2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Lord leads me to begin a discussion of some of the lives of people in the Scriptures who lived in the oneness of the covenant with God. When we look at their lives, we can see God’s hand in them and we can also get a better idea of how He interacts with us in the present time. Although some of these stories will be a review, remember that each time we return to a passage we’ve seen before, God almost always has something new to teach us. So, we don’t waste our time in returning to them repeatedly.
Just as the Philistine king, Abimelech, had come with his advisor, Ahuzzath, and the commander of his army, Phicol, to visit Abraham in GN 21: 22, he came once again to visit Isaac in GN 26: 26. When Isaac asked them the reason for their visit, Abimelech told him in GN 26: 28-31. “They answered, ‘Now we know that the Lord is with you, and we think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise that you will not harm us, just as we did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that the Lord has blessed you.’ Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. Early the next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said good-bye to them, and they parted as friends.” The Scriptures don’t elaborate on how these Philistine men came to know that God was with Isaac, just as He had been with Abraham before him. I would like to speculate that this is a case where two supernatural things happened. One was that the Holy Spirit demonstrates that He can visit non-believers intermittently to influence them. The other is that the Holy Spirit was not only able to transform these non-believing minds to carry out God’s will, but is also able to instill in them a knowledge of God’s supreme sovereign power. The latter is what I believe to be the source of the Philistine’s having enough fear of what a threat to them that Abraham and Isaac could be, because God was with these two Hebrew men. It is sad to say that humans in conflict are often brought to the peace table because of the threat they recognize in each other, rather than for more loving, Godly reasons. One more point must be made here. This situation is also a demonstration of God protecting His children with whom He is in a covenant relationship. These points certainly apply to us today. Note also that the covenant was sealed by a feast and a mutual vow of protection between the human participants.
The festival of Shavuot is celebrated in the Jewish culture 50 days after the Passover. This commemorates the giving of the Law which took place at Mt. Sinai and is spoken of in EX 24: 7-11. “Then he [Moses] took the book of the covenant in which all the Lord’s commands are written, and read it aloud to the people. They said, ‘We will obey the Lord and do everything that He has commanded.’ Then Moses took the blood in the bowls and threw it on the people. He said, ‘This is the blood that seals the covenant which the Lord made with you when He gave all these commands.’ Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath His feet was what looked like a pavement of sapphire, as blue as the sky. God did not harm these leading men of Israel; they saw God , and then they ate and drank together.” Look at the similarities here between this story and the previous one. In both cases, a covenant promise was being made between God and His people. Protection to the people is provided by giving them a way to tell between what is acceptable to God and what isn’t by the Law [RO 7: 7]. It is also afforded to the leaders by God’s decision to allow them to see Him without being destroyed. In return, the people and their leaders vow to keep the covenant being made with God by obeying His commands. Once again, the covenant is sealed with a shared meal and a mutual promise. The blood shed by the animal sacrifices and the Law given didn’t grant salvation to these Jewish children of God, but they did promise temporary forgiveness of sins. At this beginning of this paragraph I mentioned Shavuot for a reason. That was to share my understanding of its relationship to Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit celebrated by Christians.
This is a case of something in the OT foreshadowing something of great importance in the NT. In this example, it is Pentecost, which is celebrated 50 days after Easter. Easter had to happen for us to have our sins forgiven eternally. We had to come to faith in Christ after repenting in order to be saved. While the stories from the OT deal with the old covenant, Christ had to die on the cross to usher in the new covenant. Out of God’s grace, we needed to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in order to understand God’s commands well enough to be motivated to keep them despite the challenges to our faith that come from spiritual warfare to which we are subjected. As we can see these events that happened so long ago have a continuing impact of each of our lives today.
PRAYER: O Lord, repeatedly You lead us to stories we have read before from the Scriptures. Each time, You have something new to teach us. We blessed by the understanding that You are giving us, both for how it impacts our decisions and behavior and for the reminder that You have so generously given us the gift of Your Spirit to dwell within us. When we revisit these stories of people’s lives who are lived in the oneness of the covenant relationship, we are allowed to see how our individual participation in the Covenant of Grace works. We can also see how very important to our very life that obeying Your commands really is. Today, we acknowledge Your supremacy, sovereign power, compassion, graciousness, generosity, and patience with us. We come before You to pledge our eternal trust and obedience. It is also our intent to continue studying the word You have given us and to communicate with You regularly in prayer. These promises we bring to Your holy altar in humility and heartfelt love. We offer You our adoration, worship, trust, obedience, reverence, loyalty, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue our discussion of people from the Scriptures who lived in the oneness of the covenant relationship. God leads me to think that this will illuminate our own lives and give us a better understanding of the relationship that we are all called to share with Him. His love is all over this thing! Can you see it? I surely can. How blessed we are all by the profound love that God has for His children and how privileged we are to be His children! Each day in every way, we can rest assured that we are surrounded by His love. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn