Joshua and Judges: Abrahamic Covenant and its fulfillment in the Millennium. Jos 5:1-3; Rom 11:25-29.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Abrahamic Covenant and its fulfillment in the Millennium. JOS 5:1-3; ROM 11:25-29.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

Satan's war against the Jews between Abraham and the first coming was to try to thwart the first coming (REV 12:1-5). His present and future war against the Jews is to thwart the second coming (REV 12:12-14). [Fruchtenbaum, Israelology]

 

If Satan can ever succeed in destroying the Jews before there is a national salvation, then Satan's career is eternally safe. For this reason he has had a perpetual, unending war against the Jew. This is why once the Tribulation comes and Satan knows his time is short, he will expend all his energies to try to destroy the Jews once and for all. The biblical cause of anti-Semitism is Satan. God permits it. Satan is the cause and certain Gentile nations are the means he uses.

 

Very early in human history a principle was set down to control the relationship of the Jews with the Gentiles.

 

GEN 12:3

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 shall be blessed."

 

Politically speaking, this statement is God's foreign policy to the Gentiles in their relationship with the Jewish people.

 

Many have searched for a unifying principle in interpreting history. In the Abrahamic covenant there is such a principle.

 

One thing that history bears witness to many times over is that every nation that has ever dared to raise its hand against the Jew has fallen.

 

ROM 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in;

 

ROM 11:26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written [ISA 59:20],

"The Deliverer will come from Zion,

He will remove ungodliness from Jacob."

 

ROM 11:27 "And this is My covenant with them,

When I take away their sins."

 

No longer will He be the meek and lowly Lamb; He will be the roaring, raging Lion of the Tribe of Judah. As He judges the Gentiles, He will turn ungodliness from Jacob.

 

This does not imply every living Jew will be saved. The nation will finally be delivered, both spiritually and geo-politically. Paul acknowledges that some will be lost.

 

ROM 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;

 

ROM 9:7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named."

 

Ishmael was not chosen, nor did he believe that Jehovah was the one true living God.

 

ROM 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

 

It refers to the nation restored. Thus all Israel will be delivered. Individually each Jew going into the Millennium has survived the great tribulation and has personally believed in Jesus Christ as his Savior. As a nation they will be delivered geo-politically and spiritually.

 

ROM 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in;

 

ROM 11:26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written [ISA 59:20],

"The Deliverer will come from Zion,

He will remove ungodliness from Jacob."

 

ROM 11:27 "And this is My covenant with them,

When I take away their sins."

 

How is God going to do this? He is going to fulfill the Abrahamic, Davidic [Son of David to sit on throne forever], Palestinian [land grant], and New covenant in His unique way.

 

This is why many in our age refuse to translate these passages literally, and that is because it is so unique. But I would ask, "Isn't the church fully unique? Could the OT believer, king, prophet, or writer ever dreamed of a time like ours when believers are in union with Christ, seated with Him in the heavenlies and even indwelt by Him?"

 

New covenant passages:

 

JER 31:31 "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,

 

JER 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, "declares the Lord.

 

"not like the [Mosaic] covenant." The new covenant is unconditional while the Law was conditional.

 

JER 31:33 "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 within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

Mosaic Law - conditional, provisions for breaking it, could never empower one with the ability to obey it.

New cov. - unconditional, will be written by God on their hearts.

 

The Mosaic covenant set forth before Israel what was pleasing to God. It made great demands upon the people. However, though it made provisions for a broken law, the first covenant could never empower one with the ability to obey it. By contrast, the new covenant is to make new men of Israel. A nation will be born in a day. God will put His law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts. He will be their God and they shall be His people. God will manifest His sovereign electing grace on a national scale in behalf of Israel, even as He showed His sovereign elective grace on a personal scale to each individual who believed in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.

 

We do not need to confuse the new covenant which God is to make with Israel with the plan which God has made with believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in the church age. It is true that both are by grace since both are gifts from God. And yet in the new covenant there are some similarities with the church, like the indwelling and filling of the Spirit, but there are also many differences.

 

New covenant:

1. Made with Israel and Judah.

2. Takes the place of the Mosaic Law.

3. After the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

 

4. God will put His law in their hearts.

5. All Israel will know the Lord, the greatest and least.

 

In the first instance, the new covenant is addressed to the house of Israel and Judah, vs. 31. In the second place, it is to take the place of the previous covenant which God has made with Israel through Moses. In the third place, it is to be made with the house of Israel "after those days," vs. 33, which is to say, "after the fulness of the Gentiles has come in." (ROM 11:25) In the fourth place, God will transform the house of Israel by putting His law into their inward parts and writing it on their hearts.

 

If we are to literally translate this, and in my opinion there is no other way, we have to conclude that God gives them all the knowledge of Him. He has not done this to us. As believers in the church age, the day after salvation we don't know a thing, other than the gospel and that we're saved.

 

So we must conclude that this has not happened to us, even as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. To be sure, we have been made new creatures in Christ Jesus, but we must still grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be taught by the Holy Spirit and by the Word of God. The reason we study the Word of God is simply because it does not yet dwell within our hearts as it will dwell in the hearts of restored Israel.

 

It's easy to say that that's crazy and a little unfair, but wouldn't a believer in the OT say the same about the indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Plus, knowledge is not wisdom. They still have apply what they know in order to come to really understand it's reality, the reason for it, and how to use it.

 

Israel will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest of them. This will not be any attainment of theirs, but it will be the result of a sovereign act of divine grace.

 

JER 31:34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

 

JER 32:38 "And they shall be My people, and I will be their God;

 

JER 32:39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good, and for the good of their children after them.

 

JER 32:40 "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.

 

This new covenant which God will make with Israel differs from the Church's covenant of grace in that Israel will never depart from the Lord again.

 

This is also not true of the church age. Christians do depart from the Lord. No believer can lose his salvation, but it is clear that in the NT under the grace plan of God, believers can turn from the Lord and pursue the world and the flesh.

 

The danger of spiritualizing this promise and applying it to the church is that if a believer backslides or turns away from God others will doubt his salvation and he may as well. So by a false interpretation of prophecy we find ourselves suddenly on the ground of legalism. It's like a sign that is wrongly marked and we follow its direction only to find ourselves stuck in a very dangerous place.

 

GAL 5:7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

 

GAL 5:8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.

 

GAL 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

 

1TI 4:1

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

 

2TI 4:3-4

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

 

Again, some may scream "unfair" since they will not turn away and we always have to be on our guard against turning away. But you must realize that we live in the most intensified stage of the invisible war and we have been equipped with much more than they could ever dream of in our position in Christ. We have rewards that have been given to each of us for spiritual valor, which, yes, can be lost if we fall away, but he who is in the greatest battle and at the greatest cost is the one most richly rewarded. I see the rewards of Rev 2 and 3 as well as the crown of righteousness, glory, and life written for the church age believer. These would appear to be battlefield decorations.

 

The church age believer is like a soldier on the battlefield in the middle of a great battle which the Millennial saint is more like a soldier during peace time. He is still significant and necessary for God's program, but he does not find himself in the thick of the fight. Given the choice, I'd rather be right here, right now, as God is always perfect in His selection of what time and place He puts us in human history.

 

To be sure, once we come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are eternally saved by sovereign grace. But how many of us become bad saints, disobedient children of God, as we refuse to walk in the light of God's Word?

 

The Holy Spirit convicts us (CA) of sin and gives us no true peace until we make a full surrender to the will of God.

 

There is a way of life that is just survival. It is something that we put up with, but true peace eludes the believer who does not fully surrender to the will of God.

 

JOH 14:27

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

 

Can you hear Him saying this to you right now? True peace, which is God's peace or the peace of Christ, has been experienced by a small percentage of Christians. I am sure that the Millennial saints will have God's peace, but I imagine it to be a bit different. There is a peace that a soldier can have in the middle of the battlefield where shells are exploding around him and bullets are whizzing by him and I can't imagine it is of the same intensity as it is in a theater of no chaos.

 

When God restores His people Israel, He will plant within their hearts a respect for Him which will know no disobedience but constant surrender and devotion to Him alone.

 

This is not true in the church age and it was not true in the dispensation of Israel either.