But since Jews live their lives by the book of the OT, wouldn't God reward them for this?
They should have been looking for a New Covenant as foretold by Jeremiah, because they had broken the Sinai covenant.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32
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 brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more.
The angel Gabriel brought to Daniel the timing of the New Blood Covenant of the Messiah.
It would be put in place, before the second temple was destroyed.
Dan 9:24
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
The Messiah said it would be His blood that would fulfill the New Covenant, at the Last Supper.
Mat 26:28
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
The New Covenant would fulfill the promise made to Abraham.
Gal 3:16 Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Gal 3:29 And
if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Paul says we are to cast out the Sinai covenant.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are
the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For
this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture?
Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then,
brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
The New Covenant is "now" in effect.
Heb 8:6 But
now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also
he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:9
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith,
A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
(The Old covenant is now "obsolete".)
Peter spoke to the house of Israel on the day of Pentecost, when 3,000 Israelites accepted the New Blood Covenant.
Act 2:36 Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Heb 12:24 And to
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (The New Covenant is "everlasting".)
Rev 12:11 And
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
(A person cannot be under the blood of the Lamb, and not be under the Grace of the New Blood Covenant.)
They cannot be living by the Old Testament, if they have rejected the New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah and found in the Book of Daniel.
Jacob Prasch is a Jewish Christian.