefly alluded to in Ezekiel 11: 19 and 20<\/span><\/p>\n

19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Notice the continuity in these same verses and this is further corroborated as we read about it also in the prophecy of Joel 2:28 and 29<\/span><\/p>\n

28 \u201cAnd afterward,<\/span><\/strong>
\n I will pour out my Spirit on all people.<\/span><\/strong>
\n Your sons and daughters will prophesy,<\/span><\/strong>
\n your old men will dream dreams,<\/span><\/strong>
\n your young men will see visions.<\/span><\/strong>
\n 29 Even on my servants, both men and women,<\/span><\/strong>
\n I will pour out my Spirit in those days.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jewish rabbi Yeshua or Jesus talks about the advent of this new covenant during a passover seder as spoken of\u00a0 in Luke 22:20 \u201cthis cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you\u201d. During biblical times a covenant was made or \u201ccut\u201d by the shedding of blood. This was done initially in ratifying the mosaic law and it is repeated again here by the shed blood of Jesus who was being offered as a Paschal lamb.<\/span>
\n This concept of someone taking upon himself a substitutionary form of death is not just a christian doctrine but it has its scriptural roots and origins in the servant songs of Isaiah 53 in which Yeshua is portrayed as the \u201cSuffering Servant.\u201d<\/span>
\n Jesus sacrificial death would set in order this new advent which would be characterized by the giving of the \u201cSpirit\u201d of G-d.<\/span>
\n Jesus speaks of this in John 3:3 where he describes this internal change of heart to Nicodemus, who was a Jewish member of the Sanhedrin, expressing to him that you must be \u201cborn again\u201d or \u201cborn from above\u201d to enter the kingdom of G-d and He furthers expounds on this in verse 8 as related to the \u201cSpirit\u201d. John further explains this concept \u00a0 in John 7: 37-39 in which\u00a0 during Sukkot Jesus declares that those who believe in Him would receive the \u201cSpirit\u201d. This teaching is clearly explained\u00a0 through many of the new testament sources including the initial outpouring of the \u201cSpirit\u201d on Shavuot in Acts 2 where Peter gives his address to the Jewish exiles in Jerusalem. He tells the people\u00a0 that what they see and hear is a result of the prophecy that I referred to in Joel 2.<\/span>
\n These were Jewish people speaking about Jewish things to a Jewish audience. This was an inhouse situation among fellow Jews. This wasn\u2019t a factor as related to administering some kind of\u00a0 foreign jurisdiction but rather it was a matter of implementing a biblical mandate which was a radical departure from a contemporary\u00a0 Jewish thought causing even the disciples of Jesus to struggle with the magnitude of these changes at times in adopting and\u00a0 adjusting\u00a0 to this \u201cSpirit\u201d age.<\/span>
\n In summary the Mosaic covenant today can not be kept in its entirety due to the destruction of the temple and subsequently the keeping of the ceremonial laws that pertain to this facility. So if much of the mosaic covenant hinged upon the keeping of these sacrificial laws then why after 2,000 years has the temple not been restored. We know G-d is sovereign and if the\u00a0 Jews who mourn its destruction desire to see it restored then why has G-d not allowed for its reconstruction but instead has\u00a0 allowed a mosque to stand in the very place where He had once placed His name. Is it possible that G-d has done this in such a exclamatory fashion in order to get the attention of the Jewish community.<\/span>
\n Could it be significant that the temple was destroyed by the Romans just 40 short years after Yeshua or Jesus death.<\/span>
\n G-d no longer requires the demands of the temple in bringing about everlasting righteousness and he has not altered the mosaic covenant in fulfilling its requirements\u00a0 through the man made offerings of prayer, good deeds, and fasting but rather He has accomplished His justice by offering\u00a0 a perpetual \u201cYom Kippur\u201d as a means of atonement through a transitory act of redemption which ushered in the new covenant era. The author of Hebrews\u00a0 ascribes Jesus as the sacrifice given once and for all and though radically different it would take this radical departure in order to rehabilitate the condition of mens hearts.<\/span>
\n Lastly, Jesus is the most influential Jew to have ever lived impacting all the world including both the gentile and Jewish sectors of society. Today there are over 300,000 Jews that willfully call Him\u00a0 their Messiah\u00a0 and to whom their lives and hearts have been changed from this new covenant. I would challenge you as well to look into these matters and research the person and work of Jesus in reviewing the validity of His claims. Do not allow yourself to remain haphazardly idle because if He is the Messiah then it would behoove you to follow him rather than treating Him as a common byword or an outcast.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to have a relationship with God<\/span><\/p>\n

How to know God<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Links<\/span><\/p>\n

English<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish Resources of Jesus<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brief overview of the significance of Jesus as fulfilling his mission in bringing about a new covenant with Israel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jesusandjews.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}