According to the Bible, the promises of God are reserved for the people of God. Also, contrary to popular belief, not everyone is a person of God.

According to the Bible, the people of God are the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob/Israel; their biological descendants, Israelis (Jews), and also non-Israelis (gentiles) who  join with God through His covenant.

Exodus 6:2 God spoke to Moses, and said to him, “I am Yehowah; 3 and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yehowah I was not known to them. 4 I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens. 5 Moreover I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am Yehowah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments: 7 and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and you shall know that I am Yehowah your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am Yehowah.'”

A covenant is a binding agreement, like a contract, that defines the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of each party. The covenant with the God of Israel encompasses all of the covenants since Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Jacob (renamed Israel), and the children/descendants of Israel.

 Exodus 19:3 Moses went up to God, and Yehowah called to him out of the mountain, saying, “This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

“If” is a strong little word. In the passage above, God declares that IF people do those things THEN they will be his people.  From this, it is clear to see that being God’s people is conditional.  From the below passage, it is clear to see that the prosperity that comes from God is conditional upon those who do likewise.

Deuteronomy 29:9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

10 You stand this day all of you before Yehowah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water; 12 that you may enter into the covenant of Yehowah your God, and into his oath, which Yehowah your God makes with you this day; 13 that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, 15 but with him who stands here with us this day before Yehowah our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day

It is important to note that God keeps His covenant with Israel, as a bloodline, even when they don’t keep their end of the covenant. He doesn’t count a generation’s failure against the entire bloodline with which he made the agreement.

Therefore, the new covenant, is still with the bloodline of Israel. What is new is how the covenant is known by those who are party to it, and how it is transmitted.  In days gone by, it was held in trust by the Kings and Priests who failed to consistently and accurately convey the terms of the agreement. God cuts out the middleman in the new covenant.

The only thing that changed between the *old* and the *new* is that God will “put [his] law in their inward parts, and in their heart will [He] write it.”

A New Covenant

31 Behold, the days come, says Yehowah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yehowah. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yehowah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: 34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yehowah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yehowah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

35 Thus says Yehowah, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yehowah of Armies is his name:

36 If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yehowah, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

37 Thus says Yehowah: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yehowah.

It is forever the end of which is unknowable. °