The "Everlasting Covenant"

What happens when the last of the  144,000 realize their heavenly hope?  Will the new covenant cease to apply?  At that time, there will be on earth no remaining member of the Israel of God.  All participants in the covenant will be with Jesus "in the kingdom of [his] Father." (Matthew 26:29)  But we remember Paul's words in his letter to the Hebrews: "The God of peace . . .brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an everlasting covenant." (Hebrews 13:20; Isaiah 55:3)  In what sense is the new covenant everlasting? 

First, unlike the Law covenant, it will never be replaced.  Second, the results of its operation are permanent, even as is Jesus' kingship.  (Compare  Luke 1:33 with 1 Corinthians  15:27, 28) The heavenly Kingdom has an eternal place in Jehovah's purposes.  (Revelation 22:5)  And third, other sheep will continue to benefit from the new covenant arrangement.  During Christ's Thousand Year Reign, faithful humans will keep on "rendering [Jehovah] sacred service day and night in his temple" just as they do now.  Jehovah will not bring up again their past sins that were forgiven on the basis of Jesus' "blood of the covenant."  They will continue to enjoy a righteous standing as Jehovah's friends, and his law will still be written in their hearts. 

Will Jehovah then be able to say of these human servants: 'I am their God, and they are my people?'  Yes.  "He will reside with them, and they will be his peoples.  And God himself will be with them." (Revelation 21:3) They will become "the camp of the holy ones," earthly representatives of "the beloved city," the heavenly bride of Jesus Christ.  (Revelation 14:1; 20:9; 21:2) All of this will be possible because of their faith in Jesus' shed "blood of the covenant" and their subjection to the heavenly kings and priests, who when on earth were the Israel of God. -Revelation 5:10. 

What of the dead who are resurrected on earth?  (John 5:28, 29)  They too will be invited to "bless themselves" by means of Jesus, the Seed of Abraham.  (Genesis 22:18)  They also  will have to love the name of Jehovah, ministering to him, offering  acceptable sacrifices, and rendering sacred service  in his house of prayer.  Those who do so will enter  into God's rest.  (Isaiah 56:6, 7)  By the end of the thousand years,m all faithful ones will have been brought  to human perfection through the ministration of Jesus Christ and his 144,000 fellow priests. They will be righteous, not merely be declared righteous as friends of God.  they will "come to life," being  completely free of sin and death inherited from Adam.  (Revelation 20:5; 22:2) What a blessing that will be! From our perspective today, it seems that the priestly work of Jesus and the 144,000 will then  have been accomplished.  The blessings of the greater Atonement Day will have been applied in full.  Further, Jesus will 'hand over  the kingdom  to his God and Father.'  (1 Corinthians 15:24) There will be a final test for mankind, and then Satan and his demons will be destroyed forever. -Revelation 20:7, 10. 

What role, if any, will the "everlasting covenant" play in the exciting era that will then begin?  That is not for us to say.  What Jehovah has so far revealed is enough for now.  It leaves us awestruck.  Just think -everlasting life as part  of "new heavens and a new earth.!"  (2 Peter 3:13)  May nothing weaken  our desire to inherit that promise.  Standing firm may not be easy.  Paul said:  "You have need of endurance, in order that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the fulfillment of the promise." (Hebrews 10:36)  Remember, though, that any problem to be overcome, any opposition to be surmounted , pales into insignificance beside the joy that awaits us.  (2 Corinthians 4:17)  Hence, may none of us be "the sort that shrink back to destruction." Rather, may we prove  ourselves to be "the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul." (Hebrews 10:39)  May we all have full trust in Jehovah, the God of the covenants, to the eternal blessing of each and every one of us.

Next time: Is It Praise or Flattery?

From the Watchtower magazine, 1998