OCTOBER 9 READING…JEREMIAH 32-33 & HEBREWS 9
The word covenant means promise. Now, I know that the word promise means very little in our world today where integrity is a scarce commodity, but when God makes a promise, He ALWAYS keeps that promise. If that were not true then the promise of salvation through Jesus would mean nothing. God never speaks forth empty or meaningless words…He holds His word up to His own Name. Jeremiah tells the people of Judah who are about to head off into seventy years of captivity that God has made a covenant with them and He will keep that covenant. Jeremiah is talking about the Abrahamic covenant, that was passed down to Isaac and then to Jacob, who eventually became Israel. This was an unconditional covenant, meaning that it is solely based upon God’s promise, not based upon the actions of Israel. This covenant included that Israel would be a distinct people through whom the Messiah would come, and that God had given them a specific land as His people. The struggle for who ought to be in Israel today has already been settled…God gave that land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No geo-political movement or decision can change what God has promised. God tells Jeremiah to remind Judah that God has a covenant promise with them, and that God would keep that promise. God’s people would one day be back in the land of promise, and the city of the Lord, Jerusalem, would be rebuilt. The covenant of God is fulfilled in His Son Jesus. The writer of Hebrews compares the Old Covenant sacrifice with the New Covenant sacrifice. Though the old system required a continual sacrifice, in the new covenant the sacrifice was given once and for all through Jesus on the cross of Calvary. The sacrifice is done, there is nothing else that has to be offered…there is nothing else that could be offered. In God’s new covenant, we have the promise of forgiveness of sin, and eternal life through Jesus…God has promised!
Please share your thoughts.
TOMORROW’S READING…JEREMIAH 34-35 & HEBREWS 10