(Ver 2.0)  This is now Part 4 in a very advanced Bible study serious concerning Understanding Bible Covenants.  This series is intended for spiritually mature Christians with an open mind that will commit to go and study the subject for themselves to verify if it is really true or not.  Obviously by the title we have more controversial topics on covenants to discuss today.  We have been discussing Bible covenants in some new terms using scriptures in the Bible that many have not seen before.  I know this is a very deep subject and the complexities are vast.  It is a very hard thing to accept new things when they are first revealed.  I believe the natural human tendency is to reject the new, to fear the new, and to not believe the new.  This is because I believe that we trust in our old understanding and beliefs so much more.  The problem is that the majority of Christians do not have a clue what the Bible really says.  Learning always involves growing in understanding.  That implies an ever increasing and expanding knowledge process.  Today’s knowledge should be building on what we learned yesterday.  New truth should always fit balanced correctly with previous known truths.  When it does not God is presenting us a new opportunity to come up to a higher spiritual level of thinking. Learning involves change. Being flexible and open is a key to growing with God.  In my last blog I went into Old Testament verses that reveal the law of marriage and divorce.  If you have not been following this series from the beginning, I would strongly suggest that you go back and start with Part 1 Covenants and Marriage.

In the last lesson we talked about Israel being divorced from God.  Then we also were given  several scriptures that strongly implied that Israel is now married to another spiritual being.  This means that this spiritual being is now in covenant with the natural nation of Israel and God’s Law. Why was this necessary?  Why would God want to get someone under the law?  How would God accomplish such a task?  These are all important questions to consider.   But first let’s determine if this is even possible.  Here are some interesting verses from the Old Testament:

Isa 28:14  Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.

We can clearly see who the next words of God in verse 15 are addressing by looking at verse 14 and seeing that God is speaking directly to the rulers of Jerusalem.  This is the earthly city Jerusalem and God is speaking directly to the men that ruled that city.  These were the old covenant people that God was married to.  So what does this next verse say?

Isa 28:15  Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

We can again clearly see covenant words of marriage being spoken in regards to the natural nation of Israel to someone.  This time it says that these people are in covenant with death and hell.  That declaration does not sound very positive or good, does it?   Who does the New Testament say had the power over death when this verse was written?  This verse in Hebrews should help you:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

So we can see from what God reveals in Hebrews that Satan held the power of death in the Old Testament.  We can therefore conclude that if Israel was in covenant with death and hell, that would mean they were in covenant with Satan.  What does Jesus have to say about these Old Testament verses in Isaiah 28?

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

We can see by this statement that Jesus implies these people in Jerusalem were married to a spiritual being that made them the children of hell.  This implies a covenant relationship or marriage between a husband and a wife that has produced children of hell.  Are you following these statements?  Parents have children, produce families, and establish households.  Basic physical biology dictates that a male and a female participate in order to produce children.  If Israel is the woman who can have children, that was married to God, then who is the husband and the father in this relationship?  Remember that it always takes two to tango.  Jesus often times asked, if you don’t understand natural things, how will you ever understand spiritual things?  So apparently these natural things are patterns into spiritual things to help us understand them.  Here is another statement of Jesus to the natural nation of Israel:

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.

Did you see what Jesus said to the natural nation of Israel?  He said that they were children of their father and that their father was the devil.  This makes it almost impossible for us not to realize that in order for them to be Satan’s children, Satan must be in covenant and married to natural Israel.  What we see is the identity of the male in the covenant relationship to the natural nation of Israel being the female.  A simple husband and wife relationship that has produced children.  These are of course spiritual and not natural children.  Satan is not having natural sex with natural women like they did in Genesis 6.  Satan learned that this was illegal and many of his angels were cast into chains awaiting judgement for doing this (Jude 1:6).  We know that Satan like God is a spiritual being.  We can conclude that because God can be married to Israel any spiritual being can be married to Israel, it is only logical common sense.

Why Was the Law Given to Israel?

Let’s change subjects a bit here and continue by asking what was the purpose of God giving Israel the law?  Why was the law given to Israel in the first place?  I have heard many say it was to show man how bad they were and to teach them that they were incapable of living up to God’s standard of excellence.  I do agree with that and I do not deny that could be a part of the purpose of the law.  But, I have found that when God does something He usually accomplishes more than one thing at a time.  Many humans tend to focus on getting one thing done at a time.  But I have learned from being a computer programmer, that the true demonstration of power occurs when someone is  able to accomplish many tasks simultaneously.  In computer terminology this is called multi-tasking and God does this everyday just listening to billions of people praying simultaneously.  Here is a verse that will help to shed some light on this subject of why God gave Israel the law:

Rom 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Here we begin to see some major clues to why God gave the law to Israel.  It is a lot like our laws that our government makes for us to follow.  You see there was a time when child pornography was not against the law.  But did that make it right or OK to participate in?  Of course not.  But the government could not do anything about the people who participated in this until they passed a law.  People were free to do wrong because there were no consequences for our erroneous choices and stupidity.  Does that help to clear up the reason for God giving Israel the law?  You see in this verse in Romans, it says we would not have known sin except that we were given the law.  I sometimes wonder if people read the Bible and never think about how these words apply to other spiritual beings like Satan or Lucifer as he was named originally?  Thinking and asking questions is absolutely essential when studying the Bible.

We know from Old Testament verses that sin was found in Lucifer (Eze 28:15), but according to Romans, if Lucifer didn’t know the law then he can’t face the consequences for his sin.  Do you understand what I just said?  God could not enforce Satan’s punishment without first getting him to know the law (be under the law).  To be under the law means that you know the law and are now in covenant with that law or in covenant to those people who are in charge of keeping that the law.  These are truly amazing things to consider.  Here is another very important verse on our current subject of why God gave Israel the law:

Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Wow, these are powerful words when we apply them to Lucifer (Satan).  In order to stop Satan’s mouth and cause him to be found guilty he must be put under the law.  Are you still following this?  The implication is given unless we are under the law, we cannot be found guilty and we  will not face any punishment for our sin.  I know that God is a just God and is just in whatever He does, He does everything in a fair and impartial legal way.  He treats everyone the same.  God applies the same principles and requirements to everyone and everywhere, including Himself or He would be showing favoritism and we should know that He does not do that.

Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

God confirms the truth that declares “where there is no law there are no consequences for a sin”. Sin is still wrong, but no punishment is possible until taken to court and found guilty of violating specific law. This is divine justice and how God works. Most civil normal governments operate on this principle. Corrupt evil dictatorial controlling governments do not operate on this requirement.  This verse helps us to understand why God could not convict Satan and throw him into hell the instant that sin was discovered in him. That would have been an unjust verdict since as far as I know there were no laws in heaven. Remember Lucifer was created in a state of perfection. What need is there, of any laws if everyone in your kingdom is created and acting perfectly? I believe this is what is important to know for us to understand why God created a new world with humans in Genesis 1. Then why God created a new separate nation of people called Israel born from a man named Abram in Genesis 12. Then why God gave Israel the Law in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Finally, we can better understand why it was necessary for God to come in the flesh as Jesus to die and save us from this dark Satan ruled world (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).

I have become convinced from Bible study that one major accomplishment of God giving the law to Israel was to get Lucifer under the law.  There are very strong implications given to us in the Bible that this is one major accomplishment.

Is Israel in Covenant with Satan?

We were just introduced to a basic foundation for why it was necessary to get Satan to be in covenant with the natural nation of Israel.  Before that we saw Israel itself admitting they were in covenant with the realm of death and hell.  Then we saw several statements that Jesus made to Israel that would imply they were in covenant with Satan.  We can now continue to analyze if this is what the Bible says happened.  I’ll do this by going back to some scriptures that we saw in a previous lesson.  In the previous lesson we emphasized the aspects of Galatians 4 and how Israel has been cast out of God’s covenant never to return. But hopefully we will bring out some new emphasis to the information  for us to see what God is saying on this subject of: “Is Israel remarried to another man”?

Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

If you recall this verse, you can see two women and two sons being referenced.  The first woman is the bond woman and the other is said to be the free woman.  This is the concept of slavery versus freedom.  You may recall that slavery was a condition of being under the law.  This would help us to understand that Lucifer was of the free woman.  This meant Lucifer was not under any law.  Abraham symbolizes a type or pattern of God the Father (Jehovah).  It is essential to understand that these women represents patterns of two wives in covenant with God.  I’ll say this again, these two woman represent two covenants as we will see in this next verse:

Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants (marriages); the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

We can see in this verse that God says these two women are allegorical and represent a far greater spiritual truth.  In Biblical Allegory, God always uses a real historical natural occurrence to describe a parallel unseen spiritual reality.  Most of the time if we read this story in the Old Testament we would not have a clue how it relates to any spiritual truth.  However, since God gives us a specific example of how He encoded this information into the Bible in these verses in Galatians, we can begin to understand how this is possible.  This is a very tricky method that God has chosen to hide these spiritual mysteries in the Bible.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

The bond woman is said to be Hagar and she corresponds to the law given to Moses on Mt Sinai.  Therefore, Hagar represents a woman in covenant bondage to the law.  God then tells us that she gives birth to a child after the flesh.  Hagar is the natural nation of Israel and is directly called the “earthly city of Jerusalem”.  This is in direct contrast to Sarah, the free woman who gives birth to the promised child after Hagar as we will read in verse 26 next.  Who do you think the “promise child” represents?  Of course it is the risen from the dead LORD Jesus Christ.  However, Hagar who represents the natural Israel, gives birth to natural child Jesus of Nazareth the man after the flesh that gave His life for us to be saved.  Mary called Jesus her “firstborn” son and God called Jesus His only begotten Son.  But, Jesus is also called God’s firstborn from the dead.   That would imply that Jesus Christ had two different births and two different mothers, one natural and one spiritual.  These are very deep truths and can be very hard to see at first, simply because they are so new.

God just revealed to us that this Hagar is a type or pattern of the Earthly Jerusalem, who is now in bondage with all of her children under the law.  Israel continuously tries to keep the law and earn their salvation by their works and have not realized that they are incapable of saving themselves.  Remember we just read earlier that Jesus declared that Satan was the father of these natural children of Israel.  Wow, that is so important.  But, let’s continue with the next verse and look at Sarah:

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

We can see that there is clearly a new and different woman, called the free woman that is called the “Heavenly Jerusalem”.  This literally means that she is not under the law.  This Freewoman (Type of Sarah) is said to be the spiritual mother of Jesus Christ and the church.  So what have we seen?  There is a bond woman called the Earthly Jerusalem who is in bondage to the law.  We then see that there is another woman called the Heavenly Jerusalem who is free, meaning she is not under the law.  We know from studying the Bible that these two women were in a covenant and married to God (Type of Abraham) at an overlapping period of time.   We know that Sarah (Heavenly Jerusalem) was married first to Abraham (God).  Then Abraham and Sarah moved to Egypt where they bought a slave girl for Sarah named Hagar.  Later after many years of being barren (Childless) Sarah (Heavenly Jerusalem) gives her husband Hagar (the Earth Jerusalem) as a wife to have a child for her.  Abraham did this and had Ishmael that had twelve sons a type and pattern of Jesus and his 12 disciples.

Finally Sarah (the Heavenly Jerusalem) the much older woman and first wife came along and had the promised child and she was free along with her child.  The Heavenly Jerusalem (Sarah) existed prior to the younger Earthly Jerusalem (Hagar).  The younger earthly Jerusalem (Hagar) has a son that is older than the promised son of the free woman (Sarah).  These are all allegorical truths to a spiritual reality that has been right before us but one that we haven’t seen until now.  Now take a look at the next verse, because I want to reemphasize something very important:

Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Who is the barren woman?  It was a type of Sarah, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the free woman.  According to Hebrews 12:22 the Heavenly Jerusalem consisted of an enumerable number of angels.  We know from reading Job 38:4 that all of these angels sang for joy witnessing the creation of our world.  Therefore, this Heavenly Jerusalem existed a long time before any earthly Jerusalem was formed.  Are we all together on the same page?

What can we see by looking at this verse in light of the story of Abraham?  We can see that this heavenly Jerusalem (Sarah) was God’s wife even before the earthly Jerusalem (young Hagar) ever came into the story.  We can conclude logically that this covenant between God and the Heavenly Jerusalem (Sarah) existed before there was a natural nation of Israel.  God (Abraham) was in covenant with this free woman (Sarah), not under the law for a long time before the bond woman was given to Him (Abraham) to have a child with.  But we can also see this verse is telling her (the free woman Sarah) to rejoice because more are the children of the desolate woman than the other woman.

The desolate woman is a descriptive term for a woman incapable of having children as Sarah was for many years.  Sarah eventually got pregnant but, only after many years passed beyond her normal child bearing years.  But with God all things are possible, the barren woman now has many more children than the bond woman.  God promised this free woman that her children will be of a much greater number than those of the woman in bondage to the law.  We can then see the punch line in the last part of that verse.  This verse ends with the statement “she which hath an husband”.  Since God is only talking about two women in these verses, we can very easily determine who He is speaking of.   God is speaking about the Earthly Jerusalem (Hagar) in the terms that she now has a new husband.  The clear implication is given to us that the Heavenly Jerusalem (Sarah) does not have a husband when these verses were written.

We already know from reading verses in Isaiah and Jeremiah that God divorced Israel and ended His covenant relationship with the Earthly Jerusalem (Hagar).  We even studied scriptures in Deuteronomy 24 that said it was now illegal for God to marry this same woman again.  So we know that God is not in covenant or married to natural Israel.  So who is?  Who is the husband of the bond woman?  Who is now in bondage under the law?  Who wishes that they had never crucified the Lord Jesus Christ?  If we don’t know this is Satan we need to go back and reread all of this again.  Who wants to destroy Israel and wipe her from the face of the planet?  How could Satan get out from under the law of his wife Israel?   If his wife Israel were completely dead then Satan would be free from the law.  If Satan were free from the law, then punishment of his sin could not be applied to him.

CONCLUSION

I have become a firm believer that Satan did not know what would happen to him if he crucified the LORD of Glory (1 Cor 2:8).  I am also convinced that this is why Satan wants to destroy the natural nation of Israel and the Church.  There are a lot of people in the world being used by Satan to get this done.  Many of these people call the natural nation of Israel the little Satan and the USA and Christians the Great Satan.  We could go into this subject much further but this lesson is long enough.

Thank you for reading and studying the Bible with us.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them.  I do read them and appreciate the feedback.  We do pray for you and we ask you to pray for us.  God bless you and keep you until the next time we get together.

If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on Bible covenants  you may go to “Part 5“.