Chapter 18: BOS: God's Covenant People

​In previous chapters, we saw that five covenants can be associated with those who are Born Again - the Messianic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Threshold Covenant, the Priesthood Covenant, and the Sinai Covenant. These five covenants form the complete set of covenants for God’s Covenant People within the New Covenant.  In this chapter, we’ll look at these covenants in greater detail.

The Process of Perfection
Our Process of Perfection looks like this:

Individual Salvation

Born of the Blood Redemption ​

Born Again Sanctification Born of the Water > Born of the Spirit > Born of God

​Covenants and the Kingdom of God
Those who are Born of the Spirit/Born Again are both redeemed and sanctified in the Kingdom of God. Although all humanity will be redeemed, those who desire to be Yehovah’s Covenant People enter into four additional covenants. The table below summarizes these covenants with their associated covenant signs and types of relationships.

The Messianic Covenant
We saw previously that through Yeshua’s sacrifice all man will be redeemed from eternal physical death, but His sacrifice also extends the covenants we make here on earth into eternity.
 
 
The Abrahamic Covenant
When Yehovah set out to renew/restore His relationship with Israel in Exodus, He commanded that  all males be circumcised - for being circumcised was required to participate in Pesach/Passover.  This requirement stemmed from the covenant that God made with Abraham that Israel had the responsibility to bless the world with God’s Law and Word, which creates and maintains order, but also brings life, liberty and happiness to mortal man, and life into eternity. Moreover, this mandate with Israel still exists today.

In addition to Abraham’s posterity would bless all humanity, God promises Abraham vast posterity and a land of inheritance.
 
Abraham further solidified His relationship with Yehovah by His willingness to sacrifice his only son.  In so doing, Abraham made his covenant with Yehovah unconditional and everlasting.
 
Anyone who desires to be sanctified and be God’s Chosen People starts with this covenant. Men are circumcised, and men and women adopt a Hebrew name all representing a change of status with God.
 
 
The Threshold Covenant (Passover)
Anciently, the door threshold represented the boundary of dominion of the father over his family and the deity he recognized as his god over the whole world.  Here, the father of the home entered into compacts with the deity he recognized as his god. Concepts of sovereignty and kingship are terms used to describe this role has head over his house and home. Moreover, Yehovah used a male lamb without blemish to represent Himself as Israel's Savior-God; and, also later when He would condescend as Yeshua to be the Redeemer of all mankind, which lamb the father sacrificed and applied its blood to the door frames of his home – a priestly function.​
 
The father functions as a king of his home under Yehovah by establishing and administering His law to his family. Today, fathers and men signify kingship in the House of the Son by posting Yehovah’s name over their front doors.
 
 
The Priesthood Covenant
We explained the priesthood covenant in the last chapter. Men in authority under the Melchizedek Priesthood are kings and priests. The Melchizedek Priesthood is obtained by an oath. We see that oath include the following.

Striving to keep himself pure.
Baptizing family members
Administering a memorial to Yeshua’s sacrifice.
Placing the Name of God on the family.
Establishing and Teaching the Law
Answering for the transgression of his family.
Making offerings of tribute, peace and thanksgiving.

​The father as priest uses an altar to administer his priestly duties, which is the sign of the covenant.
Those faithful to the priesthood covenant realize promises of life and peace.
 
 
The Sinai Covenant
The first set of commands that we see God giving Israel relative to the Sinai Covenant are the Ten Commandments, Ex. 20, which Yehovah revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai.  These ten commands provide God's basic rules for a covenant community. These commands further define our relationship with God and with each other with the two great commands of loving God Deu 6:5/Matt. 22:37  and loving each other Lev 19:18/Matt. 22:39. Moreover, the 613 commands provide an even greater definition of loving God and loving each other. So our summary looks like this:​

Loving God	Loving Neighbor
1. Have no other gods. 2. Don’t worship images. 3. Don’t take Lord’s Name in vain. 4. Honor Sabbath Day.	5. Honor Parents. 6. Don’t kill. 7. Don.t commit adultery. 8. Don’t steal. 9. Don’t lie. 10. Don't covet.
613 Commands (Statutes and Judgements)	613 Commands (Statutes and Judgments)

Holiness, Cleanliness and Order
The three important concepts we see in the Torah are Holiness, Cleanliness and Order when establishing a covenant community. 
 
Holiness has everything that relates to God’s presence, which we can link with the High Priest.  We see that priesthood relates to God, because the purpose of the priesthood is to bring us into God’s presence.  We see that the Tabernacle is referred to as a holy place where God dwells.  God also declares certain things as being holy – Sabbath, which is a time that is set apart to rest and worship God. The Spirit is referred to as the Holy Spirit because the Spirit comes from God’s presence.  
 
Cleanliness stems from the fact that man inherited the conditions of a Fallen World because of Adam and Eve’s transgression.  Man himself became subject to this fallen condition both in his spiritual and physical life. To be physically cleansed from a fallen world is the aim and focus of the Cleanliness Laws that we see in the Torah.  Though the conditions of being a mortal being and subject to degeneration and death in and of themselves are not sinful, to be reconciled with God, He has commanded us to become clean from our fallen physical condition.

Our third concept pertains to the Laws of Order.  These Laws are designed to perpetuate a sustainable society by adding order and structure.  These are rules that maintain the viability of a society's continued existence. For example, resting the land from production every seventh year renews its productive capacity. Forgiveness of financial debt every seventh year revitalizes an economy.  On the individual and family level, the father and mother are responsible for order within the family as king and queen. In the community, Davidic kings are responsible for   
establishing and maintaining order.


Laws of Holiness
The Laws of Holiness include the areas of:
    High Priests for the community’s collective sin and atonement.
    Administration of the Tabernacle/Temple
    Aspects of the Lord’s Sabbaths and Feasts that are for the community.
 
Laws of Cleanliness
The Laws of Cleanliness include:
    Fathers and mothers maintain purity in the family.
    The Cleanliness Commands - dietary rules, leprosy, touching the dead, and bodily
    Emissions.
    Aspects of the Lord’s Sabbaths and Feasts for the family and individuals.

Laws of Order
The Laws of Order include the areas of:
    Fathers and mothers as king and queen maintain order in the family.
    Davidic Kings for maintaining community order.
    Civil Leadership
    Justice System
    Economic System
    Social Welfare
    Sexual Purity
    Personal Virtue
 
Blessings
God declared that Israel had been giving the laws pertaining to life and good if they Israel would obey them. – Deu. 30:15,16
 
“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
 
Moreover, we see detailed listing of blessings in chapter 28 of Deuteronomy.

Sign
​The sign of the Sinai covenant is the Seventh-day Sabbath.
 
 
Atonement
Until a believer receives the Baptism of Fire/trial of faith and receives a new heart and spirit, Yeshua’s Atonement is available for a remission of sins through repentance.
 
 
Covenant Renewal
An important aspect of the annual sabbaths and feasts is that they provide an opportunity for covenant renewal and should be integrated in with these observances. Anciently, we can associate these covenants with the annual sabbaths and feasts as follows.

Spring Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits)	Summer Feasts (Shavuot/Pentecost)	Fall Feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, Last Great Day)
Abrahamic Covenant Threshold Covenant	Priesthood Covenant (Levitical) Sinai Covenant	High Priest

When we get to Yeshua’s testimony in the New Testament with the New Covenant, we should renew or recognize the following covenants.

Spring Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits)	Summer Feasts (Shavuot/Pentecost)	Fall Feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, Last Great Day)
Messianic Covenant Abrahamic Covenant Threshold Covenant	​Priesthood Covenant (Melchizedek) Sinai Covenant (pure hearts and clean hands) ​	Davidic Covenant/High Priest ​Enochic Covenant (Sealing Power)