The Eternal Covenant

Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good thing to do his will, carrying out in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB)

What is the eternal covenant which is spoken about by the writer of Hebrews and the prophet Isaiah? In Isaiah, the people of the world have broken this covenant causing the Creator to come out of His place to destroy them. It may be a good idea to learn about this everlasting covenant.

Isaiah 24:1–6 (LEB)

24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. ² And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends. ³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and the inhabitants in it suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth burn, and few men are left.

Israel was pulled from out of the nations to be a special people. The Creator gave Israel all of His laws, ordinances and statues showing how to live a successful life pleasing to Him. They were going to be a nation that other nations admired and would want to be like because of the secrets of the universe that they possessed.

Deuteronomy 4:6–8 (LEB)

⁶ And you must observe them diligently, for that is your wisdom and your insight before the eyes of the people, who will hear all of these rules, and they will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’ ⁷ For what great nation has for it a god near to it as Yahweh our God, whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what other great nation has for it just rules and regulations just like this whole law that I am setting before you today?

Christians call God’s laws a “ministry of death”, which shows the deception that has been handed down and the willful ignorance that exists today. Israel was to be a light to the nations and share all of God’s goodness with the nations of the world. This has been accomplished through the Messiah.

Isaiah 49:6 (LEB)

⁶ And he says, “It is trivial for you to be a servant for me, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will give you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

The eternal covenant was with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but it was about much more than just acquiring land. We see the language of every instruction the Creator gave through Moses and how it would be forever. Forever isn’t just an age as dispensational theology claims. We are not conveniently in the “age of grace” now able to disregard everything Yahuah said was forever.

Deuteronomy 5:29 (LEB)

²⁹ If only they had such a mind’; that is, to fear me and to keep all my commandments at all times, so that it will go well for them and for their children forever.

Exodus 31:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered.”

The Sabbath is a sign that is forever and part of the eternal covenant. For those who say “that was just for the Jews”, or ancient Israelites, that lie is put to rest in Isaiah.

Isaiah 56:6–7 (LEB)

⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to serve him and to love the name of Yahweh, to become his servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, so as not to profane it, and those who keep hold of my covenant, ⁷ I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,”

God knew from the beginning that Israel would break the covenant and He would scatter them for disobedience. The good news or “gospel” is that they would return, and through the process the whole world would be able to enter the covenant with Yahuah. This is what we call the “new” covenant in which the process was enabled by Yeshua (Jesus). This is where God writes His laws on our hearts.

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB)

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with every good thing to do his will, carrying out in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

Yeshua enables us to covenant with the Father and keep the terms of the covenant. There are terms to the covenant. They are the same terms Yahuah has always presented. When speaking of the coming of John the immerser and Messiah, the prophet Malachi makes this point.

Malachi 4:1–6 (LEB)

“For look! The day is about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says Yahweh of hosts. “It will not leave behind for them root or branch. ² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like fattened calves. ³ You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am going to act,” says Yahweh of hosts.

⁴ “Remember the instruction of my servant Moses, which I commanded him at Horeb to all Israel, the rules and regulations. ⁵ Look! I am going to send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh! ⁶ And he will bring back the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of the sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with a ban.”

“The arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble” is talking about those who do not revere the name of Yahuah and ignore all of His righteous instructions. This is the eternal covenant. The good news is we can all be a part of it now and it is not limited to the physical descendants of Israel. Grace is what enables us to be a part and please the Father. Grace is not a license to ignore the terms of the covenant. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology speaks about how the word “grace” is used in the book of Acts.

(b) In Acts, grace is that power which flows from God or from the exalted Christ, and accompanies the activity of the apostles giving success to their mission (Acts 6:8; 11:23; 14:26; 15:40; 18:27). It appears in “the word of grace” which is identical with the → gospel (13:43; 20:24). The Lord himself confirms it (14:3). It is that which enables men to believe (18:27).

H. H.-Esser, “Grace, Spiritual Gifts,” ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 119.

I believe this captures the essence of the role of grace in regards to the eternal or “new” covenant. Grace is the divine influence on the heart, the spirit of grace, which enables us to please the Father. Do not insult the spirit of grace. This is similar to “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”.

Hebrews 10:26–29 (LEB)

²⁶ For if we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace?

Sin is the transgression of the law. The law was given to the world through Israel. The Messiah enabled the entire world to be eligible to be in covenant with the God of Israel and Creator of the universe through his high priestly sacrifice on the heavenly tabernacle altar. It is not that hard when one removes the lies that “the law has been done away with” or “that is for the Jews” the enemy has been telling the church for hundreds of years.

1 John 2:3–6 (LEB)

³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ The one who says “I have come to know him,” and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. ⁵ But whoever keeps his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. ⁶ The one who says that he resides in him ought also to walk just as that one walked.

1 John 3:4–10 (LEB)

⁴ Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that that one was revealed in order that he might take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you: the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as that one is righteous. ⁸ The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God was revealed: in order to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God. ¹⁰ By this the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, namely, the one who does not love his brother.

Sadly, most people in the world reject the Messiah, what he said and the eternal covenant. Even Christians unknowingly reject the Messiah by creating new laws, rejecting His laws, making new holy days shared with pagan deities, a new special day of the week , a new name “LORD” and a new people group. They call Yahuah’s righteous instructions a “ministry of death” and a curse, when this same Word came in the flesh as Messiah Yeshua. What is the Word of God if it is not His holy words given through Israel? Yeshua made the comparison.

John 14:6 (LEB)

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Psalm 119:142 (LEB)

¹⁴² Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth.

Psalm 119:151 (LEB)

¹⁵¹ You are near, O Yahweh, and all your commands are truth.

Psalm 119:29–32 (LEB)

²⁹ Remove from me the deceptive way, and graciously give me your law. ³⁰ I have chosen the faithful way; I have set your ordinances before me. ³¹ I cling to your testimonies; O Yahweh, do not let me be put to shame. ³² I will run the way of your commands, for you will enlarge my heart.

Psalm 19:7 (LEB)

⁷ The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving life. The testimony of Yahweh is firm, making wise the simple.

With all of the deceptions injected into the gospel, it is hard to see that Yeshua is the same light, truth, life and way of the commands and laws of Yahuah. Anyone who desires truth and seeks Yahuah with all of their heart will be able to see clearly. Sadly, many are happy where they are spiritually and content to live as they are told every Sunday morning without ever searching these matters out for themself. Repent and believe the gospel! John 17:17 (LEB), “Sanctify them in the truth—your word is truth”.

Featured photo by Andre Benz on Unsplash

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