The dispensation of Israel, Part 4. God has not rejected His people nor His promises, the five divine covenants

The dispensation of Israel, Part 4. God has not rejected His people nor His promises, the five divine covenants.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Mosaic Law was given to Israel to reveal the principle of the glory and beauty of the grace and mercy of God which was revealed in the Mosaic Law.

All the Mosaic Law did, weak as it was because of the OSN, ROM 8:3, was to produce the arrogance of self-righteousness and the condemnation of man.

JOH 15:5b “For apart from Me you can do nothing.”

The Mosaic Law, given to them in the dispensation of Israel, was actually bondage for the unbelievers and believers in the dispensation of Israel, GAL 4:9.

So God gave Israel the Mosaic Law because the Law brings nothing but condemnation, GAL 3:10-14.

All who depend on the Law, who are seeking to be justified by obedience to the Law of rituals, are under a curse and doomed to disappointment and destruction.

DEU 27:26 Cursed or doomed to eternal punishment is everyone who does not continue to abide, live and remain, by all the precepts and commands written in the Book of the Law and to practice them.

The man in right standing with God, [the just and the righteous], shall live by faith and by faith he is declared righteous and in right standing with God, HAB 2:4.

The Law does not rest on faith, does not require faith, has nothing to do with faith, for the Bible says, He who does them [the things prescribed by the Law] shall live by them [not by faith], LEV 18:5.

Our Lord purchased our freedom, redeeming us from the curse of the Law and its condemnation, becoming a curse for us.

TLJC redeemed us from the curse that the Law brought upon us by canceling out the certificate of debt which was against us by taking it out of the way having nailed it to the cross, COL 2:14.

Through believing on TLJC, the blessing promised to Abraham in GEN 12:3b, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” also comes upon the Gentiles, so that through faith, we all might receive the promises of the Holy Spirit.

We are all able to receive God’s life, His Spirit, in and with us by believing, just the way Abraham received it.

In the dispensation of Israel, there was a book called the Torah, which means the teaching and instruction from God, filled with divine guidance and commands for man to live a long life and prosper, even for the unbeliever.

The nation of Israel was chosen by God to demonstrate and communicate the grace and mercy of God.

As prophesied and promised the Messiah would come from the race of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; from the nation of Israel; from the tribe of Judah; from the family of Jesse; from the royal lineage of King David.

The nation of Israel would be defined by five divine covenants.

1. The Abrahamic Covenant, GEN 12:1-3; 13:16; 22:15-18; 26:4; 28:14; 35:11; EXO 6:2-8.

The promise of a national land.
The promise of both national and universal redemption.
The promise that a great nation should come from him.

The Abrahamic covenant also included:
Abraham’s name shall be great.
He should be a blessing so great that in him shall all families of the earth be blessed.

To him personally and to his seed (not the church, but the Jews) should be given Palestine forever to inherit,GEN 13:14-17.

The multitude of his seed should be as the dust of the earth.
Whosever blessed him should be blessed and whosever cursed him should be cursed.

He should be the father of many nations.
Kings shall proceed from him.

The covenant shall be perpetual and everlasting.
The land of Canaan shall be “an everlasting possession.”

2. The Palestinian Covenant, GEN 13:15; 15:18-21; 26:3-5; 28:13-15; 35:12; EXO 6:4,8; NUM 34:1-12; DEU 30:1-9.

The amplification of this covenant came after willful unbelief and disobedience in the nation of Israel, once again pointing to the grace and mercy of God and the fact that the covenant was unconditional.

a. The nation will be plucked off the land for its unfaithfulness,
DEU 30:1-3.
b. There will be a future repentance of Israel, DEU 30:1-3.
c. Their Messiah will return, DEU 30:3-6.
d. Israel will be restored to the land, DEU 30:5.

e. Israel will be converted as a nation, DEU 30:4-8.
f. Israel’s enemies will be judged, DEU 30:7.
g. The nation will then receive her full blessing, DEU 30:9.

3. The Mosaic Law
(Gen-Deu).

a. Codex I: The Freedom Code (the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments), for believers and unbelievers.

The Ten Commandments define human freedom in terms of morality, privacy, property, life, and authority in general.

b. Codex II: The Spiritual Code - including a complete shadow presentation of Christ and His saving work [Christology and soteriology], for believers’ only.
c. Codex III: The Establishment Code - civil statutes for Israel.

An elaboration of freedom and authority, privacy, rights, property, privileges, marriage and divorce, military policy, taxation (tithing), diet, health, sanitation, quarantine, criminal law, trial, punishment, laws of evidence, and capital punishment, EXO 21:1-23:9.