FOR FINDING FAULT WITH THEM HE SAYS:
memphomenos (PMPMSN) gar autous legei (3SPAI) :
Finding fault (3201)
(memphomai from momphe = blame, reproach, complaint) means to blame,
find fault with, accuse, impute as blameworthy. The present
tense indicates God was
continually finding fault with His chosen people, who repeatedly rebelled
against Him like an unfaithful wife (see verse 32 in the Jeremiah 31 passage
below). The problem with the Old Covenant was not bad laws, but bad hearts!
With them - Notice the writer's shift of language from the covenant to the people. After
saying the
Old Covenant was not faultless, he comes to the essence of the problem
and finds fault with
the people. The primary problem was not the Old Covenant per se, but the failure
of the Jews to keep the Old Covenant...
for they did not continue (persevere in, hold fast to, remain true
to, or abide) in (God's old) covenant (see note
Hebrews 8:9).
He says - God
says - He spoke prophetically through Jeremiah of a new covenant based on grace
which would replace the first covenant based on law. The writer quotes God's
declaration in
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (note that the quotation is not from the Hebrew text
but from the Greek
Septuagint - LXX) which reads...
31 "Behold, days are coming," declares
the LORD, "when I will make a
new covenant with the
house of Israel and with
the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (Old Covenant,
Mosaic Covenant, "the law"), My covenant which
they broke, although I was a husband to them (Israel is the wife of Jehovah
- cp Isa 54:4 addressed to Israel - "your husband is your Maker")," declares the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel
after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on
their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people.
34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his
brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know Me, from the least
of them to the greatest of them,"
(The following are not quoted here but are vitally important passages for
evangelicals to understand) 35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun
for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by
night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His
name:
36 "If this fixed order (sun, moon, stars) departs from before Me,"
declares the LORD, "Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease From being
a nation before Me forever." (Classic "if...then" passage)
37 Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens above can be measured, And the
foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all
the offspring of Israel For all that they have done," declares the LORD.
(God's point is that He has not cast Israel aside, even today when most of
the Jews in Israel are not "religious". He is not finished with Israel as so
many teach today, but these promises will be completely and literally
fulfilled at the Second Coming of the Messiah. Notice that the following
passages for example are part of God's covenant promise -- albeit not
mentioned in the NT -- and they will be fulfilled.)
38 "Behold, days are coming (this time phrase is identical to verse
31 - this is the same covenant!)," declares the LORD, "when the city shall
be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
39 "And the measuring line shall go out farther straight ahead to the
hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah.
40 "And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all
the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate
toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, or
overthrown anymore forever."
The writer considers this
passage so important for his readers to grasp that he reiterates the
covenant promises in part in
Hebrews 10:16;
17...
THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE
WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR
HEART, AND UPON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says, 17 "AND THEIR
SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." (see notes
Hebrews 10:16;
17)
Notice the writer's
logic (compare similar line of reasoning in
Hebrews 4:8;
Hebrews 7:11;
Hebrews 8:4)
-- The writer declares that if there had been nothing wrong with
the first covenant, there would have been no need for another covenant. But
in fact as already suggested the first covenant was not faultless because
the Jews could not keep their promises to fulfill it as they vowed in
Exodus 24...
Then Moses came and recounted to the
people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances (The Old Covenant,
the First Covenant); and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All
the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" (Exodus 24:3)
The first covenant lacked the
power to energize their obedience because it was on tablets of stone, not on
the tablets of their heart and mind as in the New Covenant. Although not
stated in this section, another critical promise of the New Covenant was a
new "Person" Who would provide a new power to fulfill the requirements of
the Law, God prophesying in Ezekiel...
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and
cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26,27)
In short, the old covenant was faulty because it did not provide enabling
power
for the people to live up to the terms or conditions of the Law. In other
words, the old covenant did not include a provision for their inherent faultiness.
BEHOLD DAYS ARE
COMING SAYS THE LORD: Idou hemerai erchontai legei kurios: (Jeremiah
31:31-34) (Heb
10:16,17;
Jeremiah 23:5,7;
30:3;
31:27,31-34,38;
Luke 17:22)
Behold
- An interjection in the form of a command (aorist
imperative) which is an
urgent call for the hearer or reader to pay attention to what follows. This
is important!
As New Testament
believers it is vitally important that we remember to whom God was
addressing the covenant with its promises in Jeremiah 31:31-34. The
recipients of the New Covenant prophecy were Jews, the very ones who
witnessed the Jew, Jesus, inaugurate the covenant at His last Passover meal
with them. These truths are important to keep in mind because there is a
widespread tendency in the modern evangelical world to do away with God's
promises to Israel, and to say that the NT church has replaced Israel, as
the "Israel of God" (see discussion of this topic -
Israel of God).
This is not what Scripture teaches as Paul tries to explain in Romans 11,
lest the wild olive branches (the Gentiles who are grafted into
the rich root of the Abrahamic Covenant) become arrogant or
conceited (see notes
Romans 11:18;
11:20).
The writer's logic is
"brilliant" (because it is inspired). He appeals to one of their own
prophets which means the Jewish readers would have to reject the veracity
and assurance of the Old Testament, if they refused to accept the New
Testament teaching on the New Covenant which is found in the Old Covenant!
To reject the New Covenant, would be tantamount to rejecting their own
prophet Jeremiah. Thus the writer builds his argument upon the Old Testament
Scriptures, the very Word of God his readers professed to believe. This is a
good example for all who would preach or teach the Word of God - base your
"arguments" on the firm foundation of God's Word, including the Old
Testament. There is a distinct bias I fear in modern evangelicalism to "shy
away from" preaching on the Old Testament. Those pastors who shy away from
teaching the Old, would be wise to remember that this was the only "Bible"
the apostles and early disciples (most common term for believers in
Acts) had access to. Many who applaud the oratorical, expositional skills of
the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, would be wise (and
blessed) to emulate his example of frequent forays into the Old Testament
Scriptures (for example, witness his 57 messages on the seldom taught book
of Ezekiel!)
Days are coming
- What days? When? I agree with others who favor a "dual"
fulfillment, theologically speaking a soteriological and an eschatological
fulfillment. The first fulfillment is related to the application of
the truth in Jeremiah 31. Although the covenant was initially given to
Israel, it is clearly applicable to Gentiles who enter it by grace through
faith. In other words, in terms of applying the truth of the Jeremiah
passage, whenever anyone is saved, Jew or Gentile, the day has come that the New Covenant has
become a reality in that person's life. On the other hand, if one views this
passage to Israel through "prophetic glasses", it will be most completely
fulfilled at the time of the Lord's return, when "all Israel will be saved".
Says the Lord -
As noted elsewhere but worth reiterating, this passage teaches that it was
God Himself Who initiated the covenant, not man. As far as we know, Israel
never asked God how it was that He would be able to fulfill the promises of
the Abrahamic Covenant (which is ultimately made possible by the payment of
Christ's sacrificial blood in the New Covenant, which paid the price of
redemption, the very truth we celebrate when we partake of communion) to
themselves who were sinners and who needed a Redeemer. But God saw their
need and He provided for their need by initiating ("says the Lord")
the New Covenant, which Jesus referred to as the "New Covenant in My blood"
(Luke 22:20) which alludes to the need for redemption by a satisfactory
Goel or Kinsman Redeemer.
In Romans, Paul
explains (like the writer of Hebrews, appealing to the the Old Testament Scriptures to validate his
argument)...
thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer (the
Messiah) will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins." (see notes
Romans 11:26;
11:27).
Spurgeon writes that...
His divine decree has made the covenant
of his grace a settled and eternal institution: redemption by blood proves
that the covenant cannot be altered, for it ratifies and establishes it
beyond all recall. This, too, is reason for the loudest praise. Redemption
is a fit theme for the heartiest music, and when it is seen to be connected
with gracious engagements from which the Lord's truth cannot swerve, it
becomes a subject fitted to arouse the soul to an ecstasy of gratitude.
Redemption and the covenant are enough to make the tongue of the dumb sing.
In Revelation 19 we see the Deliverer returning at the
end of the
Great Tribulation
(see notes beginning with
Revelation 19:11 and read through
the subsequent verse notes) and the beginning of the 1000 year reign of
Messiah, the
Millennium or Messianic Age
(see also notes beginning with
Revelation 20:4).
It is at this future time that Zechariah's prophecy will "dovetail" with Jeremiah's
prophecy, God predicting that...
"And it will come
about in all the land," Declares Jehovah, "That two parts in it will be cut
off and perish; but the third will be left in it. And I will bring the third
part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, and test them as
gold is tested. They will call on My name (cp, the New Covenant promise "they
shall all know Me"), and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My
people,' And they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'" (cp, God's promise in
Jeremiah's prophecy in Jer 31:33 - "I will be their God, and they shall
be My people.") (Zechariah 13:8,9)
The third part
that Jehovah brings through the fire will be those who by grace
through faith receive the
Messiah as their Deliverer and their Redeemer, and all of this one
third will be saved. (If you are interested in this somewhat complex,
sometimes controversial subject of "What Happens to the Jews?" read the notes on
Romans 11:26;
11:27)
(My friend in Christ, Tony Garland, also has a lucid, logical discussion of
these passages you can
listen to on Mp3 -
click here for Mp3,
click Pdf of his summary notes in Pdf
or
Html Document)
(Or listen to his 14+ hour Mp3 series on
Israel)
WHEN I WILL EFFECT A
NEW COVENANT
WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH: kai sunteleso (1SFAI) epi
ton oikon Israel kai epi ton oikon Iouda diatheken kainen: (Hebrew
9:15;
12:24;
Matthew 26:28;
Mark 14:24;
Luke 22:20;
1 Corinthians 11:25;
2 Corinthians 3:6)
(Isaiah
55:3;
Jeremiah 32:40;
33:24-26;
Ezekiel 16:60,61;
37:26)
When I will effect
- As discussed elsewhere in these notes, the New Covenant was made with
Israel but clearly is applicable to Gentiles. But the benefits of the New
Covenant are like a health insurance policy we own but in ignorance still
end up paying for medications, etc, simply because we did not understand our
benefits or were "too lazy" to check the policy. How many believers really
understand the benefits that are granted to them in Christ Jesus by virtue
of being in (new) covenant with Him? Are you plagued by guilt for past sins
you have confessed? No problem because in the New Covenant God says your
sins I will remember no more. If the Holy God won't remember them, why are
experience a sense of guilt? Perhaps, we don't completely comprehend the
benefits of the New Covenant. Or take many believers who are running the
race of grace well and then begin to be put under rules or laws or "do's and
don'ts" instead of remembering that God has clearly stated that He would
place the law on our heart and mind. So instead of living a life of freedom,
they bring themselves under a yoke of bondage to legalism in its various
forms (listen to Ray Stedman's very helpful summary of
Legalism
or read the
transcript)
I will - God
initiates the covenant. Israel did not seek it. God's grace is always
initiating grace. Yes, God had found the people at fault and they deserved
nothing but condemnation and yet He promises a new covenant.
Spurgeon
comments...
Now, rolling up that old covenant
as a useless thing out of which no salvation can ever develop, God comes to
us in another way and says, “I will make a new covenant with you,
not like the old one at all.” (Hebrews 8:8-13.) It is a covenant of
grace, a covenant made, not with the worthy, but with the unworthy; a
covenant not made upon conditions, but unconditionally, every supposed
condition having been fulfilled by our great Representative and Surety, the
Lord Jesus Christ; a covenant without an if or a but
in it; “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure”
(2 Samuel 23:5); a covenant of shalls and wills,
in which God says, “I will, and you shall”; a covenant suited to
our broken-down, helpless condition; a covenant that will land everyone who
has an interest in it in heaven. No other covenant will ever do this.
Will effect (4931)
(sunteleo from
sun = with + telos = goal) means
to end together or at the same time. To end completely; to bring to an end,
finish, complete. In speaking of an activity it means to bring to an end and
so to complete or finish the activity. Sunteleo means to carry out or bring
into being something that has been promised or expected and thus to carry it
out, fulfill it or accomplish it.
The writer seems to have chosen
sunteleo rather than poieo
“to make,” in order to emphasize more clearly the conclusive perfecting
power of the New Testament.
WHAT IS NEW
ABOUT
THE NEW COVENANT?
A new covenant
- It is new in that it is fresh and it contains the "freshness of the
redemptive promises". Even the other great unconditional covenants in the
Old Testament, the Abrahamic and the Davidic, did not in themselves
explicitly elaborate on the redemptive promises implicit in the New
Covenant, promises which form the basis for the fulfillment of the other
unconditional covenants. In other words, the Abrahamic covenant needed the
completion of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ to make it possible for
this Old Testament covenant to have the certainty and assurance of its
ultimate fulfillment. It pointed to the Seed, Christ, but it did not explain
the redemptive aspect of Christ as did the New Covenant (cf, the better
promise of the New Covenant "I will remember their sins no more" which
equates with forgiveness.) There had to be the death and spillage of blood
of a suitable sacrifice to bring about redemption. This is what Jesus was
referring to when He stated that this is the blood of the (New) Covenant
which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. Without His payment of
the price of His precious blood (i.e., redemption - payment of price to buy
slaves out of bondage, etc), forgiveness would not have been possible and
the Abrahamic Covenant would not have had a foundation for its fulfillment.
In the New Covenant
God explains its better promises which are centered in the
forgiveness of sins and the divine enablement (God's laws are now within =
when we by grace through faith enter the New Covenant, God's Spirit gives us
a "new inner control center"). When one studies the promises of the
Abrahamic covenant (and the Davidic), one concludes that what God says in
Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant is essentially a "repetition" (Dr S Lewis
Johnson's term) or an "extension" of these other unconditional covenants.
And so this new or fresh covenant repeats or extends the Abrahamic
(and Davidic) but adds the redemptive grounds for the Abrahamic (and
Davidic) covenant.
WITH WHOM
IS
THE NEW COVENANT MADE?
With the house of
Israel and the house of Judah - Note carefully that because two divisions of the kingdom
are distinguished, this is clearly a literal promise, and should silence the
false teaching that the church has replaced Israel. In other words, it would
be ridiculous to teach that the church was "the house of Israel and the
house of Judah". To repeat, the New Covenant is made with the house of
Israel and the house of Judah, not with the Church. Why would the writer of
Hebrews emphasize the two houses? Remember that the letter is addressed to
Hebrew professing believers and he is seeking to deliver them from
the danger that they would depart from the faith that they had professed.
What better way to jolt them back to reality, then to remind the Hebrew
professing believers of the great covenant that was given to Jeremiah to the
Jewish people.
This distinction is
vitally important because most of us are of neither Jewish house. The
question arises then "How did we Gentiles "get in" if this New Covenant was
not given to us?" How do we qualify? As explained elsewhere in these notes,
the New Covenant is essentially a repetition or extension of the Abrahamic
promises, then we can understand how Gentile believers might be the
recipients of those promises. Stated another way, one can understand the New
Covenant as the grounds of fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. And if you
look at the Abrahamic covenant, you will note that even in this covenant,
provision was made for Gentile believers...
And I will bless those who bless you, and
the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)
All the families
would include Jews and Gentiles and so provision was made for Gentiles even
in the Abrahamic Covenant. The New Covenant provides for and explains the
redemptive grounds for the Abrahamic Covenant (which is an "everlasting
covenant", e.g., see Genesis 17:7,8, cp the unconditional Davidic covenant
which is also "an everlasting covenant" - see 2 Sa 23:5). And so we see that
these unconditional covenants while distinct are not wholly separate
covenants but are related as part of God's so-called "covenantal program"
(the everlasting Davidic covenant is also part of this "program"). And in
this covenantal program, the gracious God has made provision for both Jews
and Gentiles to enter into the covenant promises. Without going into great
detail at this time, it should be added that Paul further explains how
Gentiles ("wild olive branches") are grafted in to the rich root of the
natural olive tree, this rich root representing the Abrahamic covenant that
promised blessing to both Jew and Gentile through the coming Redeemer, Jesus
Christ. (See notes
Romans 11:17,
cp Galatians 3:7 "be sure that it is those who are of faith who
are sons of Abraham" where Paul speaks of Abraham's spiritual
descendants as those who believe in Christ for salvation.)
At risk of becoming
too detailed, the Gentile believer who carefully reads these notes and
studies the Abrahamic covenant, will conclude that although Gentile
believers are spiritual descendants of Abraham, we do not inherit the
specific promises of the Land (Ge 15:18ff) that God made to Abraham
that were passed on to Abraham's son Isaac and then to Isaac's son Jacob
(God later changed his name to Israel), and in turn passed through Jacob
(Israel) to the physical Israelites who would come to believe in their
Jewish Messiah (see related topic
- believing Jewish
remnant).
The promises of the Land of Israel will be fulfilled to those
believing physical/biological Jews at the return of Messiah to set up His
1000 year kingdom (see
Millennium).
State another way, believing Gentiles do not inherit the promises made to
physical/biological Jews who become believers, as is often taught by those
who hold to amillennialism and believe the phrase the Israel of God
(Galatians 6:16) refers to the church (see discussion of
the
phrase
Israel of God).
Believing Gentiles do not become Jews and the believing church does not
become Israel. When Messiah returns at the end of the
Great Tribulation
to defeat the antichrist and the world forces arrayed against Him (and
against the nation of Israel), He will establish His kingdom and bring about
the final fulfillment of the covenant promises of "the Land" (of Israel -
first promised in Genesis 15:18ff).
Covenant
(1242)
(diatheke from dia =
two + tithemi = to place pictures that which is placed between two
Thus, a covenant is something placed between two, an arrangement between two
parties.) was a commonly used in the Greco-Roman world to define a legal
transaction in settling an inheritance.
Diatheke denotes an
irrevocable decision, which cannot be cancelled by anyone. A prerequisite of
its effectiveness before the law is the death of the disposer and thus
diatheke was like a "final will and testament". In reference to the
divine covenants, such as the Abrahamic covenant, diatheke is not a covenant
in the sense that God came to agreement or compromise with fallen man as if
signing a contract. Rather, it involves declaration of God’s unconditional
promise to make Abraham and his seed the recipients of certain blessings.
Ray Stedman warns that...
Though the writer of Hebrews undoubtedly
applies this new covenant to the church, those commentators who deny its
future application to the nation of Israel ignore great areas of Old and New
Testament prophecy. (Hebrews 8:1-13 The
New Covenant)
