Because we are in the middle of genuinely renewing our minds and
we're opening our hearts to receive deeper revelation from His Holy
Spirit about what the Scriptures actually have to say, instead of what
centuries of religion have claimed they've said against the animals,
let's begin again at the beginning with carefully, very carefully,
reading aloud our foundational Scriptures to this study from God's Word:
17 �Again proclaim, saying, �Thus says the LORD of hosts: � My cities
shall again spread out through prosperity; The LORD will again comfort
Zion, And will again choose Jerusalem.���
Now, the cities He's talking about are those Jeremiah 31:27 cities
that are comprised of Jews, Gentiles, and Animals that He's building and
planting according to Jeremiah 31:28. That's what He's talking about!
We're so in the habit of only thinking of people when we read the word
�cities� in the Bible that we need to stop and think of the beasts of
the field, birds of the air, and creeping things of the ground that
technically live in our cities, whether they're conscious of the city
they live in the middle of, or not. From Zechariah 2:4-5 we read:
4 who said to him, �Run, speak to this young man, saying: �Jerusalem
shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of
men and livestock in it. 5 For I,� says the LORD, �will be a wall of
fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.��
Let's go back to Hebrews 12, because there's a different translation
that I want us to look at on that passage that's a little more accurate
than the New King James Version:
18 For you have not come to that which may be handled and burned with
fire, and to murkiness, and gloom, and tornado, and the blare of a
trumpet, 19 and the sound of declarations, which those who hear refuse,
that no word be added to them. 20 For they did not carry out the
assignment: And if a wild beast should come in contact with the
mountain, it shall be pelted with stones. 21 And so fearful was the
spectacle, Moses said, Terrified am I, and in a tremor. (Hebrews
12:18-21 Concordant Literal New Testament)
Now this says they wouldn't carry out that assignment. Part of the
reason was because it was a ministry of death that was passing away,
according to Jeremiah 31:28 and 2Corinthians 3:7-8:
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was
glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the
face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was
passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more
glorious?
28 And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to
pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I
will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.
Let's go back to Hebrews 12 from the Concordant Literal New
Testament:
22 But you have come to mount Zion, and the city of the living God,
celestial Jerusalem, and to ten thousand messengers, 23 to a universal
convocation, and to the ecclesia of the firstborn, registered in the
heavens, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the just
perfected, 24 and to Jesus, the Mediator of a fresh covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling which is speaking better than Abel. (Hebrews
12:22-24)
There's a lot of emphasis in many circles that Abel offered a blood
sacrifice and Cain didn't, and I've disputed that in the past on the
grounds of those who have their children dedicated to God aren't cutting
their throats in offering, devoting, or committing them to God. Some
would no doubt have trouble with that interpretation on the grounds of
the Mosaic Law that came thousands of years later and how they've always
heard these passages that mention Cain and Abel interpreted. But Hebrews
11:4 is as easily saying that Abel didn't struggle against Cain, but
turned the other cheek and committed himself to Him Who judges justly
(Matthew 5:39; 1Peter 4:19).
But let's say for the sake of argument that Abel was an animal
murderer. Hebrews 12, in alluding to the place of Jesus's Blood in the
behalf of the Hosea 2:18 Covenant, which would be understood in the
contrasting of the Covenants in Hebrews 12:18-29 specifically with
saying that this isn't to be like what they were commanded to do in
verse 20:
20 For they did not carry out the assignment (reread 2Corinthians
3:7-8, above, with this verse and Jeremiah 31:27-28 in it's entirety):
And if a wild beast should come in contact with the mountain, it shall
be pelted with stones.
Hebrews 12:18, 22-24 says we've not come to that in the New Covenant,
but this is His Jeremiah 31:28 building and planting ministry of the
Spirit (according to 2Corinthians 3:8) that is much more glorious and
won't pass away. Our saying, for the sake of argument, that Abel did
sacrifice the lives of animals puts a double exclamation mark on Hebrews
12:24. Hebrews 12:24 doesn't say the Blood of Jesus speaks a better Word
than the blood of Abel. That is an interpretation of that passage where
translators have to add �the blood of� when talking about Abel because
that isn't in the original Greek text. It simply says the Blood of Jesus
speaks better things than Abel.
You could perhaps read the passage as saying that His Blood speaks
better things than Abel did with his life. Some would say this is
alluding back to the passage where God is confronting Cain for killing
his brother, but there's nothing in the book of Hebrews before, in the
midst of, or after this passage to require that interpretation as the
natural, logical, and prima facie interpretation.
No, the blood of Jesus on the Hosea 2:18; Jeremiah 31:27-28;
Zechariah 2:4-5 Covenant wipes out the significance of Abel's life in
history against animals; against this: �pelt it with stones if it's not
human and it's not in close proximity to the glory of God in order to
protect either the order of our religious services, as 'corban' (a gift
devoted to God), or because it's different from us, or because we have
the right to.�
If Abel was an animal killer, then this holds the place in the Animal
Gospel that Adam does in Romans 5 and 1Corinthians 15 with the Universal
Restoration where the Blood of Jesus is just addressing the major
iniquities of mankind generation by generation. Adam introduced the
fall, and if Abel introduced the harm of animals in religious devotion,
then this passage in Hebrews is saying the Blood of Lord Jesus wipes
that out completely!
Hebrews 12 says we've come to New Jerusalem. Jeremiah 31:27-28 says
He'd sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man
and with the seed of beast. Evidently, the seed of man, in St. Paul's
interpretation of the Gospel in Ephesians 2 is Him bringing the Gentiles
into Israel's faith in the Messiah. St. Paul says that God tore down the
dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles, in Ephesians 2:14 that
dispensationalists are always trying to rebuild. St. Paul was evidently
partially basing this on Jeremiah 31:27-28 and Zechariah 2:4-5 where the
only walls would be the protective, nurturing, consuming fire of God.
We are in Jerusalem, according to Hebrews 12:22 and Jeremiah 31:27-28
would have us to understand that the house of the Lord we're being built
into in Ephesians 2:19-22 is comprised of Jews, Gentiles, and Animals.
And we are being built into His holy city that according to Zechariah
1:17 will spread out through prosperity and we are His chosen as
Jerusalem.
So, the context of the New Covenant house of God is New Jerusalem
that's comprised of Jews, Gentiles, and Animals that are surrounded by
the fire of God. Therefore, because of Jeremiah 31:27-28, anytime the
Scriptures speak of the �children of Zion,� Animals covenanted with us
through the Hosea 2:18; Revelation 5:13 Covenant are likewise understood
to be the children of Zion, such as in Joel 2:21-24. Let's close for now
with looking at Psalm 122:6-9:
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: �May they prosper who love you. 7
Peace be within your walls, (i.e. peace be within your Zechariah 2:4-5
walls of fire where you are being nurtured in the Secret Place of the
Most High,) Prosperity within your palaces.� 8 For the sake of my
brethren and companions, (ever heard some of these Animals called
�companion animals?�) I will now say, �Peace be within you.� 9 Because
of the house of the LORD our God (i.e. Jeremiah 31:27-28: the house of
Jews, Gentiles, and Animals combined) I will seek your good.
Doesn't that put that Psalm 122 blessing in an entirely different
light? There's no way, Scripturally, of being Pro-Jerusalem without
being a vegan as well. Not ultimately or completely. I've heard of Jews
that have embraced the Lordship of Jesus that have referred to
themselves as �Completed Jews.�
Isn't it time to become a �Completed Christian� by embracing a vegan
lifestyle in honour of the Hosea 2:18 Covenant and the work of Christ on
the Cross to remove the barrier; to tear down the walls between Jews,
Gentiles, and Animals and to make in Himself of the 3, (according to
Jeremiah 31:27-28,) one new man, or one new Creation (2Corinthians
5:17)? He's made Himself a wall of fire around people and animals
according to Zechariah 2:4-5.
Isn't it time to stop being burned by the consuming fire of God
(Hebrews 12:29; 1Corinthians 3:11-17) and stop eating animals that are
likewise His house, according to Jeremiah 31:27, since He's sown the
house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the
seed of beast? (Please ACTUALLY read Hebrews 12:29 and 1Corinthians
3:11-17 right now if you haven't already!)
Prayerfully approach the communion table of our Lord, in private,
realizing that this Hosea 2:18 Covenant is likewise His Covenant and
according to Psalm 89:34, His Covenant will He not break, nor alter the
Word that has gone out of His mouth. His Word can't return to Him void,
according to Isaiah 55, but it must prosper in the thing for which it
was sent! According to Zechariah 1:17, He's sent His Word to our cities
and they will stretch out through prosperity, the Lord is comforting
Zion, and has chosen Jerusalem! Now you know what that means.
Go on to Conclusion
Return to Hosea 2:18
Return to
Covenant Foundations
Animal Gospel
