Old And New Covenant - Old And New Idolatry

At that time I will hide my face from them on account of all the evil they commit by worshiping other gods. [Deuteronomy 31.18] 

When God hides His face, bad things happen.

Bad things don't happen to good people (no matter how many books have been written or sermons have been preached otherwise), the Bible simply does not teach such.

The only reason God hides His face and bad things happen is disobedience. Disobedience to God starts with violation of the 1st Commandment, digressing from there to consecutively break the 2nd and 3rd Commandments. In short, disobedience to God is idolatry.

The covenant discussed in today's One Year Chronological Bible reading is simply this: obey God and prosper; disobey God and suffer curses. In modern times, we like to call this the "Old Covenant," or the "Old Testament."

Somehow, people came to believe that Jesus deleted the Old Covenant, but that is just not true. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Covenant. The "Covenant" has always been Jesus. What we call the "Old Covenant" indeed only foreshadows Jesus, but Jesus has always been the "light" of it nonetheless. The New Covenant is the same original Covenant, but the 2.0 version. The New Covenant does not foreshadow Jesus, but reveals Jesus.

The mistake most people make is to believe somehow that God's Covenant no longer requires obedience. Parallel to that erroneous thinking, people think blessings and curses (more so curses than blessings) are random occurrences. In fact, religious people have so confused God's Covenant that these very people who are supposed to represent God's Church represent nothing of God at all, but instead represent a divided and fragmented segment of society that is void of God's power but still claims to have it in unrecognizable and abstract ways.

God's Covenant in Jesus Christ however, gives laser-accuracy to what obedience to God looks like:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)] 

The Old Covenant was not so focused, but rather, revolved around seemingly endless rules and regulations that could, at best, only foreshadow Christ.

Jesus' demand above is simply the "2.0" version of the "1.0" 1st Commandment. Nothing about the subsequent Commandments however changed, and that is where modern "believers" are confused. God-ward obedience (love) remains paramount to overcome idolatry, Jesus-ward (Sabbath) obedience (love) remains paramount to being holy, and man-ward obedience (love) remains paramount to the will of God on earth.

Relative to the opening passage above, nothing about that verse has changed in the New Covenant. God still hides His face on account of all the evil man commits by worshiping other gods (idols). If a person has not given up his way (the way of man - the way of idolatry), taken up his cross (the way of faith in Jesus), and followed Jesus, then God hides His face from them.

We can talk about "Old" and "New" all we want. Jesus is God in the flesh and He requires no less obedience to, and trust in, Him alone than ever before. Jesus paid the demanding price for our inability to save ourselves (sin) but none of that matters if we do not give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Him. Jesus IS the "New" Covenant, but a "covenant" of obedience and blessings nonetheless.

It might be understood better if we see the "Old" Covenant as man striving to obey God for blessings, and the "New" Covenant as man surrendering to obey Jesus for blessings. Repentance and faith are essential. 

Idolatry remains the work of the enemy to lure people away from Jesus (and therefore, God). The primary focus of idolatry today is the remediation of curses apart from essential repentance and faith in Christ alone. In other words, man's idols deny that curses have anything to do with sin, but instead attribute them to "just the way things are" and lull and lure people into their costly, and ultimate eternally damning, trap. Idolatry is the lifeblood of the industries of debt, insurance, medicine and technology. 

All the while, idolatry remains out of sight while God's people ignorantly argue about the adjectives "Old" or "New" giving nary a thought to the noun "Covenant" as it pertains to blessings and curses both temporal and eternal. If "Covenant" is minimized and confused in its defining blessings or curses, Satan has accomplished his goal and idolatry remains undetected. 

When God's people think of "Old" or "New" Covenant, they also need to remember that the antithesis is "Old" or "New" idolatry. As long as "Covenant" is important for God's people to focus on, "idolatry" remains the distractor. Idols distract God's people from the Covenant (whether Old Covenant or New Covenant) with its telltale blessings or curses. When idols remediate curses apart from repentance and faith, they take God's people's focus off their Covenant with God that is all about blessings or curses. If curses are not seen as indicators of violation of covenant terms, then there is no perceived need for repentance and faith - and Satan has accomplished his enduring goal, "Has God really said...?"

Old Covenant is about God's people's obedience to overwhelming rules and regulations so they might be blessed.

New Covenant is about God's people' obedience to Jesus so they might be blessed.

When blessings are replaced with curses, covenant has been broken because God has hidden His face on account of all the evil His people commit by worshiping other gods (idols). Those very idols offer remediation for curses to prevent God's people from turning to Him alone and following the rules, "Old Covenant," or following Jesus alone, "New Covenant," in repentance and faith.

The signs (curses) of broken covenant are all around us. But idols cover the signs.

Father, I know this article could be easily misunderstood, but the prevailing role of idolatry to keep Your people out of "covenant" is undeniable. Help us to understand that our covenant with You distinguishes us from all others. Help us to grasp the fact that if we are not distinguished as Yours, then we are in fact not Yours and are hopelessly lost in the blindness and deafness of idolatry. May we be found in the New Covenant of giving up our own way (repenting for the ways of idolatry), taking up our cross (believing only in Jesus), and following Jesus in every single thing we do. So be it.