Apil 24, 2023 - 4 Sivan 5783
Many Christians claim that the Torah foretold God's new covenant in the form of the New Testament. To support this, Christians cite Jeremiah 31:32, which says, "For this is the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will place My law in their midst and I will inscribe it upon their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people."
The part of this verse they emphasize is "I will inscribe it upon their hearts". According to their understanding the old Law was written on stone and parchment, while the "new Law" would later be written on the hearts of the believers with the advent of Jesus.
However, a verse in Deuteronomy (30:14) neutralizes this concern, stating, "Rather, [this] thing is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it." The Torah tells us that it was already "in your heart" approximately 1,300 years before Jesus. If the Torah is already in our hearts we do not need a new covenant to put it there.
Note that while Deuteronomy 30:14 doesn't refer to this as a covenant, Deuteronomy 29:8 does, "And you shall observe the words of this covenant and fulfill them, in order that you will succeed in all that you do."
Because in both instances the covenant was written on their hearts, the only difference is that the Jews abandoned it the first time, but will not the second time, "And no longer shall one teach his neighbor..." (Jeremiah 31:33) Aside from this, the verses do not indicate that the nature of these covenants will be different.
2 comments:
It is clear and explicit in the Torah that it is God's commandment, remaining forever without change, addition, or diminishment, as Deuteronomy 13:1 states: "All these matters which I command to you, you shall be careful to perform. You may not add to it or diminish from it," and Deuteronomy 29:28 states: "What is revealed is for us and our children forever, to carry out all the words of this Torah." This teaches that we are commanded to fulfill all the Torah's directives forever.
It is also said: "It is an everlasting statute for all your generations," and Deuteronomy 30:12 states: "It is not in the heavens." This teaches that a prophet can no longer add a new precept to the Torah.
Very true, and "it is not in the Heavens" is also perhaps the best and most straightforward proof that relating to God through a divine intermediary or demigod is prohibited. I struggle to understand how a person can read Deuteronomy 30:12 and not scratch out both Jesus dying for sin and fulfilling the Torah in one shot:
It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?"
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