2 Peter 3:8-9
“…Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (Emphasis added.)
In Genesis, God brought Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and their descendants, into His eternal Blood Covenant. That Covenant existed in eternity, before anything in Creation came to be! This revelation is extremely important. It is telling us: the Eternal Covenant is unilateral! God, in His infinite Perfection, took the initiative to make this Covenant and assumed full responsibility for making sure it will be fulfilled. So this is a Perfect Covenant with airtight, guaranteed credibility, dependability and security. It can’t fail; God is its Sole Guarantor!
But by the time of the Exodus, over four centuries after Abraham was brought into the Covenant, his family had several million members! And non-Israelites had also joined themselves to this family when they left Egypt. So the original close personal vitality and interactive intimacy of the relationship the original fathers had with God had naturally faded and dimmed over the centuries. Many of those liberated slaves carried the genes of the fathers in their flesh; but they didn’t know or trust God in their hearts, the way their forefathers once did. So the Israelites of Moses’ day were greatly in need of training and discipline before they could grasp the meaning of their God-given identity, purpose and destiny. And thus, by the time God’s Word led them to the vicinity of Mt. Sinai, it was time for their ‘boot camp’ education to begin in earnest.
Through Moses, God revealed the terms and conditions of the new relationship they were to enter into with God. Much would have to happen before they’d be able to fulfill their purpose. They were nowhere near fit and ready to enter the Fulfillment Stage of the Covenant of their forefathers. So God, in His great Wisdom and long-suffering Patience, created an extended time frame during which Israel could be trained and prepared for her future Day of Fulfillment.
This preparation time was similar to the preliminary betrothal or engagement stage with which most marital relationships begin. At Sinai, God’s Word ‘proposed’ to His prospective Bride. Knowing that Israel could not understand, much less fulfill her part in the Eternal Covenant, He asked her to become betrothed, or, ‘engaged’ to Him. At that time, Israel was ignorant and plagued with ‘Egyptian’ attitudes and identity patterns and lifestyle habits that kept her distant from God’s Word. She did not yet know, much less trust, Him. So God established this extended ‘learning curve’ period of engagement, to give her and the rest of mankind, time to grow, mature and develop properly. This was to be a bi-lateral covenant that required something of Israel…to reveal her true state of utter bankruptcy, and that of the rest of mankind…to all of us!
Exodus 19:3-6
“Moses went up to God, and the (Word of the) Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, IF you will indeed obey My Voice and keep My (Betrothal) Covenant, THEN you shall (by your own successful efforts and good performance) be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (for all of eternity).’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
John 14:1-3
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (Emphasis added.)
In the Hebrew world, the man proposes to the woman, asking her to marry him. Then she must respond with a yes or no answer. If she says ‘yes,’ he leaves her and goes back to his father’s home to construct new quarters for him and his future bride to occupy. And when the father gives his approval to what the son has built, and the prospective bride has had time to prepare herself, the father sends his son to claim his bride and take her to their wedding feast and full consummation of their marriage in their new home. And so this relationship between God’s living Word and Israel, began at Mt. Sinai. God’s living Word came to propose Blood Covenant union, to that very unprepared, newly delivered current generation of Israelites. And Israel said, ‘Yes’.
Exodus 19:7-8
“So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.” (Emphasis added.)
Betrothed!
When Israel agreed, the long period of betrothal or engagement began. It’s obvious that the betrothal phase that begins a marital relationship, and the actual Wedding Feast and Consummation and cohabitation that will follow, at the other end of the process, are far from being the same thing. Rather they are like two ends of one stick. One begins the story, and the other leads into the climactic fulfillment of their union and their future life together. So the consent given by the woman in the beginning is forward looking; it’s similar to a promissory note or IOU. The fulfillment of that promise lies in the future. Nevertheless, it binds the woman and the man to each other, right from the beginning. The betrothal is a bond of mutual commitment that the two partners have already made to each other. And that insures that the wedding and consummation will actually take place at the proper time in the future. So yes, they are truly linked and committed to each other by this engagement agreement; but no, they are not yet fully married in the sense of being ‘one in spirit, soul, body, residence, purpose and destiny.’ That must wait for a later time, after all the necessary preparations have been completed.
This is what happened between God’s Word and Israel at this point of the Exodus. Israel’s condition was far removed from the way she will be when the Day of Ultimate Consummation finally arrives. By then, she’ll fully understand her role and surrender herself entirely to her Husband. And she will be ready to take complete possession of, and full citizenship in, His Father’s House…God’s Land of Promise. But at the beginning, the time for that full consummation was a long way off. At Sinai, Israel became the intended, or, fiancé of God’s living Word. It would be a long time before the actual day of their Wedding Feast would arrive. Even now, it is still a future event. Nevertheless, at Sinai, she linked herself to Him. And they were committed to each other by this temporary engagement agreement.
Now that the Word and His intended Bride arrived at this understanding, we can better grasp the difference between the Eternal Covenant that was already in effect, and this added betrothal agreement and what it actually requires of God and His Word, and what it requires of Israel and those that God will graft into her. The difference between the two covenants is vitally important revelation. And, thanks to the Genesis revelation of God’s Perfect Finished Work, we can know with peace-filled, confident certainty, what all of this Mt. Sinai business meant and how far it goes and how all of this is going to end!
Romans 11:11-15
“I say then, they (the children of Jacob) did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their Fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but Life from the dead?” (Emphasis added.)
On God’s part, the Eternal Covenant is Perfect, Complete and Consummated. It is FINISHED, DONE, once and for all, both on the part of God and on the part of men! This is because God unilaterally entered into that Covenant with Himself, by Himself. The Father took the part of God, and His living Word, who was commissioned to become one of us, took the part of the human race. So in God’s Perfect nature and eternal changelessness, that Covenant is already perfectly fulfilled and eternally in effect, thanks to His living Word’s finished work.
Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Emphasis added.)
By the beginning of the book of Exodus, we know that God has already included Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and their descendants, in His eternal Covenant. The fathers of the Faith already have God’s eternal guarantee that their descendants, including this Exodus generation, will participate with God, in the perfect corporate Fulfillment of their Perfect inclusion in God’s Covenant.
Genesis 17:6-7
“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 descendants after you.” (Emphasis added.)
So keep this eternal Covenant in mind, as you ponder what was happening at Mt. Sinai. God has already spoken and committed Himself. And He has all of eternity in which to fulfill His promises! So…wasn’t that enough? What need was there for Him to make this other Blood Covenant at Sinai? Did something else have to be added, to make the Eternal Covenant ‘good enough?’ No, of course not! As far as God was concerned, the Eternal Covenant is already Finished and Perfect. But this is about a Blood Covenant Marriage between the utterly Perfect, Eternal Word of Almighty God and poor bedraggled, Sin-corrupted Israel who lives in the temporal dimension, the demon-possessed realm of time and space! At present, the Husband and His betrothed are living in two very different Kingdoms in two very different situations! In eternity, God reigns complete and in His Kingdom everything is Perfect. But in this temporary time and space dimension, humans are Sin-corrupted and in desperate need of redemption and regeneration and restoration. They still live in a Sin-cursed, broken, selfish, destruction-prone world! So there’s no problem with God or His credibility; the problem lies with the intended Bride that He chose for His Son, the Word. Her heart, even to this day, is nowhere near ready for the actual Fulfillment of the Wedding Ceremony that God has guaranteed is going to come. On every level, she was and still is, in each generation, woefully unprepared. So this temporary engagement period agreement is for her benefit, to give her the time she needs to grow, mature, learn and be transformed into a Bride fit for her infinite, eternally Perfect Husband-to-be.
We said God’s Eternal Covenant is unilateral, that is, God is solely responsible for keeping and fulfilling it perfectly. He must fulfill His part, and His living Word must fulfill the part of Israel and the rest of mankind. So that Covenant is actually a revelation of God’s Eternally Perfect Nature, Character, Disposition and impeccable Faithfulness to His Creation. It lets us know that He is the one and only true God and sole Source of whatever is real, true and good, including our Salvation and Righteousness. He is Perfect; and therefore, although we cannot trust ourselves, we can afford to trust Him with perfect, airtight, eternal reliance, hope and confidence! His grace is, and always will be, All Sufficient. He will see Israel and the rest of the human race through everything that will ever happen in time and space. And He will take His own all the way across the ‘Finish Line.’ God has sworn and staked His Name and Eternal Reputation on this!
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Emphasis added.)
The Rock-Solid Foundational assurance that the Eternal Covenant gives, helps us better understand the purpose of this other, bi-lateral, temporary, space and time Covenant into which God’s Word and this generation of ex-Egyptian slaves have just entered. So let’s consider two basic aspects of the Covenant of Sinai. The first aspect or reason for creating it was to provide a framework within which God’s people could be trained, transformed and prepared to become the fit Eternal Consort of God’s living Word…His perfect ‘image and likeness.’ Israel needed time for each of her generations to get to know herself and also to know God’s Word and learn His ways and to mature and absorb and share and demonstrate God’s Truth and Reality with the rest of the human race. God is acting on behalf of and for the benefit of the entire human race…each and every generation of them. So this Covenant is not only for Israel. It is for all mankind…for all non-Jewish people that will allow God to engraft them into the Eternal Life-giving Covenant Root of Salvation, Redemption and full Restoration.
At this initial point of the Sinai agreement, Israel was very unprepared. How much more so was the rest of the human race? They all fell far short of the level of development needed to occupy and succeed in the fulfillment stage of this Eternal Covenant Love Union with God. A Biblical term for the Fulfillment of Israel’s part in the Eternal Covenant is ‘The Marriage Feast (or Supper) of the Lamb.’ But Israel and the rest of humanity she was to represent were not ready for all that is yet to come. So, the training provided by this temporary bi-lateral Covenant must continue to be applied to each generation…until the Bride’s preparation is complete. Then, that betrothal agreement and its preparation measures will no longer be necessary. The time for the Wedding Feast and the Consummation will be at hand and God’s Eternal Perfection will finally be ours to share in and enjoy. Then our Perfect Union with God will begin and remain for all of eternity.
To gain a better understanding of this, we might compare this temporary, betrothal agreement and commitment to a long leash that a human master uses to restrain his undisciplined dog. The leash enables the master to begin governing and protecting his large, untrained, radically independent animal. The dog does not yet know, respect or obey the authority of its master. So, as long as this is true, a rather long leash is needed for the protection of the dog, and anyone that happens to be near. But as the master and dog interact through the use of the leash, the dog begins to develop some awareness, discipline and obedience. Then, the master begins to shorten the leash, more and more so that the dog’s natural, destructive impulses can be dealt with at a much deeper, more intense level. And progressively, the length of the leash is shortened and shortened even more, until no slack remains at all between the master and the dog. At that point, the dog’s paws can barely touch the ground because he’s reached the stage where he must realize and accept and live with the reality that he is not the presiding master; his master is. And now he must completely rearrange his thinking and lifestyle until everything is realigned and compatible with this inescapable new reality…and he is able to anticipate everything his master requires, so that thereafter, they can live, act and interact – as one!
Isaiah 55:6-13
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
“For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.” (Emphasis added.)
Our Delusions must be replaced by God’s Life-Changing Truth
This had to happen to Israel first…and then to the rest of humanity as well. To have the relationship with God that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses had, we must all undergo the same level of intense invasive ‘boot camp’ type training they received. God must reveal Himself and His ways to us…and He must also reveal us, in our true Sin-corrupted state, to ourselves! Our self-righteous delusions and conflicting traits and tendencies must be progressively obliterated and removed to prepare and equip us for the total God-centered Life that lies ahead for us in eternity. God must squeeze all demonic delusions out of us concerning His living Word’s absolute Authority. We will not be allowed to play the role of sloppy, ‘exempt civilians’ that we assumed for ourselves in the past. Now we must be trained, drilled and disciplined to transform into highly skilled, razor-sharp, combat-ready warriors. God MUST prepare us to face and engage in actual combat with the powers of Darkness – the deadliest, most relentlessly malevolent enemy imaginable. And not only is it our task to face that enemy…but we must also be prepared and equipped to resist, persevere, overcome and prevail permanently over them! But because we all begin as full-fledged members of the enemy’s ranks…it will take much time to reorient and retrain us to become as one with Almighty God.
So, only when that training is complete, can it be said with authentic integrity that there is no further need for us to remain confined in the underlying training structure called, ‘boot camp.’ Only then, just as it is with the dog that needs ‘leash-training’, when our spirit of arrogant, selfish rebellious independence is finally, effectively broken, we will be prepared to successfully make our way through what lies ahead of us. Then there will no longer be a need for spiritual muzzles to be placed over our mouths, or restraining leashes around our necks.
So, working from this analogy, we can say that the Eternal Covenant is God’s guaranteed target destination for the human race. But to reach it successfully, we must submit to the spiritual realities that confront us. We must be trained and prepared as we continue our Exodus journey that is taking us to our Eternal Destiny. God will never take back the free will He has already given to us. So as our unifying process begins, the Sinai Covenant provides the educational and training framework needed to gear us to make the right choices. It prepares us for the awesome task of making the transition from Egypt, where we all begin, through all the demonic opposition and conflict we will certainly encounter, along the way, to the new eternal home destination that awaits us when we’re finally able to choose to enter and take possession of it.
The betrothal-training tool serves a two-part function: revelation and training. It assures us of the fulfillment of the promises God made concerning that glorious, ultimate eternal marital union and bliss with Him that awaits us in eternity. We know it is ours…as long as we’re willing to go through the training we need to choose to believe and trust God. We can only finish the journey on His terms, according to His Truth and Reality. So even as we continue to train and undergo the tough discipline that is preparing us to enjoy it, we must also be prepared to face and overcome the enemies that will do everything they can to prevent us from going all the way Home. So, once we say ‘yes’ to God’s proposal, it is inevitable that He will place His training ‘framework structure’ around us to provide the discipline and combat-training experiences we’ll need to curb and discipline our natural, Sin-corrupted energies and tendencies and instill into us the wisdom of God’s ways. So in addition to giving us assurance of ultimate victory, the ‘short leash’ training actually gets us ready to be skilled and successful in actual life or death combat against the Serpent’s powers of Darkness. God’s enemies are also our enemies. They will do everything they can to rob, diminish and, if possible, totally destroy the fulfillment with God that has already been promised to us. There are very high stakes and perpetual dangers involved in this. And because we will experience combat, and will have to deal with all the dangers that go with it, this tough, rigorous ‘short leash’ training is utterly necessary for anyone who seriously intends to follow our Master were He intends to lead us.
1 Corinthians 15:30-31
“Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily!“ (Emphasis added.)
After the leash has done its job and the ways of the master have been internalized, the dog has changed radically on the inside. He is no longer a trainee; he is a veteran performer. The repetitive drill training he received has transformed the dog into the image and likeness of the master and the master’s ways. So the love, trust and devotion that develop in the dog for the master, take the place of the external leash that was once required to be around his neck at all times. The master’s ways have been etched upon his heart and the authority of the master has won him over completely. So the dog has no more need to be restrained from the outside. The trust and love for the master that has developed in his heart, compels him on the inside to remain close and to live as one with his master. Now he lives to please his master.
The Torah is our Teacher and Trainer
That is part of what the Torah and its wealth of revelation and wisdom and its commandment training structure is meant to do for us as it prepares us to become as one with God’s living Word. We must be trained to be realigned with Him and His obedience to His Father, in all things, and at all levels. Then we can be His image and likeness and demonstrate what true, God-created humanity truly is. Israelites that understand this and respond properly will be transformed by the Torah training God is applying to their betrothed hearts. Those who truly, seriously, say ‘yes’ to God’s proposal will strive to learn to be as one with His beloved living Word in all things. They will allow Torah to transform their minds, wills and nervous systems into the image and likeness of their Master. And because they understand what God is doing for them, they gladly, eagerly learn to obey and they live as one with His living Word and all of His ways. So it is inevitable; once true disciples agree to follow the Master… the ‘short leash’ training God designed for Israel will be applied to them as well.
John 5:45-47
“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. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (Emphasis added.)
So why must this training take place? What rewards does it bestow? Well, the Torah revelations and teachings and commandments are like ‘dance steps’ that God’s Word is sent to teach to His beloved so they can learn to think, act and react, as one with God. At the beginning, Israel could not understand the purpose of the ‘steps’ or why they were so necessary. But with enough practice and training…by the time God has her ready to enter the Fulfillment Stage of His Eternal Covenant, Israel’s interactive relationship with her Lord will resemble the beautiful, flowing, joy-filled dance that the master of a well trained dog can perform with his beloved pet. They are now completely bonded to each other…focusing on and doing exactly the same thing, together. Now they are perfectly one…so synchronized and attuned to each other that they dance and perform as one perfectly integrated unit…in arenas that are filled with amazed spectators.
That is what fully trained disciples are like. They can interact with their invisible indwelling Master, in all things, at all times, by the obedience of faith! The people in the arenas cannot see their Master, but through the spiritual eyes of faith, these disciples never lose sight of Him. So they are able to dance with Him in ways that, to all the others, are totally supernatural and beyond reach! Nevertheless, by watching these disciples as they maintain their intense, consistent focus on their invisible Master, the spectators that as yet, know nothing about Him, actually start to become aware of Him too…indirectly…by watching the disciples dancing with a Partner they cannot see! And this is the ‘Light’ that comes into this fallen world by the faith of God’s people. It enables even pagan Gentiles to begin to be aware of our Master and the compelling beauty of His ways. In due time, they, although they are still radically independent and wild and unrestrained, also begin to hear the Master’s voice, calling to them…inviting them to follow Him too…into a future life that will prepare them for the arena that prepares them for the Eternal Covenant, as God has always intended it to be.
Of course, in the beginning Israel knew next to nothing of this. They could not imagine what it would be like to ‘dance’ with their Master. They required a very long leash when He first began to teach them his dance steps. Each commandment was a ‘step’ that was to be repeated, over and over and over again. At first, such a training regimen seems tortuous, incredibly stilted, artificial and painfully bothersome. But the monotonous repetition required to practice each step, gradually enables the student to master one step after another and then they can be joined into a series of patterns. And eventually, the patterns become a beautiful flowing dance. But that can only come after the students are required to repeat the steps, time after agonizing time, day in and day out. That’s why it is difficult at first for all inexperienced beginners. They can’t see or believe all of the glory to which all of this can, and will, lead. But when they’re fully prepared, the steps do blend into the Marriage Dance of total, Ultimate Freedom, Grace, Beauty and Love Union with Almighty God. And then, what was once impossible for them to see in the beginning, will emerge in their Ultimate Eternal Bridal Union Experience. And then, that awesome Perfection of God that His Eternal unilateral Covenant will impart, will also be theirs.
If we willingly submit to our Master as He places His temporary restraining ‘leash’ around the necks of our wild, naturally rebellious and destructively willful hearts, the leash will protect us, and those around us, from ourselves…from our willful self-destructive, mindless, irresponsible immature impulses, passions and desires. And it will begin to make us aware of realities we never imagined possible and impart skills we never dreamed could be ours. And since we already know that the time of betrothal is only a temporary arrangement, we can begin to see beyond it, to the joy, freedom, spontaneity and eternal fulfillment into which it is leading us. The leash merely binds us to our Master in our mutually given promissory commitment. And it allows us to foresee and anticipate the actual Wedding Feast and the consummation and total union that are sure to follow. This is what God’s Word intended to teach to His betrothed in the wilderness. But, for the most part, Israel bucked, kicked, screamed and kept pulling away from Him…just like all fallen sons of disobedience are naturally prone to do. It was a very rough beginning…but the Eternal Covenant is always with us, to insure that the finish will be indescribably beautiful and fulfilling…for all of us!
When we see what actually happened between God’s Word and Israel in the wilderness, and how Israel repeatedly violated her part of the betrothal Covenant after entering into it at Mt. Sinai, we begin to see the vast difference there is between that temporary betrothal agreement and the actual Fulfillment of Israel’s entry into God’s Eternal Covenant. The Eternal Covenant depends exclusively on God for its Eternal Fulfillment. So a major part of Israel’s training and education is a revelation of God’s living Word, and His Perfect nature and righteous ways and infinite resources and credibility and faithfulness to His Beloved Israel. But at the same time, the temporary bilateral agreement reveals and exposes to Israel what is hidden in her ‘Still-Egyptian’ heart and how vulnerable she is to the wiles of the powers of Darkness. The ‘leash’ must reveal this to her so that she can see, and finally admit, her own personal bankruptcy and endless neediness and see all of the impurities that the fiery intensity of the training must expose, discredit and continue to burn out of her. God must forge and reconfigure her in the fires of tribulation and burn out all traces of the Adamic slag residue from her makeup to make sure she receives everything the Eternal Covenant has promised to impart to her from the Last Adam, to her eternal Perfection.
As that purifying, refining and maturing process nears completion, Israel will finally be able to see and hear. She will finally ‘get it’. She will see through, and repent of, her willful rebellious independence from God’s Word…and she will turn and run to Him, instead of remaining apart. Then she will gladly surrender herself to Him wholeheartedly, once and for all, so that He may be free to do to her, in her and for her, what only He can do.
Matthew 23:38-39
“Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
That will happen after the Holy Spirit fully reveals the poverty of Israel’s true nature and character, and total lack of credibility and dependability, as they really are. And then, when the scales fall from her eyes, she will see Reality as it truly is, and in her utter neediness, she will run to her Husband and be ready to surrender completely to the Perfect, All-Sufficient Covering of His Eternal Covenant Love for her…while the rest of the world watches, and learns to follow suit. And when the whole House of Israel is fully prepared, the Day of the Wedding Feast will finally arrive. And the rest of the world will finally see the Fullness of God’s promises to all of the fallen children of the First Adam.
Since Israel is God’s prototype example and message to all of humanity…that temporary ‘training’ Covenant is, by extension, a revelation of all of us – of what we really are, in our fallen nature, in the sight of God. So the Covenant of Sinai exposes that reality and reveals our utterly helpless living death state and spiritual bankruptcy and completely treacherous, unreliable inability to do anything to help or improve or save or change ourselves, or anyone else! That’s the first purpose of the ‘restraining commandments’ of the Mosaic Code of Divine Law that we would do well to consider and understand.
The Living Word, as Revealed through the Torah
The second purpose we should consider is this: the Torah or ‘The Law’ contains an infinite Gold Mine of Divine Self-Revelation, instruction, teaching, training, discipline and correction that Israel (and all the rest of us) must have, during the time in which the Holy Spirit works on us to prepare us for our ‘Big Day.’ Moses was writing the revelation of God’s living Word…the Word that later became flesh…the Word that died and rose from the dead…the Word that summons you and me to follow Him as His personal disciples! So this revelation of Him and the instruction it gives us is the absolute foundation that is laid for us by God, to make sure the enemy cannot deceive, delude and entrap us so that he can steal and destroy our actual Wedding Feast Fulfillment in which we will become as one with God’s Perfect Living Word. Torah’s foundational revelation insures that our purpose and destiny will be explained, protected, maintained, and enjoyed to the maximum extent. The Bridegroom to whom we are betrothed is revealed to us in the Torah! We must know Him as He really is, or the Serpent will deceive us.
And so perhaps all of this will help us to finally understand this: the New Covenant that God promised to make with Israel…is actually the original Eternal Covenant…finally Fulfilled!
God uses the badly violated, temporary, Sinai betrothal Covenant as a framework of instruction, discipline, correction and training that links the Eternal Covenant and the New Covenant together. It is a passage and entryway that takes us safely from the Eternal Promise…to the Eternal Fulfillment. Now we can see that, in God’s Eternity, the Promise and the Fulfillment, are one and the same thing. And the temporary covenant that serves like a restraining leash around the neck of our fallen soul, mind and will, is the tool that helps us get from Point A to Point B. Our Master leads us by that restraining leash…out of Egypt…across the wilderness of transition…and into His awesome Land of Promise. He is revealing that His own Holy Spirit is our Guarantee that God will be working from within our regenerated spirits, to make the Life and Purity and Righteousness of God’s own living Word alive and real and actively fruitful from deep within our hearts so that we can be assured that what God began with us, He will finish.
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed (in your ongoing need for training and preparation), not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good (Eternal Covenant) pleasure.” (Amplification added.)
The betrothal training is the necessary connecting framework, the passageway that provides the restrictive ‘safety zone’ we need for our protection while we’re ‘en route’. If we abide with God in it, He can prepare and equip us to prevail during the real combat we will have to engage in with the powers of Darkness. And so the Law of this Covenant serves us the way training wheels serve novice bicycle riders in the early stages of their training. The Torah keeps untrained sons of the First Adam from falling back and doing terminal damage to themselves and to whatever happens to be around them. But at the same time, it is a prophetic revelation of the awesome Word of God and the work God is doing through Him, within their spirits, to equip and prepare them to embody His beloved risen Son in all of His Eternal Glory!
The Covenant of Sinai restrains our wild, rebellious impulses and keeps us more or less in position to continue to receive the benefit of all the resources and protection we will need while we’re being trained and transformed and equipped to survive the combat and prevail and be able to fulfill our Eternal Covenant purpose. At the end of our ‘engagement period,’ when our training is complete, God will usher us into the Fulfillment of the Eternal, Unilateral Covenant and we will be taken beyond the temporary ‘training wheels Covenant’…and into the real, Eternal Covenant Fulfillment and Consummation into which God has always been committed to bring us!
Genesis 3:21
“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” (Emphasis added.)
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and their descendants have already been brought into the Eternal Covenant…and every other human who believes and obeys God’s Word along with them. During the lifetimes of Israel’s fathers, before Moses appeared on the scene, there were no Torah and no written commandments for them to study and obey. Even so, they had the living Word of God, revealing Himself to them, and they obeyed and followed Him, by faith, just as we are required to do.
But now that God was taking their numerous descendants out of slavery to Sin and Death and leading them progressively into more freedom and into their priestly nationhood, the betrothal Covenant was given to serve as the framework for all of their future training, discipline and transformation, and that of the rest of the world. They had to be trained to serve as the nation that would be the Light-giving example and revelation to every other nation. God began to do this with Israel. But He also made it clear that any non-Jewish people who joined them, were to receive the same training as well:
Deuteronomy 5:1-7
“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The Lord did not make this (Sinai ‘training wheels’) covenant with our fathers, but with us (Jews and non-Jews alike), with all those of us alive here today. The Lord spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the Word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.’” ( Amplification and emphasis added.)
Leviticus 24:22
“There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger (non-Jew) as well as the native (children of Jacob, that is, Israel), for I am the Lord your God.’” (Emphasis added.)
Acts 13:45-47
“But when the (Judean) Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas (the Messianic Jews) spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the Word of God be spoken to you (Judean Jews) first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we (the Messiah-believing Jews) are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us (all), ‘I have placed You (Yeshua) as a Light for the Gentiles, that You may bring Salvation to the end of the earth.’” (Amplification added.)
Do you see the vast difference between the Eternal Full Marriage Covenant that preceded all of Creation and this temporary betrothal Covenant that God’s Word proposed to Israel at Mt. Sinai? The Covenant into which God brought their forefathers was the Eternal Covenant. But now, through Moses, He brings their descendants into this new, temporary, ‘training wheel’ betrothal Covenant to get them ready to enter into and fulfill the real Covenant in Eternity. When we understand the relationship between the Eternal Covenant and this temporary Covenant, it’s much easier to understand the significance of the New Covenant that God promised to make with Israel, through Jeremiah, centuries after the day of Moses:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 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 (even during their time of betrothal) 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 (Torah) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (for all of Eternity). They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me (at a personal, intimate marital level), from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the Lord, ‘for (through My Eternal Covenant and the Blood of My Lamb that has sealed it) I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The New Covenant that God was announcing through Israel’s prophets, promised that, despite all of Israel’s failures, the New Covenant would serve to usher Israel into the Ultimate Destination of this Exodus transition we’ve been discussing and pondering. The New Covenant is – the Eternal Covenant Renewed and Fulfilled! Our Ultimate Destination is the New Covenant Fulfillment of what God committed Himself to do before the beginning of Creation. By the end of time, God and His people will have gone full circle. What religious fallen flesh could not do, the Spirit of God will certainly accomplish. So Israel will end up back at the Beginning…in the Covenant God made in Eternity and shared with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Eternal Covenant actually contains everything needed within it. And from its Eternal Fullness, God supplies everything that is necessary for us in space and time. This is what He promised to do long before Israel ever came to be. So during the time of the training betrothal Covenant, He intends to impart to Israel, and all those non-Jews who will allow themselves to be grafted into her Root of Salvation, all of the spiritual wisdom, awareness, maturity, ability, atonement, redemption, forgiveness and understanding they will need to finally be able to trust God 100% in 100% of all things.
When God’s people can do that, then the rest of the human race will forsake and cease its idolatrous ways. And those that choose to allow God to save them will be able to draw entirely from God’s Perfect Finished Work, and stop looking to themselves or any other created thing. And THEN…their hearts will also be ready to ‘dance the Eternal Wedding Dance with God’s Living Word.’ Their transformed hearts and mature wisdom will make any further need for external ‘leashes’ totally unnecessary. Now they will be free to enter into the actual Fulfillment of what God promised to Himself in His eternal counsels, to do to Israel, in Israel and through Israel – the Fullness that He has for all the rest of His Creation.
Romans 10:3-5
“For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.For Christ is the end (goal or destination) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.” (Amplification added.)
God’s Eternal Choice
So throughout Israel’s far from perfect historical performance, it is obvious that God was, and is, acting purely out of His own, unilateral Love for and Commitment to, Himself and to His chosen people and to the fallen world that they represent. He certainly isn’t dealing with humans on a give and take, 50/50 basis. He knows we are all ‘born dead in Sin.’ So He doesn’t deal with us on the basis of how wonderful we are in ourselves; or because we can supply what He needs or wants. It isn’t because our performance is so perfect that God is forced to pay us the ‘spiritual wages’ we ‘earn’ by our religious striving. No, we’re dead in God’s sight! So all of this is purely because it has always been His eternal choice to select and love Israel, just as she is – bankruptcy, stains, warts, and all, along with the rest of the fallen living dead human race that she represents. Whatever Israel lacks at present by way of personal traits, breeding, abilities, training, education and correction, God will supply during her ongoing betrothal period, from the Perfect and Endless Treasury provided by His Eternal, unilateral Covenant. God has to do all of that for Israel and all the rest, because it is obvious that the ‘living dead’ human race has no way of knowing what we are in for, much less having what it will take to fulfill our part in the Eternal Marriage Agreement. No fallen human mind and heart has ever seen or experienced the Ultimate Eternal Life Destination that God has in store for His Perfect Eternal, Image and Likeness! No Sin-corrupted creature has ever seen or imagined the Glory that is yet to come. So there was no way Israel could have known, much less accomplished, all that had to be learned and all the changes she’d have to undergo in order to be prepared to be elevated into her Husband’s infinitely Perfect Life and Ways…and His infinitely Perfect Status and Inheritance.
Israel is in a unique position, to say the least. She is human and Sin-corrupted, and tainted and begrimed and beguiled by the Serpent. She suffers from the same mortal wound that the Serpent inflicted on all of mankind through Sin. But the Perfect One, to whom God has chosen to unite Israel, is God’s own Perfect Image and Likeness! How could Israel ever match that? How could she have what it will take to raise herself to His level, as His worthy consort and marital partner? He is the living Word of God…the infinitely Pure, Holy, Righteous and Impeccable One! Who could possibly duplicate and equal Him?
Obviously, Israel, and all the rest of humanity, must be reconfigured and regenerated and prepared, from the bottom up and the inside out, to enter into and learn to abide and flourish in God’s Kingdom and to share in His Perfect Finished Work and the Perfect Eternal Inheritance and Destiny that God has waiting for those who learn to trust, love and obey Him. Nothing in Israel’s past experience on Earth could begin to prepare her for that! And the same holds true for all the rest. Nothing that any of us have seen, heard, experienced or imagined can prepare us for what still lies ahead. Our present condition and levels of capability are utterly dismal. We will never be able to prepare or equip ourselves. God will have to do everything to train, prepare and raise us to His Son’s awesome level of holiness. God must be 100% responsible for seeing to it we become fit and able and knowledgeable and worthy enough to actually become one with His Perfect, living Word and abide with Him in the Eternal Kingdom no fallen flesh could ever imagine. And we must trust and obey Him unreservedly.
The engagement bond that God’s Word came to propose to Israel binds them together for the duration of their betrothal period. And the Authority and eternal Permanence of the Eternal Covenant into which God fully intends to bring Israel, guarantees the betrothal’s successful conclusion. But the time that must still be devoted to Israel’s preparation, and that of the rest of the world, will be filled with much demonic opposition, agonizing frustration, blunders, failure and betrayals. While we all struggle individually and strain to outgrow our past which was spent learning the ways of the Serpent…and move into the ways of the corporate Kingdom unity we cannot even imagine, much less master, we must begin to understand the depths of the levels of preparation we must still undergo, and how much patience, understanding and long suffering, gracious forbearance God will have to allow us before we finally catch on and grow up and mature enough to be able to fulfill our intended image and likeness of God purpose.
The actual Wedding Day and consummation of our Eternal Union with God’s Word will have to be delayed substantially so that all preparations can be completed to Perfection. Israel’s heart will have to change radically. Her selfish, self-centered radical independence will have to die completely, so that the Heart of her Husband can also become her heart. In His heart there is room enough to actually contain the entire human race, with no exceptions. And so Israel’s heart must still be greatly enlarged and tenderized. And she will have to embrace and share the Agenda of God’s living Word…her Husband…the Coverer and Atoning Lamb for the entire human race.
And that will come…after all the preparations are complete. Then…by God’s hand alone…the Bride will transform into the perfect, pure and spotless image and likeness of her Husband, even as He is the Perfect Image and Likeness of His Father. And when they are united to that extent, then together, they will be utterly ready, willing and able to fulfill the requirements of the Eternal Covenant on behalf of the entire human race…in Spirit and in Truth.
And that is when the Wedding Feast and Total Consummation of their Marriage will take place. THEN all the tears sown during the days of training and discipline will become an enormous Harvest of Joy and Fruitful Fulfillment that they will reap together, as ONE. Then the Eternal Covenant that God had already made in eternity for the Husband and Bride to occupy, will be Perfectly Fulfilled to their everlasting Joy…and to God’s Eternal Glory and Praise
So, what God is revealing about His Eternal Covenant in Genesis and Exodus…is what He is fulfilling to Perfection, for His Son and His Son’s Bride, Israel, in this prophetic section of the Book of Revelation:
Revelation 21:1-9
“Then I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven FROM GOD, made ready as a Bride adorned for her Husband. 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!’” (Emphases added.)
The text above articulates The Incomprehensible, Unimaginable Ultimate Fulfillment in basic, simple human words…so that we can at least begin to move in the direction of grasping and understanding enough to see a dim, distant ‘Dawn’ over our very dark present ‘landscape,’ arriving steadily with ever-increasing brightness and clarity. No human being that has ever lived since Adam’s fall until today, has ever seen or heard or been able to imagine anything that comes close to the actual Fulfillment of God’s Eternal Blood Covenant Vision and Plan. It is so vast and immense and majestic that our Sin-blasted and darkened souls could never comprehend what God has in store for His beloved human beings once Sin and all of its effects have been perfectly and forever dealt with. Our temporal minds and materialistic imaginations know nothing about that yet. Everything we’ve ever seen, heard and experienced in this ‘Titanic’ of a world has been Sin-corrupted, permeated by the living death of a Sin-cursed temporary race and its brutal dog-eat-dog world system.
This is why it is so necessary for all of us to learn to live by child-like faith in God and the Perfection of His nature and character. It is enough for us to know and trust in the awesome promises and pronouncements and directives that God gives to us through His incomprehensibly holy and beautiful and other worldly living and written Word. Nothing about this Exodus that is still locked within created time and space, will endure and accompany us into God’s Eternity. Everything, including the human race, will be brand new. So, at present, there’s nothing about our future destiny that at present can be comprehended much less controlled, by any of us. Nor is there anything in our present condition that will accompany us into our Eternal Bridal Chamber with our Lord and Master. God Himself, who does everything through and by His living Word and Holy Spirit, is the entire Heart and Soul and the Beginning and the End of this awesome Exodus Story! God is the Story. And all of His creations are manifestations and revelations of the Glory of His Eternal Love!
And so, with this in mind, we can follow the Holy Spirit into a consideration of what is about to happen and what will be announced and revealed in chapters 19 and 20 of the Book of Exodus, and all that is embedded and implied within the few Hebrew words that Moses was inspired to write for Israel and for the rest of the fallen human race:
Exodus 19:3-6
“Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, IF (when I get you ready,) you will indeed obey My Voice (My living Word) and (are finally able to) keep My (Eternal) covenant, THEN you shall (actually) be My own (wholehearted) possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and (then, finally, My Eternal Covenant will be fulfilled and) you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
God Himself, Our One and Only Source
In the light of what we’ve considered so far concerning the Eternal Covenant and God’s utterly Perfect Nature and the dreadful, mortal damage and corruption that Sin has inflicted upon all of us, we can see that we are expected to look to, trust and rely on, and expect everything from Almighty God, from start to finish. And we can see this truth throughout the history of Israel’s first Exodus generation, and the subsequent tragic failure-prone history of her succeeding generations as recorded in Scripture and in worldly chronicles. From the human perspective of this Covenant agreement, it is clear that we have all failed, and continue to fail…miserably! But God’s Perfect Eternal Covenant and its unilateral Guarantee of Fulfillment have nothing to do with our human imperfection and sordid performance! It depends on His Perfect Nature!
So, the commandments God gave from Mt. Sinai were not meant to place their tremendous burden of responsibility on Israel. Israel was bankrupt and utterly incapable of being anything other than what she so obviously was! No, that text is essentially prophetic in nature! God wasn’t dumping an overwhelming load on the totally incapable shoulders of the newly liberated, traumatized ex-slaves! He was training them to trust in Him, 100%! He was revealing the awesome future Fulfillment of His Eternal Blood Covenant…the Covenant He had made with Himself and His own living Word and Holy Spirit…before the foundation of the created universe took place! God has taken all of the Responsibility upon Himself! But fallen human flesh is too self-adoring and self-reliant to see it. Hence the need for ‘The Leash’.
The words that Moses was inspired to say to Israel did not describe her at that time. They described ‘the finished product,’ the Last Days Fulfillment of Israel…New Covenant Israel. What we see finally appearing at the end of the Book of Revelation is an expression in human words we can understand, of the incomprehensible Beauty and Perfection that God has eternally had in mind…and that is what He intends for all of Israel, and the rest of the human race to end up to be, in His eternal counsels. So obviously, through the Exodus texts and subsequent books of the Bible, God is telling us that much more development must take place in all of our hearts and in our midst, before the promise-filled prophetic revelations in the Torah and the rest of the Scriptures can be perfectly fulfilled.
Beloved, many pieces to this eternal ‘Restoration Puzzle’ are still missing to us in time and space. But in God’s good Plan and its inscrutable timing, the entire picture will appear…as His Holy Spirit inserts each piece into its proper God-ordained place…at the proper time. THEN the perfect fulfillment of the Covenant, and of Israel, and of the whole human race, as God has always had them in His mind, will appear in all their Eternal Glory. The enormous depths of Revelation and Instruction, that God inspired Moses to articulate and give to the world in the Torah, have been treasured, preserved, protected, studied and pondered by generation after generation of Israel’s saints and sages. They have also been pored over and pondered by generations of non-Jewish saints and scholars. But regardless of how many precious and brilliant insights men have been able to see within and share with the world…the task never ends. There are always more depths to explore and even greater riches to discover, excavate, examine and understand. The Wisdom contained in the Torah can never be exhausted or fully comprehended…for it is the Foundational Revelation, given by Almighty God Himself…of Himself…and of His Perfect, eternal, infinite, creative Word, who is the only one who knows God directly and is able to reveal Him to all the created beings He has made.
So when we begin to sense the enormity and boundless depth and limitless expanse of the Revelation embedded within these human words, the overwhelming weight of our human ignorance and inadequacy presses down upon us as we begin to see our utter bankruptcy with increasing clarity. And the weight of God’s awesome Glory, coupled with our profound limitations, press us to the ground, on our faces. Who can understand the Almighty One, the awesome infinite Creator to whom we owe everything? Who can accuse Him of wrongdoing? Who can define or explain or get his mind around such an Infinite, Inscrutably Transcendent and Mysterious Being? And which mortal, Sin-corrupted human would dare to resist and rebel against Him when He speaks? And what could prompt anyone to presume to approach His Presence in order to interact with Him and caress His infinite, incomprehensible Face, and be embraced by Him, unless God Almighty Himself reveals to us that this is exactly what He intends and yearns to make possible for us?
Sin-smeared Israel was far from ready at that early stage of her relationship with God’s Word to grasp all of this. Who would have been able to imagine or believe that such a perfect God could love and want such an unworthy, unattractive, mortally wounded wretch to become His Son’s Eternal Bride? It is impossible to even imagine it. And yet, that is exactly what Almighty God is revealing through His Scriptures and prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Hosea! He does love us that much, despite our utter unworthiness and unlovable, treacherous nature. And He is committed to recreating and transforming and equipping us to be His eternal, beloved, image and likeness.
Ezekiel 37:1-6
“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’ Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I AM the Lord.’” (Emphasis added.)
Ezekiel 16:1-17
“Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, ‘Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite (living dead children of the First Adam). As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths (for you were already dead). No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.
“When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare.
‘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 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.
“But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen. You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images (false gods like those of Egypt) that you might play the harlot with them.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The task of preparing Israel and the rest of the fallen world, is daunting to say the least. There is nothing any of us can do to change our Sin-loving essence, nature and character. It is impossible for any human, except for One, to take a pile of dust and create a human being out of it in the first place. And now that all the ‘piles of dust’ are Sin-corrupted and permeated with the Death Curse that comes with Sin, the impossibility is compounded. The one human who is truly worthy and able to deal with this is, Yeshua our Covenant Representative, the Son of Man, who also happens to be the infinite, eternal, living, creative Word of God:
Ezekiel 37:8-9
“So I prophesied (to these living dead people) as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no Breath in them. Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the Breath (My Spirit), prophesy, Son of Man, and say to the Breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to Life!'” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So, in keeping with what we’ve learned in Genesis, about the one-way polarity of the only realistic relationship we can have with our Creator, we see that God is depending on Himself, exclusively, to make all of this come out properly. And He requires that same exclusive dependence on Him, to be found in us too. Reality demands it! Truth requires that the relational polarity between God and all of His Creation must be one-way. In other words, Truth requires God to do 100% of the supplying and giving…and it requires each creature to do 100% of the depending and receiving. There is no other possibility, no other gear available into which Reality can shift. God’s living Word must be and is, ALL in all…for all of us…from start to finish!
Colossians 1:15-20
“He is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all Creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also Head of the Body, the Church; and He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the Fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the Blood of His Cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
So in the light of all of all that God has revealed in His Torah, we can better understand and interpret what He will be doing and saying throughout the rest of the books of Scripture. We can see what God says and what He means…once we have the foundational base and are properly aligned with an accurate Torah-based view of things. Then we can better understand, assess and discern what God requires and be able to see through the satanic lies and how deviously their delusions continue to keep fallen men entrapped in the living death of Sin.
And now, perhaps we’ll also better understand why the Exodus was, and still is, so difficult and dangerous and impossible for any of us to complete…as long as we look to ourselves and our non-existent ability and resources. And hopefully Torah will equip us to be able to revel in the incredibly Perfect, Eternally Faithful, Indestructible, Changeless Love and Covenant Faithfulness that Almighty God yearns to shower upon us all:
Ezekiel 16:60-63
“Nevertheless, I will remember My Covenant (the long-leash betrothal agreement that I established) with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an Everlasting Covenant (that I made with Myself before Creation) with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your (terribly violated short-leash, bi-lateral betrothal) Covenant. Thus I will establish My (Unilateral Eternal Marriage) Covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord (that promises and fulfills what to you would be utterly impossible), so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” the Lord God declares.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)