The new covenant to Israel

1. Where is it found in scripture? Jeremiah 31:31:34. It is quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12. It is mentioned in Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 10:15-18.

2. The new covenant to Israel was designed to demonstrate to the Jews the fact that the first covenant, the Mosaic law, was temporary and was to be replaced. The Mosaic law was designed for the Age of Israel, from the time of Moses to the time of the cross, resurrection, ascension and session. At this point we have the interruption by the Church Age in which God calls out a royal family for the Lord Jesus. Then the Age of Israel continues with the Tribulation and concludes with the second advent. The new covenant for Israel was designed for the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ as well as for eternity. But specifically, then, the old covenant was designed for the age between Moses and Christ. The new covenant is designed for the Millennium.

3. The new covenant to Israel was designed to carry Israel in the Millennium. The old covenant was designed to carry Israel in that part of the dispensation of Israel from Moses to Christ.

4. The new covenant to Israel was designed to authorise the form of worship and the priesthood of Israel in the Millennium. The old covenant to Israel was designed to authorise the form of worship and the priesthood to Israel between Moses and Christ.

5. The new Covenant to Israel was designed for Israel during the Millennium only.

6. The new covenant will not be fulfilled until Jesus Christ returns to the earth at the end of the Tribulation.

7. In this sense the new covenant is like the other unconditional covenants to Israel. There are three: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic. There are three unconditional covenants that existed in the Old Testament: the Abrahamic — Abraham is promised a nation forever; the Palestinian — the geographical location of that nation; the Davidic — that the son of David would rule that nation forever. Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of that. The new covenant is like these three in that it is unconditional and will not be fulfilled until the Millennium.

8. The Mosaic law, or the first covenant in context, is designed for the Age of Israel. The second covenant, the new covenant to Israel, is designed for the dispensation of the Millennium. Therefore, it must be clearly understood that the quotation of Jeremiah 31:31-34 in Hebrew 8:8-12 is the new covenant to Israel to be fulfilled in the Millennium and not the new covenant to the Church. It was inevitable that the Levitical priesthood should be replaced by a change of dispensation. The interruption of the dispensation nullified the Levitical priesthood as it nullified the Mosaic law as the authorising agent.

The doctrine of the new covenant to Israel

1. Definition:

a) A covenant is a disposition made by one party — God — in favour of another party — mankind, specifically regenerate of Israel.

b) The Mosaic covenant, also called the old covenant, was a covenant of shadow worship, shadow buildings, shadow priesthood, shadow offerings.

c) Therefore its function was legitimate in a shadow dispensation. The shadow dispensation was that part of the Age of Israel from Moses to Christ.

d) The first advent of Christ and His saving work on the cross abrogated, canceled, the old covenant and/or the Mosaic covenant.

e) A new covenant had to be established so a new covenant was immediately established for the Church. The new covenant to the Church authorises the royal family of God during the Church Age and sets up the modus operandi for a universal priesthood among believers.

f) The new covenant to Israel recognises the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants to Israel in the past and sets up a modus operandi for Israel in the Millennium.

g) The new covenant to Israel is a legacy for the restored Israel of the Millennial reign of Christ.

2. Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34, quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12, in part in 10:15-17, and mentioned as a point of doctrine in Galatians 4:4.

3. The new authorising agency in Israel. The abrogation of the Mosaic law by the saving work of Christ on the cross plus the strategic victory — death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session — leaves Israel without authorisation for their Levitical priesthood. Their license is revoked. Therefore the new covenant to Israel replaces the Mosaic law and gives a new license to the Levitical priesthood — in the Millennium, not before. The function of that priesthood in the Millennium is described in great detail in Ezekiel chapters 40-48.

4. The new dispensation for Israel. Israel will be restored at the second advent of Jesus Christ and Christ will begin a Millennial reign of 1000 years. The new covenant to Israel is the authorising agency for the restored Israel of the Millennium as well as the verification of the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants which have never been fulfilled. God keeps His word. And so the new dispensation of Israel is the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants.

5. The basis for the new covenant to Israel.

a) Neither the Hebrew noun berith nor the Greek noun diaqhkh refer to a will or a testament, so they are often mistranslated. The correct word is covenant. A will or a testament depends upon the physical death of the testator; the covenants we are studying depend upon the spiritual death of Christ. But a covenant doesn’t depend on death at all, a covenant is a disposition of the party of the first part in favour of the party of the second part. Death does not have to be involved, it just so happens that in the two new covenants death is involved - the spiritual death of Christ.

b) The new covenant to Israel goes into effect on the blood of Christ and/or the spiritual death of Christ and/or the efficacious sacrifice: redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

c) Therefore the blood of Christ is the spiritual legacy for the royal family of the Church Age and Israel in the Millennium.

d) The new covenant to Israel is valid because of the blood of Christ, the efficacious death of Christ on the cross bearing our sins. It is valid because Christ sits in the mercy seat.

e) The new covenant to Israel is a reality in contrast to the shadows of the old or Mosaic covenant.

f) The new covenant functions in the Millennium when Christ reigns as David’s greater son. Christ comes to the royal family as a high priest but He comes to Israel a King. Therefore there will be a place in the Millennium for the Levitical priesthood because Christ will reign over Israel as David’s greater son.

g) The animal sacrifices in the Millennium (found in Ezekiel 40-48) are no longer shadows but they represent a frame of reference memorial to Israel concerning the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Hebrews 9:15-17.

6. The new covenant and the Tribulation. Immediately a question arises. What about the last seven years of the Jewish Age? The cross, resurrection, ascension and session interrupts the Jewish Age. There are still seven years to go. The Church Age is an age of intercalation, an insertion. Then, when the Rapture of the Church occurs the Jewish Age resumes — +7 years. But there is no priesthood in that seven years, the old covenant has been abrogated. There is no old covenant in the Tribulation and neither is there any new covenant. So that poses a question. What is the relationship of the new covenant to Israel to the Tribulation.

a) The Lord Jesus Christ will not be reigning in the Tribulation. Satan will still be the ruler of this world.

b) Therefore the new covenant to Israel will not be operative and for those seven years of the Tribulation there will be neither the new covenant to the Church nor the new covenant to Israel. That means that those seven years historically are going to be the worst in all of history. The pressure is not any greater on the believer. We live in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict right now. But there is going to be suffering on the earth and catastrophe on the earth such as never was in all of history. Why? Because in the last seven years — in fact it is called the Tribulation for that reason — the new covenant to the Church crowd are in heaven and the new covenant to Israel crowd haven’t started yet. So you have seven years when neither of the new covenants function. And so the Tribulation is the period between the two new covenants. When Christ returns the new covenant to Israel will function on the earth but the new covenant to the Church will function in heaven forever.

c) There will be a Tribulational temple but it is a place of apostasy and reversionism and is not authorised by the old covenant nor the new covenant to Israel. There is no authorisation for the temple constructed in Jerusalem in the Tribulation. That is where the abomination of desolation will be set up but it is not authorised by God nor by any covenant to God.

d) The new covenant to the Church will not be operative during the Tribulation because the Church has been resurrected or Raptured.

e) Neither of the new covenants operate during the Tribulation.

f) Therefore God sets up a different type of spiritual function, different from anything that ever happened in the past but in some ways similar to the period of the Judges. He sets up one hundred and forty-four thousand Jews as spiritual leaders throughout the earth. They are evangelists and spiritual leaders.

7. Summary. The new covenant to Israel is the authorising agent for the restored Israel of the Millennium. It verifies the future of Israel and recognises that the unconditional covenants will be fulfilled. God keeps His word. The new covenants to Israel replace the Mosaic law for the function of Israel’s priesthood in the Millennium.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Verse 31 — we begin with a demonstrative pronoun, hineh, used as an interjection, used to focus attention on the new covenant to Israel given at a low point in Jewish history. The Jews were about to go out under the fifth cycle of discipline, they had just about had it, and just at a time when they were at the lowest point God, through Jeremiah, gives them this wonderful prophecy about their future. “Behold, the days come.” People have a tendency to talk about “the good old days” but here are the good future days. Jamim refers to the Millennial reign of Christ — “Behold the days are coming,” not come — the qal active participle of bo means they are coming, they are future from Jeremiah’s day, they are future from our day.

“when I will make” — the qal perfect of karath which means to cut or engrave, it comes to mean to cut a covenant or to make a covenant. It was so used for cutting the throat of an animal and since covenants were verified by blood - even the old covenant was verified by shadow blood, the new covenant to Israel and the new covenant to the Church were verified by the blood of Christ — so karath is used originally for slaying an animal sacrifice, but it comes to mean making a covenant. In this case it is used for making a new covenant. Notice the direction of it, it is “to the house of Israel [northern kingdom] and with the house of Judah [southern kingdom].”

Literally: “Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” Nothing here about the Church, this is the new covenant to Israel and it belongs to the Millennium.

Verse 32 — reference to the old covenant. “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers [Exodus generation] in the day that I took them” — the hiphil infinitive of chazaq means that He had to pick them up by the collar and haul them out of Egypt. In effect, this is what God did, it is the hiphil infinitive, it is very strong; God caused them to be hoisted up by their collars and hauled out of slavery — “in the day when I seized them by the hand” — the verb connotes the grace of God. The Jews were suffering from give-up-itis and God dragged them out of Egypt — “to bring them out” — the hiphil infinitive of jatsa means He caused them to come out — “to cause them to come out of the land of Egypt; which” — relative pronoun, goes with the verb — “they broke, although I was an husband” — the qal perfect of baal means lord but it also means husband — “and yet I was their Lord” is what it means here — “saith Jehovah.”

Literally, “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I seized them by the hand to cause them to come out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, and yet I was their Lord, saith Jehovah.”

Notice several things here: The failure of the Exodus generation illustrates the failure of the incarnation generation. The Jews of the Exodus generation rejected the Mosaic law but the Jews of the incarnation generation rejected Messiah who fulfilled the shadows of the Mosaic law. Therefore the necessity for the second advent of Christ to regather Israel from their dispersion of the fifth cycle. The abrogation of the old covenant demands a new covenant because Israel has a future.

Verse 33 — “But this covenant” — referring to the new covenant to Israel — “that I will make” — the qal imperfect of karath indicating that it has not been completed yet, not fulfilled yet — “with the house of Israel [Notice: always to the Jews]: After those days [the Tribulation], saith the Lord” — He is going to make this covenant after those days, and those days refers to the Tribulation — “I will put” — the qal perfect of nathan means ‘I will give’ — “my law [Torah: literally, my doctrine] into their inward parts” — be qir ban, a prepositional phrase which refers to the mentality, the frontal lobes — it should be translated “I will give my doctrine into their mentality/frontal lobes”.

“and write it” — we have kathab which means to engrave, to engrave it in their hearts, and it refers to the function of GAP and learning Bible doctrine so that they cannot forget it. There is no knowing God apart from doctrine; there is no loving God apart from knowing God. And so when it says “I will give my doctrine into their frontal lobes and engrave it in their right lobe, their heart, consequently I will be their God” — we have the inferential waw; I will be their God because they will have doctrine to understand me, to love me. They will have the capacity to love me. God is not the God of all believers in the sense of a wonderful relationship. You cannot love God until you know doctrine.

Literally: “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days [the Tribulation], saith the Lord, I will give my doctrine into their thinking, and engrave it in their right lobes, therefore I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” The secret is doctrine in the frontal lobes.

Notice that each dispensation has its own covenant. The dispensation of the Gentiles has the Noahic covenant, the dispensation of Israel has the Mosaic covenant, the dispensation of the Church has the new covenant to the Church, and the dispensation of the Millennium has the new covenant to Israel. And note that in every dispensation divine blessing is related to doctrine in the soul always, without exception. Doctrine residing in the soul is the key to the believer’s relationship with God in phase two. Doctrine in the soul through the function of GAP is the means of achieving supergrace, it is the way that we follow our regimental standard to the high ground of the supergrace life.

What is the content of the new covenant to Israel which we have been studying in Jeremiah chapter thirty-one? The new covenant to the Church has as its content the New Testament epistles, the mystery doctrines of the royal family. What is the content of the doctrine which Israel will understand and learn in those days of the new covenant to Israel? It is a combination of Old Testament doctrines plus the principles that are found in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48, as well as everything pertaining to the Millennium. The Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will be a reality when this covenant is in function and therefore they will understand completely the Millennial reign of Christ. To make sure that we understand, then, the content of the new covenant it deals with all Millennial passages in Isaiah, it deals with Ezekiel 40-48, it is described in the eschatological passages of the Millennium and the Tribulation in the book of Revelation.

But let us summarise just exactly when the new covenant to Israel will be fulfilled. The last dispensation is the Age of the Millennium or the Age of Christ’s Reign. The Millennial reign of Christ begins with the second advent. The first item on the agenda is the completion of the Armageddon campaign, the destruction of the enemy, the baptism of fire, the coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and followed by the 1000 years of His reign. At the end of that 1000 years Satan, who has been incarcerated with all fallen angels at the beginning of the Millennium, will be released and will lead in a Gog and Magog revolt against Christ and the reign of Christ, demonstrating the fact once more that people cannot be satisfied with perfect environment, the must have more than that. The environmentalist as a philosopher is always saying that the solution to man’s is problems is to improve his environment, whether it is his social environment or his natural environment. But the Word of God says this is not enough, there must be a relationship with God, and this comes through regeneration.