God's Covenant with Israel

Psalm 111 is well-worth reading and studying. God says in this passage, "He will ever be mindful of His covenant. All His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever. He hath commanded His covenant for ever."

What covenant is being referred to? His covenant which contains His commandments which stand fast forever and ever. What is His covenant?

Exodus 34:28 "And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments."

Deuteronomy 4:13 "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone."

So if the Ten Commandments, His covenant, stands fast for ever and ever, then what is the Old Covenant and what is the New Covenant? What is the difference?

The Old Covenant, called the "first," existed before the cross of Christ, the New Covenant has existed since the cross of Christ. The first was established with the sacrificial animals that had no blemish, i.e., with the blood of these animals, while the second was established with the blood of Christ. The first foreshadowed Christ and was just as good as the real, but the second cancelled the first because it was the real. When you have the real thing to establish the covenant, you no longer need the shadow to establish it.

The first covenant would have been perfect except that it was not possible for the people to obey or keep the promises on their part, as they lost sight of the fact that the sacrifices were only the shadow of Christ in whom they really needed to believe. The sacrifices had to be offered over and over again, though God had no pleasure in them. To obey is better than sacrifice. (See Micah 6:6-8). Christ came to establish the second covenant by sacrificing Himself once for all, for that was all the sacrificing that was needed. Because He lived a perfect life, keeping all the Ten Commandments perfectly from the heart, He promises to give us His grace to overcome sin under the New Covenant, otherwise we would still be living under the Old Covenant which has passed away, trying to work our way into heaven by doing the works of the Law, but hating the Law at the same time. If the Law of God is written in the heart, supreme love for God, and unselfish love for one another would be the result on a daily basis. There would be no hating righteousness, or failing to find victory in Jesus.

Please read these verses:

Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.


Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he [Jesus] cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb 10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Heb 10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The common denominator of the two covenants is the Law of God, did you notice? The first Covenant was the Ten Commandments, and the perfect animal sacrifices in the sacrificial services which established the Law, represented Christ coming some day to live a perfect life in obedience to the Ten Commandments in sinful flesh, and then offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sins to pay the price of our sins. Only then He could write His Law in our hearts and minds. The second or "New" Covenant was established by the real sacrifice for sin, Christ dying on the cross of Calvary for our sins. Because Christ who lived in sinful flesh but did not sin (Hebrews 4:15, Romans 8:3, 4) died in our place, He who lives again will give us grace that we might also obey His Law. How? by writing the Ten Commandment Law in our hearts and minds so that we could overcome sin. The New Covenant is the same Covenant as the old but it is founded on better promises and that is what makes it New and everlasting. Christ rose from the dead, securing His right as our High Priest, so that He might save us from death by administering to us His grace. Praise the Lord!

If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing our sins to Him, we should also believe that He pardons us, and gives us more grace to overcome sin through the Holy Spirit which He gives to every follower who asks. Then only can we truly render that heartfelt obedience to His Ten Commandment Law. It is only by the blood of the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 1 John 1:7, 9) that we are saved. Our obedience is the fruit of what Christ does for us and in us. He gets all the glory!

God bless and have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.