12. The Genesis-Exodus Revelation is for Today

The issues that God brought forward to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses, are the same issues He brings forward to us…and beyond. The issues never change. So it’s important to know and understand God’s revelation concerning those issues. Once we understand, we can embrace and align ourselves properly with the revelation and hold our Covenant Ground against the denying, contradicting, Truth-twisting onslaughts that the spirit of Anti-Christ continually initiates through the decapitated world. That spirit rages against God’s living and written Word and he endlessly tries to overpower and blot out what God has revealed and commanded through His Word.

Consider the following text carefully. Hopefully you’ll see the apostle Paul bringing forward to his generation the same changeless issues God revealed through the Torah of Moses. See if you can recognize in his words, what God sent His Word to do for Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Paul is bringing forward in his second letter to the believers in Corinth, the revelation Moses received and wrote down centuries before:

“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a Building from God, a House not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this (temporal earthly) house we groan (under Sin’s living death effects), longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked (like Adam and Eve). For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed (by God’s living Word), so that what is mortal (living death) will be swallowed up by (the living Word’s eternal) Life.

“Now He who prepared us for this very (image and likeness) purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good (alive in the Spirit of God’s living Word) or bad (dead in radical independence from God’s living Word).

“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance (like Cain) and not in heart (like Abel). For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ (God’s living Word is the Head that) controls us, having concluded this, that one (the Last Adam) died for all (who are born of the First Adam), therefore all (whom He represents) died; and He died for all (Jew and Gentile alike), so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is IN (Abraham’s Covenant through) Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away (were crucified and died with Him);behold, new things have come (to us through His Resurrection). Now all these things are from God (and not from our living death religious Cain-like efforts), who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was IN Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him (our Covenant Representative) who knew no sin to be Sin (identify and become one with us) on our behalf, so that we might become the Righteousness of God IN Him.” (2 Corinthians 5 Amplification and emphasis added.)

Can you see in this and similar texts, how faithfully Paul reemphasizes and reinforces the revelation of the same Eternal Blood Covenant substitute representative covering by which God’s living Word represents us and performs what God requires of us, in our name? Moses revealed that in Genesis and Exodus! And the same issues are expanded on in the other books of the Bible. Paul brings Genesis and Exodus forward repeatedly in His letters, to his generation and beyond. So by this we see the unity and beauty and integrity of the ‘seamless garment’ quality of God’s beautiful Self-Revelation through His beautiful living and written Word, and His perfect finished work as contained and revealed in the Eternal Covenant that was already in force even before the universe was created.

This is what God’s written Word unfolds and spells out concerning the All-Sufficiency of God’s living Word made flesh. It is the same message always. Everything is contained in the Perfection of God’s living, creative Word (Yeshua). Although centuries pass and generations of people and kingdoms and nations come and go – God and His Word and the Gospel of Salvation revealed in Genesis and Exodus always remain the same:

“Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the Imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised Imperishable, and we will be changed (completely transformed and fulfilled). For this perishable must put on (the covering of) the Imperishable, and this mortal must put on (the covering of) Immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the Imperishable, and this mortal will have put on Immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘DEATH (that came to us from Sin) IS SWALLOWED UP in Victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?’ The sting of death is Sin, and the power of Sin is the Law (the Torah that condemns the decapitated world); but thanks be to God, who gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (our true Head) therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the (finished) Work of the Lord, knowing that your toil (to learn obedient, resting faith) is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Cor. 15:50-58 Amplification and emphasis added.)

Our Essential Obligation in God’s Covenant is Obedient, Resting Faith

Let’s consider more of the implications embedded within God’s Blood Covenant and its requirements. In the beginning Adam’s family was small (Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel). At that level we can learn the Covenant dynamics that hold true no matter how large the family becomes in the future. We can learn the basics from what the Covenant is meant to create and preserve between Adam and Eve. They, as individuals, were bonded in a Blood Covenant to God.

“But like Adam they (Israelites) have transgressed the Covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me.” (Hosea 6:7)

The Covenant obligated them to acknowledge that the bond that joined each of them to God also joined them to one another and required them to remain joined…for God’s sake. Because God was in Covenant with Adam, and was also in Covenant with Eve, then Adam and Eve were also in Covenant with each other. So, for God’s sake, they were obligated to protect and care for their union. Genesis reveals that marriage is the supreme human expression of our Covenant with God. It is to be the human image and likeness of the unity between God and His living Word and Holy Spirit.

This principle plays out throughout the Bible. God and His Word and Spirit are by nature and love union, a perfect, eternal composite union. God is One. But for the sake of His human Creation, God brought Adam and Eve and their family into the Eternal Covenant He has with Himself. From the beginning, God’s living Word began to reveal this to His image and likeness. He brought them into the Covenant thereby making them one with Himself…His image and likeness. And through His Word, who contains all the Fullness of the Father, the Father blessed Adam and Eve. This is how it was before the fall.

The idea was for Adam and Eve to abide as one with God and each other, under the Headship of God’s living Word, and to teach and train and raise their children in this Covenant Reality lifestyle. They were to know, understand and demonstrate the Covenant fulfillment ways to all their offspring and keep them in it as well. This Covenant is intended to give all humans the privilege and opportunity of living as one with God. This Covenant Reality is the primary underlying factor concerning everything we do and refuse to do in this life.

So the Covenant made Adam and Eve one with each other and one with their children and it made the children one with their parents. It also makes the children one with each other. This is true for every child that comes from the First Adam…who was our original Covenant Representative. And this is why when Adam violated the Covenant and sinned against God and fell into the state of living death, so did we all…not in ourselves, but IN the First Adam. This corporate Covenant dynamic through which God deals with the human race is eternal.

But when the First Adam fell and took us all into the state of living death and entrapment in the Serpent’s coils, the Covenant required God, our Covenant Ally, to come to our rescue and meet our needs and do whatever was necessary to restore our original state of well being and abundant life with Him. So as soon as we repent of radical independence and rebellion, and acknowledge God’s living Word to be our true Head, God is free to bring us back into Covenant union with Himself, through and IN His living Word. And we can also become one with all other humans who are one with God as well.

All humans are intended by God to abide under His Word. That’s what makes us God’s image and likeness. And that Covenant bond with the Word makes us one with each other. So after our original Covenant Bond was shattered by Sin, the Second Adam was sent by God to seek us out and reconcile us to Himself so that IN His Word, through this Eternal Covenant, God could be reconciled to us and we could be reconciled to each other.

But this requires much more than mere mental comprehension and assent. It requires true submission of our thoughts, choices and actions…submission to the indwelling Presence and Lordship of our Master, Yeshua…God’s living Word. We must repent of our radical independence and ‘living Death’ lifestyle to a life-transforming depth of reality. We must actually embrace God’s Word and become truly bonded to and identified with Him so that from then on, He can live and work within us and we can operate – as one with Him. We dare not allow the Serpent to keep separating us from Him. If we do, the Serpent can dominate and enslave us again. We must believe and allow God’s living Word to draw, unite and integrate us into Himself and His one integrated Body. In this context, ponder what the living Word taught His first century disciples. The Blood Covenant mentality and heart of God that was revealed in Genesis and Exodus throbs throughout every phrase of what Yeshua says here:

“One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets (that reveal God’s Blood Covenant nature and character).” (Matthew 22:35-40 Emphasis and amplification added.)

Genesis reveals that a husband is to love his wife as he loves himself. The Covenant that binds them both to God, also binds them into one flesh. But this Covenant has also bonded all human beings. God and Adam are Covenant friends. Their union makes all of Adam’s descendants one as well. And God requires us to honor that oneness with Him and with one another for His sake and to make sure all of our descendants are taught, trained and included in the Covenant. God has dealt with Sin to make full restoration possible. So there can be no discrimination. Even our enemies are to be regarded and dealt with in light of this Covenant without exception. This is what God offers to us all. After that, it’s up to each one of us to choose how we will respond.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)

Through Adam, God is in Covenant with every human He creates. So we are not to deal with each other based on feelings, opinions, circumstances or our human ways of judging personal performance-based merit. Our bond goes much deeper than those superficial, Sin-corrupted soulish considerations. The Covenant Bond is Eternal because it flows out of God’s Perfect, changeless nature! So we must deal with each other on that covenantal basis. Whether we think others deserve our love or not, is not the determining factor. We are to love God’s Covenant friends as we would love God…for God’s sake. We love what He loves and are loyal to what He is loyal to…for His sake. This oneness and mutual love is what the Last Adam came to restore; and by the end of the story, He will completely fulfill it to His Father’s eternal Glory and Satisfaction:

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon and you will be pardoned. Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” (Luke 6:27-38 Emphasis added. See also Galatians 6:7-8)

Can you see the Blood Covenant dynamic that God revealed in Genesis at work here? God sends His Word to cover us by fulfilling every Covenant requirement and promise on mankind’s behalf. He has fulfilled the parts of our Covenant responsibilities that were impossible to us. He will share the good of what He did with us, as soon as we repent of our radically independent ways and allow Him to connect us to Himself as our Head. He can then serve as our Eternal Life by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit and do what is impossible to us, without Him. As soon as he has truly become our Lord, He then becomes our Redeemer and Savior. The Spirit of God causes the perfect Humanity of the Word of God to come alive and become active and fruitful from within our spirits. And when our God-filled spirits begin to preside over our fallen souls and bodies, the Word’s Life can begin to appear active and fruitful in our thoughts, actions, reactions and interactions. As soon as we truly repent and exchange what we were for what our Messiah is, the Holy Spirit transmits all that He is and does into us. And the Word made flesh becomes our Messiah – our Eternal Life, Redemption, Wisdom, Righteousness and supernatural Fruitfulness.

God’s Heart for Mankind

God intended this from the beginning, before the fall of the First Adam. And these supernatural manifestations of His Righteousness in us are hallmarks of true disciples – the human image and likeness of God. This didn’t begin with the New Testament accounts of Jesus of Nazareth and his apostles. Yeshua and His disciples were commissioned to begin the era of New Covenant Fulfillment of what God had ordained from the very dawn of Creation! Yeshua is here to fulfill that Eternal Covenant and bring it to its fullest possible perfection that has not yet been seen on the Earth. So when God is free to make us one with His living Word, it can begin and progress to its ultimate climax and fulfillment. He covers our nakedness and restores the Original Blessing to us and becomes everything we need in order to fulfill God’s perfect standards of Righteousness.

Our first parents were obligated to pass this Covenant reality on to Cain and Abel and the rest of their offspring. And so we see in Genesis 4 that Abel obeyed what was revealed to him, but Cain rebelled. Then, after the human race rejected God’s Word and condemned themselves to destruction, God sent the flood. Then, after the unrepentant rebellion at the Tower of Babel was dealt with, God sent His Word to restore all of this to Abram. And from him it proceeded along God’s covenant genealogical line through Isaac, Jacob, Judah and David and all the way to the incarnation of His living Word, Yeshua of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel…and to us.

Yeshua came, as humanity’s Eternal High Priest and Covenant Representative, to reveal, interpret and fulfill in time and space, everything God’s Eternal Covenant had already given us in eternity. We were made to be God’s image and likeness, but Sin destroyed our ability to do it. And so God’s living Word, the Son of God and the Son of Man…came to reconcile us to God and regenerate and fill us with His Holy Spirit, so that in His Resurrection Glory, He could do everything God’s perfection requires of us. He fulfills God’s part of the Covenant, as well as humanity’s part. He makes sure everything lines up perfectly with God’s perfect nature and perfect standards, so that we can rest and rely on Him and His Perfection in His Eternal Shalom (Peace with God, from God).

“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 (peace) for your souls.” (Matthew 11:27-29 Emphasis added.)

Some Pertinent Covenant Family Issues

Perhaps you can see that in God’s sight, every human, like it or not, is included in and affected, in one way or another, by His Blood Covenant with the human race. No one is exempt. Everyone is included. The Covenant obligates God and all mankind to fulfill its requirements to perfection. And thanks to the perfect finished work of His living Word, Yeshua, God is free to save, restore and bless us all and fulfill our individual and corporate purposes and destinies the way He intended them to be from the beginning.

So look at how this affects individual families. If we see how it affected Adam, Eve and their first two children, Cain and Abel, we can see how it affects us all. And we can trace the Blood Covenant ramifications in the lives of Abraham and his sons, Ishmael and Isaac. We see this consistent feature of God’s dealings with the fallen sons of Adam: everything He requires of them has to be done in a way that meets and fulfills His perfect standards of righteousness, perfectly. But thanks to our Sin-corruption, that is impossible for any of us to accomplish. So in His eternal Covenant faithfulness and loyalty, God comes forward to stand by us and do everything for us…through His living Word and Holy Spirit. And conversely, we must believe, trust and obey God’s Word to meet God’s perfect standards perfectly, in our name. The Word does it by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit. He has fulfilled each impossible requirement God’s standards have imposed on His human disciples. His finished work passed God’s Judgment and so it bears eternal fruit that God credits to His disciples’ accounts, as if they had done it personally. This is the awesome grace of God on behalf of His Covenant friends. So when we understand that God has done all the necessary Work, there’s nothing for us to do but to rejoice and rest with Him in His eternal Sabbath Peace and Contentment, as His Spirit transmits it into us and through us, as promised.

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (God’s eternal living Word). Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains (that proves that God did the work through His Word and Spirit), he (the disciple) will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up (that will prove God was not in it and that it was the striving of fallen flesh. In that case the disciple gains nothing), he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15 Emphasis added.)

“What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives Life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are Life.” (John 6:62-63 Emphasis added.)

So when God’s Word and Holy Spirit actually abide within us, God supplies everything needed for us to do the impossible. His Word does whatever is necessary for God’s perfect standards to be met…perfectly. This supernatural Righteousness of God, appearing from within the Word’s repentant, regenerated, Spirit-empowered disciples is the identifying hallmark of those who serve as God’s ‘Royal Priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9). They are the ones God includes in what He is doing on the Earth to work out His plan of Salvation for all the rest. This is God’s ‘True Israel’…the Remnant of Spirit-filled Jews and Gentiles that can be found in every generation of Israel’s story on Earth.

It is utterly impossible for Gentiles to meet God’s standards apart from a living union with the living Word of God. It is equally impossible for the natural children of Jacob to do it without Him. Their father Abraham was not deemed by God to be righteous because He was born ‘Jewish.’ He wasn’t born Jewish. Jewish people didn’t exist at that time! Abram was a Chaldean or Sumerian; he began as a ‘pagan Gentile.’ So his natural blood descendants, the children of Isaac and Jacob are not, by the fact that they’re born Jewish, any more ‘righteous’ than anyone else. They too must make the same ‘Exodus’ that Abram had to make – from radically independent self-life to indwelling Word-of-God- Life. They become righteous when they are ‘reborn,’ that is, we must all be regenerated in our spirits by the Spirit of God. We must all repent of our natural radically independent, decapitated self-life and submit to God’s living Word, who was made flesh and came to Earth as our Kinsman Redeemer, Eternal Blood Covenant Representative and Destroyer of the Serpent’s Realm of Sin. Abraham saw the ‘day’ of God’s living Word and rejoiced in it (John 8:56-58). Abraham was ‘born again’ because he repented of His self-life and submitted to God’s living Word, who later became flesh. And that is why and how he was ‘born again’ and thus, ‘saved.’ This is how he became the first ‘Hebrew.’ He ‘crossed over’ from being an enemy of God, to becoming a regenerated, Word-obeying son of God.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:1-3 Emphasis added.)

This spiritual regeneration and all that comes with it is the authentic, Blood Covenant spiritual ‘Ground’ into which every child of Adam must be transplanted. God will graft anyone into this Eternal Covenant Root who will believe and obey His summons to Salvation. And the apostle Paul makes this very clear in Romans 2:28-29:

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” (Emphasis added.)

God’s Original Revelation Stands

Many Jews accuse Paul of forsaking the Torah of Moses and starting an alien, Gentile religion. And many Christians accuse him of forsaking his people and ‘converting to Christianity.” But the accusations of both groups are false. Paul did not teach or advocate anything new or strange or different from what God had already revealed to Israel in the past. Paul was a faithful Jew to the end of his life…fully in accord with what His Master, Messiah Yeshua, God’s living Word, had commanded in Matthew 5:17-20.

“But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, ‘Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!’” (Acts 23:6 Emphasis added.)

Paul did not say, ‘I was a Pharisee,’ he said, ‘I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees!’ And what he wrote in his introductory remarks to the New Covenant Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Rome was perfectly in line with the Torah of Moses. Compare what he said above in Romans 2:28-29 about physical circumcision as opposed to circumcision of the heart with what Moses wrote to the sons of Jacob after God sent His Word after them to repair the damage done to their relationship with God by their idolatry with the ‘Golden Calf:

“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you (after your first and second temples are destroyed), and you return to the Lord your God (in the New Covenant of the Last Days) and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

“Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may (fulfill God’s New Covenant with Israel and) live!” (Deuteronomy 30:1-6 Amplification and emphasis added.)

Israel’s prophet Isaiah spoke of this restoration in many sections, for example, in chapter 61. Jeremiah spoke of it specifically in 31:31-34, and Ezekiel reinforced it in 36:22-28 and 37. And Messiah Yeshua came to emphasize and prove the Truth of what God had revealed before through Moses and the prophets by His Perfect Atonement and Resurrection and by the Spirit-empowered regeneration of His chosen Jewish and non-Jewish New Covenant disciples:

“While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be to you.’ But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.

“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law (Torah) of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations (Gentiles) beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (to begin the era of New Covenant Fulfillment promised through Israel’s prophets).” (Luke 24:36-49 Amplification and emphasis added.)

So notice again the human impossibilities embedded within each of the Covenant promises God made to His friend Abraham and all of his descendants. For those people the fulfillment of the promises was impossible to attain. There is only one special descendant of Abraham for whom the attainment was possible. And, that descendant is the Word of God Himself, who, in order to fulfill mankind’s part of the Covenant, became flesh and appeared as The Messiah to do everything that was required of us. Keep that in mind as the Covenant and the promises and commandments are brought forward…to Moses, and through Moses…to Joshua and Caleb and so on. These impossible promises and perfect standards of righteousness kept moving forward, into every new generation…until they reached Yeshua. And He is the Son of Man who fulfills Man’s requirements…and the Son of God who fulfills God’s promises to us.

We Rest in Yeshua’s Finished Work

Now it’s up to us to embrace Him and the Covenant and allow Him to demonstrate the wonder of His Perfect Finished Work in our lives and pass this on to our children. The requirements are just as impossible for us to do in our own strength, as they were for our predecessors!

“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.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

God promised to give Abraham and Sarah a son and heir, through which Abraham would become a great nation. But at their age, that was utterly impossible. Sarah urged Abraham to sire a proxy child with her through her slave, Hagar. But the child Hagar bore, Ishmael, was not the child of God’s promise. God blessed him and gave him his own identity, purpose and destiny. But God had promised to give Abraham and Sarah their own child! And it was not until thirteen years had passed after Ishmael’s birth that Isaac, the child of God’s promise, arrived as promised. And that, humanly speaking, was utterly impossible! But it happened, just as God said it would. It happened by God’s living Word (See Galatians 3 & 4).

God brought Abraham and his household into His Eternal Blood Covenant and His living Word took over from there. The Word did everything in Abraham’s place and in his name. God went through the Blood Covenant ceremony with His living Word, in accord with the Eternal Covenant into which Abraham was being included. Then God and His Word did everything, while Abraham remained unconscious:

“Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. And He said to him, ‘I am the LORD who brought you 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 these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

“Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’

“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 15:6-18a Emphasis added.)

God included all of Abraham’s offspring into this Covenant, including those yet unborn who, in a future century, would be enslaved and spoken of in the Book of Exodus. And we see that whatever God requires, was, for them and for every other human that has gone before us, impossible to fulfill. But remember that in a Blood Covenant ceremony, the representatives cut themselves and shed and mingle their bloods to signify that from that time forward, they are one and will think, act and live as one. From now on they face everything together. What happens to one happens to the other. What belongs to one belongs to the other. What one does, the other does. Each representative bears the covenant scar as a permanent reminder of their bond with each other…a reminder that what each one has and does…for better or for worse…is also credited to the other.

God required a ‘Covenant Scar’ to be cut onto Abraham’s flesh and that of all the males in his household, even those yet to be born. The scar reminds Israel that what belongs to God is theirs and what belongs to them is God’s. And Yeshua, the Messiah was personally brought into this Covenant. All participants are required to receive Abraham’s circumcision. When they do, they become one with God and one with each other. The physical removal of their foreskins however is not what saves and sanctifies them. That is only an external sign that stands for the internal spiritual realities that truly do fulfill the Covenant. The Blood bond goes much deeper than temporary fleshly externals. What must be cut away from us is our former radically independent, decapitated lives…whatever still binds us to the First Adam’s broken covenant and the guilt and death penalty that are now attached to his violation of it, must die! Our former decapitated existence must be as dead as the animals that God and Abraham sacrificed. It must be as dead as the Lamb of God was when He poured out the last drop of His life’s blood on the Cross on our behalf and in our name. So if we truly join our Sin-generated self-life to His Death, we are sealed into that awesome Eternal Covenant with God. His blood mingles with ours and His death becomes ours as well, signifying that our former radically independent, decapitated life has truly been poured out. And that makes room for this new covenant bond with God to take its place of preeminence within our hearts and lives. The living death state of our fallen flesh is executed to make room for the New Covenant heart-bond with God to take place. What goes on in our mind, will and heart of hearts is what the Covenant is really after. And that is what must change.

Circumcised Hearts

The hearts of God’s Covenant friends must be circumcised of all former self-adoring selfishness, rebellion and individualism. We are God’s Covenant sons, and no longer spiritual waifs and orphans. Anything in our mind, will and heart that interferes with the Word’s ability to be our new Eternal Life must be killed and left behind. When that happens in spirit and in truth, we are redeemed and equipped to render Covenant faithfulness to God and to our other human ‘blood brothers.’

That’s what God and Abraham entered into on that day so long ago. And that is what all sons of Abraham must undergo when their time to enter the Covenant arrives. The physical circumcision is only a sign, a perpetual sign and reminder of the eternal spiritual circumcision God really requires in our minds, wills and hearts

Isaac and Ishmael, Blood Covenant Brothers

Abraham’s son Ishmael was also circumcised into Abraham’s Covenant. So in God’s sight, his Arab descendants are also bound by that Covenant. And when Isaac was born, he too was circumcised into that Covenant. So his Jewish descendants are bound by that covenant too. So now perhaps you can see that Ishmael and Isaac became ‘blood brothers’, through their father Abraham. And so they and their descendants are required to be as one with each other and to render Covenant loyalty and kindness to each other…for the sake of Ishmael and Isaac…and for the sake of Abraham…and ultimately…for the sake of Abraham’s Almighty living God. But that Covenant can only come to Life and be fulfilled, when the living Word of God becomes the true Head of us all. Only He can unite and integrate what the Serpent has decapitated and dismembered. When Yeshua becomes our Head, we become living members of God’s living Word on Earth. Then we are one with Him and one with each other and become ‘one New Man in Messiah’ (See Ephesians 2).

Regardless of the centuries of bad blood, animosity, murder and destruction that the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac and Jacob have inflicted on each other and continue to do, to this day, nevertheless, Ishmael and Isaac are still, ‘blood brothers.’ So each generation of their descendants is obligated by that ancient Covenant, to love and support each other’s interests…even if it kills them…for Ishmael’s sake, for Isaac’s sake…for Abraham’s sake…but ultimately, for Almighty God’s sake. They violate this awesome Covenant to their own desolation and that of their households!

The current descendants of Ishmael and Isaac would be very wise to realize and take this Covenant reality to heart. The penalty for violating any Blood Covenant, is death! That’s why our Perfect, Sin-less Messiah had to die His atoning death. He did it in our name; and that’s why we must join Him in it. So regardless of how blatantly former generations of decapitated people have violated the Covenant bond, there is still time for us in this generation to repent and come under the Headship of God’s living Word. Then He can do what is needed, in our name, and in the name of our ancestral families. God’s living Word must be free to apply His perfect Blood Atonement to us and our households. Once that happens, He can free us from the condemnation, curses and death penalty we inherited from Adam and incurred by our own God-less, Head-less choices and selfish, unloving, destructive, Covenant-violating thoughts, actions, reactions and interactions.

Another element that many of Abraham’s offspring fail to take into account is this: both lines – that of Ishmael and that of Isaac and Jacob – are bonded to God, through His living Word! God sent His Word to bond with their father, Abraham, in Genesis 12, 15 & 17. This is the bond into which Ishmael and Isaac were also included! And that original bonding was brought forward and confirmed and reinforced centuries later, when it was time for God’s living Word to become flesh. Eight days after He was born to Miriam (Mary) as ‘Yeshua of Nazareth.’ He too was circumcised into the Covenant of Abraham, just as Ishmael and Isaac had been. So Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and Yeshua are all ‘Blood Brothers’ to Abraham’s God…and to one another…through Abraham!

Moreover, God’s living Word, Yeshua the Messiah, is The Seed of Abraham…and the Son of David…and Israel’s Eternal High Priest and the Perfect, Eternal Lamb of God, given in atonement on behalf of the entire world.

“Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law (Torah), which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise…”

“…For you are all sons of God through faith IN Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized INTO Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all ONE IN Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ (God’s living Word made flesh), then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:15-17; 26-29 Emphasis added.)

So Yeshua, God’s living Word, and His perfect Atonement and Human Performance, which He performed in the name of all of His Blood Brothers, Jew and Gentile alike, is perfect and acceptable in the sight of God. And we can all become one with the Perfection of what He is and has done…IF…we all turn to Yeshua, and believe and embrace and submit to Him on His terms…and allow Him, in His eternal Perfection, to become one with us and represent us in the Eternal Covenant into which God has always desired to transplant the human race. He fulfills everything perfectly in God’s sight, in our name, because in truth, He is the same living Word of God that created the universe and revealed Himself and bonded to Abraham. And we can then be fully accepted and approved of by God, on that basis. God will do it for us…for Yeshua’s sake!

These are some of the dynamic ramifications we see, flowing from the awesome revelation the books of Genesis and Exodus provide for the world. And these are the Blood Covenant dynamics that we believe every disciple of God’s living Word would do well to learn. Then we can take them to heart and honor, embody and allow God’s living Word to fulfill those dynamics in us, and through us, for Abraham’s sake…and for His Heavenly Father’s sake.

Even if our forefathers from previous generations did not know this and couldn’t pass this on to us, we can all learn it now and repent. Regardless of our past histories and long-standing feuds and resentments, hatreds and outraged remembrances…the eternal Blood Covenant of our Creator goes much further back and reaches much, much deeper into our very core and essence. Nothing that any man or group of men may have invented and done to try to change what God has established, will prevail. No one can be saved and freed from Sin and its eternal death penalty by any other way. And before that Covenant and the Almighty living God who instituted it on all of mankind’s behalf…anything that violates and opposes it must be eliminated.

“Thomas *said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’ Jesus *said to him, ‘I AM…The Way, and The Truth, and The Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me!” (John 14:5-6 Emphasis added.)

God’s Heart and Provision

Habitual focus upon and Obedience to, God’s Word, as revealed throughout God’s written Word, will allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into God’s image and likeness. The heart of God is open to all. He wants all to return to Him. That’s why God commands His disciples to do what His living Word does…love Him with ALL of their heart and soul and strength…so that IN and through the Word’s finished work, we can become the Word’s perfect image and likeness…and through the disciples, God can be free to love their neighbors, just as He loves them. If we become one with God’s Word, He will do what is impossible to us, from within us. And we can mirror and transmit His love to others, and reflect back to God, the perfect love of His Word, with which He first loved us:

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. You shall thus observe all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them; I am the LORD.’” (Leviticus 19:33-37 Emphasis added. See also 1 John 3)

All of the other commandments that God’s Word gives to His disciples are disciple-training instructions that, when obeyed, give proof that His Word is now living and working from within us as our Head…fulfilling the responsibilities of the Covenant, in our name. So Yeshua, God’s living Word, transforms us into His own image and likeness. And when we can reflect and radiate Him as He really is, everything in God’s plan of Salvation begins to ‘fire with all cylinders,’ that is, ‘work properly and at maximum efficiency’. Thanks to the Authority of God’s Word and the Power of His Holy Spirit, the Covenant can work perfectly, just as God intended for it to work. Disciples – take God’s revelation to heart! This is what He was sent to be and to do – to you, in you and through you:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to abolish the Law (Torah) or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law (Torah) until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20)

Why does God require our obedience? Is it to torture us? Is it to hobble and hem us in and prevent us from enjoying life? That’s what the Serpent always tries to get us to believe. But the truth is that respect and love for God’s written and living Word will transform us into His image and likeness. And that is what the Serpent fears more than anything. He cannot afford to allow us to become true, living ‘branches’ of God’s ‘True Vine,’ His living Word. Obedience makes us one with the Life, Nature and Righteousness of our Master. We become one in mind, heart and destiny with God’s Word. And when that happens, the Serpent’s works are destroyed:

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His Glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being (obediently) rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God!”

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the Glory in the Church and IN Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21 Emphasis added)

God sent His living Word on a head-on collision course with the Serpent. And when the time comes for Him to summon us out of our state of Sin and radical independence, His Word cuts through the death-grip the Serpent’s coils have on us. The Word comes to become our Head so that He can set us free from the bondage of partaking in Satan’s Lawless, delusional rebellion against God. The Word reverses our course 180 degrees, from Darkness to Light and from living death to Eternal Life. Thus He leads us into the freedom that comes when we allow Him to attach us to Himself. When He is our true Head…His Eternal Life, Righteousness, Inheritance and Destiny also become ours. He achieves the Perfect Results God requires of us all. And He shares all that He is with us…and our households. Thus God ‘waters’ the ‘human desert’ and brings it back to life and fruitfulness. His Word and Holy Spirit are the ‘Living Water’ that works this miracle of grace IN our Master, Yeshua.

The Real Issues

If we realize the real issues and warnings and opportunities that are embedded within God’s written Word, hopefully, we’ll be much more motivated to study and learn to obey God’s Word. We’ll repent of our ‘Headless’ condition and allow God’s Word to bond us to Himself and to one another. As He becomes one with us and we become one with Him in our minds, wills and hearts, we can love and serve and embody God’s Presence on the Earth, as He really is. We can become fully, truly human (image and likeness) once more. And we will know true Freedom as soon as we are delivered from demonic fear, selfishness and hatred. Then…our former eternally fatal slavery to the selfish, self-destructive lifestyle of the Serpent will come to an end.

In Exodus, the entire nation of Israel was forced to decide whether or not she would allow God to graft her into Abraham’s Covenant, or not. Outwardly, most of them agreed to become one with God. And they accepted His proposal to join Him in that ancient Covenant bond and the relationship it requires. The Covenant was the ‘Bridal Path’ on which she promised to remain and abide with Him. But she quickly strayed…and to this day, Israel and the Church continue to stray and cavort with a variety of ‘golden calves.’

But in the last days, God will set all things right. Whatever is rigid and unyielding now, will be broken. And what is crooked will be set straight, once and for all. High places (where idol worship take place) will be leveled and low places (where sinful acts abound) will be filled in and a ‘Highway in the Wilderness’ will be completed…for the purpose of readying the world for the next coming of the Triumphant Lord of Glory.

In Revelation 12:17, the dragon becomes enraged and violently opposed to ‘The Woman’ (Israel – God’s Bride) and ‘the rest of her (engrafted non-Jewish) children who keep the commandments and hold to the testimony of Yeshua?’ (Revelation 12:17)

In the Last Days, The Woman’s Jewish and non-Jewish children will be grafted into the New Covenant that God promised, through her prophets, to make with Israel. They will fulfill and complete the original Bond God established with Abraham. Non-Jewish believers will become one with God’s True Israel. Believing Jews and Gentiles will unite and become ‘Jewtiles’…one New Man in Messiah. And the Covenant Bond into which Yeshua the Messiah was personally circumcised and bonded to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, will be fulfilled when the nations of the world are forever one with Abraham and His true Blood Covenant Family. Thus the Ketubah (Marriage Contract), which the Torah is meant to be, lists the requirements for setting up ‘housekeeping’ with God. It lists and ensures the Blessing and Safety and Well Being of obedient Israel and for all non-Jewish disciples of God’s living Word. And it lists the curses that will befall all those who choose to remain ‘Head-less’ and entrapped within the coils of the Serpent (Deuteronomy 28, 29, 30)

God’s Covenant Ways are Essential

Historically, Jewish and non-Jewish believers have failed to agree and harmonize with each other. For the most part they remain on opposite sides of the wall of partition that has historically divided them. Why does that wall keep getting in the way? The Messiah died to destroy it! Yet the Serpent continually drives his deluded slaves to rebuild and maintain that wall in first class condition. As long as that continues, he succeeds in preventing the New Covenant union that will fulfill the Covenant forever, from developing. The Lord’s horribly fragmented Body has yet to come together and assemble and integrate under its True Head.

Perhaps a major factor that contributes to this maddening ‘stuckness’ is our ignorance of God’s written Word that reveals His Covenant mind and heart and ways. God’s Covenant ways are not our self-adoring individualistic ways (See Isaiah 55; Matthew 25). And as long as God’s living Word does not become our true Life and Identity and Purpose, the Serpent will continue to dismember the Lord’s decapitated Body.

God must break through to us. And He will do it…very soon. The Last Days are near. Then God’s Spirit will be poured upon all flesh and He will cause us to come together in brokenness and a repentant heartfelt willingness (see Joel 2). And we will change and submit and allow God to take us where we have never been able to go in our own strength and by our own devices!

“‘Comfort, O comfort My people,’ says your God. ‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’ A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

“A voice says, ‘Call out.’ Then he answered, ‘What shall I call out?’ ‘All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever!” (Isaiah 40:1-8 Emphasis added.)