Sibling Conflict

CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS
The Bible represents God’s ongoing task of punishing religious nations, punishing his bride, and then rescuing his bride from religion as warfare and conflict between siblings and their families (i.e. tribes). Understanding of these inter-family conflicts hinges on interpreting them as either Old/Covenant (OC) religions or New Covenant (NC) disciples. These have been discussed in detail in Two Covenants. For convenience, we have labeled them as OC and NC in the relationships below.

For further understanding of these contentious sibling relationships, see the following links:

When we consider this history of sibling rivalry and reflect on the fact that God sent Israel into a land that was occupied by and surrounded by distant relatives, we find the backstory of later scripture that says that a man’s enemies are members of his own household. This statement fulfills Noah’s prophecy that Canaan (i.e. Canaan’s descendants) will be the slaves to Shem (i.e. his descendants). This is God’s poetic way of saying that New Covenant disciples will overcome Old/First Covenant religion.

Because this story also says that Shem and his household will be blessed, we know that Shem is in the spiritual line of all New Covenant disciples. We know this because “bless” is a code word for God’s covenant with Abraham (i.e. the New Covenant). Similarly, we know that all of Ham’s descendants will be Old/First Covenant religionists because being “cursed” is the condition of anyone who is not blessed.

We learn these code words from Deuteronomy 28 which discusses the conditions for both blessing and cursing, and where blessing accrues to people who carefully follow all of God’s commands, including listening to his voice, and curses accrue to people who do not carefully follow all of God’s commands. In other words, we are either blessed when we are New Covenant disciples, or we are cursed when we are religious. This harsh dichotomy should be discomfiting to all religious people and motivation for serious evaluation of the validity and efficacy of religious beliefs and practices.

There is a subtle but powerful message in the bless/curse contrast for New Covenant disciples. It relates to God’s commands to utterly destroy idols and high places. This is essentially an evangelical message to destroy religion (i.e. the kingdom of the world) so that the kingdom of God can be established in New Covenant disciples. The logic of this message is found in the following associations:

  • Old Covenant religionists are cursed because they live under a Pharisaical religious system that identifies with the temple (i.e. church or synagogue).
  • In the Bible, this religious system is symbolically represented as the Temple in Jerusalem where all the Jews’ religious activities took place.
  • When Jesus said he would destroy the temple, he was fulfilling God’s command to Israel to destroy idols and high places. This language symbolically represents the destruction of man’s religious kingdoms. These kingdoms are strongly associated with churches and synagogues where idols (i.e. religious leaders) conduct their religious activities (i.e. harlotry and prostitution). All religious kingdoms have physical locations where where religious people go to consume (i.e. eat) the religious food offered to them by their idols.
  • Destruction of the temple in Jerusalem symbolically anticipates the future destruction of man’s many religious kingdoms in advance of the establishment of God’s singular spiritual kingdom. Every time this happens for an individual, the curse of religion is removed when they receive the blessing of new life (i.e. New Covenant).

Although God’s spiritual laws are eternal, the New Covenant is first  introduced to Abraham. Thereafter, all New Covenant disciples are considered by God to be children of Abraham. And since God’s promise to Abraham included the the land (i.e. people) of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites, God effectively said that many of these Old/First Covenant religious people would eventually become New Covenant disciples. But that would happen only if and when Israel destroyed their idols and high places. Until that time, however, anyone who is not a New Covenant disciple is, by default, an Old/First Covenant religionist.

We see the historical precedent for the takeover of  the land of Canaan by Abraham’s children in Noah’s prophecy that Canaan (i.e. Canaan’s descendants) will be the slaves to Shem (i.e. Shem’s descendants). This prophecy casts the descendants of Ham (i.e. Old/First Covenant religion) as enemies in perpetual conflict for their religious lives against the descendants of Shem (i.e. Abraham and his children) who are under God’s command to overcome his enemies.

Here we find the symbolism that anticipates ongoing conflict between Old/First Covenant religion and New Covenant disciples. The symbolism is that all religions, past and present, are cursed because they are offspring of Ham and Canaan. Therefore, when God sent Abraham, a grandchild of Shem and his family into the land of Canaan which was occupied by grandchildren of Ham and Canaan, he laid the groundwork for fulfillment of Noah’s prophecy about Canaan being the slave of Shem.

The Bible also represents this conflict as flesh contrasted with, and in opposition to, the spirit. One clear example of this contrast is found in two brothers: Ishmael and Jacob. Ishmael was born of the flesh and Isaac was born of the spirit through a promise from God. While this is a useful, graphic illustration, the conflict and differences between brothers are detailed most clearly in scriptures that contrast the Old/First Covenant and New Covenant.

Here are the main facts that distinguish the two covenants.

◊ These written religious laws govern religious behaviors, traditions, instructions for worship, ethics and morals.

◊ They are conceived and implemented by religious authorities to ensure consistency of behavior, belief and religious practice for adherents within the religious denomination or sect that writes and enforces them.

◊ Old/First Covenant religionists practice their righteousness in ways that allow others to see them.

◊ Religious leaders within those sects continue writing, refining, preaching and teaching adherents to remind them about the laws and encourage them to obey them.

◊ Old/First Covenant laws are always subject to interpretation and change by religious leaders and followers.

◊ When necessary, religious leaders will discipline adherents who have violated the laws of the religious institution.

◊ When religious leaders discipline someone they judge based on obedience to written laws created by men.

◊ Because these behaviors and practices are documented, consistent — more or less — and predictable, it can be said that they have the qualities of laws or regulations.

◊ Religious laws created by men are the written codes that bind men to religion and bring death.

◊ Obedience to Old/First Covenant laws is based on fear.

◊ Obedience to New Covenant law is a matter of faith in things that cannot be seen.

◊ The New Covenant requires no written codes to govern religious behaviors, customs, instructions for worship, ethics or morals because New Covenant laws are written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples by God’s spirit.

◊ Because New Covenant law is written on the hearts of men, it is internal and invisible — just like God who makes his home in New Covenant disciples..

◊ New Covenant law is predictable and eternal in the sense that neither God nor God’s laws change over time.

◊ New Covenant disciples make their own judgments and interpretations of laws written on their hearts but they are not judged by any religious authority regarding their obedience to any religious laws.

◊ God judges New Covenant believers according to the thoughts and intentions of their hearts — not according to their obedience to written laws.

◊ New Covenant disciples do not need anyone to teach them about God or his laws because God teaches them directly by his spirit.

◊ Obedience to God’s laws written on the heart is based on love.

Distinguishing between the two covenants is important to the discussion of enemies because they represent two kingdoms.

The Old/First Covenant is the kingdom of the world (i.e. religion) that is made and administered by men has these general qualities:

The New Covenant is the kingdom of God that has these general qualities:

  • The kingdom of God is eternal and never changes
  • The kingdom of God is new in the sense that, for someone who was once religious, it is new, fresh, alive and different compared to the kingdoms of the world (i.e. religion).

STUDY TIP: Learn more about the differences between the two kingdoms in Kingdoms, and about the differences between covenants in Two Covenants.

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