(Some) New Covenant changes from Sinai

(This article is a response to a comment to my previous teaching, “The Unchanging Word of the One True God”, asking about food laws and appointed times.) 

The New Covenant in force now for believers is new for every believer, for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile/Greek. The Lord’s Supper is for believers until the Lord comes. It was/is not for Israel; it is not for the Millennial Kingdom. It is for believers now, until He returns. When Israel finally comes into the New Covenant first “offered” to them, but which as a people they now refuse (for the benefit of Gentiles), there will be some differences from the Law of Moses to Israel, and as it affects the Gentile nations during that millennial fulfillment of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles. YHVH is dealing in different ways along the way to fully accomplish all His Word speaks.

I will only give some references which shape my view that food laws and appointed times are affected in practice by the priesthood of the one new man in Messiah/Christ, since we all died and were buried with Him so that we can now live together unto God by faith in Yeshua’s/Jesus’ resurrection from death and the grave. The priests and Levites under the Law had certain privileges as well as responsibilities that were required or allowed of their brothers and sisters from the other tribes. Belief in the truth of the plain reading of God’s Word sets us free, and, as “little children”, who believe what their Father says, we enter the Kingdom of God.  

Mk 7:14-16; Acts 10:9-16; Acts 15:6-29; Rom 14:2-3,14,20; Gal 2:11-16; Col 2:11-19; 1Tim 4:1-5; Heb 13:9 Food and other social barriers are broken down in Messiah/Christ through the blood of His cross.
 
We are freed to eat with whomsoever – and them with us – wherever God may have us or send us! We are not obligated to eat what we do not want, or our own conscience forbids – nor, in love, to force someone to eat what they do not want, or to unnecessarily offend them by our liberty – but neither are we to forbid the eating of certain meats that the Lord has made clean. (The clean foods – kosher –  were already clean for Jewish people, which means that He has made unclean foods clean. If He can make me clean, He can make what goes in and out clean. He does not want us to be characterized by the unclean animals.) 

The Messiah came to Israel first, and through them to the rest of the nations and peoples. He has broken down this huge wall of partition – eating food at the same table, which socially separated Jews and Gentiles, and called us all to a “new thing”, and family, outside every camp, through the grace and truth of the gospel. The dietary commandments given to Israel were to teach us to distinguish between “clean and unclean/defiled”, and not between healthy and unhealthy. 

No doubt God’s diet to Israel was “healthy”, and also no doubt that we need to know how to cook various foods properly for them to be both healthy and tasty. But if health were the main issue, then surely the Holy Spirit would have given the apostolic council in Jerusalem to charge the Gentile believers to eat kosher only. But He did not! (If the 7th day Sabbath, and the other holy times/Jewish holidays given to Israel were essential for spiritual and communal fellowship with the Father, and with the Son by the Holy Spirit joining us together with the Lord, then surely at that world-shattering council He would have also made that clear to them. Interestingly, the Apostles to the Jews – Peter, John, and James – spoke nothing about these very things in their epistles to the Jewish believers, or to the non-Jewish believers. And, Paul, as everyone knows, gave the Gentile believers liberty from the commandments of the Sinaitic Covenant; and he was also commissioned and sent by the Lord to speak also to the children of Israel.)

Gal 1:11-12; Rom 10:1-4; 1Cor 1:21; 11:23; Acts 20:25-32 The gospel is neither Jewish nor Greek; it is not of man, but by revelation from God of Yeshua the Messiah; it is not of religion or of science or of philosophy, but of YHVH God, the Creator of all, and the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.

The appointed days remain in force until every jot and tittle are fulfilled, which takes us through till the end of the 1000-year Kingdom, fully accomplishing YHVH’s plan of redemption for His chosen people Israel, and for the other nations and people groups. They will all have to go up to Jerusalem each year (I’ll leave the logistics of that to the Lord and find out later how that will work.) for the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles to worship the LORD, or else face serious disciplinary consequences for their nations. (Zech 14: 16-19) These appointed times are very helpful to explain YHVH’s plan of redemption, and to prophetically look ahead to what is yet to come for the fulfillment of the “Fall Feasts” — every jot and tittle of the Law and the Prophets will be fulfilled. YHVH God’s word does not change! 

But there is no present obligation to keep them “religiously” for either Jewish or Gentile believers. We observe them, not under obligation, but as remembering and appreciating what makes them so significant. We do not have to fast on the Day of Atonements, because our souls have been afflicted when recognizing the depth of our sin before our holy God, who has forgiven us who repent and believe the gospel. Israel, as a nation, has yet to fulfill the commandment to “afflict your souls” – not, “to fast” – for the sacrifice which He has provided us, whether as Jews, or as non-Jews. (Lev 23:26-32) It is a statute forever, until it is fulfilled by the nation of Israel, each and every Jew of the surviving remnant out of Jacob’s Trouble/Great Tribulation, when they finally see Him whom they pierced, and mourn for Him as for an only son, each individual of every surviving family. (Zech 12:10-14) Then, “all Israel” will be saved.