Rabbi Schneider — The Relationship Between the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants
We're in the midst of a series, this is now the third part in this series, that I'm calling The Covenants of Scripture. And what we're doing is we're examining how the three primary covenants of the Bible, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the New Covenant all fit together. In the previous two episodes, we've examined the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant.
I want to do a quick review and then we're gonna move forward today, church, into the New Covenant and see how they all synchronize together. Now as I indicated in my first teaching in this series, the Abrahamic Covenant is based on three primary foundations.
Number one, it's based on faith. Abraham believed God, Genesis, 15:26, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Righteousness simply means, in its most elemental form, as being right with God. Abraham heard God's voice. He agreed with God. He believed God. And that put him into the right relationship with God.
The Abrahamic Covenant is based once again on faith. Abraham believed God. Secondly, beloved, the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional. As we study Genesis, 15, and Genesis, 26, we see that because Abraham believed God and his belief translated into action and obedience, the Lord said, Abraham, because you've done this thing by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, I'm gonna do this.
It's unconditional. God said, I'm gonna do it. That based on anything else happening, God's gonna do it. It's unconditional. Father God illustrated this in Genesis, 15, when Abraham made a sacrifice to the Lord, that he took the animals, he cut the animals in half and laid them like this next to each other, one half on this side, one half on the other side.
In the ancient world when people were making a covenant, what they would do would be they would both walk through the center of the sacrifice. Both parties that entered into the covenant would walk through the sacrifice together. But when Abraham laid out the covenant, the, the offering to the Lord rather, he fell into a trance. And while he was in a trance God himself appeared as a fire and he moved through the two halves of those animal sacrifices by himself.
Nothing that Abraham did took part in that. It was all God alone. It was unconditional. It was sovereign. God himself is doing it. So once again, Abraham Covenant, based on faith. It's unconditional because God himself was gonna do it. It's not based on the other person fulfilling their end of the bargain. No, this is unconditional. God's gonna do it unconditionally. And then the third thing that we learned about the Abrahamic Covenant is that it's tied to promises.
God said to Abraham, Abraham, in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, based on promises. Now from there we looked at the Mosaic Covenant, and we looked at some startling differences between the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant.
Number one, the Abrahamic Covenant is permanent. It's the covenant through which Jesus's coming is built. We're gonna study the Book of Galatians, and we're gonna see how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, and that the blessing of Abraham has come upon Gentiles through their relationship with Jesus.
So the Abrahamic Covenant is still in place whom Yeshua is the fulfillment of. Unlike the Mosaic Covenant, because the Mosaic Covenant was not a permanent covenant, but rather it's a temporary administrative covenant, and so the Scripture tells us that the Mosaic Covenant is becoming obsolete. Now don't misunderstand.
The Mosaic Covenant is still in place as a self-revelation of God. The Mosaic Covenant contains the moral disposition of who God is, and we apply it to our lives in the Spirit. But in terms of relating to God through the Mosaic Covenant as a way of being blessed if we keep it, that way has become obsolete because Jesus has redeemed us from the curse that came upon, upon God's people that tried to receive a blessing through the Mosaic Covenant.
Let me better explain it this way. The Mosaic Covenant promised a blessing, in Deuteronomy, 28, if it could be kept. But Deuteronomy, 28, also says if you can't keep it, a curse is gonna come upon you. History reveals to us that Israel nor any man could ever live up to the standards of the Mosaic Covenant in order to be blessed by it because the Lord tells us in the Book of Exodus, chapter, various places, that in order to be blessed they had to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Mosaic Covenant.
What we find out over history is that mankind has not been able to do it, and as a result of that, rather than being blessed by the Mosaic Covenant, a curse has come upon those that try to approach God through it because they can't fulfill their end of the bargain. And so the Mosaic Covenant, as a way to be blessed, was temporary.
The reason the Lord gave us the Mosaic Covenant, according to the Book of Galatians, chapter 3, is so that mankind would become aware of the fact that they can't earn God's blessing based on their own works.
Father God wanted to prepare man, listen now, to receive a Savior. He wanted man to become poor in spirit. Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To be poor in spirit means to recognize that in and of our flesh we are not capable of obeying God, of walking in the spirit. And realizing our own deficiency, we are then prepared to receive God's Spirit, to receive his empowerment, become totally dependent on him, which is what God is after, because as Paul said, in our weakness his strength is perfected.
So let me say this again. The Abrahamic Covenant is permanent, built upon the foundations of faith, God's sovereignty, and the promises of God. The Mosaic Covenant is rather conditional, listen, it's conditional, unlike the Abrahamic Covenant that's unconditional. It's conditional, get this now, and it is temporary. It is a temporary administrative covenant designed, listen now, to keep Israel and mankind in place until Messiah could come.
And you're gonna see this. You don't have to take my word for this because in a little bit later in the series I'm gonna bring you through the Book of Galatians, chapter 3, and I'm gonna show you in the Word of God that what I'm saying to you, beloved, is factual.