Jesus is more than a Baby; He is the Administrator of the Eternal Covenant

And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were lightnings and sounds and thunders and an earthquake and large hail.

Revelation 11:19 (LEB)

There are many sects of Christianity in today’s world. Christianity started with a sect of people practicing first century Judaism who believed a man from Nazareth was the messiah whom the Jewish people were waiting for to come as prophesied in their writings. Many of the Jewish leaders rejected this idea because the man from Nazareth, Jesus, challenged their interpretation of the scriptures.

Jesus’ real name is Yeshua, or Joshua in English. This is a very basic fact even though many Christians today will mock the name Yeshua or Yahushua in the same way the Jewish leaders mocked Yeshua in person. Many first century Jews did however believe that Yeshua was the promised Messiah, and this is well documented in the gospel accounts.

Luke 1:31 (LEB): ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in the womb and will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus.

Ἰησοῦς, Jesus, the Greek form of Joshua, and the human name of our Saviour (see χριστός). Alexander Souter, A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917), 115.

The English letter “J” is used for the Hebrew letter “yud” in most cases. The “yud” is more of an “ee” sound. The Greek name was “Iesous”, pronounced “ee ey soos”, so I am unsure when the “J” sound was introduced to the name. It was likely after the 1611 King James version of the Bible.

We are told in the letter to the Hebrews, probably written by Paul or Barnabas, that faith is the hope for something not seen. The very first example given in Hebrews chapter eleven is that through faith we believe that God created the worlds through His word. We also know that God’s spoken word is Jesus in the flesh.

Hebrews 11:3 (LEB): ³ By faith we understand the worlds were created by the word of God, in order that what is seen did not come into existence from what is visible.

Speaking of Moses, this chapter gives us more examples of faith:

Hebrews 11:28–30 (LEB): ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, in order that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. ²⁹ By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; the Egyptians, when they made the attempt, were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been marched around for seven days.

It takes a lot of faith to cross the Red Sea in the way that Moses did. Many of us do not have a problem having faith to believe that the Elohim of Israel created the “worlds”, which are this earth and the entire universe. Why do we stop there? For example, The One who created the universe also told us which animals were for food and which ones were not to be eaten. Yet many do not have the faith to believe this is true.

Leviticus 11:1–3 (LEB): 11 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, ² “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘These are the animals that you may eat from all the animals that are on the land: ³ Any among the animals that has a divided hoof and has a split cleft in the hoof and that chews cud, such you may eat.

Another example is the Sabbath day. The Creator made a day to rest at the time of creation and told His people to also rest on that day. Other than the myriads of people saying “don’t rest on the Sabbath”, it should take very little faith to take the Father at His word and simply rest on that weekly day. We have had 1500 years of church leadership telling us not to rest on the Sabbath and the reasons they give could be convincing without faith in the living God and His Word. Some will say that the command was never restated in the New Testament writings, yet everyone was found keeping the Sabbath in the New Testament. Is this not a perfect example of leading by example? Jesus even told us he was the lord or master of the Sabbath, which should point to its significance.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (LEB): ¹² ‘Observe the Sabbath day to make it holy, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall work, and you shall do all of your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Yahweh your God; you shall not do any work, or your son, or your daughter, or your slave, or your slave woman, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your domestic animals, or your resident alien who is in your towns, so that your slave and your slave woman may rest as you rest. ¹⁵ And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore, Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath.

There are also doctrines in the church that say that the Sabbath and list of animals for food were ceremonial laws and that in the New Testament church we are only to be concerned with so called “moral laws”. However, there is no place in scripture that makes this differentiation. As a result of all of the manmade interference, it now takes a lot of faith to eat what God calls food and to rest on the Sabbath; that is until one steps out and starts doing it and reaping the benefits.

So how do we understand faith? Moses needed faith to part and cross the Red Sea when an army was chasing him and today we need faith for simple milk-like doctrine such as resting on the Sabbath. The answer is understanding the covenants and the role Jesus plays in renewing the eternal covenant.

Moses had all of Israel and the mixed multitude make a covenant on Mount Horeb where God spoke to everyone there that day in an audible voice. They all said “we will” and blood was sprinkled on them to seal the covenant. Israel soon broke the covenant and it had to be renewed at Moab. Moses knew that the children of the Israelites would eventually break the covenants and He told them about God sending Jesus who would be a “prophet like him”.

Deuteronomy 18:15–19 (LEB): ¹⁵ “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, and to him you shall listen. ¹⁶ This is according to all that you asked from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘I do not want again to hear the voice of Yahweh my God, and I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!’ ¹⁷ And Yahweh said to me, ‘They are right in what they have said. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet for them from among their countrymen like you, and I will place my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him. ¹⁹ And then the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable.

Just as Moses spoke God’s instructions to the Israelites, this future “prophet” would be the one that will speak to the people, and we must listen to what he says because the Father said he “placed His words in his mouth”.

I am not making this up, or trying to invent a new connection, yet I am guessing this is going to be the first time hearing this for many Christians. First, Jesus tells us Moses spoke of him.

John 5:45–47 (LEB): ⁴⁵ Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father! The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope! ⁴⁶ For if you had believed Moses, you would believe me, for that one wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe that one’s writings, how will you believe my words?”

Peter specifically told us that these versus in Deuteronomy were speaking about Jesus.

Acts 3:19–24 (LEB): ¹⁹ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you—Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times. ²² Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You will listen to him in everything that he says to you. ²³ And it will be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people.’ ²⁴ And indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and all those who followed him have spoken about and proclaimed these days.

Therefore, just as the people at Mount Horeb heard the voice of God and were afraid, we are to listen to the instruction of Jesus, who is called Yeshua in Hebrew. This is the same message the writer of Hebrews was trying to convey. Jesus renewed the covenant with his own blood. We must meet Jesus outside the camp. These are metaphors to show us how to live without the temple. Moses and the temple were the shadows of the Messiah and the heavenly temple. This does not mean the instructions of God, known as Torah, were changed.

Hebrews 13:12–16 (LEB): ¹² Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, in order that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. ¹³ So we must go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. ¹⁴ For here we do not have a permanent city, but we seek the city that is to come. ¹⁵ Therefore through him let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶ And do not neglect doing good and generosity, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Hebrews chapters 12 and 13 explain how to keep the law without a temple, that is being outside the camp. Jesus is now the one officiating the eternal covenant from heaven. This eternal covenant has the same stipulations as the covenant at mount Horeb.

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.

The eternal covenant is what is pleasing to the Father and He will equip us to do His will and what is pleasing to Him (the instructions of the eternal covenant) with the help of Yeshua. The prophet Malachi connected the covenant at Horeb with Yeshua.

Malachi 4:4–6 (LEB): 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.”

It takes faith to do the things that are pleasing to the Father, especially when those in the church are telling us to do the opposite of what pleases the Father. He sent Yeshua to renew (or make new) the eternal covenant that had been broken so many times in the past. This is the world’s last chance to get it right. Through the scattering of Israel into the nations for breaking the covenant, it became possible for the whole world to be part of the renewed covenant with Yeshua’s blood. When he comes back, “it will be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people”. This is a huge opportunity for the whole world to be saved from destruction for disobedience.

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.

The kingdom of God is not dependent on land on this Earth. It is wherever Yeshua determines it is at his coming. We can be part of the kingdom of God by meeting Yeshua outside the gate so to speak, then doing what he says. He tells us he only says what he hears his father saying. We have a large book called the Bible with pages and pages of what the Father said, along with examples from Yeshua on how to apply it.

John 18:35–36 (LEB): ³⁵ Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your people and the chief priests handed you over to me! What have you done?” ³⁶ Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.”

When the events of Isaiah unfold, and the wrath of God is poured out because “they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant“, the world is going to see that the eternal covenant still contains the commandments of God. Moses delivered them to the Israelites and Yeshua delivers them to the whole world, including the descendants of the Israelites.

Revelation 11:19 (LEB): ¹⁹ And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were lightnings and sounds and thunders and an earthquake and large hail.

Moses was a mediator for the Israelites and now through their disobedience the whole world benefits. In order to honor the promises given to Israel, God has extended them to the world with Yeshua as the mediator. Just as the Israelites were to listen to Moses, the whole world must listen to Yeshua, and his message was the same as the message of Moses on a much larger scale. No more shadows of the heavenly tabernacle, that is the tabernacle in the wilderness. We have the heavenly tabernacle with the heavenly priest and salvation of God!

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash