ICS Daily Devotions
Knowing the Covenant of God
The genealogy of Jesus helps to remind us that God is a God of covenants. We should have our faith anchored in the God of covenants. Our marriage will be stronger when each of us understand how to operate within the marriage covenant.
It has helped me tremendously in my walk with God and to put my faith in God’s character. The Christian walk with God is having a close and intimate friendship with God. Contrary to many critics who questioned the love of God, the study of covenant will help you to appreciate how God has used covenant to bind himself to us as an expression of His deep love for us from time passed to eternity. We do not have a part time or convenient lover in God but a God who committed himself to us for eternity.
2 Samuel 21:1-7 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, “It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites…. Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?”…. But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
When did the children of Israel swear to protect the Gibeonites? It was during the time when Joshua was bringing the people to conquer the land when they were deceived into cutting a covenant with the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites deceived Joshua by claiming that they were from a land far away. When Joshua realized that they were tricked by them, he promised to make them be servants and never to kill them. It was this covenant that he established with them that prevented Joshua from killing them. Therefore, Saul violated the covenant when he killed the Gibeonites, because one should never attack his covenant partners. Likewise, King David was very kind to Mephibosheth because of the covenant that he had with Jonathan. The wonderful thing about covenant agreement and relationship is it is honored through the generations.
God expects His people to honor their covenant too.
Everything that God does is based on covenant relationship and the Bible is the recording of all his covenants. We need to learn from it, live in the covenant relationship with God and believe God for the covenant rights. Once we understand covenant then we will truly be able to feel secure in God’s love, provision and protection. We will also become a man or woman who will honor the commitment in the covenant and will never take the declaration lightly.
Sermon Series: Christmas- 2019
