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Part Three – Fulfillment
by haRold Smith
from Jerusalem, Israel
"'Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.' Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, 'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? Yeshua answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. AND THE WORD THAT YOU HEAR IS NOT MINE BUT THE FATHER’S WHO SENT ME. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and) bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.'" John 14:21-26
“The friendship, the secret counsel of the Father is for those who fear Him, and He makes known to them His covenant." Psalm 25:14
"This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise." Galatians 3:17
Since 325 AD at the Council in Nicaea, Christendom has been led to believe (because of various agendas of men) that the Jews "had their chance and blew it" and, as a result, the God of Israel wiped His Hands clean of all that had gone before, changed direction and, contrary to everything He has ever proclaimed about Himself, instituted a "new" covenant that did not require a behavioral assessment to come into His Presence. In the course of a few hundred years from the Resurrection, He went from being a consuming fire to a kindly, grandfatherly figure that mostly winks at the antics of His children, giving them pretty much whatever they want because He loves them so much. And, now, because the Son has center stage, the Father also stays pretty much in the background – the way you would expect an elderly, grandfatherly figure to be.
Consequently, what has been considered "the Old Covenant" has now been replaced by this "new" one with the "old" now put out to pasture alongside "the law" and all that messy, legalistic "stuff" that caused the Jews to incur His Wrath to begin with that we don't have to abide by any more. There is only one problem with that line of thought – it is not scriptural.
The Truth is - there is but One Covenant. Like a diamond and the Character of YHVH, we find there are several facets to this Covenant; but, there is only One Covenant and it has to do with YHVH Himself, His Plan and His Purpose toward mankind - to bring Life out of death and to make that Life accessible to every one who would come to Him with a humble and contrite spirit (Isaiah 57:15 click on highlighted verse to see scripture).
This week, here in Israel, we are celebrating the Feast of Shavuot – what is called Pentecost in Christendom. It is no accident, coincidence or happenstance that it was on this very day approximately 1500 years earlier, the Ten Commandments, the definition of the Essence of the Nature and Character of YHVH was given to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai - written in stone and accompanied by fire (see Pesach to Pentecost for a detailed explanation). This is the day recorded in (Acts 2:1-4). when the Covenant YHVH made with Himself was fulfilled (see One Covenant Part One and Part Two), for it was on this day that the same words originally given in stone and accompanied with fire were now able to be written on the hearts of men – BUT THEY ARE STILL THE SAME WORDS WITH THE SAME ACCOMPANIMENT OF FIRE. Only this time it was just the manner of delivery that changed.
This particular Shavuot spoken of in Acts was the epochal event in the annals of mankind. What made it epochal was that on this day the God of Creation, who had previously made His abode in the heavenlies, changed His Residency to abide, make His dwelling place in the hearts of men. Heaven is God's Throne and when Yah-Ho-Veh
(YHVH – see how His Name means the Present Presence)
moved His Throne, heaven moved with Him
(Isaiah 66:1,
Matthew 5:34-35),
The Essence of His Nature and Character as expressed in
Exodus 34:1-7
was now etched on the beings of men willing to fashion and conform their lives after Him, thus fulfilling His Promise to Israel to restore what had originally been purposed in the Garden of Eden - a people who would present this Light of His Being by their behavior to the world
(Jeremiah 31:31-34).
This was the fulfillment of the Promise made by the God of Israel to the Hebrew people.
It is basic but very essential to understand what it means to dwell in the earth or to dwell in heaven. When Yeshua said he dwelt in heaven, He was referring to a state of being. He had His feet planted firmly upon the earth, but in reality his place of habitation was IN HEAVEN (John. 3:13). His home was with the Father whose living quarters, whose abode, is in the realm of heaven. That realm is within (Luke 17:20-21). So, when Ephesians 2:4-6 speaks of us HAVING BEEN (past tense) quickened together with Yeshua (now present tense - and we don't have a problem considering that to have already taken place) - why should it be such a leap to consider that when we embrace His example of Life, we are currently sitting IN HEAVENLY places IN HIM right now? And, "If you then BE RISEN WITH YESHUA (present tense) ...WHERE YESHUA NOW SITS ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, set your affection on things ABOVE (i.e., the more excellent things connected with an elevated state of being), not on things on the earth (i.e. DWELL in heaven and not on earth). For you are dead, and your life IS HID WITH YESHUA IN YHVH (again, present tense). Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and HAS TRANSLATED US INTO THE KINGDOM OF HIS DEAR SON (which exists within us and is accessible to us right now)." (Colossians 3:1-3 and 1:13). Therefore, in the light of this, can we not conclude, since we are IN YESHUA who IS IN GOD and DWELLS IN HEAVEN, that when our affections are on those heavenly things, those things above (of a higher state of being), we LIKEWISE ARE DWELLING IN HEAVEN with Him and not the earth? (Matthew 6:21, Matthew 6:10).
What was "new" regarding the Covenant was not the underlying purpose the Father had determined from the beginning, but the manner by which that purpose was delivered – Ruach haKodesh (Hebrew for the Holy Spirit). But even that is not new. The Hebrew nephesh (breath of Life) is what was breathed into Adam in the Garden of Eden and into the eleven after the Resurrection as a pre-cursor to this epoctual event the 120 saints gathered to wait upon for 10 days in the Upper Room following Yeshua's instruction (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5). It occurred on the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) after the 50 days of the counting of the Omer beginning on the Day of Unleavened Bread after Pesach (Passover) when Yeshua was presented before the Father as the offering of the First Fruit, thus satisfying all the requirements of the Feasts. After which, He appeared to the eleven (John 20:19-22) and as many as 500 believers - visibly living among them for the next 40 days before going to the Father (Acts 1:3, 1Corinthians 15:5-8).
Ruach haKodesh is that same Breath of Life Yeshua said He would send us, because He went to the Father (John 14:26, John 15:26). His Resurrection opened the portal through which would come the means to infuse us with Power to be able to live this Life He exampled for us to walk and the door through which, by the embrace of His Life, we are afforded the opportunity to enter into the Present Presence (John 1:12, Acts 1:8). Scripture tells us the Baptism in Ruach haKodesh was the singular evidentiary event in the lives of Gentiles that signaled this salvation of the God of Israel (previously afforded only to His select people) would now be accessible to those of the world who would embrace His LIFE as well (Acts 10:44-47, Acts 19:1-7). Scripture also tells us this Truth is something we must ask for and seek after to receive (Luke 11:13) and, having asked, believe that He has given it (Hebrews 11:6, Mark 11:24, Luke 11:9-13).
Why was the covenant necessary? What we give ourselves to is what we worship (see No Other God). The Covenant was necessary to restore us to the place of provision in the Present Presence that was lost through the worship of self-determination (see One Covenant, Part One). The same determination that separated Lucifer was what he held out to Adam and Eve – the presumption that something was lacking in God's provision and should be made up for on our own. The result was emptiness, leanness to the soul, as opposed to the abundance that comes from being in the Presence of LIFE (Psalm 106:13-15).
The word covenant comes from the Hebrew word beriyth formed out of the root word barah meaning “eat together, as in a banquet” (in the sense of “a cutting asunder” as was the custom to cut and pass through the divided parts of an offering about to be eaten). A covenant is the seal of a promise between those joined by league to anyone
(see the similarities evoked in Communion).
The Life is in the Blood and, like a cancer of the blood, the self-determination that had seeped into the blood of this people that YHVH had fashioned after Himself had to be cut away before the initial provision of the abundance of Life in His Presence could be restored
(Leviticus 17:11).
Because one of the facets of this diamond of YHVH's Essence is Truth, the sin of the fathers is resultantly passed to subsequent generations. The way, the manner, by which it is passed is through the blood. This sin infecting the purity of the blood originally breathed into the patriarch father Adam, had also infected the entire lineage – until it came to Yeshua. He stopped the sin of self-determination by living a life of behavior of self-denial
(Philippians 2:6-11).
The means by which generational sin is stopped is in the manner Yeshua exampled – He did not do it anymore. He did not carry it forward.
"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." Hebrews 2:14-15.
The covenant was fulfilled because, by means of His unselfish life of self-denial and through that Life, He now possesses the gates of His enemy (Genesis 22:17). It is in the same manner of self-denial that we also receive that Power (Greek ecksousia meaning "power of choice") when Ruach haKodesh has come upon us (Acts 1:8).
The Covenant began when Adam & Eve chose to not remain in the provision of the Present Presence (Genesis 3:15). Immediately, the Father provided a lamb to be used for clothing as a substitute for His Truth that once covered their loins (Genesis 3:21, Proverbs 27:26, Ephesians 6:14). He then established His covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:9. and gave the rainbow as a sign of the Covenant by which He would be reminded to no longer destroy all flesh (Genesis 9:12-15). The Covenant was ratified with Avraham when YHVH swore with Himself so that the covenant could never be broken by man's failure to remain faithful. The circumcision He commanded of Abraham was
Let us be clear as to what is considered to be "the law". I do not wear a kippa, the round hat on the head. Why? Because it is not found in scripture. Period. I eat cheese on my hamburger. Why? Because the passage in Leviticus that says to not boil the kid in the mother's milk means just that - to not boil a kid in it's mother's milk. And It has nothing to do with eating meat and cheese together. These are rabbinical ordinances. Traditions not appearing in Jewish culture before the 13th century. I do not wear zit-zitot, the strings hanging from the belt loops. Why? Because when I was asking the Father for the truth in them, He said, "What are they for?" I researched and found they are to cause one to remember to do the Words He has spoken - the Commandments. But, He reminded me that I have something the Jews are acquainted with but have not yet received - the indwelling of Ruach haKodesh (the Holy Spirit) that only comes with the embrace of Yeshua and that He said He gave us to bring to our remembrance His Words (John 14:26).
The tradition of Western "Christianity" has been to place all things Jewish into a big barrel, label it "the law" and declare that, since it does not apply to us, we don't need to know it. Consequently, we have thrown out the baby with the bathwater and missed the Truth of Who He says He is, replacing it with who we would like to think Him to be. This is the very sin of self-determination spoken of in Part One of this series. There is no word for "law" in Hebrew - it is purely of Greek origin and was placed in scripture at the council of Nicaea (if you check it out, you will find this was a nasty conference). Torah means "instruction in righteousness" - it has nothing to do with "law" (see the Righteousness of the Law). 2Timothy 3:16 was written before the New Testament was canonized. The scripture Paul was referring to was the only scripture available at the time - the Torah. In the same regard, YHVH's Covenant has nothing to do with "the law". This is Sha'ul's point in the verse in Galatians at the top of this article.
The Good News is that, through the fulfillment of the covenant the Father ratified with Avraham and completed in Yeshua, the wall dividing the Jew from the rest of the Gentile world was dismantled (although the Greek side has since rebuilt it higher, wider and deeper) giving we who were once Gentile the opportunity to come and be grafted into the Jewish root of Jesse, Yeshua - but that root is and always has been Hebrew, Jewish.
One Covenant Part One, A History
One Covenant Part Two, What's New?
One Covenant Part Three, Fulfillment
| "If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him." 1John 2:29 |