Saturday, 16 April 2016

THE SPIRITUAL COVENANT.

A spiritual covenant described in the Bible is unique and apply to all humanity. The Book of Jeremiah predict "a new covenant" that God will establish with the spiritual house of Israel. This New Covenant is the replacement or final fulfillment of the Old Covenant described in the Old Testament and aplicable to the People of God.
The word "covenant" is similar in meaning the idea of "contract,"although the 2 words are not perfectly synonymous, and the differences between them are significant.
During the time in which the Bible was written, a covenant was a formal agreement that caused or implied several things: 1) it defined or sometimes created a relationship between a king and his vassal states, or a deity and his nation, or between two humans. 2)some were conditional, just as with a present-day contract, but, generally speaking, most ancient covenants were unconditional (each part committed to a certain action, regardless of whether the other party keeps the covenant). 3) covenants included the slaughter of animals as a symbol of their significance. 4) covenants carried no expiration date, that the parties were understood to be bound by the covenant until death or forever, such in the case of covenants with God. 5) contracts were enforced by the civil government and regulated by God.
6) A contract involved the exchange of property or actions binding two parties together personally.
Noah's Covenant applies to all humanity and to all other living creatures. In this covenant, God promises never again to destroy all life on Earth by flood, and created the rainbow as the sign of this everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. (Gen. 9).
The Abrahamic Covenant found in Genesis 12 is known as the "Covenant Between the Parts" in Hebrew, and is the basis for the "Covenant of Circumcision" in Judaism. The covenant was for Abraham and his seed, or offspring, both of natural birth and adoption. In Genesis 12 to 17 three covenants can be distinguished: 1) To make of Abraham a great nation and bless Abraham and make his name great so that he will be a blessing, to bless those who bless him and curse him who curses him and all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham.  2)To give Abraham's descendants all the land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates, that later came to be referred to as the Promised Land or the Land of Israel. 3)To make Abraham the father of many nations and of many descendants and give "the whole land of Canaan" to his descendants. Circumcision is to be the permanent sign of this everlasting covenant with Abraham and his male descendants.
The Abraham covenant has a representation of a covenant of grant. It is the obligation of the master to his servant that involves gifts given to individuals who were loyal serving their masters. In Genesis 15, God commits Himself and swears to keep the Promise. In this covenant there are procedures of taking the oath, which involved a smoking oven and a blazing torch. It is the superior party who places himself under oath. The inferior party is delivering the animals while the superior swears the oath. The animal slaughtered is considered a sacrificial offering preserving the sacrificial element alongside the spiritual and symbolic act.
Covenants were often sealed by severing an animal, with the implication that the party who breaks the covenant will suffer a similar spiritual fate. In Hebrew, the verb meaning "to seal" a covenant translates literally as "to cut." The removal of the foreskin symbolically represent such spiritual cut from the fleshy snares and the sealing of the covenant
The Moses Covenant found in Exodus 19 to 24 and the book of Deuteronomy, contains the foundations of the written and oral Torah. God promises to make the Israelites his treasured possession among all people and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, if they follow God's commandments. The 10 Commandments begins with God's identification and what he had done in the spiritual world for Israel bringing them out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 20) as well as the stipulations commanding absolute loyalty to Him. God gave the children of Israel the Shabbat as the permanent sign of this covenant.
The Priestly Covenant is the covenant that God made with Aaron and his descendants. The Hebrew Bible also mentions another perpetual priestly promise with Phinehas and his descendants.
The David Covenant establishes David and his descendants as the kings of the united monarchy of Israel, which included Judah. The Messiah is a future king from David line, who will be anointed with holy anointing oil, gather the spiritual Jews back into the spiritual Land of Israel, usher in an era of peace, build the Third Temple, have a male heir, re-institute and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age.

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