End Times
God’s Covenant with Day and Night
Jeremiah 33:20-21 “Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.’”
God’s covenant with the day and God’s covenant with the night are symbolic of the duality of God’s covenant with David and with his descendants forever. What I mean is that one part of the covenant is unconditional, that is what the light of day stands for, and is God’s part to fulfill in the covenant; the other part is conditional, and that is what the darkness of night stand for, and that is David’s descendants part to fulfill. In other words, the one covenant is extended to cover two family lines; Abraham’s and David’s.
Jeremiah 33:24 “Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the Lord has chosen, He has also cast them off’? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them.”
What prompted God to mention that His obligation to the covenant was unbreakable was that they were questioning God’s commitment to His part of the covenant, because Jeremiah was prophesying the demise of the city of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. In their thinking, if there is no kingdom then there is no king. They failed to understand that God still reigns even after David’s descendants failed to keep their part of the covenant and suffered the consequences of their rebellion.
Jeremiah 33:25-26 “Thus says the Lord: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’”
Here God is establishing once more that His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is unbreakable, and that His choice of David and his family line to be rulers over the patriarchs descendants forever, is just as unbreakable. Then He adds, that they will be a nation again, for I will have mercy on them.
“And with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.”
Also notice that God’s covenant with David included the Levites and the priests that minister before God. God’s ultimate goal was to create a kingdom of priests, of which both Abraham and David are types!
Revelation 1:6 “And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Abraham had a choice being the first. In Genesis 14:16-24 we find that after defeating king Chedorlaomer to rescue Lot who had been taken captive, Abraham arrived in the King’s Valley and was met by Melchizedek king of Salem, who offered him bread and wine, for he was priest of God Most High. Those verses are full of types that we need to understand if we want to understand the nature of God’s covenant.
In the original creation of man, Adam was both king and priest. A king as defined by my biblical understanding is one who exercises authority over the physical realm, and a priest as one who exercises authority over the spiritual realm. Because of the rebellion at the tower of Babel, God separated those powers when He confused the languages, and from that time on, rulers (kings) had to depend on priests for spiritual counsel and understanding. King Saul was immediately rejected by God according to the prophet Samuel, when Saul took it upon himself to offer sacrifices, which is the assignment and ministry of the priesthood and not the king.
Abraham understood this principle and when he arrived in the Kings Valley he understood the significance. He had just defeated a consortium of kings and had now become as one of the kings. He was met by none other than God’s King-Priest Melchizedek and offered a choice. A this time Abraham owned all the spoils that were taken from Sodom where Lot lived, plus the spoils that belonged to the other kings. The future of Abraham’s ministry hanged in the balance, would he become ruler of man or priest of God?
Genesis 14:18-20 “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ And he (Abraham) gave him (Melchizedek) a tithe of all.”
Immediately Abraham proceeded to renounce any association with the kings of the valley, even refusing to take any of the goods that he had captured, except for the offering that he gave as a tithe to God Most High. In essence the actions of Abraham were to reject the physical benefits of kingship, for the more enduring qualities of the priesthood and God’s favor in spiritual matters. So it is that in the next chapter God enters into an unbreakable covenant with Abraham and the priesthood to which he is called, where eventually Abraham is required to offer God Isaac his son of promise as a burnt offering, that act of faith establishes Abraham as the father of all the faithful, as he uttered those immortal words: God will provide for Himself a Lamb.
1 Kings 9:5 “Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’”
The two families, Abraham’s and David’s, symbolized the two components of the covenant, Priest and King, of which Jesus’ ministry is the fulfillment thereof. Matthew’s genealogy makes it clear that Jesus is a direct descendant of Abraham who offered tithes to Melchizedek, and His claim to the throne of David comes through His mother, Mary’s line, since Joseph’s line had been cursed.
Hebrews 5:5-6 “So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’”
After Jesus came out of the water, from His baptism, God’s voice spoke from heaven saying: This is My beloved Son...Matthew 3:17 confirming that Jesus fulfills both ministries, He is King and Priest.
1 Kings 9:6-7 “But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do no keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight…”
So that even if the descendants of David that sat on the throne failed to meet the conditions required of them in the covenant, to keep God’s commandments and statutes, and because of that, the nation of Israel being removed and cut off from the land, God’s covenant is not nullified.
Jeremiah 33:11 “The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: ‘Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever—and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the Lord.”
Jesus our High Priest offers the sacrifice of praise into the house of our Lord day and night in our behalf, while Jesus our King and Redeemer builds His church and rebuilds the nation of Israel by His mighty power to be established forever according to the covenant.
Now there is another mystery attached to God’s covenant with the day and the night which takes place in the middle of the seven years wrath of God, when the abomination that causes desolation is revealed.
Matthew 24:15-16 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
God’s Two Witnesses in Revelation represent the two families in God’s covenant, Israel and the church. And since the days of David either or both have not failed to have representation here on the earth as God’s ambassadors to the world, even during the dispersion of Israel or during the dark days of the church age, there has always been a faithful remnant to represent them.
But when these Two Witnesses are killed, it means that the dispensations of Grace and Law are completed, as far as their physical responsibilities here on earth is concerned. So there will not be a representative from either one left on the earth at that time. That is what the abomination of desolation means, the throne of David is vacated until Jesus returns to the earth three and one half years later to begin His one thousand years reign.
Zechariah 14:5/7 “Then you shall flee (when you see the abomination of desolation taking place)...It shall be one day which is known to the Lord—neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light.”
Isn’t it amazing! As the antichrist, who has just killed the Two Witnesses, begins to take control over the earth, and the throne of David is empty since God’s promised to have one of his descendants rule over it has been completed, immediately God’s covenant with the day and night in their season is abrogated as evening fails to come at its appointed time.
Daniel 11:31 “And forces shall be mustered by him (the antichrist), and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation.”
Not only is the covenant with David completed for the present time, but also the covenant with the Levites and priests that minister before the Lord as they take the daily sacrifices away.
I wrote this lesson in the hope that the readers will come to appreciate how awesome and how perfect the Word of God is! How everything in the Bible is powerfully connected, and how trustworthy God’s covenant with us is. There should be no doubt in our minds as to the commitment of God to bring about our full redemption in His time.
Amen!
For more information on the day and night mystery that I just taught read my book Man’s Final Destiny, in the Books section of houseoffaithministries.org