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Articles 2021-2023
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
After His resurrection and ascension, Jesus sat down in the place of greatest honor and authority to both reign as king and to serve as the high priest representing before the Father His people and His purpose on earth. While the physical temple was still standing, our Lord brought to fulfillment the heavenly reality that it was foreshadowing. And so, it was now necessary that both the shadow be removed (Luke 21:5 - 6) and the full realization of Heaven’s work be increasingly revealed on earth.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “SEE,” He says, “THAT YOU MAKE all things ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN.”
The writer states that if Jesus were still then on the earth, He would not be a priest in the temple. What those ministers were involved in was a copy and shadow, and He was anything but that. In fact, He was the reality that had cast the shadow. So, in building God’s house, the Lord had instructed Moses not to be haphazard in his work but to make everything according to Heaven’s blueprint. The silhouette had to reflect accurately what would be realized both in heaven and on earth.
Once the substance of heaven had broken forth among men, no longer were God’s servants to simply build according to a pattern. If they did so, operating from their own strength, they would only produce more shadows. Today, there are simply too many shadows of heavenly authenticity instead of the genuine revelation of Heaven’s power and glory – Christ Himself revealed in corporate expressions of His life. We are not called to produce something that only resembles this reality; we are called to come and behold our God, to spend time in His presence, and to then respond to Him as He leads us according to what He has written in the Scriptures. As we cooperate with Him, He will both in us and through us produce on earth the substance of Heaven’s plan that is recorded in His word. The difference between these two approaches is vast. One involves shadows; the other involves our God’s genuine answer for the nations.
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them…
Notice that the problem God was seeking to remedy in the Old testament was not with what He had said to His people, but with them. The condition of the human heart was and is the root of what ails humanity. And the answer lies in God and His word of promise to us. So, He established a new covenant.
For finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH; NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD.”
God promised to effect (Greek, SUNTELEO – to make, to fulfill, to consummate) a new covenant with His people. Not only would He initiate it, He would bring it to its full expression in them. It would differ from the one made at Sinai. It would not be about what His people would have to do to be acceptable to Him but of what He would do in them as they turned to Him. And He would bring His work to a consummating fullness; God would be glorified for the work of His grace.
And it would not be the Law that He would set aside but the covenant based on the idea of that Law being external to His people. He would internalize His word in them.
”FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS,” SAYS THE LORD: “I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”
Notice that the above promise was made to Israel. In the Old Testament, when they did not continue in God’s covenant, He withdrew His favor (Hebrews 8:9, Amplified Bible). But the New Covenant would be different. He would put His words into their minds through instruction and then write those very words into the depths of their hearts. And then they would be His people and He would be their God.
Today, we await the fulfillment of that promise to Israel. While God has brought to pass and implemented the New Covenant, He has done so primarily among the Gentiles. And this work among the nations proceeds in our day. But where is it all going? Paul clearly makes the point that not only has God not cast Israel away, but that …salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous (Romans 11:11). National Israel will at some point become desirous for Heaven’s work among the nations to come to fruition among them as well. And what will be the character of that realized covenant among them?
“AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’ FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.”
What a sign to the whole earth! A nation that once rejected her Messiah turning wholly to Him. At the heart of her experience would be the accurate and intimate knowledge of the Lord her God. Isaiah had prophesied the day when Heaven’s opposition to her would end and her iniquity would be removed because she had received double, the full expression of judgment for all her sins (Isaiah 40:2). His strategy for getting her to that day would be to send one preparing the way for He Himself to come into her midst (Isaiah 40:3). And the perfect way of the Lord that had been misrepresented/made crooked because of the pride of men’s hearts would now be made straight and revealed to all who had eyes to see (Isaiah 40:3 - 4). Jesus so perfectly revealed the way of God that He could refer to Himself as that very way (John 14:6). Those who had seen Him had seen the Father.
But Isaiah was also prophesying of something that would come afterward. For two thousand years the Lord has continued to work in the hearts of His people to straighten in us what we have corrupted of His ways and to make them known before the eyes of the whole earth. Out of that work will come an event that will cause all flesh to see His glory together (Isaiah 40:5). All flesh together did not see His glory at Christ’s first coming. In fact, it was only a select few who saw Him after His resurrection. And while we know that the whole earth will one day see His glory at His return, Isaiah’s prophecy is referring specifically to what will happen as a result of Israel’s iniquity being removed and Heaven’s opposition ending.
There is coming a day when the whole earth together will witness the revelation of God’s glory as the nation of Israel turns to Him and rediscovers her eternal roots. Heaven’s primary emphasis in our day to bring us to that day is that everything among us that is of the flesh is like grass that withers before His breath/His Spirit (Isaiah 40:6 - 7; 1Peter 1:23 - 25). Let us have hope. He will succeed in making His way straight in and through us, He will cause Israel to become jealous…
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
What will those coming days look like? For one thing, Jerusalem will arise into her calling and become a bearer of the Good News. And the Lord will come to her in great, mighty, and ruling power while at the same time revealing to her His tender, gentle, and shepherding heart (Isaiah 40:9 - 11).
Is God up to the task that we see yet to be accomplished? Just read the rest of Isaiah Chapter 40. Here are words powerful in their simplicity and staggering in their implications.
And His promise to Israel is rooted in His mercy and made available through the cross.
“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.”
Again, and not to be too repetitive, the Old Covenant was simply not sufficient to bring humanity to the fulfillment of His promise.
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
Two thousand years ago, the Old Covenant was fully removed; it disappeared from the earth as Heaven’s new and final covenant with His people came into view.
Donald Rumble – February 2021
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