NEW COVENANT WINE

PARABLES OF THE NEW AND THE OLD COVENANT

In the Gospels we have the twin Parables of Yahusha concerning the New Wine and the New Wineskins and the Old Wine and Old Wineskins and the New and Old Garment:

MATTHEW 9:16

“He told them this Parable: ‘No man tears a patch from a new garment and sews it onto an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment and the patch on the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out, and the wineskin will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants new wine, for he says, 'the old is better'".

These Parables actually arose as an answer to why the Disciples of John the baptiser and

the Pharisees fasted and why the Disciples of Yahusha did not fast. John and the Pharisees represented the Old Covenant while Yahusha and His disciples represented the coming New Covenant of spiritual fulfilment in human hearts. Thus we have the Parables of the new and old garment, and the new and old wineskins. So we consider these twin Parables in a threefold approach: Firstly the Parable itself as a shadow/Illustration, then it's surface interpretation culturally and finally it's Behavioural Application which of course is timeless!

A. THE PARABLE ILLUSTRATION

Yahusha’s Parables were actually illustrations of what was taking place through Him in the Gospels and on into the Acts and the Disciples` Writings. A Parable is defined as a similitude, an abstract narrative of common life, conveying a moral. It was one of Yahusha's favourite methods of communicating truth, especially after the rising rejection by the religious leaders of His day. As seen in Matthew 13 and 34-35, Yahusha’s Parables had a twofold purpose, which is (1) to reveal truth and (2) to conceal truth according the heart-attitude of the hearers, recall Him saying "if they had 'an ear to hear' what THE WORD was saying?"

And this is also true here with the Parables of the old and new garments and wineskins.

1. Parable of the Garment

The first Parable is simple and clear in its illustration. The interpretation and application would come to these who had an ear to hear and an eye to see and a heart to perceive. If one has an old worn out garment and they take a piece or patch of a new garment and sew it onto the old, it will tear the old garment. The new patch will not match the old garment in strength. The "new patch" here is referring to a small piece of material that is unbleached or unshrunken cloth. The hole or tear is made worse, for the new and the old do not mix, and the new and the old materials do not agree. Yahusha is saying you cannot mix the old and the new or there will be problems. This is what all those food and fabric laws in Leviticus were shadowing: the forbidden mixture of covenant behaviours. Clearly one needs to get rid of the old garment. It is worn out. It has served its purpose. It was once new and now it has become old. We needs to put on a totally new garment !!

2. The Parable of the Wineskins

The second Parable, though more extended, is also simple and clear in its illustration and interpretation. Again, the application would come to those who had ears to hear, eyes to see and hearts to perceive. If one has new wine, then it has to be placed in new wineskins. Otherwise, if the new wine is placed in old wineskins, then the wineskins will burst, the new wine will be lost, and the old wineskins destroyed. The only way to preserve the new wine is to have it poured into new wineskins, then both are preserved and can be useful.

So let’s dive deeper and look at :

(a) The Wineskins

In Scripture times, the custom was to make containers (or wineskins) from the skins of animals, generally goats or kids of goats to contain the new wine. They would often retain the figure of the animal also (with the head and feet cut off) as the skin was stripped from the complete body of the animal. Sometimes the neck of the animal was used as the neck of the bottle and the thighs as handles. The skins were treated to hold the wine or water that would be poured into them. When the skin was green (new) or fresh, it had the ability to stretch and inflate. It was flexible and expandable with any pressure of new wine that may come from the chemical gases and bubbling of fermentation.

(b) The Wine

In Scripture, `wine’ refers to the juice of the grapes that would be given to fermentation. The Gospel writers use this same word for new wine and the usage implies intoxication, even though it is often just defined as fresh juice. On the Day of Pentecost, the people accused the Spirit-filled Disciples as being 'drunk with new wine'. Therefore, its use by Yahusha in relation to wineskins (both new and old) indicates wine that is in the process of fermentation, producing pressure on the wineskin by the building up of carbon dioxide.

(c) Old Wineskins

Over the years, a wineskin becomes old, seamed, and dry, cracked and brittle. As it cracks and becomes hard, it will not stand any pressure. It loses its flexibility. It does not have the ability to expand. So Yahusha is saying that new wineskins must be made for new wine. One cannot put new wine into old containers or skins. The new wine will burst the old containers. The wine is spilled. The skins are split and torn. One loses both the wine and the wineskins. The new wine must be put into new skins. And the result? Both wine and wineskins are preserved. The NEW must go into the NEW. The old must stay in the old. The new and the old will not, THEY CANNOT MIX without the resultant problems.

B. THE INTERPRETATION? So having looked quite fully at the Parable illustration, what then is the interpretation of these twin uninterpreted Parables of Yahusha? As will be seen, in each Parable we have TWO symbolic elements which need to be abstractly understood through His Spirit. In the first Parable we have the old garment and the new piece. In the second Parable we have the old wineskins and old wine and the new wineskins and the new wine.

In the Gospels we have the Parables of Yahusha given as the illustrations. In the Book of Acts and other letters we truly see the unfolding of the Parables and so we discover their real meaning. However, one needs an overview of Israel's history first in order to appreciate the beautiful interpretation of these twin Parables.

1. ISRAEL & THE OLD COVENANT

(a) What is The Wineskin?

In regards to the wineskin, Yahuah took the nation of Israel from the midst of other nations. They were the 'Bride in the wilderness' (spoken of in Acts 7), and the instrument for the Kingdom of Alahim to be fruitful and multiply in the earth. As such they became Yahuah’s new wineskin, the bottle, the structure of His chosen people and wife. The purpose of any wineskin is to contain wine. It is no use having a wineskin without wine or wine without a wineskin. The wineskin was Israel, the first wife and people of Alahim.

(b) What is The Wine?

Yahuah then proceeded to pour into this nation of Israel - this wineskin - His Covenantal truths - all the things found in Romans 3:2 and 9:4-5.

PAUL SAYS IT WAS THE NEW WINE OF: 

* The Adoption into righteousness - both Abram and Israel crossed over from the world.

* The Covenants given to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua and David.

* The Torah Laws - Moral, Civil and Ceremonial on Mt Sinai.

* The Tabernacles of Moses, David’s Praise Tent and the Temple of Solomon.

* The Promises — especially the Messianic hope soon to come.

* The Fathers/Patriachs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

* The Messiah coming - Yahusha Messiah, Divine Son of Man after the flesh,

* The Oracles of Alahim — which are the Divine Scriptures … His Living Words.

The wine was always symbolic of Covenantal truths which Yahuah poured into Israel, His new wineskin, freshly delivered through the blood of the lamb and delivered from slavery to attend the marriage feast at Sinai. But what happened over the years of Israel’s history? Almost straight from their exodus conception, this chosen Nation became rigid, inflexible, dry, brittle and corrupted, bull-headed and hard-hearted, losing the ability to expand and receive the exciting things of Alahim. They also corrupted the wine of Yahuah’s divine truth, mixing it with the abominable pagan worship of the surrounding nations. So by Yahusha’s time, the Jew’s religion had become the old, stiff, brittle and inflexible wineskin of a hybrid Babylonian Beast system of Judaism, governed by crooked politicians and uninspired men completely void of any authentic priesthood qualification according the Divine Words given.  

Paul indeed called it the Jew’s religion in GALATIANS 1:13-14.

Not only that. They had run out of wine and what they did have was corrupted by forbidden behavioural mixtures. The people were so thirsty for something fresh from Alahim, just like in today’s drought. Nevertheless, the religious leaders hung on to the old wineskins, with their boney, gangly fingers, they cling to the structure of Judaism and the shadow teachings of the Old Covenant Torah Laws. So, Judaism had become an “old garment", torn, ragged, threadbare and worn out, but the religious leaders still hung on to the old for dear life just the same, trying desperately to keep them spiritually warm with it. But alas it is dead, faded, and gone cold like the corpse of a carcass.

Now that we know what the Wine and the wineskin signified in Scripture, let’s explore what the New Wine is ... being poured into New wineskins through a New Bridal Elect.

2. THE NEW COVENANT GATHERING

(a) What is The New Wine?

When Yahuah left His throne and metamorphed into divine flesh as Yahusha, He came to bring new wine - a fresh revelation and understanding of Alahim and a spiritual kingdom-invitation. YES! He came to bring the New Covenant truth of His Narrow Vein whereby anyone and everyone could find true deliverance from the corrupt spirit and condition of sin that controlled their lives. This is the NEW WINE OF ETERNAL LIFE. He came to bring a New Covenant Garment (with which to wear to the wedding feast) - but they clung to the old garment! He came to bring New Covenant Wine - but they hung to the old wineskin. The new wine represents all these behavioural and parabolic teachings of Yahusha in all freshness, newness, originality and power. The Gospels actually reveal this, however the Scribes and the Pharisee and the Priests and Religious Leaders said that the old is better and did not want (or have any desire) for that which Yahusha was bringing … and it’s still the same corrupt spiritual attitude we are confronted with today from the preachers, teachers, pastors and rabbis. They insist on the old wine and the old garment, blindly quoting texts out of spiritual context regarding a RETURN TO ANCIENT PATHS!

(b) What is The New Wineskin?

The Old wineskins could not contain or even receive the New Covenant Wine. The Old wineskins represent the Pharisees, Scribes, Priests, Sadducees and Religious Leaders of Judaism, bound to the old shadow-interpretation of the Torah-Law and by the Talmudic traditions they taught as more weightier and important. These wineskins would not, infact could not receive the fresh new spiritual truth that had become manifested right infront of their eyes, despite a plethora of messianic prophesies pointing directly to Yahusha's arrival. So what was Yahusha to do? Israel, His wineskin, His divorced first wife had become ineffective as a wineskin or container of covenant truth. So He had to make a NEW WINESKIN, a new structure, a new framework with which to hold the NEW WINE of His New Covenant! And of course the new wineskin is the New Covenant Temple of Alahim comprised of varying lively stones, once rough and jagged and unbecoming, yet being perfected out in the noisy quarries of the world in order to be polished and smoothed, to be rightly fitted together for a Divine Royal City whose builder and maker is Alahim Yahusha. This is His Bride, washed in His blood and possessing a new heart and spirit for new Covenant truths to be poured into. The old heart is corrupt, it's nature conceived with the seed of sin and evil inclinations ... but Yahusha's Divine Heart Operation provides a New Heart and Spirit ... a New Covenant Wineskin to pour New Wine into.

(Matthew 16:15-20).

50 days after His resurrection and ascension, at the Feast of Pentecost Yahusha formed these new wineskins and He poured in the NEW WINE OF WORD AND HIS SPIRIT - the New Covenant truths born of water and the spirit (as He told Nicodemus) in order to access the kingdom of Heaven … what a magnificent display of Yahusha’s promised power through His SPIRIT AND FIRE BAPTISM -  so much so, that the surrounding Jews said these Disciples "were drunk with new wine!” And from here the Disciples founded a New Covenant global-gathering, comprised of believing Jews and Gentiles who turned the world upside-down for Yahusha, and they’re still raving about them to this day.

3. JUDAISM & THE BRIDAL GATHERING 

Now what do we see happening in the Book of Acts, and the writings, and especially in the Book of Galatians? Most of the Religious Leaders, the Scribes, Pharisees and Priests, totally rejected the New Garment Yahusha came to bring, and hung completely onto the Old Garment. Yes, most of the leaders totally rejected the New Wine and Wineskins that Yahusha came to give and to form in His New Bodily Temples. Some even tried to MIX the Old and the New … and the result was a "rent" or schism, a division and forbidden mixture. Many `well to do’s’ took the Old Covenant Garment of fulfilled Torah and Commands and traditions and sewed "patches" of New Covenant Behaviour on to it and (of course) the garment was torn.

They tried to mix Old Covenant Wine of literal Sabbath Days, Feasts, fleshly Circumcision and Ritual Cleanliness in with the New Covenant truths. The result was a torn garment and great Covenantal Confusion - still existing today! The rent and hole in the garment was made worse, for the Torah-Law forbids mixture. The wearing of a garment of wool and linen was forbidden. Wool speaks of sweat, while linen speaks of no sweat. So beyond the literal, carnal, earthly command in the letter, there is the deeper, fuller spiritual truth to be experienced in the New Wine of Clean Behaviour!

One is an Old Covenant, the other is a New Covenant. Mixture of the Old and the New is forbidden by Yahusha. A mixed garment becomes disfigured and eventually destroyed through lukewarm unbelief, love waxing cold and light being removed. Paul’s letter to the Galatians shows this mixture of old Torah-Law works of the flesh and Yahusha’s loving favour in obedient belief and deliverance through His favour ... those who held Moses in one hand and Yahusha in the other.

So by mixing the Old Covenant and New Covenant, what was the result? Massive divisions, frictions and arguments came in the Jewish Synagogues as Acts 10, 11, and 15 reveal. The Religious powers tried to impose the abominable Judaism formed in Babylon on these new Bridal Gentiles, as well as the transitioning Jewish believers also - causing great confusion of Covenants. They tried to put New Covenant Wine into Old Covenant Judaistic Wineskins. And eventually both were lost. The wineskins burst and the new wine was spilled … over the course of a hundred years the early Assemblies were eventually snuffed out and nearly 2000 years of dark spiritual ages have ensued.

So what’s the Application of all this? What do we do about this Parable of Yahusha’s? Having considered His illustration and abstractly discerned its meaning through the Spirit, we conclude with the behavioural application for you and I today. The truths considered here can be applied to Yahusha’s Bride, both historically, personally, individually and also globally. 

The greatest problem facing Yahusha’s Bride today is not be a new one, but an old one. Yahusha spoke about this Old Wine and New Wine in response to a question asked by John’s disciples, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast and your disciples do not?” He was illustrating the difference between John’s ministry and that of His own. John came to call to repentance those who were steeped in the traditions of the Babylonian Judaistic mixture which had become an abomination. Yahusha, however, had not come to patch up, botox or white-wash the old system or to pour new wine into it's old vessel - a heart-framework whose love had grown cold. He came to begin anew. Neither the teachings nor the works of Yahusha could be contained in an old rigid school-master torah system anymore. Over a thousand years of Israel's history had proved it. No, this would require something stronger, more tender, compassionate and pliable. Yahusha’s message was the very power of Alahim, as was His behaviour as Alahim in the flesh. Even John himself explained the difference between the two ministries when he said, “I baptise you with water for repentance, but after me will come One Who is more powerful than I … He will baptise you with the spirit and with fire.”

Then on the Feast of Pentecost, Yahusha indeed baptised 120+ of His followers, filling them with His Spirit and Fire. As discussed, they were accused of being filled with new wine, but Peter responded, “These are not drunk, as you suppose … No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, Alahim says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy …” The proper Scriptural explanation was the outpouring of Yahusha’s Spirit and His gifts … the SPIRITUAL NEW WINE. Yet this was only the first of many times His Spirit would be poured out into the New Wineskins of His Bride. In Acts 3, Peter said multiple “times of refreshing” would come from the presence of Yahusha. This happened in Samaria, also at Saul’s conversion, and in Cornelius’s house, in Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, Galatia, Thessalonica, even among a group of unnamed Hebrews, and in countless other places and regions in the Roman Empire and beyond. On and on through history, numerous "times of refreshing" occurred—far too many to mention here, but (like Israel of old) these New Wineskins faded, corrupted and degenerated over the years, and became, as it were "an Old Wineskin" again. In what has been called "the Dark Ages", the Bride as a structure became hard, dry, brittle, stiff and inflexible, unable to expand, and ran out of the wine of Yahusha Alahim's Spirit and Word.

Yet what does Yahusha do? He makes a "new wineskins” to hold the "new wine" of His truth of deliverance, but all in His timing. Therefore movement after movement have come and gone, often receiving just a little bit of new wine before stopping, planting a flag and becoming stale and stagnant again. Flesh takes over, the wineskin gets old and the wine is lost to the annuls of history once more. They begin with something which is fresh and end up becoming an old wineskin, unable to receive the New Wine of restored truth. And the result? Great division, schisms, burst wineskins, spilt new wine, a love waxed cold, and the confusion of forbidden mixture, in so many places around the world.

But what really is the problem? It is the problem of a new garment NEEDING for new pieces on it, and the new wine NEEDING to be poured into new wineskins. Some old wineskins and old garments have taken some of the new wine/new patches and tried to pour it into the old religious denominational structure and sew it on to the old garment. This is what many jewish leaders tried to do in the early gatherings… Many also say that the old is better, stable, the ancient paths and they do not want the New! History keeps on repeating itself in every visitation of the Yahusha’s Spirit and in every recovery and restoration of Scriptural truth.

Numerous believers today confuse the elements of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. In principle, they are just like the Pharisaical Jews of the 1st Century and become involved in a forbidden mixture. It is a mix of Old Covenant and New Covenant... of Abraham, Moses, David and Yahusha. The point of exchange is at the shedding of Yahusha’s blood on the Torture Stake. The Jews would not humble themselves and come before the stake and let go of the Old Covenant shadows and symbols and take hold of the New Covenant fully fulfilled with it’s completed substance and realities.

Yahusha said, “It is finished” ….. Behold, I make all things NEW!" (Revelation 21:5).

So with only a few short years left before Yahusha’s Return He has indeed ushered in NEW TIMES OF REFRESHING and given His Bride today a simplified and summarised form of His entire Message regarding the way to be delivered and receive Eternal Life. As we have seen, even today among the believers, many refuse this New Covenant Wine because they lack the new divine wineskin with which to hold it and approach the invitation with mental knowledge and intellect, instead of opening their heart, approaching like a child and allowing Yahusha to open the Doorway of His Narrow Gate/Vein to them, whereby they can be completely transformed from what was ugly, deformed, rough, dry, cracked, desperately sick and corrupt …. Into the New Life that gets poured into us like New Wine through the Baptism of His Divine Spirit and then the Baptism of His fire to rid us of the corrupt spirit and habits within us. This is how to be delivered unto Eternal Life, to start drinking from the New Water and Wine of His Living Words (because He’s the Tree of Life you know). Then we take this message of eternal deliverance into our homes as the stone-quarry and work with our families to help bring them through also. This is how we enter the Wilderness of Rest and Peace, where we’ve overcome our flesh and just want to serve Yahusha our Alahim through the behaviour of His Two Royal Love Laws and Nine Fruits of Righteousness…

Please take this New Covenant Wine seriously Brothers and Sisters for time is almost up, and Yahusha is almost here … based on Scriptural Prophecies from Daniel and Revelation, we estimate around 2027-2028 will be the end of human history ….. So seek out your deliverance and Eternal Life NOW, through Yahusha Alahim’s Narrow Vein  -  get your new heart wineskin NOW while there’s still time and receive the new wine of the Spirit and Fire Baptisms !!

AND DON'T FORGET YOU ARE NOW THE TEMPLE OF YAHUSHA’S SPIRIT TO OFFER UP SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES AND BEHAVIOUR-OFFERINGS OF LOVE !

NOW DRINK UP !