Old, New, and Renewed

Watched a teaching this morning and pondering some of their points, which lead me to pondering of a variety of this and thats such as this one. In considering the “laws” of Yah/God, I submit for your consideration there are three roads today.

In the Old Testament Yah/God entered into several covenants, all of them were based on his terms – some required specific actions, some did not. However, there were always two ways, the way with Yah and the way adversarial to his way. For or against. Blessings and curses. Yah also said it was one law for both the native born and the foreigner who wanted to follow him. Everyone walked on the same roads, either adversarial to Yah or with him.

Many sects of Judaism became fearful (not in a good way) of breaking the ways of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so they created a much stricter path. They didn’t get the concepts behind the wisdom of God. They took everything literally. So even though the “law” said they should help an animal if it fell in a ditch on a Sabbath day, they wouldn’t help a needy person that same day because “it was work”. They also said if you were a Gentile (Foreigner), you couldn’t walk their path. Gentiles were excluded.

Jesus came to set the roads back to the way Yah had originally designed them to be. Many of the Jewish sects never accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Thus, Jesus came against all the extra strict man made laws. And he open the road back up to the Foreigner/Gentile. He brought the Old Covenant back to his brighter days, he restored or renewed it. He made clear the foundation put in place by Yah was kept in tact. However, he took the place of the animal sacrifices by offering his blood and flesh, becoming the eternal sacrifice. Then he took the place of the Priests, becoming the new eternal High Priest.

Some of the Jewish faith kept their margin of error road and have built it even stronger because they don’t have anywhere to make sacrifices and are watching for the Messiah to come. A few hundred years after Jesus, Constantine demolishes the old road ways and sets up new ones. The Christian faith starts splitting and reforming, etc. etc. Bringing us to what we have today. An Adversarial road way which is a little smaller than what God set up because “everyone is a sinner” and “all are welcome”. A narrowing of the road of Yah down to Love God, Love People and a few words from Jesus. Some side roads built because Jesus did away with the “law” but parts of the Old Covenant is kept. For example, of the Ten Commandments, nine are kept as is, but the Sabbath day is moved to Sunday, taking a side road.

Wonder how Yah/God sees it? Does he see the man made improvements as good? Is he okay with the road way of the adversaries being narrowed? What do you think?

We are in the time of counting the Omer – heading toward Shavuot (now known as Pentecost). In the Old Testament, the Tables of the Testimony (now known as the Ten Commandments) were given on Shavout and placed in the Most Set-Apart place (Holy of Holies) in the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle).

In the New Testament, the promised Set-Apart Spirit (Holy Spirit) was given in Acts 2 while followers of Jesus were gathered to keep Shavuot. Yah said this Spirit would write his ways on their hearts and minds.

Now is a great time to assess what does this road look like in your life? What road are you on? And instead of What Would Jesus Do? – maybe ask – What Would Jesus Say?

Originally published on WordPress https://calltoceasefire.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/old-new-and-renewed/