Thoughts from the Well

The Seal of God!

Some churches today seem confused over the how to understand the different covenants in scripture. Some of the Sabbath keeping churches teach that the Sabbath is the seal of God for today. If the Sabbath is not the seal of the New Covenant, what is?

Each major Covenant God made with mankind had it's own sign or seal. The sign or seal may carry over and be incorporated into the next Covenant but it does not function as the sign or seal. Don't be confused on your Covenants. Don't return to the Old Covenant. Don't preach the Old Covenant. We live under the New Covenant with a new, better seal than the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit. God living in us!

The Covenant with Noah:

"I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you... Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood... I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth... I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God all living creatures of every kind on the earth." (Gen 9:9-16)

The Covenant with Abraham:

"This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant." (Gen 17:10-13)

The Covenant with Moses and Israel:

"Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy. . . . Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God." (Ezek 20:12,20)

The New Covenant:

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory." (Eph 1:13-14)

The New Covenant has the Holy Spirit as our seal and guarantee of our salvation in Christ, not the Sabbath. This is in perfect harmony with John's Book of Revelation. "Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." (Rev 7:2-3)

In the Revelation there are two groups of people, those who have the seal of God (His Holy Spirit) and are saved and those who do not receive His Seal and so they receive the Mark of the Beast instead. Because of that judgement falls upon them. "A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, {10} he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb." (Rev 14:9-10)

A perfect example of a seal or sign from one covenant ceasing to play a roll in the next covenant is circumcision. God establishes the sign or seal of circumcision with Abraham and it is so important that when Moses forgot to circumcise his son God was going to kill him for it!

"At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)" (Ex 4:24-26)

Yet in the New Covenant, circumcision means nothing at all and plays no roll in our eternal standing with God. "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation." (Gal 6:15)

The Sign or Seal of a Covenant is very important and plays a significant roll in that Covenant. We have to let God freely establish His signs and seals for the covenant and we have to faithfully represent what He says in his Word and not confuse the Covenants.

In Him,
Bill Fritz

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