Imperial Valley Christian Center

The Covenant between God and Israel.

I used to read the Hebrew scriptures, what we Christians call the Old Testament, just to say I'd read them, but the Hebrew scriptures took on a new importance when I finally came to understand that the Hebrew scriptures were THE scriptures for Jesus and his disciples.

When Jesus quoted the Bible during his teaching and preaching, he was quoting the Hebrew scriptures, not the Christian scriptures. The Christian scriptures hadn't even been written yet. The Apostle Paul, and the other authors of the Christian scriptures, based their teaching on the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures, When Paul writes, "as it is written" he's quoting the Hebrew scriptures not the Christian scriptures, which were still in the process of being written. If we want to understand what Jesus, Paul and the other apostles are saying then we need to understand the Bible that was their authority, the Bible that was for them the Word of God. 

One of the things I discovered, when I started studying the Hebrew scriptures for themselves, was something which, in retrospect, seems obvious. I discovered that the covenant with God, it's rules, regulations and promises, is at the center of the Hebrew Scriptures. It should be obvious that the way of living that God, in person, on Mt. Sinai, delivered to the children of Israel is at the center of the Jewish Bible. But coming from a Christian perspective, that read the Hebrew Scriptures through the lens of Messianic scriptures and fulfilled prophesies it was a surprise to me.

The Hebrew scriptures revolve around the covenant between God and Israel. God's promises to those who kept the covenant and the accompanying responsibilities of the children of Israel under the covenant, are the understood assumptions, the universal presuppositions, of everything written in the Hebrew Bible. Until we read the Bible with this in mind we'll often misinterpret the Hebrew scriptures and we'll miss what Jesus and the writers of the Christian scriptures are saying, when they quote or, as they often did, just allude to the Hebrew scriptures.  

Two sides to a covenant.

There are two sides to the covenant, Israel's side and God's side.

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today. 12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them…

There’s an “if” to the promises of God. 

…then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. (Deuteronomy 7: 11-12 NIV)

If  Israel would take The LORD as their God, if they'd listen to Him, follow His ways, keep His commandments, His statutes and His laws, then He would be a God unto them, bless them, prosper them, heal them, give them long life and victory over their enemies. 

Israel’s side.

The children of Israel’s part, the “follow the commands, decrees and laws part,” is set out in various places. For example one chapter back k, in Deuteronomy 6:

1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:1-5 NIV)

Commandment #1.

Jesus quotes that last verse in Matthew and refers to it as the first commandment.

36 Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? 37 Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.  (Matthew 22:36-38 NIV)

Commandment #2.

Then Jesus refers to the second most important commandment:

39 And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:39-40 NIV)

What Jesus calls the second most important commandment is also a quote from the Hebrew Bible. It’s one verse, of many, from a very long passage of commandments in Leviticus. 

18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. 19 Keep my decrees. (Leviticus 19:18-19 NIV)

David Pileggi in this wonderful talk, says Jesus, like other Jewish thinkers of his day, was coming up with a summary, or bumper sticker version, of Torah. In Jesus' case it consists of these two quotes, Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

God’s side.

God’s side of the covenant, what God will do for those who worship Him, is one of the main themes of the Hebrew scriptures. Right now we're focusing on God's covenant promise to prosper His people. 

The Covenant of prosperity.

God's promises to prosper, and references to those promises, are so common throughout the Hebrew scriptures that deciding how many to list here is the biggest problem.

Here's some from the books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Psalms. There are two things you should notice from these scriptures, the recurring promises of prosperity and the link between keeping the covenant and receiving the promised prosperity. 

3 If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. (Leviticus 26:3-5 NIV)

32 So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33 Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. (Deuteronomy 5:32-33 NIV)

4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. (Deuteronomy 15:4-5 NIV)

1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.… 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity… 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. (Deuteronomy 28:1-3, 11, 13 NIV)

9 Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. (Deuteronomy 29:9 NIV)

 

8 You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 30:8-10 NIV)

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 30:15-16 NIV)

7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:7-8 NIV)

2 I am about to go the way of all the earth, he said. So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go (1 Kings 2:2-3 NIV)

 

21 In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered. (2 Chronicles 31:21 NIV)

Here’s a few we’ve looked at before:

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)

1 Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.2 Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever. (Psalm 112:1-3 NIV)

1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. 2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. 4 Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord. (Psalm 128:1-4 NIV)

And there's more!

That God's covenant with Israel included, at its core, the promise of prosperity is pretty clear from the above scriptures. That God's side of the covenant, giving them power to prosper, depended on Israel keeping their side of the covenant should also be clear. 

This, if you will keep my commandments I will prosper you, pattern, occurs throughout the Scriptures. Sometimes, as in the examples above, it's quite plain, at others a little more obscure. 

Next I want to show  you some prosperity scriptures which, especially if you're looking at them through the lens of traditional Christian interpretation, might, at first glance, not look  like prosperity scriptures.