GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED: FULFILLING THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT, THROUGH THE MOSAIC COVENANT BY SHOWING HIS DIVINE NATURE AND ETERNAL POWER

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Isaiah 5:16

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But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

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The Eternal Abraham Covenant.  The Lord gave an unconditional covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-17), to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the overarching covenant with Him as their God and them as His blessed and holy people living in a promised land. This covenant is eternal and solely depends upon the Lord to fulfill it, as it will bring glory to His name (Psalm 66:2). Shouldn't He already be receiving honor and glory? Yes, For God's invisible attributes; namely because His eternal power and divine nature are already made visible, since the creation of the world, in the things He created (Romans 1:19-20). So people already knew God, but they chose to not give Him honor or thanks (Romans 1:21-23). Therefore, God gave them up to the impurities and lusts of their hearts, to do as they pleased (Romans 1:24-25), but now He is calling these people back to Himself. But only for the Jews? No, for it is written, This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6 BSB). For the promises were spoken to Abraham and his to his seed. Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person, who is the Christ (Galatians 3:16 NIV). God will be known and honored, not only by the Jews, but all the gentiles, the peoples of the world, for It is written, 'I live,' says the Lord, 'that every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will confess to God (Romans 14:11 BLB) so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11 ESV). 

​God Will Be Exalted and Glorified Through Righteousness and Judgment. So to bring glory and honor to His name, God will demonstrate His divine power and eternal glory above and beyond what is known in nature, for we have already seen and known this; but now, He will be known, and glorified, by demonstrating His holiness and His judgment (Isiah 5:16). God will be faithful to the Abrahamic Covenant, but first He would demonstrate Himself through His covenant with Moses, the Mosaic Covenant, for He spoke, 'Look, I am making a covenant. I will perform wonders in the presence of all your people that have never been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the LORD's work, for what I am doing to do with you is awe-inspiring' (Exodus 34:10). Everything God does through Moses, was working towards fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant. Remembering, that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4), so He will patiently bring it to completion, but first the Lord will demonstrate His divine character and His eternal power in a spectacularly glorious way.

1.  ​God Demonstrates His Divine Nature. The Lord establishing His divine nature, His holiness and righteousness, through the law (Isaiah 5:16; Psalm 119:142, 160), for the law is holy (Romans 7:12). The Lord demonstrates His divine nature, by showing distinction between the detestable practices of man and His holiness. He establishes that He is the one true Holy God, so they must be holy as His people, thereby requiring the rules of righteousness, the Law, the 10 commandments (Exodus 20:1-26), which was given after the exodus. They wondered in the wilderness for 40 years, and before they took the land, the Lord established the Mosaic Covenant (Leviticus 26:1-46) which draws a clearer distinction between His holiness and the detestableness of the people. For He sets apart the righteous practices from the detestable practices of the people, in the land. He will forever be known to be Holy, set apart. 
2. God Demonstrates His Eternal Power. The Lord will be exalted by expressing His eternal power through covenantal blessings and punishments (judgments) found in the Mosaic Covenant, for it is written, Behold, God is exalted in His power (Job 32:22) and the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment (Isaiah 5:16). The Lord demonstrates His eternal power through the workings of His blessings and judgments in the Mosaic Covenant. He begins by informing Abraham about slavery of His people for 400 years in Egypt, but they will come out with great wealth and punishment for that nation (Genesis 15:13-14). God reminds them, by having them repeat His triumphant delivering of the Red Sea parting (Exodus 14:1-30), down through the generations, even until Steven speaks of God's signs and wonders to the Sanhedrins (Acts 7:36) before they stone him to death (Acts 7:54-60). But God was going to demonstrate more miraculous signs and wonders, beyond this, all of which will be seen through Him fulfilling the blessings and the judgments.
   • But His greatest victory will come out of the law, with the birth of His Son ... when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law so that He might redeem those who wee under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV).

I. GOD SHOWS HIS DIVINE NATURE THROUGH THE HOLINESS REQUIREMENT

A. Shown Through What Not To Do
B. Shown Through What To Do

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Leviticus 18:28 HCSB

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If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you.

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The Mosaic Covenant of Possession of the Land. With the Lord as their God and them as His people, they are promised the land of Canaan with the ability to be fruitful and multiple with blessing and favor of the Lord. God will provide divine favor and bless them with a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6). However, it is given through the conditional Mosaic Covenant, so His magnificent power would be on display for the whole world to see and know that He is God. He spoke saying, The Lord established statutes, ordinances and laws between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai (Leviticus 26:46). They were to practice God's ordinances (Leviticus 18:4, 26, 30) to stay in the land and receive the blessing. They were forbidden to follow in the ways of Egypt or Canaan (Leviticus 18:3). The Canaanite men did detestable practices, defiling the land, so God punished it, and the land vomited them out (Leviticus 18:24-28). These forbidden practices concerned sexual intercourse with close relatives (Leviticus 18:6, 29) and child sacrifice to Molech (Leviticus 18:21). The Israelites were forbidden to do these and other things, so they would not be spit out too, from defiling themselves and the land (Leviticus 18:24, 26, 28-30; 20:22-23). In this way, God is known to be Holy, different then the people.

Painting by Pepe Fainberg

​​​A. The Forbidden Pagan Practices of the Mosaic Law.  The Lord forbid certain practices, and instituted the death penalty for violating most of these laws (Leviticus 20:10-21). What were these detestable things? They were forbidden to have sex with you mother (Leviticus 18:7), step-mother (v 8), sister or half-sister (Leviticus 18:9), 

grand children  (Leviticus 18:10); step-sister (Leviticus 18:11), aunt (Leviticus 18:12-13), aunt-in-marriage (Leviticus 18:14), daughter-in-law (Leviticus 18:15), brother's wife (Leviticus 18:16), a woman and her daughter (Leviticus 18:17), sisters while both live (Leviticus 18:18), woman during menstrual impurity (Leviticus 18:19), neighbor's wife (Leviticus 18:20), man with man, as if he was a woman (Leviticus 18:22), and not with animals (Leviticus 18:23). Also, do not burn your children as a sacrifice, make them pass through the fire, to Molech (Leviticus 18:21). Anyone who sacrifices a child to Molech must be cut off from the land, if the people turn the other way, the Lord will put him to death and turn against his family and all who follow him (Leviticus 20:1-5).
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• The Practices Which Deserve the Death Penalty. The following are to be put to death, for both involved: a man having sex with a married woman (Leviticus 20:10), a man with step-mom (Leviticus 20:11), a man with his daughter-in-law (Leviticus 20:12), a man who sleeps with a man, like a woman (Leviticus 20:13), a man or woman having sex with an animal (Leviticus 20:15-16), a man marrying or having sex with his sister (Leviticus 20:17), a man with a menstruating woman (Leviticus 20:18), a man with his step-mom (Leviticus 20:18), or a man having sex with his aunt (Leviticus 20:19). If  a man marries a woman and her daughter, they must be burned with fire (Leviticus 20:14). And if a man marries his brother's wife, they will be childless (Leviticus 20:21). ​

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My instruction to not do any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am Yahweh your God. (Leviticus 18:30b)

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B. The Required Holiness Practices of the Mosaic Law.  The Israelites were to, Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy (Leviticus 19:1b HCSB). The list is primarily the 10 commandments with specifications (Exodus 20:2-17). 

• ​Fear the Lord (Leviticus 19:14)
  • Make your sacrifices, which welcomes fellowship with God, do them in an acceptable way (Leviticus 19:5), by eating it on that day or the next, with any remains being burned on the third day (Leviticus 19:6). If any eaten on third day,  it is detestable  for it profanes a holy thing, and it will not be accepted (Leviticus 19:7-8).
  • Do not practice divination or sorcery (Leviticus 19:26)
  • Do not turn to mediums or consult spiritists (Leviticus 19:31); God will cut this person off from the land (Leviticus 20:6) and the spiritist must be put to death (Leviticus 20:27)
• Do not make idols, because I am your God (Leviticus 19:4)
  • Do not sow two kinds of seeds (Leviticus 19:19)
  • Do not eat fruit from tree for 3 years, on 4th year praise offering to God, eat on 5th year (Leviticus 19:23-24)
  • do not eat anything with blood in it (Leviticus 19:25)
  • Do not crossbreed two different kinds of animals (Leviticus 19:19)
  • Do not make a garment of two kinds of material (Leviticus 19:19)
•  Do not swear falsely by His name, take His name in vein (Leviticus 19:12). 
  • ​Anyone who blasphemes the Name of God, must be stoned to death by the whole congregation (Leviticus 24:14, 16)
• Keep the Sabbath (Leviticus 19:3).
• Honor you mother and father (Leviticus 19:3); if curse them, then you must be put to death (Leviticus 20:9)
  • ​Rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old (Leviticus 19:32)
  • Do not cut off hair on sides of head or mar edge of beard (Leviticus 19:27)
  • Do not make gashes or tattoos body for dead (Leviticus 19:28)
• If a man commits adultery with a married woman, both are to be put to death (Leviticus 20:10)
• If anyone commits murder, they are to be put to death (Leviticus 24:17, 21)
  • Any injury a man permanently inflicts on another man, that has to be done to him (Leviticus 24:19); fracture for a fracture,  an eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth (Leviticus 24:20)
  • If kill an animal, you must make restitution for it (Leviticus 24:17, 21)
• Do not steal and do not lie (Leviticus 19:11)
  • Do not use an unfair balance; measure length, weight or volume correctly (Leviticus 19:35)
• Do not go about slandering your neighbor and jeopardize their life (Leviticus 19:16)
  • Do not harbor hatred against your brother (Leviticus 19:17)
  • Do not take revenge or hold a grudge, instead love them as yourself (Leviticus 19:18)
  • Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt (Leviticus 19:17)
  • Do not oppress or rob your neighbor; the wages due labor must be paid that day (Leviticus 19:13)
  • Do not decide a case unjustly; judge your neighbor fairly (Leviticus 19:15)
  • Do no be partial to the poor or prefer the rich (Leviticus 19:15)
  • Reap harvest, leave the outer edges and the gleaning (droppings) for the poor and foreigners (Leviticus 19:9-10)
  • Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind (Leviticus 19:14)
  • Do not oppress foreigners in your land (Leviticus 19:33), but to love him as yourself (Leviticus 19:34)
  • Do not make daughter a prostitute (Leviticus 19:29)

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth (Psalm 119:142).

​II. GOD'S DIVINE POWER IS KNOWN THROUGH COVENANTS

​A. The Mosaic Covenant Has Blessings, if they obey
B. The Mosaic Covenant Has Judgment, if they disobey

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I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land (Leviticus 26:42)

​The Law of Moses was a Conditional Covenant. Through the Mosaic Law and Mosaic Covenant, the Lord demonstrated His divine nature, His holiness, by separated Himself from the detestable ways of the people of the 

land. The world saw this distinction through the Canaanite people, but also through those at the time of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah. But now, God will demonstrate His eternal power through the blessings and punishments of the Mosaic Covenant, as He works towards the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. The people received some of the blessing but due to pervasive hostility towards God by disobeying His commands, they received the punishment of the covenant, and still remain under it today. But after the time of healing of the land, as it made up for lost Sabbaths and after His people received their discipline, then God will remember His Covenant with Abraham. He will call the people back to the land to Himself. We see this beginning to take place with the nation Israel being established in 1948.
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A. God's Divine Power through the Blessing of the Mosaic Covenant. The blessings of the Mosaic Covenant are a repeat of the Abrahamic Covenant to obtain a blessed land (Leviticus 26:3-8, 10) with multitudes of blessed descendants (Leviticus 26:9), with Him dwelling among them (Leviticus 26:11-13). They got a taste of His goodness, but they have not been able to fully drink of His cup of divine mercy and grace, yet. This will happen in the end, on the day of the Lord, when He fully makes Himself known to them by destroying all their enemies at once in a spectacular display of the power of His Might (Revelation 19:11-21; Ezekiel 38:16, 23; 39:6-7; 22-24, 26, 28). But for now, in the Mosaic Covenant if they obey Him, the Lord will ensure the land is a blessing to them; it will yield sufficient produce for He would give rain at the right times, and He will give them peace and safety in the land, as they will lie down and not be frightened, of man or beast (Leviticus 26:2-6). They can even pursue their enemies who will flee and fall before them, as five purse 100, and 100 pursue 10,000 (Leviticus 26:7-8). God says they will no longer be slaves, as He break what binds them and set them free (Leviticus 26:13).

B. God's Divine Power through the Punishment of the Mosaic Covenant. Just as God performed a spectacular display of His powerful might in the punishment against Egypt, His power is also known through the judgment of His own defiant people, Israel. If they did not obey His commands, statutes and ordinances and break His covenant, then He outlined a progressive action plan of judgment against them. God's sovereign power and love for His people cannot be denied for it burns so brightly, for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, (Yehweh) whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14 ESV), which is more clearly understood, for thus says the LORD of hosts, after His glory sent me to the nations who plundered you for He who touches you touches the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8). Here are the increasing punishments, for their defiance and hostility towards their loving God:

1. He begins by says, I will bring terror on you ... and I will turn against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you (Leviticus 26:15-17). If this doesn't work and they still disobey,
2. If you don't obey, He takes it up a notch by saying, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins (Leviticus 26:18), adding that He will break their pride and their strength unless as the land does not produce it's yield (Leviticus 26:19-20). 
3. If you don't obey, He says, I will multiple your plagues seven times for your sins (Leviticus 26:21) by sending wild animals to ravage children and livestock and reduce your numbers.
4. If you don't obey, He says, I will act hostily ... strik(ing) you seven times for your sins ... (by) bring(ing) a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant, ... send a pestilence, ... deliver (you) into enemy hands ... (and) cut off your supply of bread  (Leviticus 26:24-26). 
5. If you don't obey, I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will discipline you seven times for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols; I will reject you. I will reduce your cities to ruins and devastate your sanctuaries. I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices. I also will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it. But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins (Leviticus 26:27-33).
   1. ​Then land will rest and have its Sabbath, as long as it lies desolate (Leviticus 26:34-35).
   2. He will not reject them so as to destroy them or break His covenant with them (Leviticus 26:44-45)
6. Then He says, I will put anxiety in (your) hearts ... in the land of your enemies (Leviticus 26:36). You will not be able to stand against your enemies, you'll perish among the nations, the land of our enemies will devour you, and you will waste away because of your father's sin along with yours (Leviticus 26:36-38).
7. But if they confess their sins and their father's sins and how they acted with hostility towards Him, and humble their uncircumcised hearts, and if they pay the penalty for their sins, then I will remember My covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I will remember the land (Leviticus 26:40-42). The abandoned land will make up for its Sabbaths while they pay the penalty of their sins (Leviticus 26:43). This is their discipline, none of it would be a rejection of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Leviticus 26:44-46).