Christianity & Judaism - A Parallel

Summary:

There is one character of God. One consistent Personality and one consistent-theme across the whole Bible.

Our unchanging God of the Bible:

Here are the characteristics of God that carried over from the Old to the New Covenant, but not many know this:

He forgives sins on a daily basis. Jesus’s prayer said so.
His forgiveness requires a redemption sacrifice daily. Jesus Himself on our behalf, which became our “daily Bread of life”.
The sacrifice must be eaten daily. Jesus’s prayer shows us how to ask God the Father for the daily Bread of life.
His forgiveness is contingent upon us forgiving others. Jesus’s prayer said so.
Then after obeying the above, He sends us the Holy Spirit to reconcile us to Him, daily! This is also in the Lord’s Prayer!

God's personality and ways of dealing with people, whether Jews or Gentiles, have been very consistent throughout history, from the Jewish days to the Christian days. Aside from the fact that Jesus fulfilled the old covenant law, there are clear parallels in God's ways that carried over to the new covenant. The Biblical facts pointing to this parallel between the Jewish and Christian covenants are highlighted in this page. They provide further evidence that the underlying basic ways of God have not changed now that we are Christians. Which further explains the significance of the Lord's Prayer and its perfectly designed wording.

Churches got too carried away with declaring which parts of the Old Covenant Jesus fulfilled.

These 2 requirements carried over to the New Covenant, but churches don't know that:

Daily renewal (daily forgiveness of sins and receiving the Holy Spirit, as in Jesus's prayer)
Eating of the sacrifice (the daily bread of life through Jesus's prayer)

The 1st Parallel - God's Old and New Covenants

Jews Old-Covenant:

God chose to start with an old-covenant before Christ using a proxy redemption plan of substitutionary offerings and sacrifices, paving the way for the final plan, the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ. Several verses in Exodus and Deuteronomy clearly stated that the Jews were God's chosen people. Example:

Exodus 19:5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.

A side-note, today's Jewish people are no longer God's chosen people, because they rejected Jesus Christ. The Messiah has come. But they continue to reject Him to this day. They were God's chosen people when they "obeyed His voice". What Paul talked about in the New Testament, was referring to "the Elect" Jews. Those that are like Paul that God "Elected"ed, who genuinely followed God's law of Moses and naively missed seeing Jesus as the Messiah. But today's Jews? The New Testament scripture is in front of them!!! And they continue to strongly and mockingly reject it!

For more on this, see my page Will Today's Jews Go to Heaven?

Christians New-Covenant:

The new-covenant, Jesus the perfect and final sacrifice fulfilled the old law and nailed it to the cross - He purchased those who believed in Him with His blood, and they became His, meaning saved. And extended God's salvation offer to the whole earth.

Galatians 3:13 Christ bought us with His blood and made us free from the Law.

John 14:15-16 [Jesus:] “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

The 2nd Parallel - The Daily Requirement

Jews Old-Covenant:

When the Jewish people sinned, God's instructions were to present daily sacrifices to the Lord to atone for their sins. In other words, although sin separated them from God, the Jewish people that sinned did not stop being God's chosen people. They remained God's chosen people as long as the daily sacrifices were presented as instructed (Exodus 29:38-39). No blanket forgiveness for life.

Christians New-Covenant:

When the Christian believers sinned, Jesus having completely fulfilled God's substitutionary requirement, provided the perfect spiritual prayer for the forgiveness of sins, the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke11:2-4). As long as this prayer is prayed daily as He instructed, a Christian remains in Jesus, and Jesus remains in him. And only then those Christians remain forgiven and belonging to Jesus. Still no blanket forgiveness for life:

John 15:4

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Yes, Jesus paid the price once and for all, meaning no more sacrifices required. But we are still required to ask for forgiveness of our sins daily, as He commanded in the Lord's Prayer. This fact is so misunderstood in the Protestant world!!!! They keep saying things like "...what?... What are you talking about "daily"?... Jesus paid the price once and for all... nothing else to do..." So misunderstood! They're brainwashed; not seeing clearly; not listening to everything Jesus said.

Note, the big difference is the Jews performed works of the flesh as required by the "law", by repeating new sacrifices daily. The Christians pray the Lord's Prayer in their hearts as Jesus commanded, which is not works of the flesh nor repeating sacrifices! It is not "law"; it is a spiritual act of daily praying for forgiveness based on the same perfect sacrifice. It is part of God's salvation design. He turned Jesus' sacrifice into "Bread of life" that He gives to people daily, when we pray the Lord's Prayer and mean it correctly.

Both the old and new covenants accomplished these same 2 objectives for God:

Daily forgiveness of sins
Keep the relationship with God daily.

The 3rd Parallel - The Eating of the Sacrifice

The Jewish priests ate the sacrificed offerings, and the Christians eat the Bread, the spiritual Bread of life, Jesus Himself.

For God's redemption design to work, the sacrifice (on our behalf) must be eaten to receive forgiveness of sins:

Old-covenant: Jews ate the sacrifice for forgiveness; they physically ate it.
New-covenant: Christians eat the Bread of life for forgiveness, we spiritually receive it by faith, when we pray the Lord's Prayer.

Jews Old-Covenant:

Most animal sacrifices and grain offerings served as food for the priests and their families as instructed by God (see the last section at the bottom of this page). God's instructions to the Priests in Leviticus were to present part of the sacrifice as burnt offering to the Lord, and the majority remainder of it to be eaten by the Priests and their families that same day as atonement for sins. So the eating of sacrifices started back in those days. Then

Jesus did the same by informing us He's the sacrificial Bread we must eat for forgiveness of sins.

Exodus 29:31-33

“Take the ram for the ordination and cook the meat in a sacred place. At the entrance to the tent of meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration...

Leviticus 6:25-26

“Tell Aaron and his sons that this is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the Lord; it is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it must be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.

Leviticus 10:17

Moses asked them, “Why didn’t you eat the offering for sin in the holy place? It is very holy and was given to you to take away the sins of the congregation and to make peace with the Lord for them.

Christians New-Covenant:

Jesus as the perfect and final sacrifice, said His sacrifice on the cross turned into a "Bread of life" that God the Father gives us when we ask, and we should eat for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord's Prayer provides the spiritual method of eating this Bread. And no, you don't have to go to a Catholic church and chew on their Eucharist bread. It is a spiritual Bread, effective only when the Lord's Prayer is genuinely prayed daily and properly with the correct Bread meaning.

John 6:33, 6:51
Jesus said: "...my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

John 6:57
…the one who “feeds” on me…

Paul also referred to the Jewish eating of sacrifices when explaining the new covenant of Jesus to the gentiles:

1 Corinthians 10:18

Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

The 4th Parallel - How to Approach God

In the old covenant, there was always a protocol for approaching God. Example, Moses had to remove his sandals when at the burning bush. The Jewish people when Moses was talking to God, had to stay a distance away from the foot of the mountain. And in the Jewish law only the high priest (from the tribe of Levi) could enter the inner room the Holy place with God's presence, and only after executing the requirements precisely. Today the death of Jesus on the cross gave us direct access to speak to God and call Him "our Father", but this does not mean that God is now your bestie. There is still a proper spiritual protocol to approaching God. Jesus' prayer shows us exactly how to do it. And note, God will hear you better if you pray this prayer on your knees in private. Kneeling is a symbol of humility, worship, and reverend to God. "Kneeling" was mentioned hundreds of times in the old-testament about the Jews "bending their knees" to other gods, which grieved God tremendously. This teaches us about God's personality, for example how much the act of "kneeling" means to Him; it is the perfect gesture for worshiping. Our relationship with God is, He is our God and we are His children, not His friends as in equal. Learning this, is part of the spiritual growing that God expects of us.

Refer to the covenant-comparison table at the bottom of this page. The key takeaway from this table is, the Jews had a long list of strict commandments, detailed and sometimes difficult requirements, to execute twice a day, and all for what? Forgiveness of their sins! All this work, daily, for the forgiveness of sins, so they remain reconciled with God.

Then Jesus came and fulfilled all this, and turned it into a simple spiritual prayer to be prayed daily. Although Jesus fulfilled all the old-covenant requirements, we are still on the daily schedule with God!! You see, there is no blanket statement like "covered by the blood" and move on in life. God would never do it this way.

God's personality has always been the same - reconcile with Him on a daily basis. For us in the new covenant, the Lord's Prayer accomplishes this by receiving the daily Bread of life.

More on the Old-Covenant

God’s instructions to Moses in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, hundreds of commandments, were given to the Jews in the desert. In those early days when the Jews learned the law from Moses, these commandments were precisely and perfectly performed daily by the Levites, designated by God to be the priestly tribe for executing God's commandments on behalf of the Jewish people. With the ceremonial law met, their sins were forgiven. As a result, God lived among them, in the form of smoke by day, and fire pillar by night:

Exodus 40:34-35 & 38

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

God was only able to do this after their sins were forgiven. He would not have been able to otherwise. During that time, God’s blessings accompanied them in their travels, daily food provided in the desert, etc. Today, we know that that was God’s preparatory provision until the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So in the same way today, in the new covenant, we become filled with the Holy Spirit when we pray the Lord's Prayer daily, when using the correct meaning of the "Bread". Then God's blessings will pour out on us!

The main point here is, that the Jews actually carried-out all these difficult precise requirements and repeated them daily (example in Numbers 28:3-8), for the forgiveness of sins. But today, if you tell someone you have to pray the Lord’s Prayer daily to worship God and for the daily renewal and forgiveness of sins, they complain. “That's 'works', no that's not what it means, my sins are already forgiven, I'm covered by the blood, etc., and all the other hi-level statements churches use.”

Churches made a significant error in their interpretations of all this. They missed the need for the daily aspect of worshiping God and asking for forgiveness of sins, which is evident in the Lord's prayer.

Here are some old-covenant references to the daily sacrifices of the Jews:

Note, these verses are only some examples; not showing the hundreds of specific daily requirements and preparations that led to each sacrifice.

Numbers 28:3

Say to them: ‘This is the food offering you are to present to the Lord: two lambs 1-year-old without defect, as a regular burnt offering each day.

Exodus 29:38-39

“This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs 1-year old. Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight.

Exodus 29:42

“For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you

Leviticus 4:31

...In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.

2Chronicles 2:4

King Solomon said: Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals of the Lord our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.

More About Old-Covenant Jewish Sacrifices

After the Jews came out of the desert and arrived at the promised land. Eleven of the 12 tribes of Israel were given their land allotment in the promised land. But the 12th tribe, the tribe of Levi, were not given any land. Instead they were given a portion of the produce from the other 11 tribes. This way the tribe of Levi would not have to work the land for survival. And instead they would dedicate their time to serving God in the temple. In the old covenant God had hundreds of commandments to be performed on a regular basis. Serving God in the temple was demanding work; a full-time job for all the Levites; they deserved the 10% tithes from the other tribes for their hard work. This is how God balanced the distribution equally among the 12 tribes. Note, today the protestants stress the need to tithe 10% of income based on this part of the Old Testament Bible. They don't do any work, compared to their Levites counterparts; not saying they should do the Levites work, which today Jesus fulfilled. What I'm saying is Protestants should not stress the 10% tithe, instead they should go with Paul's word of "any gift is acceptable". But first preach from the whole Bible, not just the high-level parts, calling it "by faith alone"!! See Are We True Christians?

Deuteronomy 18:1-5

The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.

This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head. You are to give them the first-fruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, for the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord’s name always.

Related Subjects:

God's Perspective