Israel Under the Law

Understanding Sonship Today’s Focus: Sonship and the Law: Israel under the Law Scripture: Genesis 14:18-20 and Hebrew 6:20- Hebrew 7:1-4; Isaiah 1:2-4 Greetings Kingdom Citizens To understand how different the nation of Israel was under the law, to what God promised in being a Kingdom of Priests and Sons of God, it requires us to take a small look back then come forward into the Old Testament. In a previous message we talked about the unique relationship between Abraham and Melchizedek. We are going to take a one step further and show just how different the law made the children of Israel from being a nation of Kings, Priests and Sons of God. Now Melchizedek and Abraham and their relationship represented the components of sonship, status and character. Abraham represents our status as sons because we are the inheritors of the promise of God which will make us Sons of God. Melchizedek represents our character as being Kings, Priests and an eternal creation within time and space. Now as sweet and majestic as that sounds, is that anything like the covenant Israel received from God on Mt. Sinai? Absolutely not! If anything the children of Israel were so frustrated and oppressed, but why? Did God let them down and just give up on them? Absolutely not! But when you make an agreement with God, best believe that God will fulfill all of His promises and He did. But there were consequences for going against the law and some of them were death. The children of Israel were slaves to the law because they were indebted to the law because they could not possibly fulfill every law. But let’s look at the significance of how different what the law made as opposed to the covenant of sonship. Abraham and Melchisedec represented the sons of God and the promised covenant fulfilled. These new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17) are inheritors of the Kingdom and represent the Father in the Earth. They carried His image (Spirit) and His likeness as Kings and Priests. Because they were born from above they are in turn His sons, or offspring, or children. They carried the status of being a son, through the promise to Abraham and carried the characteristics of being a son, through Melchisedec. Now if this is the covenant of sonship revealed and Jesus was the covenant in flesh walking on the Earth then what did the law do? First, the covenant of law made the children of Israel a nation, but not a Kingdom. As we know God tried to show them how the Kingdom will function by being their King and they would be His people, but the children of Israel rejected by wanting a visible King and God asked them to pick a king from amongst them and of course they picked Saul. We know that eventually Saul would be an inadequate king and remember he was a person selected by the people. Then God reared David and he was God’s appointed King of Israel. Now we know David was unique because He was a King and a priest in a certain right because he was not a Levite. He was a worshipper and mighty King of Israel. He made his share of mistakes but he was a man after God’s heart. But still after all of this they were still a nation of laws and citizens. But let’s look at what Isaiah had to say about the actions of the children of Israel towards God, the one who saved them and delivered them from slavery. When we look at Isaiah 1:2-4 we see Isaiah speaking the Word of the Lord and this is how God describes the nation of Israel: A Sinful Nation laden with iniquity, Evildoers, Corrupters that have forsaken the Lord. Now not to put ourselves so above them, because we have some children of God, with the Holy Spirit acting the same way. But what separated them from us was the Spirit of God living in the spirit of man. This is the essence of sonship. And since they did not have the Holy Spirit abiding in them they were a nation of slaves to the law awaiting the promise of sonship. Of course we know the promise has come and ascended back to the Father but this nation of Israel exists to this day. They exist under the law and for many still have the veil covering their faces from seeing the glory of the Lord. They still live under the law to this day, recognizing the Sabbath on Saturday and abiding by the law of Moses and the other over 630 laws of the Old Testament. Sad, that many still do not believe that Christ has come and risen and given the promise to those who believe on His name. Now we currently have sons of God that want to still live like slaves. They want to be in-debted to a law that they cannot keep and God knows that they cannot keep every law. When Jesus came He fulfilled the law and gave us the promise that does not make us slaves but sons. When you view yourselves as sons of God and began to think in that manner, the very way you approach God changes because you come with humility like a child with unwavering faith knowing that He can do all things. The Law made slaves, The Covenant to Abraham made sons. Which covenant do you want to be under? At Our Father’s Service, Elder Calvin Calhoun, Jr.