The Old Covenant Law provided numerous penalties for those who broke the Law. The penalties ranged from being run out of town to stoning and death. When a person broke a law (what we know as sin) he or she was required to bring a lamb or other ceremonially clean animal, to the temple and offer it as a sacrifice for the covering or atonement of their sins. This is where we begin to understand how completely inadequate the Old Covenant was to truly cover or atone for the sin of the person.
Over the course of their life a person might bring literally hundreds of animals to the temple to sacrifice so that their right standing before God would be restored. At the temple gate there was an endless procession of Israelites bringing animals to sacrifice so that they would be considered acceptable in the sight of God. Over and over a person would lay their hand on the head of the innocent animal and slay it on the altar of sacrifice so that their sin would be covered. Yet it was never enough. The same scenario repeated itself day after day, month after month and year after year.
According to MacArthur, “it is estimated that at Passover as many as three hundred thousand lambs would be slain within a week. The slaughter would be so massive that blood would run out of the Temple ground through specially prepared channels into the Brook Kidron, which seemed to be running with blood.”
The keeping of the Old Covenant depended on man’s faithfulness to God and his obedience to initiate restoration of that relationship by bringing the acceptable sacrifice to the temple on a regular basis. Wiersbe says “The Law of Moses could declare God’s holy standard, but it could never provide the power needed for obedience. “ (page 92)
What I hope you see is that while the Old Covenant was initiated by God, it was never meant to be the final solution that would restore man’s relationship to God and cover sin for all time. It was a temporary fix for the Israelites until God brought the New Covenant to pass.
The Hebrews’ prophet Jeremiah recognized, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God never considered the Old Covenant to be permanent. It was a temporary Covenant written on temporary material administered in a temporary tabernacle. It was a copy and shadow of what was to come. Hear the words of Jeremiah from Jeremiah 31: 31-32:
“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’” declares the LORD.”
The New Covenant would be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah but it would not be for them alone. Recall the words of the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12: 3: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Yes, the intent of the New Covenant was to restore the Israelites’ relationship with Jehovah, but out of it would flow unspeakable blessings to all the people on earth.
Savor the words of Isaiah 49: 6:
“It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
How precious are those words! God proclaimed that it would surely be too small a thing for Jesus just to suffer and die for only the Israelites. If His only Son was going to suffer and die, then it would surely be for all mankind. Can I hear a HALLELUJAH for that?!!!!
(Visited 45 times, 1 visits today)
