God’s Covenant Signs
By Eric Carlson on January 1, 2023
What is a sign? It’s a motion or gesture by which a thought is expressed or a command or wish made known, a mark having a conventional meaning and used in place of words or to represent a complex notion, something material or external that stands for or signifies something spiritual. Sign in Hebrew is Oth; a sign, signal, a distinguishing mark, banner, remembrance, miraculous sign, an omen, or a warning! Signs (Oth) are extraordinary events by which Adonai reveals His will through nature, people, dreams, and His word. Adonai does this to reveal His will, to instill trust, and or demonstrate His authority. Signs are a heavenly revelation to your earthly senses of God’s divine power and will. God made a covenant sign with Noach and all living things:
Genesis 9:12-13. God added, “Here is the sign of the covenant I am making between myself and you and every living creature with you, for all generations to come: 13 I am putting my rainbow (Et-kashti: Bow, Rainbow, a sign of strength) in the cloud – it will be there as a sign of the covenant between myself and the earth.
Signs were the method God used to reveal Himself to both Israel and Egypt while Israel was enslaved in Egypt!
Psalms 135:9. He sent signs and wonders among you, Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his subjects.
Signs were used by Yeshua, the Son of God to reveal that He is the Messiah sent by God:
Sign 1: Yeshua’s birth and death.
Luke 2:34 – Shim`on blessed them and said to the child’s mother, Miryam, “This child will cause many in Isra’el to fall and to rise, he will become a sign whom people will speak against;
Matthew 12:39-40. He replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign? No! None will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Yonah. For just as Yonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.
Sign 2: Yeshua’s second sign was healing an official’s son
John 4:46–54. He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum. 47 This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!” 49 The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive 52 So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted. 54 This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil.
Yeshua gave us signs regarding the season of His return:
Matthew 24:30. “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power and glory.
The Adversary, HaSatan, will cause apostasy through deception and false signs:
II Thessalonians 2:8-10. Then the one who embodies separation from Torah will be revealed, the one whom the Lord Yeshua will slay with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the glory of his coming. 9 When this man who avoids Torah comes, the Adversary will give him the power to work all kinds of false miracles, signs and wonders. 10 He will enable him to deceive, in all kinds of wicked ways, those who are headed for destruction because they would not receive the love of the truth that could have saved them.
There are three specific signs unique to Israel that reveal God’s covenant decision of choosing Israel as His very own people. These signs mark the foundation of who and what we are as children of God:
- Circumcision:
Genesis 17:11. You are to be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; this will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
God states that He will bless the seed of Abraham, that His seed will be as numerous as the grains of sand at the beach, that His seed will possess the Land of Israel forever, and that through Abraham’s seed all the Nations will be blessed! Circumcision is a permanent mark on the body symbolizing the permanency of God’s covenant with his people. Because of its significance for personal cleanliness, it symbolized also the purity that the covenant demanded of them. Circumcision is a covenant act, a cut that releases blood which is always required for any covenant! The result is that Abraham’s seed passes through the covenant cut thereby becoming covenant seed.
- Shabbat:
Exodus 31:13. “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘You are to observe my Shabbats; for this is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you will know that I am ADONAI, who sets you apart for me.
Adonai’s covenant signs are what separate us from the world and those who don’t honor and serve Him. Representing God’s covenant, it’s no wonder that these three humble signs have experienced the brunt of HaSatan’s fury. Every religion known today and many governments have attacked and attempted to change, altar, and or remove these covenant signs. The Philistines, Midianites, Ammonites, the Persians did, the Greeks did (under Antiochus Epiphanies in the Hanukkah story), Christianity tried under the Constantine/Rome Hellenization influence, as well as communism and Islam. Throughout History there have been numerous periods of time when it has been illegal to keep Shabbat, circumcise your children, display Mezuzahs, or wear Jewish symbols. Even Adonai’s covenant “Rainbow” sign after the great flood has been hijacked to represent the unbiblical LGBQT community. Remember who established the covenant signs, God and God alone, anything else is manmade and false.
Tefillin is dated to the second Temple period. Prior to this time these verses were interpreted to have Adonai’s word in your mind. Placing the word on the doorposts is the only part of this scripture that actual was done in both first and second Temple periods. Prior to the 2nd Temple period silver amulets (bracelets, necklaces and rings) were worn (numerous ones having been found in archeological digs) that had the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) written on them. These were worn in full view to express the wearer’s dedication to Torah and Adonai.
Verse eight is performed in modern orthodox Judaism by wrapping Tefillin. Tefillin or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from Deuteronomy 6. One box is worn on the persons head above the forehead wrapped with the leather straps, the second box is wrapped on the left bicep with the leather straps while the remainder of the leather straps are wrapped down the arm creating the letters of one of God’s names, Shaddai (שׁדי) — shin (שׁ), dalet (ד), yod (י). They are “written” across the hand using the tefillin straps. The Tefillin are worn by adult males during weekday morning prayers. You may read further on this subject by using the link below!
Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord;5. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart; 7. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.
- Torah: God’s Word.
The sins of Jeroboam are made up of manmade religious doctrines that are still being practiced in the greater Body of Messiah today!!
I Kings 12:26-33. Nevertheless Yarov’am said to himself, “Now the rulership will return to the house of David. 27 For if these people continue going up to offer sacrifices in the house of ADONAI in Yerushalayim, their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rechav’am king of Y’hudah. Then they will kill me and return to Rechav’am king of Y’hudah.” 28 After seeking advice, the king made two calves of gold and said to the people, “You have been going up to Yerushalayim long enough! Here are your gods, Isra’el, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 29 He placed one in Beit-El and the other in Dan, 30 and the affair became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one [in Beit-El and] all the way to Dan [to worship the other]. 31 He also set up temples on the high places and made cohanim from among all the people, even though they were not descended from Levi. 32 Yarov’am instituted a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, similar to the festival held in Y’hudah; he went up to the altar in Beit-El to sacrifice to the calves he had made; and he placed in Beit-El the cohanim he had appointed for the high places. 33 He went up to the altar which he had set up in Beit-El on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had chosen on his own, and instituted a festival for the people of Isra’el; he went up to the altar to burn incense.
The Lord calls it His day and His day alone. God recognizes, honors, and keeps Shabbat! Anything else he doesn’t honor and becomes a sin according to His word. When Israel split into two kingdoms Jeroboam (Yarov’am) became king of Israel, the northern Kingdom and the ten tribes:
Isaiah 58:13. “If you hold back your foot on Shabbat from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call Shabbat a delight, ADONAI’s holy day, worth honoring; then honor it by not doing your usual things or pursuing your interests or speaking about them.
First this is perpetual, second it was established in the beginning of creation in Genesis Chapter 2. Adonai stated that it’s His Shabbat, a Moedim, and appointed time like the feast days! Different days have not been established for different cultures or people! There’s not one scripture that states that Shabbat has been changed.