What if?
...The New Covenant (an eternal covenant) is not a renewal of the Mosaic Covenant (which is not an eternal covenant)? But rather, it is a renewal of the Abrahamic Covenant (an eternal covenant), which God attempted to Renew previously with Abraham's direct descendants, Israel, in the giving of the first set of the 10 Commandments?
And this?
After Israel's rebellion with the golden calf-worshipping event at Mt Sinai (Exodus 32), His relationship changed to one of heaping on commandents as described in Isaiah 28:13, until Israel turned back to him in repentance, being weighed down by the sin revealed as a result of the knowledge of God's exectations expressed through the Mosaic Commandments?
Thus:
This explanation from Paul in Romans 7...
"7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure."
For your reference, here is a relevant section of Isaiah 28:
"11Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
God will speak to this people,
12to whom he said,
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”—
but they would not listen.
13So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that;
a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
they will be injured and snared and captured.
11Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
God will speak to this people,
12to whom he said,
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”—
but they would not listen.
13So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that;
a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
they will be injured and snared and captured."
What if, perhaps, this is perspective is also the foundation of Paul's message in Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11?
Especially notice this in Romans 11:11:
"So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles ["foreign lips and stange tongues], so as to make Israel jealous."
What many believers fail to grasp is that the Mosaic Covenant was never God’s main covenant with Israel. God’s main covenant was the one He made with Abraham based on a promise (Hebrews 6:13, explains this clearly--pictured above).
In Galatians, Paul gives a short lesson on Covenant Contracts, reminding us that when one is ratified "no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it." Therefore, the Law which came 430 years later did not replace, set aside or modify that original covenant promise to Abraham. If it had, the inheritance would now be based on Israel’s obedience to the Law – not on God’s promise. "But God gave it to Abraham by means of a promise" (Gal 4:15-18).
"Why the Law then?" Paul asks. "It was added because of transgressions, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made" (Gal. 3:18,19). "It was "added…until" Messiah because Israel had an underlying sin problem that needed to be revealed. The Law was in essence a temporary measure to show we had a congenital obedience problem and needed a savior.
