Covenant ברית-Brit (Part One)

Most of us are familiar with our Bibles as being divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now “testament” is just another word that means “covenant” or an “agreement” between G-d and mankind. However, I think the terms Old Covenant and New Covenant can be misleading. It seems to imply that the advent of the New Covenant has somehow rendered the terms and conditions of the Old Covenant invalid. Nothing could be further from the truth. Look at these words of Yeshua:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”-Matthew 5:17-19

Here Yeshua clearly states that He didn’t come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them. So what does the word “fulfill” mean in this context? To us modern day readers, this word may seem to imply “to finish” or “complete” and once finished or complete, it no longer has any use. But that’s not what it means. Have a look at any sound Greek Concordance and you will see that this particular word literally means to “fill up”, exactly the same word you would use to say “Fill up my glass with water” or “Fill up my car with gas.” If you say “Fill up my glass with water”, you don’t mean to say “Please end my glass”, do you? In other words, Christ came to infuse new life and proper meaning into the Law of Moses while at the same time doing away with manmade doctrines that had arisen from false interpretations. There is no way he had any intention of having the Law of Moses go the way of the trash bin. Think about it! Jesus Himself was a law-abiding faithful Israelite who kept the Sabbath and ate Kosher.

Another point that should be made is that all of the Apostles including Paul preached and taught from ONLY the Old Testament! There wasn’t a New Testament in existence during their lifetime. In fact, the commonly toted verse “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness-2 Timothy 3:16 can ONLY refer to the Old Testament for the same reason that there wasn’t a New Testament around when this particular portion of Scripture was written.

The Hebrew word for covenant is Brit and interestingly although the term Old Testament may be used metaphorically to refer to a covenant that was made in the past, it is never used officially as the name of a covenant. In the Bible, the official covenant pronouncements are the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant , and the New Covenant, which is called the Brit Hahashah in Hebrew.

Now in ancient Mid-eastern culture, when one wanted to cut a covenant, properly chosen animals were taken and cut in two and placed on the ground with a half of the body parts opposite each other. Then, both parties would walk between the severed parts. This was to signify that if either party failed to live up to the agreement, the sacrificial fate that had just befallen the animals is what would happen to the covenant breaker. Our English expression “cutting a deal” comes from this tradition and here we have it described in Genesis:

“So G-d said to Abraham, ‘Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram” -Genesis 15:9-10 & 17-18

From the above verses, we can see that it was only G-d’s presence that walked through the animal body parts. Abraham didn’t. Hence, this was an unconditional covenant on G-d’s part. Abraham didn’t have to do anything to fulfill the terms and conditions. It was all on G-d. This was unlike the Mosaic Covenant where the L-rd made it clear that if there was obedience, blessings would follow. However, if disobedience ensued, G-d’s stern rod of justice would fall. And of course, the New Covenant is also conditional in that we have to accept Yeshua’s sacrifice as 100% sufficient to atone for all of our sins.

It should be remembered that these covenants build on each other. They complement each other. Think of them as a house, the Abrahamic Covenant is the sturdy foundation, the Mosaic Covenant is the framework, and Yeshua’s New Covenant completes everything resulting in a most glorious dwelling place for all eternity.

Amen.