There is a prayer that stays clear and fresh in my mind after 35 years. The brother who gave it was of a small frame which had been terribly distorted by the ravages of disease. Confined to a wheelchair and blind, he was totally dependent on others. Nevertheless, he was a tower of strength in matters of the Truth to all who knew and loved him. This was his prayer for the wine:
“We thank you Lord for this wine, the symbol of the blood of the sacrifice you promised to provide. The lamb caught in the thicket of sin, yet without blemish, whose blood was willingly shed to confirm the covenant made to Abraham. That new covenant, into which we have entered by your grace.
“We pray for the fulfillment of the promises when Abraham and his faithful descendants shall inherit the land and all nations will be recipients of the blessings of the kingdom age overruled by the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Hasten the day when the Jews will be brought into this new covenant. Help them to recognize that the law to which they cling is obsolete. Put your law in their minds and write it on their hearts so that all Israel may be saved. In your mercy and through your grace may we be part of that number”
The covenants seen clearly
Brief, but filled with spiritual insight, the prayer fulfilled its mandate of thanking our Heavenly Father. It also presented simply the great truths in which we trust, focusing the minds of all the participants upon the meaning of the wine.
The prayer was a model, but it was imprinted upon my memory for another reason. Young in years and a recent convert to the Truth, I suddenly grasped the wonderful paradox. The new covenant is not really new. It is new only in relation to the old covenant of Moses. In the words of Bro. John Carter: “The first to be proclaimed, but the last to be established” (The Letter to the Hebrews). Proclaimed to Abraham, it was not established until ratified by the death of Christ.
In God’s wisdom, 2,000 years passed before the offering He had so richly foreshadowed was sacrificed in Moriah to confirm the covenant.
Some missed God’s lessons
Sadly, Israel was not of the caliber of their forefather Abraham. Bearing the outward sign of the covenant, circumcision, they denied the very substance, being unbelieving and faithless. Four hundred and thirty years later, in an attempt to redirect His people to His promises and purpose in Christ, God added the law of Moses. Instead of valuing it as a teaching tool, which amplified the past and spoke in type of the future, they regarded it as a separate entity. The blueprint to the way of earning salvation.
It was to this erroneous thinking that Paul addressed the third chapter of his letter to the Galatians:
“But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident, for, the just shall live by faith. ..And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect… What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made… Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:11-24).
The power of his discourse was to readjust a distorted view of the law by emphasizing the pre-eminence of the promises, showing that the Abrahamic covenant was the fulcrum upon which the Mosaic covenant rested. His point was that the whole was dependent on belief and faith.
Eventually Israel will see clearly
The logic of such reasoning from the scriptures was ignored by the majority of the Jews. To this day, Jews proclaim Abraham as their progenitor and yet dismiss the implications of his covenant. Perversely, they cling to the old covenant given to Moses which was intended only as an interim measure: “The law and the prophets were until John” (Luke 16:16).
In time, however, God’s plan will be accomplished: “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). In His mercy, circumstances will so be arranged that the natural Jews will recognize Jesus as the promised seed and their redeemer. They will joyfully accept God’s law, not written on tablets of stone to be pondered externally, but absorbed into their very hearts and minds.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 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; my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:31,33).
Faithful and at last participants in the new covenant made with Abraham, Israel will inherit the land and the blessing of the kingdom with all of Abraham’s seed throughout eternity.
A practical point
In some ecclesias, it is the custom for less experienced brothers to be asked to give thanks for the bread and the wine. The reason, no doubt, is that the focus of each prayer enables brevity and is therefore less demanding on the giver. Had that particular policy been followed that Sunday, the prayer I found so helpful would not have been uttered. A practical thought arises that it is probably best to achieve balance in the selection of brothers for the various prayers, bearing in mind that the Lord hears all prayers offered in sincerity and truth.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One