Sunday, April 29, 2012

An everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David


Isaiah 55:1-4  "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  (2)  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  (3)  Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.  (4)  Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
Writing on to the new covenant people… We learn in Acts that David was a man after God’s own heart. What was it about David? First and foremost it was his faith in God’s love and protection. He was set apart to be a commander of the people and a type of Christ. It is through the linage of David that the kingdom of God gets its king. The kingly prophesies of Christ Jesus always included David.

The interesting thing about this prophecy is who is addressed… “come EVERYONE who thirsts” It is not just a promise to the nation, natural Israel. It is a promise to everyone, Jew or gentile who thirsts. Jesus said the following: Matt 5:6  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” He is explaining what was meant by Isaiah 55:1. Thirsting for righteousness is really thirsting for justice. It is one who desires in his or her heart to be just and righteous. That will be the trait of new covenant people. Even when they fall short, none the less they still thirst for righteousness.

I have known addicted people, that is, people with addictive personalities hunger and thirst for righteousness. Conversely, I have known many who think that they have achieved righteousness by their behavior that have no apparent hunger or thirst. Remember Jesus’ parable about the two that went to the temple to pray… I would sincerely watch thanking God for helping us to be righteous. What we need to do is thank God and rejoice for declaring us righteous right where we are!

Further down the passage in Isaiah, we Gentiles are included in the promise of Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55:5  Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Here again is ample proof that the new covenant people are neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, but rather, a new creation/creature.

Right now, if you are struggling day by day, but if in your heart you hunger and thirst for righteousness… like for a cold drink and a plate when you are parched and hungry, know this, you will be filled. New Covenant People are filled by the blood of Jesus Christ and that makes them love… they love God… they love each other… and they love and seek everyone who hungers and thirsts.

15 comments:

  1. Hi Joe, I would agree that we enjoy New Covenant blessings but not because we are under the NC. We are under grace which is manifested apart from the NC people (Israel) and covenant keeping (law). We are neither covenant keepers nor Israel.

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  2. We can think of God's rule in abstract ways but it is not really helpful when God's Kingdom has not yet been established here on Earth which will not happen until Christ returns and we shall be with him (for real, i.e., physically as well as spiritually) forever more (having believed).

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    1. Hi Anonymous,
      From my perspective your eschatology is wrong, and your view of the New Covenant is wrong. I understand dispensationalism and I reject it as most of the history of Christianity did. Your eschatology is a fairly new idea to Christian History. The church has been predominately post millenial.

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  3. Barry Horner is not Dispensational and shows in his book "Future Israel" That the Pre-mill position is scriptural. The relative newness of the doctrine means nothing nor does what the church is predominately matter. If it did, I would be a non-thinking, told-what-to-believe, don't-rock-the-boat christianized pagan. The reformation was relatively recent; do you count it as totally a waste? The church has not had the freedom to think outside the box with respect to eschatology for that long let alone reject a nonexistent dispensational system.

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    1. I was not familiar with him however, even if he is simply a Chilist he operates on an erroneous assumption. That assumption is that the hermeneutic of the Rabbi was correct. He overlooks a plain (PAShat)scripture found in Joshua. VJos 21:43-45 "Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. (44) And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. (45) Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass."

      There is really no future promise for Israel... The apostasy of rejecting God when he tabenacled among them put them in the same category as the Gentiles. 70AD was the settlement and now the kingdom is made of both Jews and Gentiles. ALL of the land promises were fulfilled. I am not being anti-semetic, they merely must share God's kingdom with all people.

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    2. I should add to this Anonymous,
      When the scripture asks for us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem it really means the *New Jerusalem* (Gal 4:26.) That is the Jerusalem from above, the mother of us ALL. The special Jewish millennial kingdom is divisive and just plain bad theology.

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    3. You really need to read Horner. Also the promise is reiterated to Israel after they had been taken back into slavery so it was not just a temporary promise nor a singular fulfillment. It is forever...Horner will get you up to speed.

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    4. It was always predicated upon their obedience... Crucifying Christ was the final apostasy and 70AD was the day of the Lord. It is really very simple... There are NO land promises left!

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    5. Horner shows that to not be the case.

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    6. Just because church history is replete with anti antisemitism as the result of replacement theology does not mean that all who believe what Paul clearly wrote in Galatians 3:16, 27-29 is erroneous. Christ is clearly and completely the Israel of God and therefore, all joined to him by faith are likewise the Israel of God. To insist on land rights for anyone perpetually is silly and more than that very harmful. It would make a preference of Jews over Palestinian Christians and that is absurd and anti gospel.

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  4. Abraham=father of many nations, not just Israel. Neither JEW nor Gentile, rather the church...Horner is illuminating in showing that Israel will be restored and the land promise perpetually fulfilled according to all those "silly" prophets like Amos, Jeremiah, Ezekiel etc. Any land rights Israel has will be enforced by God when He returns to establish His kingdom on Earth. Until then we should pray for peace in the Jerusalem that is here while God lets Israel fend for itself. No prayers are needed for the new Jerusalem which has peace.

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    1. The prophets are NOT silly, Horner, and all those who interpret them are the *silly* ones. Again, the people have been so mingled that it would be very difficult to tell who's descendent is who. So you admit that the New Jerusalem is already here.

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    2. No, the NJ is above and will come down when Christ establishes His kingdom at His return to Earth. Being still in heaven, there is no need to pray for peace in the NJ, one need only pray for the Lord's return and thus the NJ coming down to earth.

      I also thought that it would be hard to find a blood line Jew and that most everyone claiming to be a Jew were just religious converts sometime along the way. But then I was reading something some time ago about the Genome Project and was a bit blown away when it claimed to have identified quite a significant number as actual DNA related Jewish descendents.

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    3. Actually, the New Jerusalem was present in Paul's day. It was above then but both Jew and Gentile were even then children of the NJ...Gal 4:24-31 "Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. (25) Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. (26) But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. (27) For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." (28) Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. (29) But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. (30) But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." (31) So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman." From the destruction of the temple to now there has only been the New Jerusalem and while it is still above it is brought to earth by believers. It is similar to Jacobs ladder and brings heaven to earth and earth to heaven. In Christ, the last Adam, we have been completely restored to relationship with the Father and are not awaiting anything.

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    4. Paul states clearly that it is above and John sees it come down in his prophetic vision yet future. Now her children have influence on earth but that does not put the NJ itself on earth.

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