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New Covenant things to know

The 116^th congress will be seated today, signaling the start of a new chapter in American politics.

We have a watch date of January 5 but have not narrowed down the area to watch.

The January Passover Revelation

January 14-16 is a time to watch, given the 2009 revelation about the “January Passover.” For those who are new, recall that the Passover lamb was to be killed on the 14^th day of the 1^st month on the Hebrew calendar. Passover Day itself is 1/15. The day of the wave-sheaf offering was disputed as to the meaning of Leviticus 23:11. The Pharisees held it on the first day after the week-day Sabbath (i.e., our Sunday). The Sadducees held it on the day after Passover, the 16^th, since the Passover Day itself was considered to be a Sabbath.

When Jesus was crucified in 33 A.D., the wave-sheaf offering occurred on Sunday morning, the 16^th, so it satisfied both Pharisees and Sadducees. Unfortunately, this agreement did not resolve the ongoing dispute.

My personal view is that the Sadducees were correct. The wave-sheaf offering should be held on the first Sunday after Passover. But it looks to me like God deliberately refrained from resolving the issue, so it must not be a vital point to know. Nonetheless, when applying the Passover to our own first month (January), we have observed that the fixed day of January 16 is the time to watch each year.

That is why our watch dates are January 14-16.

The Second Passover

There were two Passover feasts, one a month later for those who were unable to keep the feast in the first month (Numbers 9:5-13). Hence, when we apply both of these to our own calendar, we also watch February 14-16 each year.

The Second Passover is more important than most people realize, because it prophesies of the Restoration of All Things. Passover contains the truth of Justification by faith in the blood of the Lamb (Christ). Therefore, there are two provisions for justification, both based on the blood of Christ, yet at different times (Numbers 9:10, 11).

If we are unable to be justified in this lifetime on account of being on a far journey from God or because we are yet unclean (not cleansed by the blood of Christ), then we will have to keep it later at the Great White Throne, where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him. In this way, God has made provision for all, not just those who are justified in this lifetime.

Those who say, “There is no second chance,” are only half right. They are right in that God left nothing to “chance.” They are wrong, however, in that God has provided a second opportunity to be justified by faith in the blood of the Lamb, an occasion where no one will argue because the full truth will be clear to all.

The two Passovers also suggest that they apply to the two comings of Christ. These two comings are prophesied in the two birds to cleanse lepers (Leviticus 14:1-7) and the two goats at the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-22). The law of lepers shows the two-step process by which mortality is cleansed in order to give us immortality. The two goats show us the two-step process by which we are cleansed from sin. We are first imputed, reckoned, or "counted" righteous (Romans 4:3 KJV), and then later we are actually made righteous when we are transformed fully into His image.

Other details are prophesied in the two laws (Exodus and Deuteronomy), as well as the two covenants associated with each. Jesus came the first time as one like Moses to deliver us from the house of bondage (Acts 3:22); but He comes the second time as Joshua the Ephraimite to lead us into the Kingdom. Likewise, He came the first time to claim the Scepter of Judah, but He comes the second time to claim the Birthright of Joseph (or Ephraim). Only when He has joined those two sticks together as one in His hand (Ezekiel 37:16, 17), repairing the breach between Joseph and Judah (Isaiah 58:12), will He be able to finish the work.

We see also the two works of Christ in the two names of Jacob’s youngest son: Benoni/Benjamin (Genesis 35:18). Benoni means “son of my sorrow.” Benjamin means “son of my right hand.” Christ came first as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). The second time He comes as Benjamin, having been seated at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20).

There are multiple shades of prophecy inherent in these biblical patterns. If we study them, we have opportunity to live with some understanding of the mind of God and the divine plan for both individuals and creation itself.

In the New Testament, the pattern of the first Passover was established. In our time, the stronger pattern is the Second Passover, although we often see both of them manifesting one after the other. At the Great White Throne judgment at the end of the “week” of history (7,000 years), the Second Passover will be fully dominant.

The Church has had very little teaching about these things since the days of the apostles. There has been a veil of blindness on the church for a long time as the leaders gradually reverted back to Old Covenant thinking and practice. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:14 that the veil that blinds our eyes is the Old Covenant, because it hides the glory of God, which is His “goodness” (Exodus 33:18, 19). One cannot truly see His glory and know the goodness of God unless one understands the Restoration of All Things, a truth that began to be lost in the year 400 A.D.

(See my booklet, A Short History of Universal Reconciliation.)

The Old Covenant veil will be lifted from the Church and from the world in general in the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is my view (revelation) that the New Covenant will be the word that the Spirit of God will bring to life that will change everything. The pattern was set in Deuteronomy 29:1, where God made a second covenant with Israel (and the entire world), under which Joshua was commissioned (Deuteronomy 31:23) to lead us into the Promised Land.

What was that Promised Land? It was not merely a piece of real estate. That was the original type and pattern of something much greater that is described in Deuteronomy 30:5, 6,

⁵ And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. ⁶ Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live [i.e., be immortal].

So Deuteronomy 29 gives us the second covenant; Deuteronomy 30 gives us the revelation of its provisions; and Deuteronomy 31 speaks of Joshua’s commission to bring us into that Promise. All of these things were prophetic patterns for us today. While Jesus came the first time to be the Mediator of the New Covenant, He came of the tribe of Judah, not Joseph. Though His legal father was Joseph, He did not come from the tribe of Joseph, for His dominant calling was to claim the Scepter of Judah (Genesis 49:10).

In our time, the dominant pattern will be that of Joseph, for He will come “clothed with a robe dipped in blood” (Revelation 19:13). Joseph is the only man in Scripture fitting that description. Genesis 37:31 says,

³¹ So they took Joseph’s tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood.

Hence, in His second coming, He will come as the Birthright holder, Joseph, who was also a type of Christ. This is also why Joshua, the type of Christ, was not of Judah but of Ephraim, the son of Joseph (Numbers 13:8). It takes an Ephraimite to bring us into the Kingdom. Yet the Messiah is the same in both of His manifestations. So He is both Judah and Joseph—that is, both David and Joshua. But in His second coming, His dominant identity is that of Joseph, in order to fulfill Joseph’s prophetic dream, where his brothers (including Judah) bowed before him (Genesis 37:9, 10, 11).

These distinctions are difficult for most people to grasp, since we were not instructed in such things from early childhood. We tend to think in black-and-white terms, with each having its own distinct place. But the mind of God is more complex, and we need to adjust our own thinking to conform to His mind.

Christ’s identity in His first manifestation was primarily of Judah, but secondarily of Joseph. Christ’s identity in His second manifestation is to be primarily of Joseph, but secondarily of Judah. He is both of these at all times, but each has its own time of dominance. Hence, we need to learn to see which of His two identities is dominant, not merely which tribe He comes from.

I know that this can be confusing to those who have not been exposed to such teaching. But if we ever hope to understand the purpose of the second coming of Christ, we must know these things. In my view, knowing these things is part of removing the Old Covenant veil and understanding the purpose and nature of the New Covenant.

The Nature of Blindness

The most significant thing about biblical blindness is that it is not physical, although physical blindness gives us a snapshot of spiritual blindness. Whenever Jesus healed the blind (or the deaf), He was showing us that He, as the Mediator of the New Covenant, was the only One who could heal such blindness. Yet those who are physically blind are aware of their blindness. Those who are spiritually blind are generally unaware of it until their eyes are opened.

Blindness is characteristic of God’s servants (Isaiah 42:19). In other words, those who have an Old Covenant relationship with God are blind, due to the veil over their faces. Removing that veil and coming out of blindness or “blindness in part” (Romans 11:25 KJV) brings us beyond servanthood into sonship.

A servant/slave “does not know what his master is doing” (John 15:15). He has not been told the plan, nor does he know the mind of the master. But friends do know, and friends are synonymous with sons. Both friends and sons are contrasted with servants or slaves. Servants function mostly in blind obedience, but friends and sons understand the overall plan. So let us pray that God will open our eyes to understand the New Covenant, so that we may know the plan and upgrade our relationship with our Master.

Characteristics of the New Covenant

The major parts of the New Covenant to understand are as follows:

1. It is based on the promise (vow, oath) of God, not on man’s promise to God.

2. It is universal, applying to all nations (Genesis 12:3; Deuteronomy 29:14, 15; Psalm 67:2, 4, 7; Revelation 5:13, 15:3, 4).

3. It is established by Yeshua the Judahite, but fully implemented by Yeshua the Ephraimite.

4. It is no longer a type but the antitype (fulfillment).

5. The “Promised Land” is no longer an external piece of real estate in the Mideast, but our own bodies, which are made of the dust of the ground that God owns (Leviticus 25:23).

If we can grasp these broad principles, I believe that the veil is lifting from our eyes, and we are then able, like Moses, to see the goodness of God. Out of that goodness, He created all things “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and Jesus continued that work when He went about doing good (Acts 10:38).