It can seem like most of the modern church is following Dispensational theology. The idea that scripture can be divided into periods of time and application called dispensations. This has caused many issues in the understanding of how we read scripture, what hermanutic we use, and thus twist the very lessons within scripture about Yah. The other foreunner for this understanding of scripture is called Covenant theology, its hardly as uniform as Dispensationalism but still runs into similar issues for the most part. Few within Covenant theology believe in one covenant, most believe in an 'old' and 'new' covenant - creating a divide in which we apply scripture differently for each individual covenant. Both seek to divide scripture, both make out Elohim to be someone who changed through time, that how he manifests to us changes. This simply isn't biblical!
Just look at how much scripture repeats a core premise, that Yahweh is unchanging. Malachi 3:6, But because I, Adonai, do not change, you sons of Ya‘akov will not be destroyed. Hebrews 13:8, Yeshua the Messiah is the same yesterday, today and forever.
It goes even further, not only is Elohim unchanging, but his plans are unchanging. How then can we have times where his plans change, or he manifests differently, or his breaks his word to create a new word? Psalm 33:11 says, But the counsel of Adonai stands forever, his heart’s plans are for all generations. This is repeated in Isaiah 46:10, At the beginning I announce the end, proclaim in advance things not yet done; and I say that my plan will hold, I will do everything I please to do. Numbers 23:19 makes it very clear and blunt, God is not a human who lies or a mortal who changes his mind. When he says something, he will do it; when he makes a promise, he will fulfill it. And yet what do we see in covenant theology but a god who replaces a faulty covenant for a different one? What do we see in dispensationalism but a god who changes his mind like he changes the weather?
What then is the third option? It is the single covenant, the fulfillment of Elohim's promises through the ages - kept to perfection and never forgotten or dismissed. It is God showing his consistency, keeping his vows, remaining ever unchanging. Starting from the beginning, his first promises, to show how he has always kept his word and remained unchanged. That his plan was perfect from the start. And how what is viewed as separate covenants truly build together to unfold his single Covenant with his creation.
Ephesians 1:4-6 starts us off, In the Messiah he chose us in love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in his presence. 5 He determined in advance that through Yeshua the Messiah we would be his sons — in keeping with his pleasure and purpose — 6 so that we would bring him praise commensurate with the glory of the grace he gave us through the Beloved One. Clearly showing us that the plan for the Messiah's redemption was formed before the fall in Genesis 3. That this was all a part of one single plan, even before the first sin by Adam. How great is his mercy and love for us that Yahweh would show us that even though we so often stray he will bring us to him? That even when he knows what we will do, his grace was given before we even did it? How unconditional the love our Abba has for us! Genesis 2:16-17 gives us the first aspect of the covenant, the forerunner to Elohim's plan. It says, Adonai, God, gave the person this order: “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are not to eat from it, because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die.” Of course we know what happened, Adam followed the lead of a deceived Havah over the leadership of Elohim and sin entered the world. Yet they did not die immediately, so did God forget his side of that covenant? Not at all! For this shows us the spiritual death that is the punishment of sin. The foundation of the covenant is being shown to us in this. That sin causes a spiritual death. Romans 6:23 is very clear when it restates this, For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord. Only Yeshua can free us from the natural consequence of eternal death! In John 3:12-18 Yeshua says, If you people don’t believe me when I tell you about the things of the world, how will you believe me when I tell you about the things of heaven? 13 No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. 18 Those who trust in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have not trusted in the one who is God’s only and unique Son. Yochanan the Immerser even repeats this in saying in verse 36, Whoever trusts in the Son has eternal life. But whoever disobeys the Son will not see that life but remains subject to God’s wrath. The foundation of the covenant is then built upon Yeshua, the need to eat of the Tree of Life by following him, joining the Olive Tree of Israel, and rejecting the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by remaining slaves to sin. This foundation was further explained by Yahweh to Adam and Havah immediately after they rejected the Tree of Life for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, when he says in Genesis 3:5, I will put animosity between you and the woman, and between your descendant and her descendant; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel. The foundation of the entire covenant is the need for Yeshua to give us eternal life from the consequences of our sins, eternal death. The Covenant is the Gospel!
Then the covenant grows. We see laws from Yahweh given to Adam and Havah, not explicitly to us but modeled by them. Modesty, being dressed in hides by Elohim himself. Sacrifices and offerings by Cain and Abel. Justice on Cain for the murder of Abel. All ways in which we follow God. As people fall from following the ways of Elohim we see one remains to follow him. Genesis 6:9 says, Here is the history of Noach. In his generation, Noach was a man righteous and wholehearted; Noach walked with God. So what became of this righteous man? He was given a job to do, to build the ark, and to be the leader of his household in saving them from the coming flood, the wrath of Yah. Destruction meets the wicked people and Noach floats to safety because of his faith leading him to obedience. Hebrews 11:7 shows that is was through the Trust, the faith, that Noah was saved, By trusting, Noach, after receiving divine warning about things as yet unseen, was filled with holy fear and built an ark to save his household. Through this trusting, he put the world under condemnation and received the righteousness that comes from trusting. What follows is often referred to a Noahic covenant, and treated as a separate entity rather than a part to the greater picture. Genesis 9:9-16 says, “As for me — I am herewith establishing my covenant with you, with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you — the birds, the livestock and every wild animal with you, all going out of the ark, every animal on earth. 11 I will establish my covenant with you that never again will all living beings be destroyed by the waters of a flood, and there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God added, “Here is the sign of the covenant I am making between myself and you and every living creature with you, for all generations to come: 13 I am putting my rainbow in the cloud — it will be there as a sign of the covenant between myself and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow is seen in the cloud; 15 I will remember my covenant which is between myself and you and every living creature of any kind; and the water will never again become a flood to destroy all living beings. 16 The rainbow will be in the cloud; so that when I look at it, I will remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of any kind on the earth.” 2 Peter 2:5 shows one side of this covenant, that it is a model of God's justice to the world, And he did not spare the ancient world; on the contrary, he preserved Noach, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, and brought the Flood upon a world of ungodly people. The fullness of this part to the covenant is shown to us in 2 Peter 3:3-7, First, understand this: during the Last Days, scoffers will come, following their own desires 4 and asking, “Where is this promised ‘coming’ of his? For our fathers have died, and everything goes on just as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But, wanting so much to be right about this, they overlook the fact that it was by God’s Word that long ago there were heavens, and there was land which arose out of water and existed between the waters, 6 and that by means of these things the world of that time was flooded with water and destroyed. 7 It is by that same Word that the present heavens and earth, having been preserved, are being kept for fire until the Day of Judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed. That this part of the covenant, to not allow the earth to be destroyed by another flood, is to the ultimate end of the present earth being destroyed by fire! Another part of his final plan, his single covenant, and not at all a separate entity. Showing when all the ungodly of the earth at that time will be destroyed as those in the time of Noach were.
Then comes the commonly termed Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 15, That Yahweh would make Abraham's offspring as bountiful as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the shore. That the land of Israel would belong to his offspring, from the Vadi to the Euphrates. But is this a covenant alone? Or is this another part to the greater picture? This is indeed a part of the ultimate covenant! Galatians 3:6-9 says, It was the same with Avraham: “He trusted in God and was faithful to him, and that was credited to his account as righteousness.”[a]7 Be assured, then, that it is those who live by trusting and being faithful who are really children of Avraham. 8 Also the Tanakh, foreseeing that God would consider the Gentiles righteous when they live by trusting and being faithful, told the Good News to Avraham in advance by saying, “In connection with you, all the Goyim will be blessed.”[b] 9 So then, those who rely on trusting and being faithful are blessed along with Avraham, who trusted and was faithful. Romans 11 speaks of being grafted into the Olive Tree, of becoming a part of Israel, seeds of Abraham. So we can see that the part of the covenant continued to Abraham was showing that the followers of Yeshua would be in the covenant, grafted in or native born. That the covenant formed before the foundation of the earth is for all Believers, and that is slowly being shown to us. Not that separate covenants are being made. Genesis 17:7-14 outlays this covenant as well, showing the abundance of the seeds of Abraham and giving the first sign of those who keep the covenant, circumcision. “I am establishing my covenant between me and you, along with your descendants after you, generation after generation, as an everlasting covenant, to be God for you and for your descendants after you. 8 I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now foreigners, all the land of Kena‘an, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God.” 9 God said to Avraham, “As for you, you are to keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation. 10 Here is my covenant, which you are to keep, between me and you, along with your descendants after you: every male among you is to be circumcised. 11 You are to be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; this will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 Generation after generation, every male among you who is eight days old is to be circumcised, including slaves born within your household and those bought from a foreigner not descended from you. 13 The slave born in your house and the person bought with your money must be circumcised; thus my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who will not let himself be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin — that person will be cut off from his people, because he has broken my covenant.” This begins another side of the covenant, showing indeed that obedience is our side of the covenant. That no covenant is one sided. We are brought into the covenant, saved, by out faith. But that we then must keep our side of the covenant with our obedience. Much as James 2:14-16 says, What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, 16 and someone says to him, “Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!” without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? 17 Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead. Our faith must create our actions, showing that we are indeed a part of the covenant. This covenant was then continued to Isaac, complete with showing our side of it, in Genesis 26:2-5, Adonai appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt, but live where I tell you. 3 Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, because I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants. I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Avraham your father — 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, I will give all these lands to your descendants, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless themselves. 5 All this is because Avraham heeded what I said and did what I told him to do — he followed my mitzvot, my regulations and my teachings.” Then to Jacob as well in Genesis 35:11-12, God further said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed a group of nations, will come from you; kings will be descended from you. 12 Moreover, the land which I gave to Avraham and Yitz’chak I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.” And thus Yahweh is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Even to use this title when he addresses Moshe from the burning bush in Exodus 3:6, I am the God of your father,” he continued, “the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov.” Moshe covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God. Yahweh went to Moshe to use him asa tool for his plan, to further the covenant. Exodus 2:24 says, God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, speaking of the children of Israel in Egyptian slavery. In Exodus 6:5 Elohim says, Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Isra’el, whom the Egyptians are keeping in slavery; and I have remembered my covenant. It is not simply the covenant forged with Abraham, but the covenant formed before creation which is remembered; the covenant further defined to Abraham.
David then was the recipient of what is often titled the David Covenant, which almost all can agree is a part to a larger picture. We see his branch of the covenant given in 2 Samuel 7:12-17 which shows that the Messiah will come from the line of David, When your days come to an end and you sleep with your ancestors, I will establish one of your descendants to succeed you, one of your own flesh and blood; and I will set up his rulership. 13 He will build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. 14 I will be a father for him, and he will be a son for me. If he does something wrong, I will punish him with a rod and blows, just as everyone gets punished; 15 nevertheless, my grace will not leave him, as I took it away from Sha’ul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Thus your house and your kingdom will be made secure forever before you; your throne will be set up forever.’” 17 Natan told David all of these words and described this entire vision.
When we think of Bride of Christ a dozen verses from the New Testament come to mind for many of us. We associate her to the Church, to Believers. We think of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But seldom do people realize that this was actually a concept introduced in the Old Testament. That the very covenant from the beginning was about being the bride. We see this in Isaiah 61:10, I am so joyful in Adonai! My soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me in salvation, dressed me with a robe of triumph, like a bridegroom wearing a festive turban, like a bride adorned with her jewels. Jeremiah 2:32, Does a girl forget her jewellery, or a bride her wedding sash? Yet my people have forgotten me, days beyond numbering. Joel 2:16, Gather the people; consecrate the congregation; assemble the leaders; gather the children, even infants sucking at the breast; let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride the bridal chamber. We can then clearly see that the congregation, the assembly, Believers, Israel, were the bride of the Messiah from the beginning of the covenant. 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 says, For I am jealous for you with God’s kind of jealousy; since I promised to present you as a pure virgin in marriage to your one husband, the Messiah; 3 and I fear that somehow your minds may be seduced away from simple and pure devotion to the Messiah, just as Havah was deceived by the serpent and his craftiness. History then shows that sadly the Bride did indeed get deceived, she did go astray. Repeatedly Israel turns from Yahweh to the pagan dieties of other nations. Repeatedly Yahweh turns her back to him. Repeatedly she is sanctified again and stays pure for a time only to need purification yet again by returning to Faith. All of the Old Testament models this for us but nowhere as precisely as the book of Hosea, in which the Bride's whorish tenancies are so blatantly modeled for us. See, much like now Israel, the believing assembly, was engaged to the Messiah. In the custom of the time to be engaged was already to be the bride, a covenant was already in place which was equal to that of marriage but without the marital benefits. Such a covenant was upheld, along with its consequences. By Torah Law a man could not remarry a bride he had divorced for adultery, she was no longer pure to him. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 says, Suppose a man marries a woman and consummates the marriage but later finds her displeasing, because he has found her offensive in some respect. He writes her a divorce document, gives it to her and sends her away from his house. 2 She leaves his house, goes and becomes another man’s wife; 3 but the second husband dislikes her and writes her a get, gives it to her and sends her away from his house; or the second husband whom she married dies. 4 In such a case her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her again as his wife, because she is now defiled. It would be detestable to Adonai, and you are not to bring about sin in the land Adonai your God is giving you as your inheritance. Thus showing that because Israel had whored herself away from her Bridegroom she had broken the covenant. Isaiah 24:5 teaches us this as well, saying, The land lies defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the teachings, changed the law and broken the everlasting covenant.
Jeremiah 31:30-33 (31-34 in some version), says, “Here, the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Y’hudah. 31 (32) It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them,” says Adonai. 32 (33) “For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra’el after those days,” says Adonai: “I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 33 (34) No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, ‘Know Adonai’; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.” We where then given the greatest promise. That while Israel had broken her covenant, while the Bride had acted the harlot, Yeshua would purify her and return her as his bride! This is where most Covenant Theology holders go sideways. They take Hebrews 8 and say that there was the old Covenant and now the New Covenant. That the old relied on the law but the new relies on grace. This simply isn't true! To say so is to say that God in turn breaks his own word to Israel in creating a new bride rather than purifying the old one. To say that his perfect Law, hello Psalm 110 and then some, is faulty and inadequate. But even this passage shows that is wrong, for 32 says clearly that it is Israel who is purified, that is Israel who gets the Torah written on their hearts. But how is this possible when Israel has been put aside and Law forbids her to be rejoined to her groom? Yahweh can not break the very law he created.
Purification is then done by Atonement. Leviticus 17:11 tells us that atonement is done by the blood, For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves; for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life. We know that through the shedding of Yeshua's blood we are atoned for, we can see this in many verses such as Mark 14:24, He said to them, “This is my blood, which ratifies the New Covenant, my blood shed on behalf of many people. Ephesians 1:7, In union with him, through the shedding of his blood, we are set free — our sins are forgiven; this accords with the wealth of the grace. Hebrews 9:22, In fact, according to the Torah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. And so on. In death the betrayal of the bride to the covenant could be forgiven, and in death it ended in the covenant in such a way as to allow the bride and groom to be reunited. Hebrews 9:15 shows this to us, saying, It is because of this death that he is mediator of a new covenant [or will].[a] Because a death has occurred which sets people free from the transgressions committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. 16 For where there is a will, there must necessarily be produced evidence of its maker’s death, 17 since a will goes into effect only upon death; it never has force while its maker is still alive.
This is why we now see a 'new' covenant. It is the old covenant, it is the old promises, the old arrangement, but done now with the atonement complete so that the bride is clean again. So that the Bride and the Bridegroom can be united as Yahweh has always said they would be. The gospel then is summed up in the covenant and the covenant explained in the gospel. While it is new in the sense that it is finished, that the bride will be made ready for the bridegroom, it is still the original covenant. Nothing in the covenant itself has changed, we are given the same promises, and the same expectations. Hebrews 13:20 truly is a clincher to this point, saying, The God of shalom brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Yeshua, by the blood of an eternal covenant. For that which is eternal has no beginning, and no end. Showing indeed that the covenant found in Yeshua's blood is once and for all that which was formed before creation, but renewed in his resurrection to purify his bride.
We then must continue our part of the covenant. Being led by the Holy Spirit and granted grace through our Faith, to then have our faith work in us to produce fruit. Showing the signs of the covenant that Yahweh has given us, showing our obedience to him because of our love for him. For we are all now Israel, partakers of the One Covenant, to be the Bride of the Messiah. Ezekiel 11:19-20 says, and I will give them unity of heart. “I will put a new spirit among you.” I will remove from their bodies the hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh; 20 so that they will live by my regulations, obey my rulings and act by them. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. Is your heart one of flesh and not stone? Are you grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel? We then are called to obedience to Yah's rulings in order to show that we are his people.
I have found that no greater passage sums up everything I have said today than Isaiah 54:1-10, so I will leave you with it. May we all eagerly seek to enter the Covenant, to follow our Elohim. May Yahweh bless you and keep you.
“Sing, barren woman who has never had a child!
Burst into song, shout for joy,
you who have never been in labor!
For the deserted wife will have more children
than the woman who is living with her husband,” says Adonai.
2
Enlarge the space for your tent,
extend the curtains of your dwelling;
do not hold back, lengthen your cords,
make your tent pegs firm.
3
For you will spread out to the right and the left,
your descendants will possess the nations
and inhabit the desolated cities.
4
Don’t be afraid, for you won’t be ashamed;
don’t be discouraged, for you won’t be disgraced.
You will forget the shame of your youth,
no longer remember the dishonor of being widowed.
5
For your husband is your Maker,
Adonai-Tzva’ot is his name.
The Holy One of Isra’el is your Redeemer.
He will be called the God of all the earth.
6
For Adonai has called you back
like a wife abandoned and grief-stricken;
“A wife married in her youth
cannot be rejected,” says your God.
7
“Briefly I abandoned you,
but with great compassion I am taking you back.
8
I was angry for a moment
and hid my face from you;
but with everlasting grace
I will have compassion on you,”
says Adonai your Redeemer.
9
“For me this is like Noach’s flood.
Just as I swore that no flood like Noach’s
would ever again cover the earth,
so now I swear that never again
will I be angry with you or rebuke you.
10
For the mountains may leave and the hills be removed,
but my grace will never leave you,
and my covenant of peace will not be removed,”
says Adonai, who has compassion on you.