What is a covenant? According to Dictionary.com, it is:

An agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified.

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There are actually two distinct types of covenants that God made with humans; one is called a Conditional Covenant and the other is called an Unconditional Covenant. As the name implies, conditional covenants come with requirements by both parties, whereas the unconditional covenant is made by one party to another, with no requirement upon the second party to ensure the actions of the first party. In legalese, these are either a Unilateral or Bilateral Contractual agreement.

The covenant God made with Noah is an unconditional covenant. God promised that he was never going to destroy life with a flood ever again (notice how that still leaves many other options available) and there is no requirement at all on Noah or anyone else in order for God to be expected to keep his agreement. Often a covenant, at least the biblical kind, did require some sign, or in legal terms, consideration, in order to be finalized. The shedding of blood was a usual sign, such as when Abraham cut the animals in pieces or the bloodshed during a b’rit milah (circumcision), or the bloodshed by the Messiah when he was crucified.

In the case of the Noahide Covenant, God’s sign was the rainbow, which had never been seen before. In fact, rain had never been seen before, either: we are told at the beginning of Genesis that the earth was watered by the morning dew.

When we read what is in the Bible, God tells Noah and his children to be fruitful and multiply, that whereas before they ate only vegetables, now every moving thing is food for them (although there was already an understanding of clean and unclean, since in the prior chapters God had Noah take 7 pairs of clean animals and only 1 pair of unclean), and that they are not to eat the blood. God also says that every human who takes another human’s life is to be held accountable and that for every human who sheds another human’s blood, his own blood shall be shed. God also said that he wouldn’t curse the ground anymore, which he did with the expulsion of Adam and Eve.

God finished by stating this covenant is with Noah and every living thing that is on the earth.

But in Judaism, there are 7 Noahide Laws that are considered to be part of the Noahide Covenant. The Babylonian Talmud tells us these are the 7 laws that are in the Noahide Covenant:

1. Not to worship idols.
2. Not to curse God.
3. Not to commit murder.
4. Not to commit adultery, bestiality, or sexual immorality.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to eat flesh torn from a living animal.
7. To establish courts of justice.

So where did the Rabbis get all this other stuff? From what I have read, and from my very small experience studying the Talmud, they pretty much extrapolated from what else is written in the Bible to come up with these unstated, but (supposedly) implied mitzvot.

There is only one other covenant that is unconditional, which is the Davidic Covenant and is found in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. Here God promises David that one of his descendants will sit on an eternal throne, which everyone concludes is the Messiah. In this covenant, God tells David that he is pleased David wants to build a house for the Lord, but God will take it up a notch. There is no requirement for David to do anything because God is doing this as his reward to David for all David has done and what he wants to do in his heart.

You may be thinking that the New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:31 is also an unconditional covenant, but it isn’t. You need to read the entire chapter to realize that in the midst of the promises God is making to Jeremiah about the regathering of Israel and the restoring of their wealth and joy, in Jeremiah 31:17-20, Jeremiah is told that Ephraim (meaning Israel) has repented and confessed its sin and acknowledged its wrongdoing.

So, we could say that the New Covenant is predicated upon Israel, now dispersed throughout the world, coming to recognize its sinfulness and repenting. After which, God will regather them, restore their joy and wealth, and finally write the Torah on their hearts so that everyone will know Adonai. This is the real “new” covenant and is accomplished through the Messiah.

The Babylonian Talmud’s extrapolated Noahide Laws are man-made, but even so, they are also valid because when we go through the Torah, everything listed as a Noahide Law will eventually be specified in the Torah God gives to Moses.

This is the one absolutely most important fact about the covenants God made with us: they are inclusive, not exclusive! That means each succeeding covenant includes and builds upon the preceding one. The covenant God made with Abraham is included with the one he made with Noah, but he then added on to it. The Mosaic Covenant includes everything in the Abrahamic and Noahide Covenants, then builds upon it. The covenant God makes with David is in addition to the previous covenants and establishes their permanence through the coming Messiah. And the New Covenant God makes through Jeremiah will first and foremost be with Israel, eventually allowing Gentiles to be included as they will be grafted into the chosen people of God through their acceptance of Yeshua, the Messiah.

And, being grafted into the chosen people of God, they also come under all the covenants God made with his people; in other words, you can’t be grafted onto a tree but get your nourishment from a vine. If you are one of God’s chosen, whether native-born or grafted in Gentile, you are required to obey his commandments.

No covenant ever does away with another, despite what you may have been told as a result of Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians 5:17 or what he said in Hebrews 8:13; Paul was talking about what will happen in the Acharit haYamim (Days to Come) and the Olam Haba (World to Come). He isn’t talking about now, and this is confirmed by the Messiah, himself, in Matthew 5:18 when he says nothing shall change until all things come to pass. That means ALL things have come to pass, so unless you can show me the new earth, the temple lowered from heaven, the Enemy and his followers in the Lake of Fire, and Yeshua sitting on the throne ruling over all the earth, then all things have not come to pass and the covenants that were made are all still 100% valid,

This means, like it or not, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile grafted into the body of Messiah, no matter what someone may have told you, we are all still being held accountable by God to obey the Torah as best as we can.

Thank you for being here and please LIKE, share and subscribe so that this ministry can grow. I appreciate your comments, always, and look forward to the next time we are together.

Until then, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

In this chapter of 2 Chronicles, Solomon and all the people had celebrated for a week at the dedication of the temple. Solomon prays to God to accept this house, and that no matter where his people are, when they are in distress and pray towards this house, that he, God, will hear them and act. After the celebration, God appeared to Solomon at night and said that he would do as Solomon asked and that he would also choose this temple as his house of sacrifice (2 Chron. 7:12).

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When God answered Solomon’s prayer, he included this (2 Chronicles 7:14):

…then, if my people, who bear my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

The term I want to talk about is “seek my face”. Obviously, no one can see the face of God and live- God, himself, tells that to Moses in Exodus 33:20. So, if we cannot see God’s face and live, why would God tell us to seek that which will kill us?

Huh? I mean, what’s up with that, right?

The true meaning of terms used in the Bible, terms such as “seek my face”, “know my name” or “call on the name of the Lord” is something that has been misunderstood by many Gentiles for many years. Now, I don’t mean to sound snobby, but Jews know what God means when he uses these terms. They are not to be taken literally, but figuratively. We can’t see God’s face, and since no one really knows the absolute correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (the 4-letter name of God he told to Moses, יהוה), we can’t call out the name of God; at least, not do so and be sure we are pronouncing it correctly.

There are many who believe that these terms are meant to be taken literally, and we even have a group of Believers who are called (not always in a nice way) “Holy Namers”, who absolutely believe that if you do not use the name of God exactly pronounced the way they believe it is to be pronounced, then you are praying to a pagan god and the real God will not listen to you. It is so sad that their zeal for the Lord is so misplaced.

God is above and beyond human understanding, and he is also above and beyond human compassion, love, and patience. One more thing: only God can see the meaning in our hearts. He is not fooled by words or promises or even actions if they are not heartfelt and honest. He tells us, over and over through the Prophets, that he doesn’t care for the blood of bulls or goats, but that he wants obedience. God is telling us that he knows what we feel: he knows whether we are doing something to please him out of love, respect, and faithful desire to obey or just to get “points” towards salvation.

This is what true faith is, this is what real love for the Lord is- to do what we do because we want to please him.

And the way to please God is to obey the instructions he gave us, in the Torah, because he gave them to us so that we could live eternally in his presence.

To seek his face means to want to know him better. To call upon his name means to pray to him for help when we are in distress. To know his name means to understand who he is.

His “name” isn’t a bunch of letters in a particular order with a particular pronunciation- it is God, himself! His renown, his reputation, his majesty, his holiness, his trustworthiness. The “Name of the Lord” has nothing, whatsoever, to do with pronunciation, but it has everything to do with who God is, what he can do, and why we should worship and obey him.

So, nu! You want to know his name? You feel like seeking his face? Then do so by reading the Tanakh, the “Jewish” Bible. God tells us who he is, what he desires from us, and what blessings we will receive from him in the Old Covenant. Think about it: nowhere at all in the New Covenant will you find written this statement: “And God said unto (whomever), ‘Tell the people this is what the Lord, God says…'”. However, when you read Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, you will see that expression used many, many times where God gives Moses dictation to deliver to the Israelites. And he also dictates to the Prophets exactly what they are to say to the people. The Tanakh is the ONLY place in the entire Bible where we are told directly from God exactly how he wants us to worship him and treat each other, and that’s what we should do to know his name and seek his face.

After all, what have you got to lose? If you try to obey the instructions God gave in the Torah and do so from love for God, then how can you be wrong?

I have never, and probably never will understand how someone can tell you that you must use an exact name for God or the Messiah when praying in order to be saved, but if you do as God said to do, you aren’t saved.

Thank you for being here. Please “Like” this message, share it with everyone you know, and subscribe to this ministry to help it to grow. I never ask for money, just to show you what the Bible says so you can make an informed decision about where you will spend eternity.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!