The Old Covenant

Deuteronomy 29:10-13
All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the aliens living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

30:1-3
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.

30:8-10
You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law [the Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy … especially the 10 Commandments in the latter book] and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

29:19-21  A Warning!
[Now] when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, "I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way." This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The LORD will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven!

The New Covenant

Hebrews 8:8-12
But God found fault with the people and said, "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Luke 22:19-20
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

17:15
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

Matthew 28:20b
“And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Old Covenant

The motivation to turn back to God was fear of the curses and desire for the blessings. It was a desire to be “prosperous,” as defined in Deuteronomy 30:1-3. And, it was based on the fear of never being forgiven and therefore having one’s name blotted out from under heaven, as threatened in Deuteronomy 29:19-21.

Remember -> Observe -> FEAR -> OBEY -> PROSPER

Because God will bring about both blessings and curses, you will learn to fear the Lord and therefore to obey. Only then will God cause you to “prosper.”

The Old Covenant was based primarily on FEAR and PUNISHMENT / REWARD.

The New Covenant

The motivation to turn back to God will be a response to God’s mercy and grace – “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34/Hebrews 8:12). God will put the law not only in our minds, but also in our hearts!

Remember -> Observe -> A broken & contrite heart -> Receive the Holy Spirit -> Trust & Obey -> Live with peace and joy
God will beacon you to remember all from the past and to observe all in the present. You’ll see the sins of the world and of yourself. You’ll then see Christ on the cross and your heart will be broken and changed. You will then be open to receive the Holy Spirit and to have the desire and the power to trust and to obey the call of God. In this, you will receive life in its fullest, life of true peace and joy!

The New Covenant is based on Grace and Mercy.

We now have the knowledge of good and evil! We’ve seen it from both sides (“thy rod and thy staff”)! So, we have two choices:

1. Turn to God and try to do as the Law commands out of fear and the expectation of prosperous returns. This is to live under the OLD Covenant (and forces God to be the authoritative parent)

2. See the side of God that God really wants us to see and respond to God’s amazing grace and steadfast love. This is to life under the New Covenant. Know though that this doesn’t guarantee bliss in this life! But, it does offer peace and joy and protection from the evil that would separate us from God … and this peace and joy in this world and the next.

Third, of course, we can just ignore God altogether and live life as we see fit. The promise though is that when we die a mortal death, that’s not it! The rest of the promise is that our souls continue to live! And, one day, our souls will even be reunited with a glorified body! In this, we have the option to continue to live with God in God’s kingdom (the one we had opportunity to glimpse on earth) or not. If we chose other than that kingdom on earth, we aren’t forced to live there in the new age; we can live elsewhere. Those who refer to the Christian Scriptures call the former place heaven and the latter hell. And, we call the choice “judgment,” remembering that God judges the heart – discerning if we really want to be with God or not…