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Thus we see that the Lord's Supper is connected with the Jewish feast of the Passover,
and by reading I Cor. xi.23-26 we see that henceforth this feast was not merely to remind
them of the deliverance from Egypt, but to "show forth the Lord's death till He come,"
which is further interpreted in I Cor. v.7 by the words, "For even Christ our Passover hath
been sacrificed for us." Both Matt. 26: and I Cor. 11: tell us that the wine typified the
"blood of the new covenant." What is this new covenant? Is it connected with the mystery
hidden since the age-times? Is the new covenant a secret only revealed now, or is it a
matter of Old Testament knowledge? Let us turn to Jer. 31::--
"At the same time (i.e. `the latter times,' Jer. 30: 24), saith the Lord, I will be the
God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. . . . again I will build
thee, . . . . O virgin of Israel. . . . O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the
earth. . . . for I am a Father to Israel. . . . He that scattered Israel will gather him
. . . . for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob. . . . Behold, the days come, saith 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 (hence the connection between
the new covenant, the passover and the Lord's supper). . . . But this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel (this is God's interpretation of the new
covenant). . . . If those ordinances (of the sun, moon and stars) depart from before Me,
saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for
ever. Thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundation of the
earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have
done, saith the Lord."
No one who believes that God means what He says can help seeing that the new
covenant is related to a greater though parallel, exodus than that from Egypt, that it is
specifically connected with the future gathering of Israel back to their land, and that the
church of the mystery of Eph. 3: finds no place therein whatsoever. The opening words
of Exo. 20: teach much the same lesson. "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Then follows the first
covenant, "which they brake" (Deut. 29: 25), and, "They have forsaken the covenant of
the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out
of the land of Egypt" (see also Jer. 11: 7, 8; Heb. 8:; Isa. 11: 11, 16).
In Matt. xxvi the Lord Jesus looks forward to "that day," to His "Father's kingdom";
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth"; "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My
Father hath appointed Me, that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit
on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel!" (Luke 22: 29,30). Where in all this is
room and place for, or hint of, the church of the mystery? When we pass the
dispensational boundary of Acts xxviii we read in Ephesians not of the kingdom of the
heavens, nor of the kingdom of the Father, but of "the kingdom of Christ and of God"
(Eph. 5: 5). In Col. i.13 we read, "The kingdom of the Son of His love," which is in
operation now, and is entirely distinct from the kingdom that hinges upon the restoration
of Israel.
Jer. 30: 24
The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the
intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.