The New Covenant
A verse taken out of the context of the whole of Scripture can put the wrong "spin" on what the passage actually means, even making it seem to contradict the rest. Here is a prime example:
"In that he says, 'A new covenant', he has rendered the first old. Now what is wearing out and growing old is ready to be destroyed." (Heb. 8:13)
Many misconstrue this to be saying that the "New Testament" conflicts with the "Old". While there are some important differences, this is quite the wrong approach to take. In the original Greek, the word here for "new" means "fresh", in contrast to what is now "lack-luster" in comparison. (2 Cor. 3:7-11.)
But the phrase quoted is from Jeremiah 31 (written in Hebrew), so it is much more fruitful to study the meaning in Hebrew than in Greek. The Hebrew word for "new" is chadashah. Let's look at how this term is used most often:
The "new moon" is called Rosh Chodesh ("head of the month"). Chodesh is related to chadashah, and actually means "renewing one". There is not actually a different moon there each month, but a "renewal" of the same one.
An often-repeated Hebrew prayer found in Lamentations 5:21 says, "Chadesh yamenu k'qedem". Again, the first word shares the same root as chadashah; here it is a verb. The rest of the phrase reads "our days, as of old" or "like the ancient time". If you want something to be "new" in the sense of "never seen before", you hardly want it to be just like something ancient! But "renew our days [to be] like those of old" makes sense. It is another occurrence of the same kind, which fills the same role or position. So B'rith Chadashah can just as properly be translated "Renewed Covenant" as "New Covenant".
Does this hold true in the way ancient covenants actually worked? Yes. In ancient suzerainty treaties, if the situation changed for one party, a covenant could be amended (or renewed) to adapt to the new circumstance. But only what no longer fit would be revised; everything else remained in effect exactly as before.
If a covenant is to be renewed, there must be a prior relationship between the two parties. With whom does our theme verse say the New Covenant is to be made?
"'Behold, the days are coming', declares Yahweh, 'when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah." (Jeremiah 31:31)
It is specifically to be made with both segments or "houses" of Israel! So to even be a participant in the New Covenant, we have to fit one of these categories, Israel or Judah. If we are not, why even bother to argue about covenants that have nothing to do with us? The sins the New Covenant addresses had to have been committed by someone who had been included in the first Covenant.
Once a covenant is violated, it is considered nullified. That's why a replacement was needed: because they had no covenant anymore! The covenant itself was not faulty, but because one of the participating parties, Israel, had broken it, and it could no longer remain in effect and thus had to be renewed. Yahweh had promised certain curses would come upon Israel if they violated the agreement they'd made with Him.
Two curses in particular were put on the House of Israel (not the Jews, who are Judah, but the Northern Kingdom) in Hosea 1 for having considered Yahweh's Torah (the substance of the Covenant as set down in writing) a "strange thing". (8:12). The first was “no mercy”; the second was no longer being “a people”—an identifiably distinct, unified ethnic group. But...
The key to this "doubling" is in Ezekiel 4: the prophet lay on his side for 390 days to symbolize the 390 years of punishment the House of Israel had earned. Doubled, it is 780 years. From the final defeat of the Northern Kingdom (722 B.C.), this comes to A.D. 58—just when Paul was setting his sights on the Gentiles. Ephraim (the Northern Kingdom) had mixed with the Gentiles (Hos. 7:8). So the focus in Yahshua's sending "fishers of men" to all nations was for the sake of the "lost sheep of the House of Israel" hidden among them. Others could respond, which is one reason He scattered them. Outsiders have always been able to join in if they keep the Covenant. But then they are no longer Gentiles, but Israel as well.
Being from the tribe of Judah, Yahshua was still in covenant, and was therefore qualified to restore His relatives to the inheritance they had forfeited, according to the laws of the Kinsman Redeemer (Numbers 27:8-11) as illustrated in the Book of Ruth.
So the New Covenant does specifically address those who were party to the first. "Those who are called" refers to those whose "gifts and calling are irrevocable", that is, Israel. (Rom. 11:29)
Yahshua initiated the renewal of the Covenant at His last Passover, and set it on a firmer foundation—the heavenly Altar instead of the earthly copy (Jn. 20:17; Heb. 7-9), and His untainted blood:
So the sentence of “no mercy” was now up. Individuals, descendants of the very tribes who had once been in covenant, but left it, could now be brought back into covenant with Yahweh. This began to happen. The term usually translated "church" really means, "called-out ones".
James addressed his epistle to "the twelve tribes in exile". Some differences in the renewed version of the covenant are there because we are still in exile and cannot do everything quite correctly. But many took advantage of this grace period. Leviticus 26:18 also says that if they would still not obey, Yahweh would not only increase the sentence seven times. And indeed, the Church eventually forsook the Torah again and created a new religion. Of course, some degree of righteousness has been preserved. But seven times 390 years comes out to 2,730 years, which brings us right up to the present. It's time for the second sentence to be up and for Israel to become a "people"--His unified group--once again. Only when the House of Israel house is fully regathered from among the Gentiles can He fully ratify that covenant with us as a whole “house”.
A "house" in Hebrew has the sense of being a "household"--a family. Israel broke the covenant "though I was a husband to them.'" (Jer. 31:32) The word for "husband" here is Ba'al—which has the connotation of a taskmaster, an overlord. But "in that day", says Yahweh, "you will no longer call Me 'My Ba'al', but rather 'my Ish'—another way of saying "husband", but a much more affectionate way. (Hosea 2:16) It's the same legal relationship, but the change in perspective makes a world of difference!
Yahweh is again calling out for Israel to not just be "saved", but to become all she is meant to be:
Those who want to take the next step into further righteousness need to recognize that they are Israel. The gateway to each of the Temple's courts, as one went inward toward greater holiness, had the same level of sanctity as the court into which it led. We are on the threshold of the Kingdom, so we need to live according to its higher level of holiness. The New Jerusalem is entered only through gates bearing the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. So to really fulfill our whole calling, we must become Hebrews—“those who cross over” out of “Babylon” (Rev. 18), the "world system” that the Church has so deeply bought into as well. If we belong to Messiah, we have to see ourselves as Abraham's children, not Gentiles. (Gal. 3:29; Eph. 2:11) Yahweh scattered us into all the world, but has reclaimed us, and will snatch us back out:
The Torah (the Law of Moses) is the written substance of the covenant that the people of Israel took on as a never-ending agreement with Yahweh:
Yahshua said, "Not one stroke of the Torah will pass away until all is fulfilled." (Mat. 5:18) So this new covenant must be another of the same kind. Unless we have gotten to the point yet of needing no one to teach us, the Torah is still in effect. All Scripture must be interpreted to agree with it. (Isaiah 8:20) Yahweh does not change His mind. The confusion lies in seeing the Torah as a means of justification. But "it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin." (Heb. 10:4) That was never its purpose. Galatians tells us it is meant to be our trainer until we see that Yahweh Himself is really all we need; after that it is to bring us to full maturity:
The "spirit" behind the letter is what is meant by the Torah being written on our hearts. But we don't therefore forsake the vehicle that got us to that point! When we say something is "on our heart", we mean it preoccupies us. It is all but an obsession! So if the Torah is on our hearts, it hardly can mean it is something we no longer practice! It means we obey not because we have to, but because we long to.
This time the Covenant will not be broken! Let's not leave that privilege only to a later generation.
"The days are coming ...when it will no longer be said, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of Egypt', but rather, '...who brought the descendants of Israel up...out of all the lands to which He had driven them... I will send for many fishers, and they will fish them out...because My eyes are on all their journeyings; they are not hidden from My presence. But neither is their guilt hidden from My eyes, so first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, for they have defiled my land [with idols].” (Jer. 16:14-18)
"He is the mediator of the new covenant, so that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called might receive the promise of an eternal inheritance." (Heb. 9:15)
"This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matt. 26:28)
"Listen to me, you who ardently pursue righteousness [what is right], who seek after YHWH! Look back to the rock from which you were quarried... Pay attention to Avraham your father." (Isaiah 51:1-2)
“After all these things... you will bring [My commandments] back to mind among all the nations into which Yahweh your Elohim has cast you out, and ...return to Yahweh ...and obey His voice ...with all your heart and all your soul. At that time Yahweh will recover those who were taken away ...and withdraw and assemble you from all the nations into which Yahweh your Elohim has dispersed you... Yahweh your Elohim will circumcise your heart... so that you will love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and all your soul... You will turn back and listen to Yahweh's voice, and carry out all His commands." (Deut. 30:1-8)
"This is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel: ...I will put My Law on their innermost parts, and write it on their hearts. No longer will everyone teach his fellow..., saying, 'Know Yahweh', because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest." (Jer. 31:33-34a)
"Our sufficiency is from Yahweh, Who has also made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit..." (2 Cor. 3:5-6)
"I will make a new covenant... not like the covenant that I had made with their ancestors on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—which covenant they broke. (Jeremiah 31:32)