The Jews made a covenant with God at Mount Sinai in which
they agreed to keep all His commandments. This holy day is called Pentecost.
The Jews call it Shavuot.
The Jews look at the day of Pentecost as the day they made a
marriage covenant with God. Just as the bride says, “I do”, the Jewish people
said, “We do”.
Exodus 24:3 ¶ And Moses came and told the people all the
words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one
voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.
God also recognizes the day of Pentecost as the day he made
a marriage covenant with the Jewish people. In Jeremiah 31:31-34, God refers to
himself as their husband.
Jeremiah 31:31 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah:
Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made
with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out
of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband
unto them, saith the LORD:
God speaks here of making a new covenant with the Jewish
people. God ordained a new and better covenant, a marriage covenant of mercy.
God said, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more”.
Also, in this new covenant there would be a closer
relationship between God and His people. God would reveal Himself to them.
Because He was forgiving their iniquity, they could receive the infilling of His
Spirit. This is how we know Him.
Jeremiah 31:33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my
law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
There is one issue, however. How can God and the Jewish
people be released from their marriage covenant of the Law that they entered
into at Sinai?
Paul addresses this in Romans 7:1-6.
Romans 7:1 ¶ Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them
that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he
liveth? [the law applies only while a person is living, not after he is dead.]
Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by
the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is
loosed from the law of her husband. [the laws of marriage no longer apply to
her.]
Romans 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be
married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband
be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be
married to another man. [But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and
does not commit adultery when she remarries.]
The only way that the Jewish people could be released from
their marriage covenant of the Law with God is for God to die. Therefore, God
robed Himself in flesh and His flesh died on the cross. By the death of God’s
flesh, the Jewish people were set free from their Sinai marriage covenant with
God, which is the covenant of the Law.
The Jew releases God when he dies with Christ by repentance
and baptism in Jesus name.
Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead
to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
[The Jew becomes dead to the Law and His first marriage covenant with God by
repentance and burial with Christ in baptism. He then becomes the Bride of
Christ who is risen from the dead, bringing fruit unto God acceptable to Him.]
Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of
sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto
death. [controlled by our old nature, sinful desires aroused by the Law were at
work within us, producing fruit of sinful deeds resulting in death.]
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being
dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in
the oldness of the letter. [released from the Law, for we died to it, no longer
captive to its power, we serve the new way of living in the Spirit, not in the
old way of obeying the letter of the Law]
Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter gave the message of the New
Covenant that set the Jews free from the Law to become the Bride of Christ.
(John 3:29, 2Corinthians 11:2)
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children,
and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
That day, the day of Pentecost, there were added into the
New Covenant and the Bride of Christ about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41)
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