Exile and the Promise of Restoration
Ezekiel 36-37
Message #9
We’re following Francis Chan’s book, “Multiply,” to see God’s Plan of Redemption: Genesis to Revelation, and we just blazed through the Old Testament. Today, in only our ninth message, we’ve surveyed God’s Plan of Redemption, from Genesis to the end of the Old Testament.
We’ve had to leave out a lot as we’ve followed God’s “Thread of Redemption” through thirty-nine Books (including today). But our goal in this study has been to specifically connect the dots… to see the one single, Scarlet Thread of Redemption, running from beginning to end of the Bible. And so, today, we continue connecting the dots and seeing that Thread of Redemption… even though our focus today is on the consequences of Israel’s repeated rejection of God.
And we are going to see a very difficult “double truth” today:
1). God will bring his promise and his plan to pass
2). There are consequences for rejecting God
Here’s how it has worked out so far
God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The Nation of Israel grew in Egypt under slavery
God delivered Israel from Egypt and that slavery
God made a covenant with Moses – called The Law
God enabled Israel to conquer the Promised Land
God made a covenant with King David – an eternal covenant
That’s an incredible history of God’s covenants with Israel, some un-conditional, some conditional. And looking at the big picture, here’s how it worked out. Time, and time, and time again, God was faithful to keep his promise to the People of Israel. Everything God promised to do, he was doing (and still is), God was keeping his side of all the covenant.
Israel, however, was doing just the opposite. When we look at Israel, sometimes we wonder if they ever kept up their side of any of their conditional covenants with God. Israel’s rebellion and unbelief started when the bodies of the Egyptians were still floating to the surface of the Red Sea. As soon as Israel was across the Red Sea, they began grumbling, complaining, and rebelling against God. At Mt. Sinai, they had a campfire one night and ended up creating a gold calf to worship instead of God, and it seems like it all goes downhill from there.
That generation rebelled so much God couldn’t allow them into the Promised Land. But God still remained faithful to them, even while they wandered in the Wilderness until they died. And after God did give the Promised Land to Israel as soon as Joshua died, the people immediately began turning from the Lord. Throughout Israel’s history, they were constantly rebelling against God and joining with the pagan nations around them.
Israel did have times of repentance and returning to the Lord, generally whenever God would raise up a deliverer. But time after time, the people would again reject God and embrace the idols and the ways of the world around them.
And so, please hear me.
God brought a double truth to pass
1). God remained faithful to Israel
2). Israel experienced the consequences of their sin
When the people of God experience consequences of sin, it does not nullify the faithfulness of God.
Plus, God had promised Israel upfront exactly what would happen if they did what they did back in Deuteronomy (second giving of the Law) when Israel was on the edge of the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy Chapter 27, God had Moses split Israel on two sides of a valley. Six tribes on Mt. Gerizim and six tribes on Mt. Ebal. The valley formed a natural amphitheater and strong visual aide for God’s promises of either blessing or cursing.
So, with half of Israel on one side, and half on the other… in Deuteronomy Chapters 27-28, God makes some guaranteed promises.
He promises blessing if Israel will follow him
He promises cursing if Israel rejects him
Remember, this was before Israel even crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. God told them very vividly what would happen to them if they rejected God and followed after the world. One of the key promises of God that would come to pass if Israel rejected God is found in Deuteronomy Chapter 28.
Deuteronomy 28:36 & 47-48 (NLT)
36 “The Lord will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone!
. . .
47 If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,
48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.
God was faithfully fulfilling his unconditional covenant with Israel, and God was promising consequences if Israel rejected him.
And Israel did reject God over, and over, and over again, and God did fulfill his promise of consequences.
Here’s how it went down. God had firmly established Israel in the Promised land under King David (we saw that last week). King David’s son Solomon had built the Temple of the Lord. In the next generation, the generation of Solomon’s son, Israel fully and completely rejected God, period. Two generations from the rule of King David, Israel had completely turned from God (it started with Solomon).
Read 1 Kings Chapter 11 to see this prophesied.
Israel’s demise begins with a civil war
Ten Tribes break away from two Tribes
Ten Tribes in the north called Israel
Two Tribes in the south called Judah
Read about their constant war with each other in 1 Kings Chapters 12-15. The Northern Kingdom (ten Tribes) immediately became godless and pagan worshippers. The Southern Kingdom (two Tribes) had a few godly Kings but ultimately also became completely godless. This was an awful and terrible time (spiritually) for Israel, and it lasted so long it’s mindboggling. You can read all the ugliness from 1 Kings 12 all the way to 2 Kings 17 – that’s twenty-eight chapters!
And even though Israel as a whole had completely turned from God, God was still with them. The most famous Prophets for God during this time were Elijah and Elisha. And they and other Prophets were constantly calling Israel back to God all during this time of Civil War and the Divided Kingdom.
But finally, God’s promise of consequence had to come. God promised Israel way back in Deuteronomy if they rejected him and turned from him, he would send them into exile… that they would be slaves to their enemies, that God would remove them from the Promised Land, and completely crush them as a Nation – and ultimately God keeps his promises.
But during that time, the Book of Hosea was written, and we see God’s unbelievable compassion for his people who are bent on rejecting him.
Hosea 11:8–10 (NLT)
8 “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? . . . My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.
9 No, I will not unleash my fierce anger. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.
10 For someday the people will follow me . . .
And in that last line is a hint of how God’s unconditional covenant lasts even through his people’s rejection of him. But now, in 2 Kings 17, it was finally time for the consequences to fall for Israel’s rejection of God. This is the beginning of God’s judgment finally falling on Israel (read the Chapter later). 2 Kings Chapter 17 explains so much that it is hard to skim through… I’m going to read portions from ESV so you can follow.
2 Kings 17:6–23 (ESV)
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria (North), and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria . . .
7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared (worshipped) other gods
8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel . . .
9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
11 (end of verse 11) . . . And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger,
12 and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”
13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes . . .
14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false (themselves) . . .
16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God . . .
. . .
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight . . .
. . .
23 (End of 23) . . . So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.
This is the beginning of the exile. First, the Northern Tribes were taken into captivity into Assyria. And then, one hundred years later, the Southern Tribes were taken into captivity in Babylon. The final fall of Jerusalem and the Southern Tribes being taken into captivity occurs in 2 Kings Chapter 25. If you’ve heard of “The Babylon Captivity,” this is it, and this is why Israel continually rejected God.
Now, here is what is mind-blowing. Most of the remaining Books of the Old Testament, from 1 Chronicles to the end of the Old Testament (not including Job or Song of Solomon) but most of the other remaining books in the Old Testament were written either just before, during, or after this massive judgment of God throwing his people out of the Promised Land and into captivity in Babylon. That’s about twenty Books of the Old Testament written during this intense time of judgment from God for Israel’s disobedience.
And every one of those books, in some way, speaks of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Written in the midst of God’s justly due judgment upon Israel for their rejection of him, God still showed his steadfast love (Hesed) to them. He still pursued them; he called them back into relationship with him. Israel had completely turned from God, abandoned God, and they were living in the consequences of that. But God always remained faithful to his people, and Israel’s rebellion and rejection of God did not sway God’s plan one bit. It was if he already knew they were going to do it.
Ezekiel Chapters 36-37 are great chapters for you to see God’s continued faithfulness to his people – read them. In Ezekiel 36, God makes it clear it’s not because Israel deserves it. But it’s because of God’s holy name, because of who God is, that God is going to bring his plan to pass for (and through) Israel.
Ezekiel 36:22 (ESV)
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
Not because they (or we) deserve it, but because of WHO God is, that is why God will bring his plan to pass! And so, because of his name’s sake, because of WHO God is, God says to Israel,
Ezekiel 36:24–28 (ESV)
24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
THAT is God being faithful to his people, even in the midst of their disobedience and rebellion. God’s plan is still on track. In so many of the prophetic passages (like this one in Ezekiel 36), God reaffirms his covenant with his people, even in the midst of them rejecting him and suffering the consequences. Last week we read from Ezekiel 37 (you should read it all).
Ezekiel 37:24–28 (NLT)
24 “My servant David (metaphor for Jesus) will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd . . .
25 They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They . . . will live there forever . . . And my servant David (metaphor) will be their prince forever.
26 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant . . . and I will put my Temple among them forever.
27 I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
28 And when my Temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I am the Lord, who makes Israel holy.”
But here’s the point for today… as we close the Old Testament, that had not happened. For six hundred years from the Captivity in Babylon and even through a mediocre return to the Promised Land… for six hundred of hearing the Prophets for the entire rest of the Old Testament, this had not YET happened. Israel was waiting, waiting, waiting. And while they were waiting, the Prophets were telling them exactly WHAT was going to happen. Turn to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31–33 (ESV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
What (Who) are all the Prophets pointing to?
As we close out God’s plan in the Old Testament, in our last two messages, we’ve seen these two things.
1). (last week) God would send a Messiah, an Eternal King in the Line of David
2). (this week) God will make a new covenant with his people that would truly enable them to serve him.
And from the moment of the birth of Jesus Christ, Jesus demonstrated that he was God’s Messiah. Jesus proved he was Israel’s true, eternal King.
And then, the night before he was crucified, Jesus gathered his Disciples together to celebrate the Passover… and remember the Passover was the picture of God’s ultimate redemption in Jesus Christ (Blood of the Lamb). And on this Passover night, Jesus took the bread and the wine… and he made it clear these elements of the Passover actually represented his body and blood. And when Jesus took the cup, he said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
For six hundred years, Israel had been promised two things by the Prophets.
1). God would send them a Messiah, an Eternal King in the Line of David
2). God would make a New Covenant with them that would enable them (and us) to truly serve him
And God kept those promises
God did send a Messiah – his name is Jesus
God did send a New Covenant – in his blood that enables us to truly serve God
JUST AS he promised Israel he would do.
Please remember this verse about the God who loves you.
2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT)
13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
And remember this about the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said this,
Matthew 5:17 (ESV)
17 “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.
As we enter the New Testament part of God’s Plan of Redemption, let’s be clear on one thing… Jesus hasn’t changed anything. He has fulfilled everything.
We’ve had to leave out a lot as we’ve followed God’s “Thread of Redemption” through thirty-nine Books (including today). But our goal in this study has been to specifically connect the dots… to see the one single, Scarlet Thread of Redemption, running from beginning to end of the Bible. And so, today, we continue connecting the dots and seeing that Thread of Redemption… even though our focus today is on the consequences of Israel’s repeated rejection of God.
And we are going to see a very difficult “double truth” today:
1). God will bring his promise and his plan to pass
2). There are consequences for rejecting God
Here’s how it has worked out so far
God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The Nation of Israel grew in Egypt under slavery
God delivered Israel from Egypt and that slavery
God made a covenant with Moses – called The Law
God enabled Israel to conquer the Promised Land
God made a covenant with King David – an eternal covenant
That’s an incredible history of God’s covenants with Israel, some un-conditional, some conditional. And looking at the big picture, here’s how it worked out. Time, and time, and time again, God was faithful to keep his promise to the People of Israel. Everything God promised to do, he was doing (and still is), God was keeping his side of all the covenant.
Israel, however, was doing just the opposite. When we look at Israel, sometimes we wonder if they ever kept up their side of any of their conditional covenants with God. Israel’s rebellion and unbelief started when the bodies of the Egyptians were still floating to the surface of the Red Sea. As soon as Israel was across the Red Sea, they began grumbling, complaining, and rebelling against God. At Mt. Sinai, they had a campfire one night and ended up creating a gold calf to worship instead of God, and it seems like it all goes downhill from there.
That generation rebelled so much God couldn’t allow them into the Promised Land. But God still remained faithful to them, even while they wandered in the Wilderness until they died. And after God did give the Promised Land to Israel as soon as Joshua died, the people immediately began turning from the Lord. Throughout Israel’s history, they were constantly rebelling against God and joining with the pagan nations around them.
Israel did have times of repentance and returning to the Lord, generally whenever God would raise up a deliverer. But time after time, the people would again reject God and embrace the idols and the ways of the world around them.
And so, please hear me.
God brought a double truth to pass
1). God remained faithful to Israel
2). Israel experienced the consequences of their sin
When the people of God experience consequences of sin, it does not nullify the faithfulness of God.
Plus, God had promised Israel upfront exactly what would happen if they did what they did back in Deuteronomy (second giving of the Law) when Israel was on the edge of the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy Chapter 27, God had Moses split Israel on two sides of a valley. Six tribes on Mt. Gerizim and six tribes on Mt. Ebal. The valley formed a natural amphitheater and strong visual aide for God’s promises of either blessing or cursing.
So, with half of Israel on one side, and half on the other… in Deuteronomy Chapters 27-28, God makes some guaranteed promises.
He promises blessing if Israel will follow him
He promises cursing if Israel rejects him
Remember, this was before Israel even crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. God told them very vividly what would happen to them if they rejected God and followed after the world. One of the key promises of God that would come to pass if Israel rejected God is found in Deuteronomy Chapter 28.
Deuteronomy 28:36 & 47-48 (NLT)
36 “The Lord will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone!
. . .
47 If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,
48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.
God was faithfully fulfilling his unconditional covenant with Israel, and God was promising consequences if Israel rejected him.
And Israel did reject God over, and over, and over again, and God did fulfill his promise of consequences.
Here’s how it went down. God had firmly established Israel in the Promised land under King David (we saw that last week). King David’s son Solomon had built the Temple of the Lord. In the next generation, the generation of Solomon’s son, Israel fully and completely rejected God, period. Two generations from the rule of King David, Israel had completely turned from God (it started with Solomon).
Read 1 Kings Chapter 11 to see this prophesied.
Israel’s demise begins with a civil war
Ten Tribes break away from two Tribes
Ten Tribes in the north called Israel
Two Tribes in the south called Judah
Read about their constant war with each other in 1 Kings Chapters 12-15. The Northern Kingdom (ten Tribes) immediately became godless and pagan worshippers. The Southern Kingdom (two Tribes) had a few godly Kings but ultimately also became completely godless. This was an awful and terrible time (spiritually) for Israel, and it lasted so long it’s mindboggling. You can read all the ugliness from 1 Kings 12 all the way to 2 Kings 17 – that’s twenty-eight chapters!
And even though Israel as a whole had completely turned from God, God was still with them. The most famous Prophets for God during this time were Elijah and Elisha. And they and other Prophets were constantly calling Israel back to God all during this time of Civil War and the Divided Kingdom.
But finally, God’s promise of consequence had to come. God promised Israel way back in Deuteronomy if they rejected him and turned from him, he would send them into exile… that they would be slaves to their enemies, that God would remove them from the Promised Land, and completely crush them as a Nation – and ultimately God keeps his promises.
But during that time, the Book of Hosea was written, and we see God’s unbelievable compassion for his people who are bent on rejecting him.
Hosea 11:8–10 (NLT)
8 “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? . . . My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.
9 No, I will not unleash my fierce anger. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.
10 For someday the people will follow me . . .
And in that last line is a hint of how God’s unconditional covenant lasts even through his people’s rejection of him. But now, in 2 Kings 17, it was finally time for the consequences to fall for Israel’s rejection of God. This is the beginning of God’s judgment finally falling on Israel (read the Chapter later). 2 Kings Chapter 17 explains so much that it is hard to skim through… I’m going to read portions from ESV so you can follow.
2 Kings 17:6–23 (ESV)
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria (North), and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria . . .
7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared (worshipped) other gods
8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel . . .
9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
11 (end of verse 11) . . . And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger,
12 and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”
13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes . . .
14 But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false (themselves) . . .
16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God . . .
. . .
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight . . .
. . .
23 (End of 23) . . . So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.
This is the beginning of the exile. First, the Northern Tribes were taken into captivity into Assyria. And then, one hundred years later, the Southern Tribes were taken into captivity in Babylon. The final fall of Jerusalem and the Southern Tribes being taken into captivity occurs in 2 Kings Chapter 25. If you’ve heard of “The Babylon Captivity,” this is it, and this is why Israel continually rejected God.
Now, here is what is mind-blowing. Most of the remaining Books of the Old Testament, from 1 Chronicles to the end of the Old Testament (not including Job or Song of Solomon) but most of the other remaining books in the Old Testament were written either just before, during, or after this massive judgment of God throwing his people out of the Promised Land and into captivity in Babylon. That’s about twenty Books of the Old Testament written during this intense time of judgment from God for Israel’s disobedience.
And every one of those books, in some way, speaks of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Written in the midst of God’s justly due judgment upon Israel for their rejection of him, God still showed his steadfast love (Hesed) to them. He still pursued them; he called them back into relationship with him. Israel had completely turned from God, abandoned God, and they were living in the consequences of that. But God always remained faithful to his people, and Israel’s rebellion and rejection of God did not sway God’s plan one bit. It was if he already knew they were going to do it.
Ezekiel Chapters 36-37 are great chapters for you to see God’s continued faithfulness to his people – read them. In Ezekiel 36, God makes it clear it’s not because Israel deserves it. But it’s because of God’s holy name, because of who God is, that God is going to bring his plan to pass for (and through) Israel.
Ezekiel 36:22 (ESV)
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
Not because they (or we) deserve it, but because of WHO God is, that is why God will bring his plan to pass! And so, because of his name’s sake, because of WHO God is, God says to Israel,
Ezekiel 36:24–28 (ESV)
24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
THAT is God being faithful to his people, even in the midst of their disobedience and rebellion. God’s plan is still on track. In so many of the prophetic passages (like this one in Ezekiel 36), God reaffirms his covenant with his people, even in the midst of them rejecting him and suffering the consequences. Last week we read from Ezekiel 37 (you should read it all).
Ezekiel 37:24–28 (NLT)
24 “My servant David (metaphor for Jesus) will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd . . .
25 They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived. They . . . will live there forever . . . And my servant David (metaphor) will be their prince forever.
26 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant . . . and I will put my Temple among them forever.
27 I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
28 And when my Temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I am the Lord, who makes Israel holy.”
But here’s the point for today… as we close the Old Testament, that had not happened. For six hundred years from the Captivity in Babylon and even through a mediocre return to the Promised Land… for six hundred of hearing the Prophets for the entire rest of the Old Testament, this had not YET happened. Israel was waiting, waiting, waiting. And while they were waiting, the Prophets were telling them exactly WHAT was going to happen. Turn to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31–33 (ESV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
What (Who) are all the Prophets pointing to?
As we close out God’s plan in the Old Testament, in our last two messages, we’ve seen these two things.
1). (last week) God would send a Messiah, an Eternal King in the Line of David
2). (this week) God will make a new covenant with his people that would truly enable them to serve him.
And from the moment of the birth of Jesus Christ, Jesus demonstrated that he was God’s Messiah. Jesus proved he was Israel’s true, eternal King.
And then, the night before he was crucified, Jesus gathered his Disciples together to celebrate the Passover… and remember the Passover was the picture of God’s ultimate redemption in Jesus Christ (Blood of the Lamb). And on this Passover night, Jesus took the bread and the wine… and he made it clear these elements of the Passover actually represented his body and blood. And when Jesus took the cup, he said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
For six hundred years, Israel had been promised two things by the Prophets.
1). God would send them a Messiah, an Eternal King in the Line of David
2). God would make a New Covenant with them that would enable them (and us) to truly serve him
And God kept those promises
God did send a Messiah – his name is Jesus
God did send a New Covenant – in his blood that enables us to truly serve God
JUST AS he promised Israel he would do.
Please remember this verse about the God who loves you.
2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT)
13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
And remember this about the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said this,
Matthew 5:17 (ESV)
17 “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.
As we enter the New Testament part of God’s Plan of Redemption, let’s be clear on one thing… Jesus hasn’t changed anything. He has fulfilled everything.