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And they lived happily ever after…
A marriage is like a long trip in a tiny rowboat: if one passenger starts to rock the boat, the other has to steady it; otherwise they will go to the bottom together. –David Robert Reuben Success in marriage is more than finding the right person: it is being the right person. –Robert Browning These two quotes are true. David Robert Reuben and Robert Browning were not the first people to say something about marriage. Much has been said about marriage. Many books have been written about the subject, yet if we look at the divorce statistics we see something is seriously wrong. I believe one reason for marriages not lasting, is because instead of looking to YHVH’s word for guidance in marriage, people tend to look to pop psychology for help and answers. Lots of instruction on marriage can be found in scripture. In this article, we will look a bit deeper into what marriage is. There are certain aspects about marriage that make this union unique.
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What is the New or Renewed Covenant? – Covenants – Part 5
Let us look at the covenant that is most commonly referred to as “the New Covenant.†It is important for us to understand exactly what this is, when it starts, how it relates to the Abrahamic & Sinai covenants and what the impact of this covenant is on us. We also need to take special notice of the role of Y’Shua our Messiah in this covenant. While studying this topic, it is important to try to keep ourselves clear of preconceived ideas of what this covenant is and how we are impacted. Many of us have been introduced to this covenant via a wrong point of view. It is challenging to look upon this study with a new point of view that does not bring the previous teachings with.
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What exactly is the Sinai Covenant ? – Covenants – Part 4
An investigation into the covenant that YHVH made with the people He led out of Egypt. The Sinai covenant is a lot more complex and controversial than the Abrahamic covenant. The Sinai covenant was conceived to be a type of “suzerain treaty†establishing YHVH as king and Israel as the vassal. Why was it necessary for YHVH to create another covenant with Israel? He already had a covenant with their forefathers. The Sabbath is to serve as the reminder of this covenant. Why would YHVH specifically choose the Sabbath as the sign?
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The Abrahamic Covenant – Covenants – Part 3
In our next installment in the series of the Biblical covenants we look into the covenant made with Abraham. Why was Abarham chosen and what exactly was promised to him? It is also interesting to analyze exactly who receives the benefits of this promise. And last we need to take a look at what this means for us.
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Breaking the Covenant – Covenants Part 2
In the first post in the series we discussed the concepts of a covenant and looked at some different types and forms of the covenants. In this post we will be looking at the concept of breaking a covenant and how that is different from annulling or voiding an agreement or contract. Very often we hear the theory that the original Sinaic covenant has been terminated because of the incident of the golden calf and therefor YHVH had to make another covenant with His people. Even if we make this mistake of treating YHVH’s covenant as a contract, this is not true.
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Introduction to covenants – Covenants Part 1
In the Bible we see a clear description of the relationship between YHVH and His people. This relationship has gone through many ups and downs throughout the history of the Bible. The rules for this relationship are defined in the Bible by the means of a covenant between YHVH and His people. Thus it is of the utmost importance for us to understand these covenants if we would like to understand the relationship that YHVH wants with us. Covenants are not something unique to the Bible. On the contrary, we find many examples of extra-biblical documents that describes covenants where we see clear correlation between the form and content of covenants in the Bible and covenants used by other nations. This topic is huge and many volumes have been written about it by many experienced scholars. Thus we will need to break this into smaller parts if we want to be able to comprehend it all. Before we get into the discussions of the different covenants and what they mean it is most important that we get to grips with the basics. This article will focus on some of the basic terms and concepts regarding covenants in the time of the Bible.
