Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Ezekiel

[Newbie]

Ezekiel 16:60 says that God is going to make an everlasting covenant. 3-4 verses later God says to the reader that He will make it with them.

This was given by Jewish prophets to the Jews of Ancient Israel. Why in the world do you believe these words apply to you? I know how you think you're grafted into whatever...

But think rationally. God gave these words, saying whom He would make an everlasting covenant with, and that clearly is THE JEWS.

Why not become Jewish if you want the Bible to apply to you?

[jimwalton]

It was always God's purpose to include all the nations of the world in his covenant, thus understanding that his covenant, though initially made with Israel, would be expansive. The covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was that "all peoples on earth would be blessed through you." Isaiah 49.6 says, "I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." Solomon had a global vision (1 Ki. 8.41-43). God's plan was that all nations of the world would fall under the promises and blessings of the covenant. Jeremiah 31.31ff even speaks of a new covenant that will supplant the former one. Jer. 32.7 contends that God is the God of ALL humankind, not just the Jews.

Your choice of Ezekiel 16.60 is interesting. That passage itself relates a covenant of the future to a covenant of the past.

[Newbie]

Jeremiah also says what that new covenant will be. It says clearly that it will be that the Law will be on people's hearts. Is the Law on your heart?

And it is clear how the Messiah brings all people to see Israel as a light to all nations when you understand that through him

Peace is throughout the world (Jesus never did this)
Temple is restored and alongside the river that flows from it are trees that heal the nations (Again, Jesus never did this)

Etc. I think Isaiah 49:6 is talking about the salvation of Israel will be to the end of the earth. Not that there is some other kind of salvation needed from God. Why doesn't God talk about any need for salvation from Hell like Christians claim? Why isn't Hell even mentioned in the OT?

[jimwalton]

Good questions.

> Is the Law on your heart?

Absolutely. In Jeremiah 31.31 God promises a new covenant, a covenant of justification by faith as illustrated by Abraham (Gn. 15.6). Abraham didn't have a relationship with God based on observing the law, but by his faith. it was prophesied (Gn. 12.3) that even Gentiles would share in the blessing of the covenant. The prophet Habakkuk says the same thing (Hab. 2.4), so we know that both the Law and the Prophets teach justification by faith. Clearly no one is justified by the Law (Dt. 27.26). I do have the Law on my heart. It's the law of the Spirit of God. The Tanakh often describes Israel's being led by God. I am led by the Spirit. The Spirit instructs, convicts, and judges. The Spirit in me leads me to love God with all of my heart and my neighbor as myself.

> Peace...Jesus never did this.

In Jn. 14.27, Jesus says that his *shalom* is not as the world gives—not political or social/environmental, but an inner peace, a spiritual peace. His peace didn't consist in freedom from turmoil and suffering (that will be fulfilled later), but in a calm, undeviating devotion to the will of God, coming from the heart where the Law of the Spirit is. True peace is inside: peace with oneself, peace with others, and peace with God.

> Temple is restored...

This is still future. Rev. 22.2 speaks of the great city, the new Jerusalem, and the healing of the nations.

> the salvation of Israel

What the verse says is "I will make you a light for the GENTILES, that you may bring my salvation TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH," i.e., to the Gentiles of all nations. God's vision is beyond Israel, and encompasses all humanity. It isn't the restoration of a people to a land that is envisioned here, but of an estranged world to God. That is the salvation needed from God.

> Why isn't Hell even mentioned in the OT?

Daniel 12.2 says, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." This is the only hint of such a place as hell in the OT. There are other references to resurrection and an afterlife (Job 19.25-27; Ps. 16.10; Isa. 25.8, and others), but this is the only hint of hell. Virtually everything that Christians know about hell comes, interestingly enough, from the teachings of Jesus.