Did you know that the Old Testament prophesied of the New Testament? If this is true, and it is, then the Old Testament prophesied of it’s own end! Let us go back before the Law of Moses and see what God said to Moses: “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant” (Ex. 6:5). There is more than one point made in this verse: 1) the “children of Israel” were “in bondage;” 2) God “heard the groaning of the children of Israel;” and 3) God “remembered” his “covenant,” that he had made. Therefore, the first question is, what “covenant” was God remembering?
It was the “covenant” that God had made with “Abram,” better known as “Abraham” (Gen.17:5), he said: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2). The “great nation” that God would make of Abraham was Israel, but Abraham would never see this “great nation.” Please notice this significant point; God also made a “covenant” with Sarah, Abraham’s wife, when he said: “she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her” (Gen. 17:16). Why is this so significant? Simply because Abraham had a child with Hagar (Gen. 16:14), Ishmael (Gen. 16:11) but the “covenant” was not through Ishmael but Isaac, who was so named before he was born: “But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” (Gen. 17:21). Here we see the wonders of God’s plan! As Moses wrote: “And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him” (Gen. 21:5) and God would make the same covenant with Isaac: “And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake” (Gen. 26:23); but this is not all, God also made the same “covenant” with Isaac’s son when God said to Jacob: “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). God was looking into the future of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that nation would be Israel!
Now, let us go back to mount Sinai, as Moses wrote: “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex. 20:1-2). So, what is the point? The point is that God made this “covenant” with those he brought out of Egypt and out of “bondage;” this “covenant” was not made with all peoples of the earth. It is here that the nation that God had made and it took the law of Moses to make these people, that God “brought” “out of the land of Egypt;” and not with any other peoples! Just how long was this “covenant” to last? What so many people today fail to understand, that within this “covenant” God, himself, revealed that a new covenant would be made and when this came to pass, the “covenant,” or law of Moses, would end. That’s right, it would end! Let us notice when God revealed the new “covenant;” it would be through the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Jer. 31:31). This must be understood, that in the Old Testament, the Law of Moses, was to end and a New Testament would be given! If we are to learn the truth, the truth about the end of the “covenant” God made through Moses with Israel was to come to an end! Notice in the verse just quoted, that God said, “that I will make a new covenant,” then, Jeremiah wrote: “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD” (verse 32). This “new covenant” would not be like “the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” The old law, “covenant,” was a very physical one, it required a physical land, physical sacrifices, a physical temple, all made with hands; but notice how God describes the “new covenant” as Jeremiah wrote: “But this shall be the 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” (verse 33). It astonishes many people to learn that this passage is quoted two times in the letter to the Hebrew Christians; first in Hebrews eight verses seven through twelve and second in Hebrews ten verses sixteen through seventeen. Now get this: “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). Did you get it? The writer said: “In that he (God, frw) saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first (covenant, the law given by Moses, frw) old.” So, what does this mean to you? It means that no one living today is under the law given by Moses! At the time the letter to the Hebrew Christian was written, the old covenant was “ready to vanish away!” And it did “vanish away!”
Therefore, once more I write: no one living today is under, subject to, the law given by Moses! Please do not allow any one to lead you to believe that you are!
Frank R. Williams