Covenant and The Gentiles

For the past 15 months, I've been a part of a small group of guys and we call ourselves the Apocalyptic Accountability Group (AAG) - you can read all about it on our website. We gather every Sunday night for a couple of hours to pray and discuss things together and this past weekend, we were talking about the Covenants. The discussion came around to the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8) and the discussion turned to the interaction between Gentiles and the Covenants. If you look at the covenants made to Abraham, Moses and David, no covenants were cut with Gentiles. All of them are made with Jews and are about Israel's hope. This discussion had the backdrop of Romans 11. For my own edification, and for the edification of anyone who might wrestle with this themselves, I thought I would go through each of the original covenants, parse out their similarities and differences and then try and draw some conclusions about the nature of the New Covenant and the hope that we Gentiles have.

Abrahamic Covenant

"Now the LORD said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make you name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you; and in you all of the families of the Earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)

"The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then you descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you." (Genesis 13:14-17)

“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:4-8)

Mosaic Covenant

Generally speaking - the entirety of the Mosaic Covenant is found in Exodus 19-24.

"Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you shall speak to the sons of Israel."" (Exodus 19:3-6)

As I read this over - the line that stands out to me is "...and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." That certainly speaks to the 'set apart-ness' of Israel, but to me, it also speaks to their special role in redemptive history. The idea of a priest in Hebrew culture was someone who interacted with God on behalf of the people; a mediator if you will. The template for this role would have been the Levite priesthood within the nation of Israel. Just as God chose the Levites for special service within the temple, both to serve the people and to represent God, so he has chosen the people of Israel, to serve the nations and to 'be a light', telling the nations about who God is and what He is doing.

Davidic Covenant

I will present here the first time the Davidic Covenant is laid out; it is referenced several times in subsequent Scripture.

"The Lord declares to you [David] that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When you days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever." (2 Samuel 7:11-16)

I'd like to include here one passage from the Psalms:

 "I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. "If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statues, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness - and I will not lie to David - that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." (Psalm 89:28-37)

I included this passage from the Psalm 89 for a couple of reasons. First, the line from 2 Samuel that reads, "When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands" can be confusing. The context of the sentence that proceeds this one is alluding to Jesus so this sentence then becomes confusing..."when he does wrong"? Isn't Jesus perfect and without sin? Psalm 89 helps to clear up what is meant. The author in 2 Samuel isn't talking about Jesus doing wrong, he is talking about the sons of David's line. Second, Psalm 89 underscores just how serious this is. God swears that he will uphold this covenant by swearing to his holiness. In other words, if God doesn't not uphold this covenant, He is not holy and therefore not God!

Similarities:

- The Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants are both sealed with blood. This is important because as we will see, the 'New Covenant' is also sealed with blood. Blood alludes to the sacrificial system and also underscores the seriousness of the covenant.

""I am the LORD who brought you [Abraham] out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it." He said, "O LORD God, how may I know that I will possess it?" So He said to him, "Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Then he brought all of these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. [...] Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. [...] It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram..." (Genesis 15:7-18)

"Then he [Moses] arose early in the morning, and built an alter at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the alter. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!" So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." (Exodus 24:4-8)

- The Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants are both unilateral. There is no part of those covenants that are dependent on man - God is both the covenant-maker and the covenant-keeper. The Mosaic covenant is the only bilateral covenant that God makes, and the question surrounding that covenant is not whether Israel will continue to be the chosen people of God but rather, whether they will remain obedient to the law and statues set forth, and thus remain in the Land. The consequence for disobedience? Exile.

- All three covenants are made to the House of Israel. Abraham, to whom the original promise is given, is the father of the nation - the Mosaic covenant is addressed "the house of Jacob" and "the sons of Israel" and the David covenant is made to the line of David, within the House of Israel.

- All three covenants contain FUTURE promises. To me this particular point is critical. Abraham 'believed God and it was credited to Him as righteousness' (Genesis 15:6). The Mosaic covenant says, "you shall be my people" - there is both the current promise, but also future aspect of it - and with that, the promise of certain exile from the Land if the covenant laws and statues are broken. The Davidic covenant is all about the future promise of a king and a kingdom that will endure forever.

New Covenant

As mentioned in the opening - the new Covenant is mentioned first in Jeremiah 31 and then quoted in Hebrews 8. It reads:

""Behold the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 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, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will [future] 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. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive them their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."" (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Again we see here a unilateral covenant that is made "with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah". I've been pondering what the sign of the new covenant is, because with every covenant there has been an accompanying sign. With Adam it was 'the seed' (Genesis 3), with Noah it was a rainbow, with Abraham it was circumcision, with Moses, it was the sabbath, or perhaps the land, with David it was a coming King and an everlasting throne (Jesus, essentially)...but what about the new covenant? This is my opinion, but it seems to me like the sign of the new covenant is Jesus' return and the restoration of all things to perfect unity with him. If you read the first part of Jeremiah 31, it is undoubtedly a picture of heaven. Even in this laying out of a new covenant, you get a sense of peace, of freedom from a body of death, of there no longer being a necessity to teach anyone about God because everyone knows Him. "from the least of them to the greatest of them". The way I see it, this new covenant is entirely future. And once again, it is a covenant that is sealed in blood. In this case it is Jesus' blood and that is confirmed in Gospel narratives of the last supper when Jesus says, "In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you." (Luke 22:20) It just occurred to me that this scene in the Gospel may be misinterpreted by many to say that Jesus is fulfilling something, or saying that the new covenant is now. But we see from the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants that the establishment of the covenant was not the same as its fulfillment. Taken in this light, Jesus' death and sacrifice on the cross (and subsequent resurrection) serves as the establishment of the covenant, or said in a slightly different way, the assurance of things to come.

What about us gentiles?

So just in a relatively quick overview, we can easily see that none of the covenants that were made, were made to Gentiles (the 'goyim', the Nations); they were all made to Israel. Does that mean we Gentiles have no hope? Absolutely not. It was God's plan all along to save humanity. In his covenant with Abraham, God says, "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you; and in you all of the families of the Earth shall be blessed." God's plan is to bless the nations (the world) through His chosen people Israel. I really don't see any other way to read it, and I if this is God's plan, I don't see any reason to question it. Paul says that Gentiles are 'grafted in' to the promises (the root of the cultivated olive tree, the covenants, Romans 11) and that we have hope because of what God has promised to His people. Like an eldest sibling typically has a special responsibility as the executor of estate even to this day, so the chosen people of God, Israel, are the 'eldest sibling' of the world - serving a special role in administrating the Kingdom of God. Our rewards are no different than theirs (eternal life, renewed bodies, having communion with and access to God), but our responsibilities are different.

There is a very interesting section in the middle of the Book of Acts, titled (in my Bible) "The Jerusalem Council". It is the 'a ha' moment for the early Apostles as it relates to the Gentiles and what God's view of the Gentiles now was. First, they recognize that this was always in God's plan (Acts 15: 12-18) to 'chose a people for his name, from among the Gentiles.' Next, Peter recognizes that Gentiles can have relationship with God, as Gentiles, which is to say - without becoming Jews (which was how it was previously understood). Lastly - Peter identifies three rules that he believes are universal when it comes to the conduct of Believers, whether Jew or Gentiles. Specifically, he mentions abstaining from sexual immorality, abstaining from the meat of strangled animals (from blood), and from eating food sacrificed to idols. Quick aside - in Deuteronomy, there are several explicit instructions from God about not eating blood - the meat of a strangled animals (i.e. not slaughtered, and thus not properly drained of blood) would still have had blood in it, thus making it unacceptable.

I mention the above passage because it seems to acknowledge that Gentiles are not under the same law as their Jewish brethren. That doesn't mean that Gentiles are under no law - Peter mentions in Acts 15:21 that he assumes Gentile believers would be hearing the law of Moses (Ten Commandments or, The Decalogue) preached in synagogues on every Sabbath. Gentiles, however, are not under the civil law of the Jews nor are they ordered to observe the Jewish festivals and ceremonies. Additionally - Gentiles were not allowed to enter the Temple of God; they could send animal sacrifices to be made on their behalf (in some, but not all, cases), but they were not allowed to enter - and thus not under the ritual and temple purity laws. The true revelation here, to the Apostles, is the Gentiles can have relationship with God as Gentiles - they don't need to convert to Judaism or adopt Jewish law and customs in order to know Him.

So, having established this - we still have this question - what about the Gentiles as it relates to the covenant? I believe the answer to this question is faith. Ultimately, for a Jew, faith in God's promises and a belief that God is going to do what He says He is going to do, is what is accounted to a person as righteousness. In the story of Abraham and Isaac, we see that Abraham's faith - his trust - is what God accounted to Abraham as righteousness. And so today - as Gentiles, grafted in to the nourishing root of the cultivated olive tree (Romans 11), we also put our hope in the Covenant/God's Promises - not that they have to do with us directly, but that by God following through on his promises to His Chosen People, we (the nations) will be blessed through them. In this way, God's statement to Abraham, "and in you, all of the families of the Earth shall be blessed" is literally true. Michael Wyschogrod, a Jewish theologian, in his book entitled, "The Body of Faith", wrote: "Salvation is of the Jews, because the flesh of Israel is the abode of the divine presence in the world. It is the carnal anchor that God has sunk into the soil of creation." God's choosing of a people necessarily means that He intends to have relationship with the humanity He created. Though some of the particularities of election may be off-putting to the modern thinker, it is nevertheless how God has chosen to do it. This also agrees with what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8 when he says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith..." 

I leave you with two verses from Romans, one in chapter 11 and one in chapter 15. Paul, having whipped himself up into a frenzy regarding the 'chosen-ness' of Israel and about the dance that is to occur between Gentile believers and Jewish unbelievers says,

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:33-36)

 "For I tell you this: The Messiah has become a servant, to the Jews, to show that God is faithful to his word, confirming the truth and reliability of the promises made to the patriarchs, while the Gentiles glorify God for showing them such great mercy. As it is written, "That is the reason why I will praise you among the Gentiles; it is to your name that I will sing praises."" (Romans 15:7-9)