Beloved Family… I’m still pondering the meaning of the Eternal Blood Covenant into which our awesome God has included us. There is so much significance and good news embedded within it, that not even in eternity will we be able to finish plumbing the depths and the fullness and boundless expanse of our awesome God, whose Nature is Perfect Selfless Love. This Love is the essence of how He regards in His heart and will… those He has created to serve as His image and likeness.
The revelation given through God’s Covenantal interactions with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the nation of Israel, tells us that before God’s written Word (the Bible) existed, our Heavenly Father sent His Living Word to them, to abide and interact with those chosen Covenant people, in a unique and very personally intimate way. His Living Presence became, to them, intensely real, and personally impacting, and intensely, lovingly, passionate. This is how the Holy Spirit describes their relationships with God for us:
Hebrews 11:8-26
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and (solely by faith in God’s Living Word) he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
“All these died in faith, without receiving the (the complete fulfillment of the) promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested (by God’s Living Word), offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved friends… can you see how utterly real, credible and reliable God’s Living Word must have become to these people? When you consider the things God required them to believe and the lengths to which their trust and reliance upon Him had to extend, it’s obvious that God’s Word had become intensely and profoundly real and authoritative and lovable to them. To trust and obey Him to the great extent that they did, this family HAD to have known Him to be dynamically real and present and worthy of their total trust! And this awesome relationship with the Living Word… is what God revealed to Israel and the rest of the world… through what His prophets and apostles were inspired to reveal to us through the written Word. So the purpose of the written Word is to reveal and draw all attention to the Living Word! Please keep this in mind at all times!
And since the nation of Israel (which is what the descendants of these spiritual fathers and mothers of the Faith later became) was chosen to serve as the model and example through which God intends to reveal His Reality and Truth and intentions to the entire human race, we can profit greatly by observing how He continually interacted with them in the days before the written Bible and Judaism and Christianity existed. That intensely personal level of personal interaction lets us know how interactively close and personal Almighty God wants to be to every human He designs and creates. And that of course includes those of us who are destined to be part of the Last Days generation.
And, if we respond to Him according to what He has revealed to, and through, the original fathers and mothers of Israel, we too will be able to transform into ‘The Light of the World’… and serve as God’s Testimony to all unbelieving peoples that inhabit our modern day world. And our era can also know that the Living Word of the one True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is truly, Pure Love and Everlasting Righteousness, and is worthy to be trusted and loved and obeyed wholeheartedly and exclusively.
Jeremiah 31:1-4
“At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.” Thus says the Lord, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness—Israel, when it went to find its rest.” The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an Everlasting Love; therefore I have drawn you with Lovingkindness. Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers.”
Ezekiel 16:8-14
“Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a (marriage) Covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord God.
“Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.
“THEN YOUR FAME WENT FORTH AMONG THE NATIONS on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My Splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord God.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
In texts like these, we can see the depths of love that truly abide in the depths of God’s heart for His chosen Covenant people. He means them nothing but GOOD! He knows that in His own nature and Eternal Life, there abides all THE FULLNESS OF WHAT IS RIGHTEOUS AND TRUE AND GOOD. And so, He created His Blood Covenant pattern, which is a ‘Marriage Pattern’. It operates according to the Perfect Faithfulness and Reliability of God’s Eternal Nature. And He made it possible for Israel and also all the other families of this world:
Acts 14:46-48
“Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of Eternal Life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us:
‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring Salvation to the end of the earth!’”
“When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying (Yeshua) the (Living, Incarnate) Word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to Eternal Life believed! And the Word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
This is why our Messiah said to His unbelieving fellow Jews: “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, FOR HE WROTE ABOUT ME! (for I am the Living Word of God)! But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:45-47 Emphasis added.)
The Covenant Pattern contains and reveals God’s heart and intentions toward all of us. He wants to share the unique Infinitely Perfect level of Union that is natural only to Almighty God Himself. So He speaks to the rest of the world through Israel, so that all men can know that, by the Power of His Holy Spirit and the Authority of His Living Word, Almighty God wants to share the Love that exists between Him and His chosen Israel, with all the rest of humanity! This is why Paul proclaimed that:
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Since what we call, ‘The New Testament writings’ did not yet have a place in the canon of Scripture, it’s clear that Paul was speaking of the Torah and the prophets and Wisdom writings that God had entrusted to Israel’s care and proclamation! At that time, the Tanach was all the Scripture that existed! So, what modern day people call, ‘The Old Testament’ was, and always will be, the basic, foundational Self-Revelation of God. That is what He entrusted to Israel, to protect and give to the whole world. Israel was commissioned to protect God’s Truth and His Ways and share God’s awesome Good News with the rest of mankind! He wants all men to know the vision and ultimate intention that moved God to send His Living Word to Earth, to start His Rescue Mission by interacting with that one man, Abram and his family, so that what is Eternal and Infinitely Good could finally begin to envelop and bless the whole human race that abides in mortality and unspeakably grievous limitations.
And later, God sent His beloved Son, His Living Word, to a later generation, to serve as Israel’s Messiah King. He came to deliver all men from their state of living Death and Sin-corruption. He came to fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel so that He could also deliver everyone else from our common human state of extreme distress and fallen hopeless, failure-ridden frustration unto Death that our Sinfulness has forced us to become trapped within, in this dimension of space and time. In other words, the Word was sent to speak Life into those who already had Death working within them… and to summon them forth from the trap of Eternal Desolation into which they had fallen. So, through the New Covenant, the Living Word is here to fulfill and bring to total consummation, all the revelation, commandments and promises God began to give to the human race, through Abram and his Covenant family:
Genesis 17:1-7
“Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My Covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”
“Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My Covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish My Covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an Everlasting Covenant, to be God to you and to your (natural and spiritual) descendants after you.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Notice that God promised that the Covenant He was making here, was made with a man that today would be just another Gentile! At that time, there was no Israel and there were no Jewish people. Abram was a Chaldean who lived in the city of Ur, in what we know today as Iraq! But the Covenant that God established with Abram, began to change everything! It was to be an everlasting bond that would one day be great enough to include and bless all the families (ethnic groups) of the earth!
So God was marrying Himself to this man and the rest of His Covenant Family, FOREVER! He sent His Word to create the means, an eternal blood Covenant, by which God’s Eternal Wellbeing could descend to Earth and envelop His Covenant ‘blood brothers’ with His Father’s Life-giving Grace and Mercy. In that way, what is Eternal could begin to abide and unite with those who would one day become part of God’s New Covenant with Israel. And they would serve as His examples for the rest of the human race. By the earthly history of this Covenant family, God intended to reveal Himself to all the rest, instructing the whole world in His ways so that, through the obedient faith and example of Israel’s Remnant, He could share what is His with all of the human race… forever!
This is crucially important to know, beloved. This tells us that nothing that happened subsequently, in the book of Exodus and beyond, when Israel began to violate and break the Covenant God made with her at Sinai, could change or destroy or alter the everlasting commitment God had made to her even before Israel and Jewishness existed! So, even after Israel violated her Sinai Covenant with God, and became liable to the condemnation and lethal punishment that the Covenant Pattern demanded would befall her, nothing would be able to deter, eliminate or change what God had already sworn to be to her and do on her behalf, as reported in the book of Genesis!
Yes, in later centuries, Israel grossly violated and broke the Covenant she agreed to enter into with God through Moses. And legally and technically, through her Sin and failure to remain faithful to God, Israel brought down upon herself the condemnation and death penalty that automatically falls upon any blood covenant violator. But God brought forward the Covenant He had made with Abraham and renewed it. And, in this way, God has made sure that Israel can always trust and rely upon Him. And, if that’s true for Israel, so too is it possible for the rest of the world to develop an airtight faith and trust and hope in His awesome Nature and Character and Disposition and the Redemptive Authority of His Word and the regenerating Power of His Spirit, as well!
Isaiah 53:4-6
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
The future Fulfillment of all the previous promises God made to His Covenant friends was revealed through God’s institution of the New Covenant that He promised to make with Israel, in the midst of one of her most dismally treacherous and unfaithful periods! This lets us know that nothing can essentially change or destroy the marital relationship bond that exists between Him and His chosen ones, as far as He is concerned. This is what He told them through the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when (for Abraham’s sake) 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 put My law (My Torah Instruction) 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 their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
To make sure we understood this, and to reveal once and for all, His Infinitely Perfect and endlessly Reliable Nature, and the intensely personal, close relationship He wants to have with us, God sent His Living Word to Earth once more. But this time the Word became flesh! He became one of us so that through His own Living creative Word, God could legally become one with us all! Yeshua the Messiah instituted the New Covenant in the first century C.E. to fulfill God’s part of the Covenant He had made with Abraham in Genesis, and also to fulfill Israel’s part in the Covenant that she had entered into at Sinai! God gave His Word that He would make everything right. He swore to do this to ‘the House of Israel and the House of Judah’, the very ones that had violated the Sinai Covenant! This assured Israel, and the rest of us, that nothing will be able to destroy the Eternal Bond He had established with Abraham and His spiritual and natural descendants! Yes, Israel broke the Sinai Covenant because Sin-corruption had made them, and all other humans, utterly incapable of being able to honor God’s Perfect Standards and equal His infinitely Perfect Righteousness.
God had always intended to make provision for our dismal human condition and our endless failures and lapses. And, if we repent of our rebellion and radical independence from our Creator, He will apply this great Reconciliation and Salvation to us. And this is why He renewed His Covenant with Abraham in a way that would redeem and restore and protect and bless every generation of people that would hear God’s call to Salvation… and enter into His New Covenant with the rest of His Israelite chosen people… so that all of mankind could abide with God as one… until the end of time and beyond!
The New Covenant is an Awesome Renewal and Restoration Fulfillment of all of the Perpetual Guarantees that God took upon Himself. This is what He pledged to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the very beginning. He wants all men to know that what He began with those chosen ones, will surely be completely renewed and fully restored and consummated and fulfilled in a way that will extend to and include all people, from every family of the human race, by the time we reach the temporal ending of human history!
At present, we’re still ‘under construction’, and none of us are much to look at in our present condition. But Scripture is encouraging us to persevere and keep following the leading of God’s Living Word. And, if we do that, then even while we’re still ‘en route’, we’ll be making our way to our eventual entry into the state of Resurrection Glory. And we will know and have the right to anticipate the full possession of the Ultimate Glory that God has had in mind for us all along!
Revelation 21:3-9
“And I heard a loud voice from the Throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
And He who sits on the Throne said, “Behold, I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW!” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “IT IS DONE! I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE BEGINNING AND THE END!
“I will give to the one who thirsts from the Spring of the Water of Life WITHOUT COST. He who overcomes will INHERIT these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son!
“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb!”
Because the Nature of God never changes… living within and among us always remains constant and airtight in His Intention. And thus His Covenant is Eternal. And His Faithfulness, Credibility and Reliability are airtight because the Perfection of His nature guarantees it. So when it comes to the heart and soul and essence of the interactions between God and His Covenant Family, it’s never about doom, gloom, or failure, retribution and devastation. It’s always about full recovery and restoration and reinstatement and everlasting joy. It’s always: ‘come back to your original pristine ‘first love’ that existed in the beginning, when I, the Bridegroom and My Bride were madly in love and always wanted to be with each other at all times and in all things!’ This is what God is always seeking to restore whenever He deals with His Covenant people and the rest of the world. He requires all of mankind to grasp this, thanks to Israel’s example:
Revelation 2:1-5
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: “The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
“I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for My Name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
“But I have this against you, that YOU HAVE LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE! Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent!” (Emphasis added.)
Romans 12:21
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with GOOD!” (Emphasis added.)
Psalm 23:4-6
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
This Full Restoration that God has promised to us is ALWAYS what His mind and will remain focused upon! With God, there is no such thing as defeat or failure or disappointment! He never settles for second best. He’s not here to lose or fail. He is TRIUMPH AND SUCCESS AND FULFILLMENT PERSONNIFIED! Nothing can warp or twist or deface His Word, once He has spoken. Whatever His Word was sent to reveal, command or promise, the very same infinitely Perfect Word will is here to fulfill to Perfection!
Isaiah 59:21
“As for Me, this is My Covenant with them (Israel),” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever!”
1 Peter 1:24-25
“For, all flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, But the word of the Lord endures forever!”
And this is the Word, which was preached to you!” (Jews and Gentiles).
Beloved, I know we’ve looked at Isaiah 55 many times in previous messages. But I ask you to PONDER THAT CHAPTER, AGAIN, AND AGAIN AND YET AGAIN! Mull over it until you can grasp the fullness of its implications… what God is revealing to poor hapless, failure-prone Israel! If He is so infinitely trustworthy when it comes to Israel, if she can afford to trust and return to Him, no matter what she has done or failed to do… THEN the rest of the world, the pagan idolatrous Gentile world… can afford to trust and come to Him too with that same outrageous confidence and joy!
This is the Good News that our grievously wounded fallen, dying and desolate world DESPERATELY NEEDS TO KNOW! Because once they realize how perfectly Trustworthy Almighty God truly is, people from every nation and region and tribe and family will come running to Him… to receive the same Eternal Love and Wellbeing that was first given to Israel from the first few moments that the New Covenant Yeshua instituted at His last Seder Meal was set into motion through the newly Spirit-filled disciples in Acts 2!
Dear ones… the glorious New Covenant is the Proof… the Guarantee… that lets us know that our God’s Lovingkindness which He showers upon us, is AIRTIGHT in its Trustworthiness, Reliability and Faithfulness. We NEVER have to doubt Him or His Word, regardless of what we see or hear or experience going on all around us! We’ll never have to fear that He’s going to change His mind and betray us. So I’ll say it again:
“Whatever Father sent His Word to reveal, command and promise… HIS WORD WILL MOST CERTAINLY FULFILL IT… TO PERFECTION!”
God Himself has done everything necessary, to make sure what is required of us poor weak, Sin-blasted people has been done properly and correctly in a way that completely satisfied God’s Eternally Perfect and Righteous Standards! It is over. The Work has already been done to Father’s Perfect Satisfaction. So, as far as we are concerned… It is FINISHED! And this is why our Lord Yeshua says to us:
Matthew 11:25-30
“At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
And this is why we NEVER have to worry or fret or be anxious at any time, or in any situation, whether or not God’s Word can be trusted. God’s Word is His Father’s Pursuing Love! Regardless of any earthly circumstances, situations or appearances, Almighty God is always here with us… looking out for us, always encircling and covering and calling to us to return to Him… to come back to that precious pristine original First Love for us that God revealed and expressed through the first man who was the first to take his place in God’s blood Covenant line. Abram, the moon-worshipping Sumerian from Ur of Chaldea was that man! And the Covenant God made with him has opened the way for all fallen Sin-corrupted humans to finally be unified to God. Almighty God knows that He is always one with us. But now we must convince our Sin-damaged and warped brains and minds that, thanks to the Grace and Mercy of God, we now have the opportunity and privilege and glory of always being, in a corresponding way, one with Him!
Genesis 12:1-3
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; 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 will be blessed!” (Emphasis added.)
The Blood Covenant Bond between God and Abraham was established even before Israel existed. At that time, there was no race of people called Hebrews or Jews! Abram became the first ‘Hebrew’. The meaning of that word is meant to describe ‘one who has crossed over, from one life or state to another.’
Genesis 12:1
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you…”
So all of this was already established by the end of chapter 22 of the first book of the Bible! Because Abram obeyed the commands of God’s Word to trust Him and to drop everything that made up his self-managed life at that time, and begin to follow Him into the Great Unknown, Abram became a true disciple of the Living Word of God! He agreed to learn to trust and follow the Word unconditionally and wholeheartedly by Genesis 23. Thus he died to ‘his life’, as he knew it and had cherished it; and he exchanged that for the new life into which God’s Word was sent to lead him and his household. And that beloved, is one who has ‘crossed over’. Abraham was a Hebrew in the true Biblical sense. And that is what makes a person to be worthy of the title, ‘disciple’ of God’s Son, the Word made flesh.
So God isn’t calling anyone simply to be, or to try to become, Jewish. It goes much deeper than natural human ethnicity (see Deut. 6:4-9). Nor is He requiring us to join some kind of man-run religious organization that was founded and developed many centuries later. No, He’s commanding us to heed the personal call that His Living Word, Messiah Yeshua gives to us… TO BECOME ONE WITH THE LIVING WORD HIMSELF! When we hear Yeshua… personally calling to our stony self-adoring hearts and summoning us to drop everything concerning that worldly kind of existence, and follow Him without any reservation or hesitation into His Kingdom and Resurrection Glory, THEN, if we actually do obey and follow Him, we can truly be called New Covenant members of Israel’s Remnant. And another way of describing such people is to call them, ‘disciples’.
Galatians 3:6-14
O foolish Galatians, who cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Yeshua the Messiah was clearly portrayed as crucified. I want to find out just one thing from you: did you receive the Ruach by deeds based on Torah, or by hearing based on trust? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Ruach, will you now reach the goal in the flesh? Did you endure so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? So then, the One who gives you the Ruach and works miracles among you—does He do it because of your deeds based on Torah (the Sinai Covenant) or your hearing based on trust and faithfulness?
Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as Righteousness,” know then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. The Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the Good News to Abraham in advance, saying, “All the nations shall be blessed through you.” So then, the faithful are blessed along with Abraham, the faithful one.
“For all who rely on the deeds of Torah are under a curse—for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep doing everything written in the scroll of the Torah.” It is clear that no one is set right before God by Torah, for “the righteous shall live by emunah (faith).” However, Torah (the Law of Sinai) is not based on trust and faithfulness; on the contrary, “the one who does these things shall live by them.” Messiah (God’s Living Word made flesh) liberated us from Torah’s curse, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) — in order that through Messiah Yeshua the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so we might receive the promise of the Ruach through trusting faith.” (TLV Amplification and emphasis added.)
Galatians 4:1-7
“Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the Fullness of the Time came, God sent forth His Son (His Living Word), born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
How many ways does God employ to try to get through to us, to let us know He yearns to become one with us? Beloved friends, He calls Himself our Abba (Daddy). And He calls His Covenant Family, His Bride. He describes us as His Sons and Heirs… and His image and likeness… and His Covenant friends and His Eternal Inheritance!
Scripture uses many terms to express the same thing… this awesome Oneness with God. It unpacks the meaning and purpose and destiny of those who have become one with God’s Living Word in this Eternal Covenant. When we’re Yeshua’s Covenant friends, we’re one with God’s Living Word in Spirit and in Truth! And that makes us to be one with God!
John 15:13-17
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his (Blood Covenant) friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My Name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The examples of Oneness that God’s Word uses go on and on. So how long will it take before this poor fallen world of radically independent, rebellious, self-adoring people finally gets a clue about what God is really after, when it comes to us human beings? How much more does God have to do in order to get through to us before we will finally let go of our self-devised ‘fig leaf cover-ups and self-defining disguises’? When will we finally come out of the bushes with our hands up, just as we truly are, to receive what God has already done to endow, adorn and give Himself to us so that we can truly be eternally fulfilled? When will we finally reach out to the One who has never left or forsaken or abandoned us? When will He finally be allowed to cover us with all that He Himself IS and HAS?
Ezekiel 34:11-13
“For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.” (Emphasis added.)
John 10:11-18
“I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
“I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one Flock with one Shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My (human) life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have Authority to lay it down, and I have Authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Dear friends… I know it does violence to our Western Hellenistic thought pattern wiring to think of ourselves in a Hebraic, Bible culture context. Westerners, for centuries, have not been used to thinking of men in terms of being someone’s ‘bride’. I know that has begun to change in modern times, but will, for the most part, remain to be a pretty alien and cumbersome way of thinking to most people. But we must not allow the cultural rigidity of our pet personal comfort zones to deprive us of the awesome union and closeness that our beloved Heavenly Father wants us to enjoy with Him. We’re not speaking of becoming one with just another human being in a physical sense. We’re trying to describe what it means to become one with an Awesome Eternal Being who is truly beyond description! He is totally Transcendent and impossibly beyond our poor human ability to imagine or define. But nevertheless… this Awesome Infinite Eternal Being has revealed Himself to be our ‘Abba’ (Daddy) and He has proposed a Covenant Union with us that cannot be compared to anything short of the human oneness that a man and a woman create with each other when they consummate their marriage in physical union.
Yes, I know this is hard for us to get our minds around… but nevertheless, there it is… staring us in the face… the Reality that will not go away!
“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, YOU DID IT TO ME!’”
GOD REALLY WANTS US TO DARE TO GET THAT CLOSE TO HIM!
So we would all do well to ponder this and hunger and thirst for Him… and seek to abide as one with Him… for the rest of our days on Earth… and beyond!