ICS Daily Devotions
Everlasting Covenant
We are all sinners separated from God but God had a plan of redemption for us. God made a covenant with Abram so that He could bring Jesus into this earth to establish the everlasting covenant with us. But how was it possible for Abram, a sinner to enter into a covenant with the Creator Himself?
GEN 15:10,12,17-18 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. 12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him 17.And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates
The Scripture tells us that a smoking furnace and a burning lamp walked the covenant infinity symbol where Abram should have walked.
PSALMS 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
JOHN 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
Jesus Christ is the Living Word, the burning lamp who took Abram’s place in the covenant walk. He was the mediator who would pay the final price with His blood so that God and man could be reunited.
Exo 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
God was the “smoking furnace” that Abram saw. The covenant was sealed between God (smoking furnace) and Jesus Christ (burning lamp) with the blood of the animals.
We are separated from God because of our sins and there is nothing we can do to reconcile ourselves with God or to earn our way into the covenant. The only way we can come into the covenant is to confess before God and accept that Jesus Christ was the one who walked in our place. We are to believe like Abram did, that Jesus Christ had entered into a covenant with God on our behalf.
Through this legal entry based on the Abrahamic covenant, Jesus came to institute an everlasting relationship with us through a new covenant established on His blood. Jesus had already chosen to lay down His life for us way before we were even born. It was a commitment to save us from the thief who kills, steals and destroys. This is an everlasting covenant by our Good Shepherd to protect, provide and bless us spiritually forever!
Sermon Series: Knowing God My Good Shepherd
