GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 12 ~ ~ “Hebrews 11:3 ~ ~ “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

From the book, “How to Read the Bible” by Michael Youssef

(Yesterday, we saw that the Old Testament salvation is just like New Testament salvation—

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. They looked to Christ (Messiah) by looking forward, as we look back to His sacrifice. Today we’ll see more about God’s Old Testament Covenant with Abraham and his descendants, and how it points them and us to Christ)

Dr. Youssef:

Later in Old Testament times, God made conditional covenants with Israel that required the people to meet certain standards. The clearest expression of a conditional covenant between God and Israel is found in Deuteronomy 11:13-21:

“And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 1est the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.”

When some people hear terms like the “Law of Moses” or the “Old covenant,” they think only of the Ten Comandments. But God’s covenant with Israel includes ALL the laws that He delivered to Israel in the first five books of the Bible. Genesis through Deuteronomy. When we speak of the Old Covenant, we speak of the covenant God made with Israel through Moses.

You might be surprised to learn that the concept of the New Covenant comes from the Old Testament. The prophet Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 31:31-34:

 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

The New Covenant was promised in the Old Testament. Then, Jesus instituted it at the Last Supper when He took the cup and said:

“This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke22:20, also see 1Cor 11:25).

With His death, Jesus became the Mediator of the New Covenant, and His blood became the only blood sacrifice required under the New Covenant. In this way, Jesus fulfilled the promise God spoke through Jeremiah,

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

The Old Testament saints demonstrated their faith in God by keeping the laws and sacrifices that look forward to the coming of the Messiah. As New Testament saints, we look backward to the sacrifice of the cross – and we look forward to His return. Whether in Old covenant times or New Covenant times, there has only been one way to be saved: by grace through faith alone.

Our unchanging God revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). No one before or after Jesus could make such a claim. As the Apostle Peter said in Acts 4:12:

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

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2Timothy 2:13

If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.

Luke 1:70 and 79

As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace.

Psalm 23:3

He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

(Charles Spurgeon) “If the Lord does not change the place for the better, He will make us the better in the place.”

Isaiah 46:4

And even to your old age I am he; and even to gray hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

IPeter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and His ears are open to their prayers…..

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