New marriage - New Covenant

[8thdaypriest]

Don't know if many here deal with Hebrew Roots followers, or Messianics. I do where I live. Their teachers are telling them to expect a Temple to be built on the Mount before the Second Coming. Their teachers are telling them that the system of animal sacrifice at the Temple is NOT abolished, and they should plan to go up to that new Temple to offer sacrifice.

When they talk about "the law" they mean the whole Torah - not just the 10 Commandments. They do NOT believe that any part of it has been rendered "obsolete".

I have been looking for Scripture proof to counter their teaching regarding the sacrificial system. Recently I began looking at the Covenant in terms of a marriage.

Here are a few verses:

Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, O backsliding children,’ says the LORD; ‘for I am married to you.”

Jeremiah 2:1-3 “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying,`Thus says the LORD: I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness . . .”

“The House of Jacob” would be His “special treasure” (Exo. 19:3-5). He bore her “on eagles wings” and brought her to Himself. The people accepted His covenant (Exo. 19:8).

Jeremiah 31:32 “‘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.’”

Ezekiel 16:32 “You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband.”

Israel did not marry "the law". They were betrothed to the pre-incarnate Son of God, who led them thru the wilderness.

The Ten Commandments were the "marriage covenant".

Now - the LORD divorced the 10 Northern tribes for rebellious idolatry.

Jeremiah 3:8 “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.”

Isaiah 50:1 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, whom I have put away? . . . And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.’”

Hosea 2:2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!”

If HE had divorced all of Israel, then HE could not have been "born under the law" - under that first covenant. So HE saved a remnant - the "good figs" by sending them to Babylon.

Much later - when HE died - what remained of Israel was "widowed".

This is why Paul could write:

Romans 7:1 “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

3 So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead” (NAS).

That first marriage covenant really is obsolete. It was rendered obsolete when the “husband” of Israel died. The “new covenant” is a “new” marriage covenant.

How many parables are about a "marriage feast"? In Revelation we have the "marriage of the Lamb".

Paul writes:

2 Corinthians 11:2 [Paul] “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

HOW COULD OUR HIGH PRIEST

MARRY A HARLOT OR A WIDOW OR A DIVORCED WOMAN ?

Leviticus 21:14 [Concerning priests] “A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman (by idolatry) or a harlot-- these he shall not marry; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife.”

The LORD called Israel a “harlot” and said that Judah was worse, because she did not amend her ways even after the Northern tribes were taken into captivity by Assyria. The LORD had given Israel a “certificate of divorce”. Judah was widowed when her “husband” died. Both were defiled by idolatry.

The only way for Jesus to marry Israel/Judah, is for Him to wash away the record of her past, thus returning her to a virgin state. This is what we see in Revelation 14, where the 144,000 from every tribe of Israel are described as “virgins”.

HOW CAN HE RE-MARRY THE "WOMAN" THAT HE DIVORCED?

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house . . . then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD . . .”

The only way HE could do that - was to die!

NEW COVENANT OR RENEWED COVENANT ?

The LORD will re-marry Israel. In this sense it is a “renewed” covenant. It is also a “new” marriage covenant. The bride is “new” because her past sins have been erased. She is NOT the same woman. And because it is a “new” covenant, this allows for some change.

A “NEW COVENANT” ALLOWS FOR CHANGES

The priesthood is changed under the “new covenant” from the Aaronic priesthood to the Melchizedek order. The Melchizedek order ministers at the “true Tabernacle” which is Heaven itself (Heb. 8:2). This change necessitates the cessation of the animal sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple, because the Law said that every sacrifice must be brought to “the priest” at “the place” where the LORD had chosen to put His name (Lev. 1:3, Deut. Cpt 12).

WHAT IS RETAINED IN THE "NEW" MARRIAGE COVENANT?

All of the Ten Commandments are repeated in first century writings.

Isaiah 66:22 puts the New Moons and Sabbaths in the new earth where the wolf lies down with the lamb.

The whole study is posted at my website.

Obviously - posting this - I am inviting your comments.

Blessings,

Rachel Cory

Prophecy Viewpoint