Jesus is the New Covenant Foundation

In our previous postings we have presented the background of the covenant promises of God and explained how Moses prepared the people to enter into the Promised Land. We have introduced these subjects to help you understand the importance of the items placed inside the Ark of the Covenant and in particular, the Pot of Manna. The significance of the Manna is that it symbolized the nation’s total dependence on God. This reliance was necessary for God to build a nation that would trust Him and enter into the warfare necessary to take the Promised Land from the evil nations that possessed it.

The nation of Israel had refused to enter the Promised Land and God was furious with them. However, because of the intercession of Moses, God would give the nation another chance. However, God had to purge the nation of the sin of refusing to enter when they were given the opportunity. He achieved this by leading the nation through the wilderness for thirty eight years, during which time all those who refused to enter into the Promised Land died. Basically God raised up a new nation, one that would rely exclusively on Him, a nation without sin.

This is the way it is for us today. The difference is that we seek the spiritual Promised Land rather than the physical land of Canaan.  Jesus has prepared us for this journey like Moses did. Moses explained the importance of the Law that was the foundation of the covenant with God. Jesus explained that the law was more that simply following rules without understanding, that God was interested in hearts that had no desire for sin.

Moses led the people through the wilderness and the nation was purged of its sinful components. Our journey with Jesus often has its wilderness components and often our sinful components are purged. The big difference here is that we do not have to physically die because Jesus died for us on the cross. He took the punishment that we truly deserve upon Himself so that we could live as one with Him. He seeks to build a nation that is willing to enter into the spiritual warfare necessary to take the Promised Land from the evil that dwells there.

To enter into His promise we must learn to become totally dependent on Jesus. The people who were led by Moses found Manna on the ground to eat. Moses would strike a rock with his staff and the people were provided water to drink. They needed light to travel at night and their path was illuminated by God. These were there physical needs. Jesus provides us with our spiritual needs as well. Jesus gave us His body to eat and His blood to drink as spiritual food. By taking communion we take Jesus into ourselves and in doing so our hearts are changed as our spirits are conformed to His. Jesus enlightens our path with the example of His life, which was a life of spiritual warfare. His life demonstrates the perfect will of the Father. His life demonstrates how we are to tear down the spiritual strongholds of the enemy with our prayer and our personal confrontation with those who seek to thwart the will of God.

The reward for Israel was the physical land of Canaan and the privilege of dwelling there with God who would reside in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle. Our reward is to become one with Jesus knowing that the barriers separating us from God have been torn in two when Jesus died for us on the cross.

So in drawing this analogy between the old and new covenants we can clearly see that Jesus offers us a far superior covenant with God and that our fight is much different from theirs. Our fight is spiritual, not physical. By presenting this information we can see that an understanding of the old covenant and the Tabernacle can help us to better understand the actions and words of Jesus that illuminate our walk with Him.

So, as we move forward we will be looking at the Most Holy Place, the Ark of the Covenant, the Pot of Manna and the other artifacts located inside the Ark as being prophetic of Jesus the Christ. Our duty is to enter into spiritual warfare rather than physical warfare in defeating and eliminating the forces of evil from our spiritual Promised Land. Our promise is to live in the spirit forever, becoming one with Jesus, where there is no pain, sickness, hunger, death, crying or strife.

In our next posting we will take a spiritual look at each of these components of the new covenant.