Because the Father’s traditions are not understood within christianity, there is often confusion about what the old covenant was and what the new covenant is.
Commonly, claims of the old covenant being the entire written law of Moses is conflation and a misrepresentation of what the covenant was. Thus, when matters of the Father’s traditions are brought into a conversation, many christians immediately, and repeatedly, dismiss them as part of the “old covenant.”
The old covenant was physical, and it was given on the Feast of Weeks (seven Sabbaths plus one day after the Feast of Firstfruits). The Feast of Weeks commemorated the giving of the physical covenant at Mt. Sinai. The covenant was the ten commandments. The two tablets. Period. That was the covenant.
The physical Jews were led out of Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb being spread on their doorposts. The Holy Spirit led them through the Red Sea (the water—a symbol of baptism), and through the wilderness toward the mountain. While they were in the wilderness, the physical Jews were physically led by the Holy Spirit (pillars of cloud and fire), and He provided for them physically (manna).
Once they arrived at the mountain by the Holy Spirit’s leading, they still had to await the giving of the covenant, and it was received according to the will and the timing of the Father.
That is a picture of the salvation of Messiah’s bride (Y’isra-el, the true Jews). The Holy Spirit leads those who identify with the Passover Lamb’s sacrifice, and who invite the cleansing of the Holy Spirit (repentance from unbelief to belief), through the wilderness, providing spiritual guidance and spiritual sustenance, until they reach the mountain and receive the spiritual covenant, which is salvation of the bride—marriage to Messiah Yahoshua.
Now, the written law of Moses was given to those WHO HAD THE COVENANT. It had nothing to do with having or retaining the covenant, but was a list of rules and regulations physically governing how those WHO HAD THE COVENANT were to live.
The essence of the written law basically dealt with sacrifice and separation. However, these were only physical foreshadows of a future revealed spiritual real substance. Yahoshua dealt with this in His Sermon on the Mount. The physical law governed a physical people who possessed the physical covenant. It is ALL a physical representation of something that would be revealed that is spiritual, not physical.
Just as those who had the physical covenant were to live a certain way, physically, those who receive the spiritual covenant are supposed to live a certain way spiritually. What the physical law foreshadowed—sacrifice and separation—is a picture of how the Father desires those who have the spiritual covenant to live—sacrificing their flesh, and being separate from the world.
The matter of salvation is in the covenant, not in the law. Those who have received the covenant (they identified with the Passover sacrifice, by repenting of their unbelief, they endured in that belief by confessing Messiah before men, being led and sustained, spiritually, by the Holy Spirit, and then they received the covenant, which the Holy Spirit confirms to the believer, directly and personally) are children of Yah. Nothing can ever change that.
Now, as the written law given to those who had the covenant dictated many things, like HOW the physical Jews were to eat (Leviticus 11), and HOW they were to have spousal intimacy (Leviticus 15), the written law also told the Jews HOW they were to observe the Father’s Sabbaths.
Under the new covenant, which is spiritual, not physical, those physical rules and regulations, which were merely a foreshadow, were nailed to the tree—no longer are physical sacrifices required, nor are there rules and regulations for HOW those with the covenant are to do things concerning eating, drinking, spousal relations, and observing the Sabbaths.
To insist that the new covenant did away with the Sabbaths is the same as saying that the new covenant did away with eating, drinking, and sex. It is absurd. No, the new covenant did away with the physical rules and regulations for HOW those things were to be done. It didn’t do away with those things at all.
To keep the physical laws was a matter of works of the flesh, but works of the flesh have never provided salvation. To have the spiritual covenant is to have eternal life, and nothing can change that. Everything else is a matter of HOW the Father desires His children to live. Some of His children will obey, and some will not. It’s the same in most every family. But, having the covenant is not dependent on works.
Those with the covenant are also told to expose false teachings and correct them. And, the teachings of christianity that are devoid of the Father’s traditions, and which contradict His traditions, are not of the Holy Spirit, and are, thus, false teachings to be exposed and corrected.
To “keep the commandments” means to possess them, to hold them, to guard them. What were the commandments (which refers to the ten—the tablets)? They were the physical covenant, which was merely a physical foreshadow. On the Feast of Weeks the new covenant was poured out on all mankind (not just the physical Jews, who were also a foreshadow), and to keep that covenant is to possess it, to hold, to guard it. It is the instructions of Yah (torah means “instructions”) that are written on the hearts and minds of those who have received it.
The Holy Spirit, who is the new covenant, does not tell those who possess Him HOW they have to eat, HOW spouses are to be intimate with each other, or HOW Yah’s children are to observe His Sabbaths. But, neither does He EVER tell them that those things no longer exist, or are irrelevant to believers.
The covenant is the promise. Those who have received the promise are told how the Father desires them to live; but obeying those instructions, or disobeying them, has nothing to do with the covenant, which is an eternal seal—a legal decree of adoption that no man has the power to declare or alter. To those who have the covenant (the true Jews, who are the true Y’isra-el), Yah gives His Sabbaths as a family sign of identification, and He said He does that “for ever” (Exodus 31:17).
For more information: What Are the Old and New Covenants?