The High Priest Blessing of Jesus Christ
Part 3 continued
The Nature of Covenant
The best way to understand this portion of scripture - as it related to the High Priest Minstry of Jesus Christ - ( Numbers 6:24-26 ) is to understand the nature of man in his humanity and of Christ in his humanity. In addition to those, the nature of covenant; specifically the Mosaic or Old covenant, that the Lord made with the nation of Israel and that the nation of Israel agreed to abide by. We also need to understand the New Covenant through Jesus Christ and His blood and it's difference from the Mosaic. I say Mosaic because there are several Covenant's in scripture and it is essential to understand the differences, because not all the Covenant's in the Old are incorporated into the new covenant. Without understanding this we will continue to stumble over the law and miss grace or vise a versa.
God has always related to man based on covenant, specifically the blood covenant. How do we know that? Because the scripture states - Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. Rev.13:8 and Eph.1:4 and also Peter said;
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
1 Peter 1:18-20
Covenant in scripture and in ancient times was, to my knowledge, always sealed in blood through sacrificing an animal. Our western anti-spiritual/God mentality has so watered down covenant it is almost useless between men today, however, it is actually still practiced in some parts of the world today. And even though we take covenant so lightly today God still takes it serious and remembers covenant's between men and is witness between the parties. Here's a key thing to remember, God remembers covenant, especially His Covenant. Even the modern ones He remembers, and He will hold all accountable at His return for the things they have said - or covenanted -with and to others. This is one reason Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no because if you make an oath or covenant then you are bound by the witness of Heaven to keep it. If you don't keep it then there is a day of reckoning either in this life or the next when Christ returns to judge the works of all. People today, don't like that kind of talk, they want a God who is kind of like a hippie love child and it's all peace and good. That's true if you continue to abide in Him and trust Him. That does not mean God demands perfection however he does demand accountability. This is His covenant, He initiated it, fulfilled it and offers us an opportunity to partake in this covenant by faith. We are but the stewards of His gift and we will be held accountable for what we've done with this incredible gift of His Holy Covenant.
I must tread softly here, because it's very easy for our human nature to misinterpret what I'm saying as a demand or suggestion to relate to our Father through the Old Covenant. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We relate to our Father through the New Covenant. This is just a reminder of the purpose of this writing, and that is when does God face shine on people and when does it not ? Understanding our relationship to the Old and New Covenant's is crucial to that understanding.
According to the scriptures above the Lord was thinking of covenant before the world was even formed. There are some in Christian circles who believe that God the Father and Son and Holy Spirit covenanted within the Godhead the plan of redemption. In other words God made a covenant with Himself that He would save and restore man to his true purpose and dignity as being created in the image of Christ and to be a worshipper of Him by loving God and the human race. There seem to be some scripture to support it and I'm leaning towards that view, although as of this writing I'm still praying about that. Here are some more scriptures besides the ones above Psalms 40:6-10; Psalms 110:1. When you begin to hear covenant terms such as doing the will of your covenant partner and not your will or your covenant partner fighting your battles for you such as in psalms 110. The example in scripture is the covenant between Joshua and Gibeonites and according to covenant practice of the day the covenant extended to the seed of the parties also. That's why Israel had a famine and when david sought the Lord about it ( Because Israel was in covenant with the Lord and should not have been in a famine) the Lord told David that it was because Saul had broken the covenant the Joshua made with the Gibeonites. And according to the practice of the day the Gibeonites had the right to avenge the covenant by what ever the terms stated. In this case it was blood for blood
Much of the relationship with Adam and Eve was one of covenant. If you know very little of the nature of covenant or the terminology of covenant making in ancient days; you'll overlook that in the Genesis account of creation. We'll learn more of covenant terminology and customs shortly.
We tend to think that there are only two covenants in scripture because of the way our bibles are named i.e Old Testament and New Testament and also because of the lack of teaching on this subject due to the current popularity of dispensational teaching that has emerged since the early part of the 1800's made famous or infamous by John Darby. There is no way to cover that subject here only to say that dispensationalism may sound like New Covenant teaching but really has very little to do with our Covenant Relationship with Christ in the tradition of the book of Acts or even the epistles.
There are, in fact, at least 7 covenants in the Old covenant portion of scripture alone. There are some covenant's recorded between God and man and some other covenants between man and man i.e. David and Johnathon, Abraham and Abimelech and others. The major covenants between God and Man that we will focus on are:
1.Adamic
2.Noah's covenant
3.Abrahamic
4.Mosaic
5.Palestinian although I, personally, am not sure if this is separate from the Mosaic one.
6.Davidic
7.New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah and other prophets – There are many, myself included , who tend to see the New Covenant more as a Covenant between God and the man or last Adam Jesus Christ.
We partake of the New Covenant by the grace, or the favor of Jehovah, through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Some have found 13 covenants in the Old Testament but these 7 are really the main ones. Also some believe and have taught, that there is a difference between the 10 commandments and the Mosaic covenant, however, scripture is clear that they are one and the same:
Ex 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Lev 26:15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
Deut 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
2 Cor 3:6-7 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away
The only time that I know of when Moses had to cover his face was when the ten commandments were engraved in stone and given to Moses.
To be continued.........
Blessings to you in Christ
Dan
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