2011-09-23
Good Morning God’s Treasures,
Our God rewards righteousness and obedient faithfulness. He certainly did that when a widow Ruth pledged her faithfulness in the One and only God before her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. God embraced this pledge in a wonderful way by leading Ruth to Boaz, their subsequent marriage, and Ruth’s position in the royal line of David out of which Christ arose [RU 1: 16-17, 2:1, 4: 1-3, 5-10, 13, 17-22; IS 11: 1]. Authors Andrew Murray, H. Clay Trumbull et al know the whole counsel of the Bible gives us the big picture of covenant and its enormity of commitment. It’s obvious from the teaching of the word of God too. Let’s look at a few examples.
EX 24: 1-2, 6-8, and 12 give us an example from the OT. God’s angel had prepared the way by telling Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron , Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near.” When Moses told the people what the Lord had commanded, they agreed to it. Then Moses sacrificed a bull at the altar. “Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. Thy responded, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.’ Moses sprinkled the blood on the people, saying ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” Despite their proximity, God didn’t injure any of them. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the Law and commands I have written for their instruction.” This was the beginning of the Covenant of the Law, which is commemorated in the celebration of Shavuot by the Jewish people annually in the spring. It is a covenant that still impacts the traditionally Jewish population even today.
The words on the stone tablets are the Ten Commandments. It was God’s first foray into giving His human creation a way to know what pleases Him and what doesn’t. They would hitherto be accountable for that.
Another example of approaching God on His terms comes with 1 COR 11: 23-25, the words of the institution of Communion. “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it an said, ‘This is My body which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is for the new covenant in My blood, do this whenever your drink it in remembrance of Me.’” Of course the covenant referred to here is the Covenant of Grace, the new one which replaces the old Covenant of the Law. Amazingly, the disciples heard all Christ’s words, but when it came to His approaching physical death, they really didn’t understand the full significance of this event until it actually happened. Today, we have the wisdom of hindsight.
It should be understood that none of these events were up to happenstance. They were all parts of a carefully constructed plan that God alone had. That is why a prophet like Jeremiah was given this prophecy in JER 31: 31-34, “’The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand and lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant though I was a husband for them,’ declares the Lord. ‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put My laws in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord, because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.’” We must understand that Jeremiah lived at least 300 years before Christ in human form was on the scene. And yet, God knew His exact timing for His plan to be revealed. The Covenant of Grace was revolutionary, in that it took believers in the One and only God away from legalism and back to dealing directly with God’s intent, the real meaning of His teaching, also His grace and blessings. And with that, comes a greater knowledge of Him and greater accountability for our beliefs and behavior. It’s the very reason that when Christ warned the towns of Bethsaida and Chorizim, they would have greater accountability for their sins than Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom long before them [MT 11: 20-24]. It stands to reason that the more we know about God’s will, the more accountable we will be for honoring it. And from the other view, the more blessings will come from the righteousness of people who live according to God’s teaching. Our complex, often materialistic society still provides us with the need to make choices, even through they are difficult and make us go against the modern day trends. That is because of God’s presence in us who believe, which persists in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 1 JN 4: 4, “You, dear children, are from God have overcome them [the spirits of the world], because the One Who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” If we will allow the Holy Spirit leadership in our lives, we can have a very favorable outcome. Praise and thanks be to Him!
PRAYER: O Lord, the three characteristics of a divine covenant relationship are 1) a person to Person bond, 2) a bond in blood, and 3) a bond Sovereignly administered. We’ve examined the first two and will be looking at the third next week. We ask for You to be present and to command the Holy Spirit to give us the words You want us to read, words that will help us to fully understand what a divine covenant is, why it is important to our lives, and why we need to participate in such a covenant to mature spiritually. All the while, You are working every day to sanctify and purify all who believe in Your Son, Jesus Christ. You are making us “new creations in union with Christ Jesus” [2 COR 5: 17]. The work You are doing is outlined in COL 3: 9-10, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of its Creator.” Our work is to cooperate with You, to reveal and expunge sins we still have, and confess, repenting of them. Yes, Dear Father, our divine covenant is closely connected to our commitment to sanctification. If one is foolish enough to think this is unimportant, he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit in leadership of his life. You explained, in 1 COR 2: 14, what the problem with such a person is. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” We approach You with the confidence You have given us and boldly ask for Your help and leadership in our lives. Your holy throne is where we receive our instruction, our encouragement, sometimes our rebuke, and often Your help. We recognize that we can’t do this task without You, and we thank and praise You for inviting us into this covenant relationship with You and giving us the blessing of Your help with becoming sanctified and glorified some day. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As I mentioned above, we will be looking at a bond Sovereignly administered next week. We recognize the importance of our covenant relationship with God. In my mind, the three Persons of the Trinity are closely connected, and often, I use the names God and Christ interchangeably. This is not a mistake, because the Father personality is the Creator/Decision-maker; the Christ/Son personality is seen and understood by us, the Instructor/Judge, the One to carry out the Father’s commands, the One Who never disobeys the Father; the Holy Spirit personality is God’s Mouthpiece with us; the unseen One Who dwells in the hearts of believers, the One Who leads us toward eternal life in heaven. Our lives are deeply affected by the activity of the Godhead, if we take this covenant relationship with serious contemplation and obedience to God. Christ spoke about not recognizing people who are insincere in their approach, dripping in hypocrisy. We are told not every person will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who are obedient to the Father. To those with poor motives or refusal to obey, Christ said, in MT 7: 23, “I never knew you. Get away from Me, you wicked people!’” We need to spend daily time in God’s word, in prayer, and in accurate witnessing of the beneficial impact on our lives of the Gospel message with others who are potential believers. And as we are told, we must “Guard the Treasure entrusted to us” [the accurate message of salvation and peace referred to in 2 TIM 1: 13-14]. And we are blessed to know that the Holy Spirit will help us do this. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15