What does the word covenant mean to you? Do you think of it as a handshake and a promise? Do you think of it as a contract? Will you honor a covenant, promise, or contract you make with someone else? Will you honor the covenant God has made and you agreed to?
Covenant is a word we don’t use much anymore. In many ways it is like a contract. In other ways, it is like a handshake and a promise. When we are talking about God’s covenant, God is giving us far more than we are giving him. Yet, we often fail to honor his covenant with us.
God made a few covenants with his people. First, he made a covenant with Noah after the flood, stating he would never flood the world again. Later, he made a covenant with Abraham, telling him that his descendants would be innumerable. He made that covenant again with Abraham’s son, Isaac. He then extended it again to Isaac’s son, Jacob/Israel. After bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, God made a covenant with them and gave them the law, the ten commandments and more.
But God saw that we humans are not capable of keeping his law perfectly. So, he planned to make a new covenant. His prophet Jeremiah delivered God’s promise of a new covenant coming. Of course, Jeremiah was thinking the covenant would be with Israel and Judah. (Remember, they had split into two nations by this time.)
What Jeremiah had not foreseen is that God was going to make his covenant not only with Israel and Judah, but with all people and all nations throughout the world. It would take many years to spread the good news of Jesus to all the world, but God’s covenant is available to everyone. God has provided his covenant. It is up to us to accept it and honor it.
I pray we all accept God’s covenant made in Jesus Christ. I pray we honor his covenant. I pray each one of us will seek to better understand God’s covenant and uphold our end of it. God promised a new covenant. He has delivered it in his Son, Jesus Christ. Accept his covenant. Honor his covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
Marty Pressey 