WE are deliberately focusing on our side of the covenant rather than on God’s side. God’s side is not difficult at all – He is a faithful God. If He promises, He will never fail. The songwriter said,
He has promised,
He will never fail I will follow Him,
I will follow Him
He has promised, He will never fail
His faithfulness is for ever more
His faithfulness is for ever more
God said to us through Prophet Isaiah,
Isaiah 55: 10 – 11 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Moses told the children of Israel: Deuteronomy 7: 7 – 10 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, …
“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.
We are the ones who really need to make up our minds to walk in covenant with God. As for Him, his name is El Berit, the ‘God of the Covenant’. And His covenant is everlasting.
When we come to Him, we must make up our minds to keep the covenant. The Bible says, 1 Chronicles 16:15 Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; Once again, covenant-keeping is necessary because the covenant is a relationship of fellowship between God and us. We have a part in the covenant, just as God also has a part. In Christianity, nobody is forcing us, but we must do it willingly. And this pleases God immensely, as it pleases a husband that his wife loves him, submits to him, and willingly is a help. It displeases God greatly when we fail to keep the covenant. That is why He punishes His children for disobedience.
In addition, God can test our commitment to him. God tested Abraham in the matter of offering Isaac to God as a sacrifice. When we pass God’s test (although – again – only by the grace of God), God is pleased with us, as He was with Abraham. God said: “now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Gen. 22:12).
- To be continued
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