GOD MAKES A NEW COVENANT

Moses was a forerunner, and the law given to him by Yehovah was a stand-in until the coming of the Messiah. It is through the Messiah that God - Yehovah would make His ultimate and final arrangement with the descendants of Abraham and all humanity. God – Yehovah showed the prophet Jeremiah (7th – 6th centuries BCE) his plans for a new covenant:

“The day is coming,” says Yehovah, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt” (Jeremiah 31:31, 32).

It was Yehovah [YHVH] who told Jeremiah, “I will make a new covenant.” No one could rightly oppose, dissolve or alter the covenant that God made with the people through Moses at Horeb (Deuteronomy 12:32). There was one, however, who had the right to dissolve that covenant: Yehovah who made the covenant in the first place. And it was He alone who had the right to make a new arrangement: an arrangement that would not be like the one that He made with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt and came to receive the “law” at Mount Sinai.

Yehovah assured Jeremiah that He had justification for making a different covenant. He said it was “Because they broke my covenant” (Jeremiah 31:32). The earlier covenant was an agreement between two parties: Yehovah and the children of Israel who He had delivered from Egypt and brought to Mount Sinai, where He gave His laws to Moses on the mountaintop to bring down to the people of Israel. The people were to serve only Yehovah [YHWH] as their God and keep the law He gave them through Moses. In turn, He would greatly bless them. For His part, Yehovah would not break that covenant for “a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). However, by the testimony of Yehovah, Israel had broken the Covenant they agreed to obey again and again; throughout their generations (Jeremiah 16:10–12).

The new covenant that Yehovah foretold to Jeremiah would not only be “new” but also “better” - much better! The law that Yehovah gave to Moses to give to the people of Israel was wonderful. Nevertheless, it had severe limitations. As we have seen, it was given only to those children of Abraham who came out of Egypt and their descendants. The new covenant on the other hand is through the lord Messiah Jesus and extends to all peoples. Again, the Law of Moses was designed for the people of the Exodus [Israel] and was beautifully suited to their agrarian society. However, Yehovah’s new covenant through His Son, the lord Messiah Jesus [Yehoshua] focuses not on the elements of nature, but rather on the greater aspects of the human heart, the forgiveness of transgressions, and a more direct, more personal relationship with Yehovah. Speaking of the new covenant, Yehovah told Jeremiah:

“No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yehovah,’ for they all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them,” says Yehovah. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews reflects on Yehovah’s declaration that He would make a “new covenant.” The writer indicates that covenant has come. He tells his readers that the new covenant is superior to the old one: that it is founded on “better promises” than was the Law of Moses, and that it has a new mediator; the lord Messiah Jesus:

But now Jesus [Yehoshua] has received a more excellent ministry, even as the covenant of which he is the mediator is a more excellent covenant because it has been founded on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).

The writer of Hebrews goes on to observe that the new covenant established by the shed blood [sin-offering sacrifice] of Messiah will be the sole arrangement between Yehovah and His people for all eternity (Hebrews 13:20). There will not be two covenants in the age to come. The law – covenant that Yehovah gave by Moses had to give way to the superior law - covenant brought into fruition by the lord Messiah Jesus. The writer indicates that when Yehovah used the word “new” regarding the covenant established by the lord Messiah Jesus, that made the one he had given Moses “old.” In the day that Yehovah spoke to Jeremiah about a new covenant, time was passing by for the earlier covenant he had made through Moses:

When God - Yehovah speaks of a “new” covenant, he has made the first one obsolete. When something is obsolete it is growing old and will soon disappear (Hebrews 8:13).

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Jesus tells the people that he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. Rather, he came “to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17, 18). He does indicate that Moses’ law would end and tells them when: “all is fulfilled.” It is the lord Messiah Jesus who “fulfills” the law and brings God’ – Yehovah’s new arrangement; the new covenant (Luke 24:44–47; Mark 14:23, 24; Hebrews 10:15–22). It should be remembered that Gentiles are excluded from the law of Moses as long as the law of Moses stands. If the Law of Moses is eternal, and its jots and tittles will never end, then its provisions against Gentiles participating in it will never end. The greater hope for humanity, both Jews and Gentiles, is not at all to be found in the Law of Moses. It is found in the new covenant; the covenant established and ratified by the shed blood of the lord Messiah Jesus.

Written by J. Dan Gill and edited and added to by Bruce Lyon