"8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments." (Deuteronomy 7:8,9"
"Covenant" isn't a word that we hear just every day. A Biblical covenant is basically an agreement between God and God's people. The exception to this was the covenant God made with Noah following the flood when God promised "all people" to never destroy the earth with a flood.
In today's text we are referring to the Mosaic Covenant which includes the laws as spelled out in the Ten Commandments and the Torah or first five books of the Bible. In this covenant as well as all of the Biblical covenants you find that God is the initiator, the administrator of the blessings, and the one who pays the greatest price to make and keep the covenant.
His covenant is always a covenant of love. The greatest love of course was shown in the New Covenant which was sealed in the very blood of Christ who died on the cross. Christ would take the punishment for our sins and our failure to abide by the terms of all the previous covenants. What we could not do Jesus did for us.
The point that amazes me is that God is a covenant God! From the covenant he made to Noah through Jesus, God shows faithfulness, grace, and love.
What is our part of the covenant? Our part it is to make the Lord our One God above all things in our life. We are to love him through our worship and obedience and to serve him with our life. That is our part of the covenant relationship. His part is to love, protect, bless and give us eternal life.
But what happens when we break our part of the covenant? Does God punish us or turn away from us? No.
God sent his son Jesus to die for us thus taking the punishment of our sins upon himself. Again through God's grace he has done in Jesus Christ what we could not do ourselves. To receive this grace all we must do is confess our sins, call upon the Lord and believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
1 John 1:9 reminds us, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Romans 10:12,13 also proclaim: "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call on him. For whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
God is always faithful to His covenant and love. God is love and God cannot go against his very nature. This is good news indeed!
God is serious about the covenant that He makes with us. As we obey the covenant and put God first in our lives we are truly blessed and that blessing, which goes beyond our salvation, is handed down to our children and to our children's children.... They are still responsible to respond to God's call upon their lives but the way we live today will bless them and make it easier for them to respond.
You might say that in the same way the curse of alcoholism, other addictions and sinful behaviors is handed down from one generation to another so it is that blessings can be handed down from one generation to another.
So what kind of inheritance are you handing down to your children?
Let us celebrate the faithfulness of God and trust that as we walk in obedience and love God will provide for us and leave a blessing to the next generation.
To ponder: Your obedience and love for Christ is a much better inheritance to hand down to your children than any amount of money you may leave behind.
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