Participants: Alex Schlusser (Host), Rachael Hyman (Host), Sasha Bolotnikov
Series Code: BTOR
Program Code: BTOR000020
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00:01 How does the Bible describe
00:02 what a covenant is and what a covenant is not? 00:06 Join us today on Back to Our Roots 00:08 and you'll find out. 00:28 Hello, and welcome to Back to Our Roots. 00:31 I am your host Pastor Alex Schlusser. 00:33 And I am Rachel Hyman. My co-host. 00:35 Hi Rachel, how are you doing today? 00:36 Good, how are you? 00:38 I am good. I am good. 00:39 I am really excited about our program today. 00:41 We're gonna be tackling 00:42 something that can be very confusing. 00:44 Today we're going to be looking at covenant 00:46 but more specifically from the old covenant 00:49 to what some people don't like to say is the new covenant. 00:53 And we're gonna really understand that 00:55 it's not such a bad thing. 00:58 You know, I do a lot of marriage counseling 01:02 in my pastoral ministry and one of the things that 01:05 we seem to have to negotiate around 01:07 is this idea of what a covenant is versus a contract, right, 01:12 because there really is a big difference. 01:15 We're going to explore that. All right. 01:18 So I'd like to bring out our friend, Sasha. 01:22 He is we call him our residence scholar 01:25 but all kidding aside, doctor, 01:28 and it's good to have you with us. 01:29 Dr. Sasha. Yeah, how are you, Alex? 01:32 How are you, Rachel? Pretty good. 01:34 Good, how you're doing, Sasha? Good. 01:36 We're gonna be talking today about 01:38 one of your favorite subjects. 01:39 Oh, yes. I know that we-- 01:42 I would say that we've had many discussions about this 01:45 but that wouldn't be correct. 01:46 I would have to say that I've sat 01:48 and listened to you talk many hours about this topic. 01:53 It was very much a one sided conversation 01:56 because you have so much information. 01:58 I know that this is something that 01:59 you're really interested in. 02:00 So let's first start off with maybe a very basic thing. 02:05 Sasha, how do we-- 02:07 if we're gonna talk about covenant 02:09 probably most people don't really 02:12 understand the difference between 02:13 what a covenant is and what a contract is. 02:18 How-- what do you think 02:19 would be a good way to approach explaining that? 02:24 It is important to see this difference 02:30 because contract is something which is negotiated. 02:33 Right. 02:34 Covenant, we don't negotiate. 02:38 God gives us this covenant 02:40 and the difference in divine covenant is 02:45 we can you know, we have the word covenant used 02:51 many, many times in the Bible 02:55 but there is only one text 02:57 I've found in the Book of Deuteronomy 29:12 03:04 where we have a very specific definition of the covenant. 03:12 And this is kind of like an interesting line, 03:17 "To enter the covenant with the Lord your God to 03:24 and His sacred oath." 03:28 Right. Let me read it. 03:30 It says, "So that you may enter 03:32 into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, 03:36 which the Lord your God is making with you today." 03:40 Now it goes on, let me read this last peek 03:42 because it say, "that he may establish you today 03:44 as his people, and he may be your God." 03:47 So this translation is not the literal one but it's-- 03:53 they try to waiver this sworn covenant. 03:58 So what would be a better way to say that then? 04:00 In the original you can find that 04:03 in like New King James Bible, the New American Standard Bible, 04:07 the literal used, "To enter the covenant with the Lord of God," 04:12 and then it says, "With to enter the sacred oath." 04:17 So it's important these two lines 04:20 because basically it's using the same idea, 04:24 different words put in different words. 04:26 And so you have covenant as an oath 04:31 which God gives to people, 04:36 that's through this oath Israel becomes God's people. 04:41 So you know, we just mentioned Deuteronomy Chapter 29, 04:45 probably the passage or the concept 04:49 that most people would be familiar with 04:52 would be the Abrahamic Covenant. 04:54 But there is covenant that appears before that. 04:58 What was the first time that God uses that concept? 05:03 The first time God uses the concept of covenant, 05:06 the term covenant is used in Genesis Chapter 9. 05:11 And it's--the event happened after the flood 05:16 when Noah and his family come out of the ark 05:21 and there is an interesting dynamics here. 05:25 Noah comes out and first thing he does 05:29 he builds the altar and he brings out 05:33 and he offers sacrifices, burnt offerings to the Lord. 05:38 And God smells sweet aroma of the burnt offering. 05:45 This sounds really strange to more than reader, you know. 05:50 You burn the carcass of the animal, 05:54 there's no sweetness in that 05:56 but in fact the whole burnt offerings 06:04 are used throughout the Old Testament 06:08 in the context of that establishing the covenant 06:13 or relationship with the Lord. 06:16 Anytime you know, 06:18 Israel departs from the Lord than they repent, 06:22 they bring the burnt offerings 06:26 to re-establish the covenant with God. 06:30 Also you have two lambs on the altar burn daily, 06:35 evening and morning 06:37 and they are burned as a whole burnt offering 06:40 like having this smoke of the covenant 06:45 coming ascendant to heavens sort of building the bridge, 06:49 assuring Israel that God has His unchangeable presence 06:57 and care over His people. 07:01 Right. 07:02 So in the Abrahamic Covenant 07:04 then which I've already mentioned--God, 07:10 I think He does something kind of unusual 07:13 and I know you have a lot to speak to about this 07:17 but you know, typically a covenan is between two. 07:24 But in the Abrahamic Covenant 07:26 that's not exactly what happens, right? 07:29 Exactly. 07:30 What Abraham--we need to kind of look at the history, 07:34 its 18th century B.C. 07:38 Before Messiah. Yeah. 07:39 It's 18th century BC, that's a long time, 07:43 this is early second millennium. 07:45 When Abraham moves into the land of Canaan, 07:50 this land is under the influence 07:53 of a large ancient Hittite Empire 07:56 which is in the modern Turkey. 07:59 And Hittites, they had a very interesting ritual, 08:02 they had the clay tablets 08:03 written in cuneiform script describing it. 08:07 When a Hittite king would conquer the city 08:11 and the city would surrender, 08:13 they would have this ceremony when the defeated king 08:19 would swear his allegiance to the Hittite king. 08:24 And this was done by them severing the animals in half, 08:29 right and placing them along the road and I think this is-- 08:33 Donkeys, yeah. 08:35 But then that king who had lost the battle 08:38 would walk through this basically proclaiming 08:41 if I ever go against you, if I don't honor you, 08:45 if I don't do what you ask me to do-- 08:46 If I break this covenant-- 08:48 May I be like the donkeys cut in half. 08:50 Yeah, I'll be like these donkeys cut in half. 08:53 So then when we go to the story in the Bible 08:56 about Abraham and the covenant, 08:59 we have a similar picture that God has Abraham 09:02 prepare these animals, right? 09:04 But then God puts Abraham to sleep. 09:07 Yes, and God-- Abraham falls asleep 09:11 because he is waiting for God to appear 09:14 at the head of the road so that he could walk-- 09:18 Abraham could walk in between. 09:19 Between swearing his faithfulness 09:23 and this doesn't happen. 09:25 Abraham falls asleep and he sees how God 09:32 who is portrayed like a fire as from the furnace 09:37 walking between these animals consuming them. 09:41 So basically it wasn't Abraham oath to swear that, 09:46 yeah, I am gonna be faithful 09:48 otherwise you cut me in half, Lord God. 09:51 It was God who was doing that. 09:54 And in Hebrew what really is exciting, 09:58 in Hebrew when it says, "God made covenant," 10:02 so it's translate literally it means God cut the covenant. 10:07 Right. So that's-- 10:08 Cut the covenant? Exactly. 10:10 God cut the covenant. 10:12 So when we go to-- that's basically to say that 10:16 this idea of severing, you know, 10:18 splitting this in the half 10:21 so that covenant is really through sacrifice. 10:25 But the thing, I think that amazing thing is 10:28 that God literally makes the covenant with Himself 10:32 on behalf of Abraham 10:34 because now it becomes the covenant 10:35 that Abraham can't break. 10:37 Exactly. 10:38 If Abraham breaks the covenant God is suffering. 10:43 God says, if you Abraham, break this covenant, 10:46 I am going to be cut off like these animals. 10:50 What does that mean exactly? 10:51 Well, this is what exactly what Jesus did. 10:54 When we break the covenant 10:57 our transgression of the covenant 11:01 caused Jesus to suffer. 11:04 And the same word cut off as cutting off the covenant 11:09 when you go to Daniel 9, the only text that talks about 11:15 the time of the Messiah, it's the same word, 11:18 Messiah shall be cut off. 11:23 Interesting. 11:26 Let's talk about another big episode of covenant 11:30 and that is when God is making covenant 11:33 with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. 11:35 This really becomes a pattern 11:39 for something that even today is going on. 11:42 Oh, exactly. Right. 11:43 This is the pattern for the modern Jewish wedding. 11:46 Yes, because the word which we just mentioned 11:51 in Deuteronomy 29:12, the sacred oath 11:54 and it's a good translation of this Hebrew word Allah 11:58 which means a marriage of, 12:03 the oath of marital loyalty. 12:06 And this is exactly what the covenant is all about. 12:12 When you look while there is no word used in Exodus 12:18 when they have this experience but the prophets like Jeremiah, 12:22 Ezekiel especially, Ezekiel is very clear. 12:25 Ezekiel in Chapter 16 describes the Exodus from Egypt 12:31 and the Israelite at Sinai 12:34 as the wedding between Him, between God and Israel. 12:40 And that's the root of how today 12:45 Christians believe the church is the bride of Christ. 12:49 So that's-- This is-- and does that carry over, 12:55 you know, you say Christians 12:56 but that seems to be pretty common concept that 13:01 even carries into Revelation. Oh, absolutely. 13:03 Right, this idea of God's people being the bride. 13:07 Yeah, that's the coming of Jesus is 13:10 the wedding feast of the lamb. 13:12 The reason why because, 13:16 you know, the wedding has two parts. 13:19 First part is betrothal and then there is an actual wedding. 13:24 So at the betrothal a young man 13:30 who used to be the bridegroom comes to 13:34 the young woman and declares to her, behold, 13:37 now you are holy to me according 13:42 to the Law of Moses and Israel. 13:44 And so if the girl takes the piece of gold 13:49 she agrees to this, she became sanctified. 13:53 That's how the betrothal 13:55 and in literally it means sanctification. 13:58 The engagement between the bride 14:02 and the groom is the sanctification. 14:05 And so she becomes basically forbidden 14:10 to all other men except the one 14:13 from whom she took this piece of gold. 14:17 So that brings us interestingly to next thing 14:21 I wanted to talk to you about, Sasha, is that okay, 14:25 so if the women or we're talking about 14:27 let's say God's people have been set 14:29 apart to be holy unto Him. 14:31 Well, we know though history 14:33 that the Hebrews, Israelites weren't always 14:38 that they had become unfaithful 14:40 and the prophet speak to that specifically 14:44 in the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 3, is that correct? 14:48 Correct, absolutely. 14:50 In fact it is interesting that when we talk about 14:54 the holy we kind of connected with sin and sinfulness 14:59 and things sinlessness, this is not correct. 15:02 The holy means consecrated, the opposite it's adulteress. 15:08 So when Israel goes into idolatry God sees it 15:15 as the act of adultery which basically is 15:21 if you look at the Decalogue, Ten Commandments 15:25 you got two commandments dealing with faithfulness. 15:30 Commandment number seven is dealing 15:33 between two human spouses and commandment number one, 15:39 it's faithfulness to God. 15:41 The same way you can't build marriage if 15:44 there is any third party involved, 15:47 the same way you can't build your relationship with God 15:51 if there is something, if you worship somebody else. 15:54 That's why, "Thou shall not have any other God before me." 15:58 And so in this context Jeremiah 16:01 Chapter 2 speaks about the divorce. 16:07 Basically it's like he tells Israel, 16:11 you know, Israe you have had too many lovers, 16:15 you have committed adultery with too many Gods 16:19 and that's why I have full reasons to divorce you. 16:24 And according to the Book of Deuteronomy 16:27 that was the intent of Deuteronomy 24, 16:31 not to allow Jews in the Old Testament 16:35 to divorce their wives but to forbid if the marriage is 16:42 broken that the, you know that 16:44 the woman could not return back, 16:46 it can't be restore after you know, 16:49 it remarried but God said, you know what? 16:53 It is what it is but I ask you to come back, return to Me. 16:57 What, Sasha, what is-- you know, 17:00 we started this off talking about covenant versus contract 17:04 and everything but I really want to 17:06 just take a little bit of time. 17:09 Typically people would say 17:10 the old covenant and the new covenant. 17:12 In just a minute we're gonna look 17:14 at Jeremiah Chapter 31 which is the portion 17:18 that really describes what God is going to do 17:20 in the context of the new covenant, okay. 17:23 We had this discussion quite a bit, 17:26 the old covenant, all right, I don't think 17:31 that most people really have a concept 17:32 of exactly other than looking at well, 17:35 it's the Old Testament, that's' the old covenant, okay. 17:38 But what really-- what is the old covenant? 17:43 And I think a lot of people are going to be surprised. 17:45 Yes, in the book of Hebrews Chapter 9, 17:48 Paul clearly describes to us 17:51 what the old covenant constitutes. 17:53 The old covenant constitutes the sacrificial system that was 17:59 going on in the temple and the human priesthood. 18:05 That was the part of the old covenant. 18:07 But I think what's really important 18:09 is that God had established in the midst 18:12 of His people that here was the only place, 18:14 this location, specific place that everything had 18:19 to happen, right? Only there. 18:22 So I know you are like, you can see Sasha 18:25 is like ready to jump on it all over the place. 18:27 But with that thought that God had-- 18:29 the old covenant is really based on location specific action. 18:34 Geographic location. Geographic location, exactly. 18:38 Let's go over-- Because the glory of God 18:40 was on the Ark of the Covenant. 18:45 And in a specific place and only there. 18:48 But now God comes along through the prophet Jeremiah and he 18:52 lays out something that sounds completely different. 18:54 And He say this, this is Jeremiah 31:31, 18:59 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, 19:01 when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel 19:05 and the house of Judah, Not like the covenant 19:08 that I made with their fathers on the day 19:09 when I took them by the hand to bring them out of 19:12 the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, 19:15 though I was their husband,"talking about 19:18 the marriage illusion there, "declares the Lord. 19:21 For this is the covenant that I will make," 19:24 you know, I want you to know 19:25 how many times it's I will, I will, I will in this, 19:28 "that I will make with the house 19:29 of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, 19:31 I will put my law within them, 19:33 I will write it on their hearts, 19:36 I will be their God, 19:38 and they shall be my people." Beautiful. 19:42 So there is very specifically something different 19:47 that is gonna happen here. Exactly. 19:49 Number one what we see 19:51 that the new covenant is a re-marriage. 19:54 You know, people always and we're gonna be talking 19:56 about this even more that God makes new covenant with 20:02 the same people of Israel, that's with Israel and Judas. 20:05 So He forgives, He remarries, He gives another chance to 20:10 His people and of course, but there is a difference. 20:14 He says, I will write my laws into their hearts. 20:19 So that's why you have to understand 20:23 the geographic location you know, it was very strict. 20:27 Deuteronomy 12, strictly forbade 20:31 any type of sacrificial service worship 20:34 any other place except the place 20:37 where the Lord God established His name in it. 20:42 So it was very clear 20:44 but when you look at the promise 20:47 which God--which Jesus makes to Samaritan women. 20:51 Samaritan women, the dialogue, she asks, 20:55 where is the true place where everybody goes? 20:58 Is this Jerusalem? Are Jews right? 21:00 And she said, Jews right. 21:01 In the context of where they worship, she's asking. 21:04 Yeah. Jews are right. 21:06 You don't know whom you worship so relation is of the Jew 21:09 but the time is coming and now is 21:13 when the true worshippers will worship 21:16 not in any geographical location but and it says in-- 21:21 In spirit and truth. In spirit and truth. 21:24 And people don't understand what is in spirit, 21:27 but when you look at the events that happened at the Pentecost. 21:33 And when you look at 21:34 the image of the holy-- God's glory 21:38 you realize this is what's happening. 21:42 It is God's glory, the spirit of God 21:45 that was geographically located 21:48 inside the most holy of the temple 21:50 for many hundreds of years. 21:52 At the day of the Pentecost-- on the day of Pentecost 21:56 moves from that geographic location 21:59 into the hearts of the believer. 22:01 And you know what I think is really exciting 22:04 is that not only is that their spiritual manifestation 22:08 that the Holy Spirit has moved into their hearts, 22:10 God, I think gives them a physical manifestation 22:14 because it's describe that a flame descended as tons of fire 22:19 and Sasha, I've always seen that as a picture. 22:21 You know, when the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, 22:23 the evidence of the dwelling presence of God 22:25 was this fire, this flow of fire. 22:29 So here's they are on Pentecost on the day 22:32 when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit 22:34 is happening upon God's people, now upon their hearts. 22:37 What happens, not only does the Holy Spirit indwell them 22:40 just as the prophet Jeremiah said but God evidences that 22:44 and says look, you are now My moving tabernacle. 22:47 That's awesome. Okay. 22:49 And it's symboled by the flame that dances 22:52 and they see these tons of fire upon their head. 22:55 And that's really friends, what God is saying to us 22:59 that it's not a geographical location. 23:03 You know when someone ask me the question, 23:05 where is church, so to speak, okay? 23:09 Church is not a building, all right. 23:12 Church is wherever we are and wherever God is with us. 23:17 I think that's what Jeremiah is alluding to. 23:20 Speaking clearly that we are under the new covenant 23:25 become the temple of the Holy Spirit 23:29 and God dwells with us 23:31 that we are moving temple, 1 Corinthians. 23:33 Right. Right. So, Rachel. 23:36 Yes. You have a song for us. 23:37 Yes, Yedid Nefesh, 23:39 actually I learned this song from Sasha, 23:40 so he can describe it perfectly. 23:42 Yeah. Okay. 23:43 So she's gonna get ready 23:44 and Sasha, tell us about Yedid Nefesh. 23:46 Beloved of my soul, wonderful father, 23:52 your servant will run after you 23:56 like a deer to keep, to fulfill Your holy will. 24:01 Beautiful. Beautiful. 24:18 (Singing in foreign language) 26:59 Wow, Rachel, what a beautiful song. 27:01 What exactly does that mean again? 27:03 Yedid Nefesh is beloved of my soul. 27:06 And we are the beloved of our Savior's soul. 27:10 Amen. How beautiful. 27:11 You know we've talked today about covenant, 27:14 the old to the new but let me tell you something, 27:17 God, our God loves us so much that-- 27:21 I am telling you I just look forward to that day 27:24 when we will be joined with Him, 27:26 the marriage feast of the lamb 27:29 that all people from every tribe, 27:31 nation and tongue will be joined together 27:33 and we will be just praising Him 27:35 with one voice proclaiming how great He is. 27:39 It's just an amazing thing and I can't wait. 27:42 So until next time, may the Lord bless you 27:46 and may He keep you 27:47 and may the Lord make His face to shine upon you 27:49 and be gracious to you. 27:50 May the Lord lift His countenance upon you 27:53 and bring you His peace. 27:55 God bless you and see us again 27:57 on Back to Our Roots. |
Revised 2014-12-17