Christian reading

Issue N45


answers for a jew, valeriy sterkh

Answers for a Jew

Why is the Old Testament obsolete? (part 2)

So, God pointed out the futility of formal obedience to the commands of the Pentateuch:

«To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood» (Is 1:11-15).

«I will also cause all her [Judea] mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts» (Hos 2:11).

«I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts» (Am 5:21-22).

As a result, God wishes to terminate the Old Covenant and make a new one:

«Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an [New] everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David» (Is 55:3; compare Is 61:8).

«My [Old] covenant they [Jews] brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the [New] covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more» (Jer 31:32-34).

«And I will make an [New] everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me» (Jer 32:40).

«Moreover I will make a [New] covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore» (Ezek 37:26; compare Jer 31:31-32).

The prophecies also say that the New Covenant will be made by the Messiah:

«And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. As for me, this is my [New] covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever» (Is 59:20-21).

«Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the [New] covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts» (Mal 3:1).

«And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the [New] covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate» (Dan 9:26-27; compare Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; Jn 6:27-58).

(to be continued)