The Difference

And now we may read wherein this vast difference consists: “But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.EVCO 325.1

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.EVCO 325.2

“For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.EVCO 325.3

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” ^{1Hebrews 8:5-12.}EVCO 325.4

The following facts must stand out very prominently to the thoughtful reader of this text:—EVCO 326.1

1. Both covenants are only with Israel. Gentiles, as we have already seen, are “strangers from the covenants of promise.” It is always admitted and even claimed that they have nothing to do with the old covenant; but they have even less connection with the new covenant.EVCO 326.2

2. Both covenants are made with “the house of Israel;” not with a few individuals, nor with a divided nation, but “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,” that is, with all the people of Israel. The first covenant was made with the whole house of Israel, before they were divided; the second covenant will be made when God shall have taken the children of Israel from among the heathen, and made them one nation, when “they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” ^{2Ezekiel 37:22, 26.}EVCO 326.3

3. Both covenants contain promises, and are founded upon them.EVCO 326.4

4. The “new covenant” is better than the one made at Sinai.EVCO 326.5

5. It is better, because the promises upon which it is founded are better.EVCO 326.6

6. Yet it will be seen by comparing the terms of the new with those of the old, that the end contemplated by each is the same. The old said, “If ye will obey My voice;” the new says, “I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” Each has reference to the law of God. Both have holiness, and all the rewards of holiness, as the object. In the covenant at Sinai it was said to Israel, “Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” ^{1Exodus 19:6.} That is just what God’s own people really are, “a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.” ^{21 Peter 2:5, 9.}EVCO 327.1