The New Covenant - Part II

In my previous post, I quoted Jeremiah 31:31-33 saying that the new covenant was to be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It would not be like the former covenant God made with their fathers at Sinai, but would be written upon their hearts and in their minds, so they would want to obey him. It wasn't a different covenant with new conditions, but the same covenant written within them rather than on tablets of stone.

Where do Gentiles fit into this covenant? Exactly where they fit in within the framework of the Old Covenant. When Israel stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai to meet with God and enter into covenant with him, a mixed multitude of peoples who had joined themselves to Israel during the Exodus stood shoulder to shoulder with them. The terms of the covenant were for the twelve tribes of Israel and the strangers that sojourned with them. The stranger within their midst was to be treated as the "homeborn", if they were willing to worship and obey the God of Israel. Ex 12:49, " One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you." Provision was always made for any who would follow the God of Israel.

Caleb was one of the twelve spies sent to search out the promised land. He and Joshua were the only two who brought back a good report. We are told in Nu 13:6 that he was the son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah. In Nu 32:12 we are told he was the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite. We find in Gen 36:11 that Kenaz was the son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau, Jacob's brother. But see how God spoke of Caleb in Nu 14:24. " But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it." He was counted among the tribe of Judah, not by blood, but by joining himself with Judah and serving the God of Israel.

Other examples we read of in scripture are those of Rahab the harlot and Ruth the Moabitess, who sought to follow Israel's God. Both of these Gentile women are in the geneology of our Lord.

Gentiles have always been allowed access to God in accordance with the terms and conditions of the covenant. Israel was instructed not to oppress the stranger that sojourned with them, but to remember that they were once strangers in Egypt.