The Covenant

By Larry Doyle Crenshaw

 MeditationsInLight.Blogspot.com

Between God and Israel there is a covenant

That He is fulfilling in this day and time

A contract He will not revoke or recant

Covenant blessings - eternal and sublime

The history of Israel, going back to Abraham and beyond, is one long cycle of entering into covenants with God, which are, sooner or later, disavowed.  This is inevitably followed by periods of sorrow, destruction, and grief.  When humbled enough, they turn back to God and covenant yet again to be His people and to do His will. To read this narrative in the Old Testament, page after page, book after book, is a testament to God’s love, patience and long-suffering and His use of covenants and rites to guide His children.

It is noteworthy that covenant-making - this most prominent, persistent and oft-recorded feature of God’s relationship to man – finds little emphasis in modern Judeo-Christian liturgy. Even the Protestant practice of communion often focuses more on relational issues between man and God, and less on a renewal of covenant obedience and promises. The only other Protestant sacrament - that of baptism is more of a rite of initiation signifying acceptance of Jesus than a covenantal ordinance and one that can be performed by any other saved soul.  

In the Catholic tradition there are seven sacraments which are rituals that primarily bestow grace more so than ongoing covenant obligations.  There are three rites of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion.  The other four rites bestow God’s grace in daily living: Penance to restore the soul to grace from sin,  Matrimony and Holy Orders which marry husbands and wives to Christ, or Priests to Christ as they enter the priesthood or Nuns who enter a cloistered life. Lastly the Sacrament of Healing administered to those who are very ill or near death.  In each case while some vows are uttered, the focus is on receiving or being restored to God’s grace.

The secularization of modern Israel is a testimony of the diminished role of the covenant, even among God’s covenant people.  But even religious Jews only give credence to the Noahic and Mosaic covenants, and even then, only as historical covenantal promises or guidelines – not as conditions for salvation.

Liturgically speaking, there is at least one exception to the lack of focus on covenant obligations.  One church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) of which I am a member, takes covenants and covenant living to a very different level and incorporates them into the daily fabric of religious life.  For them, covenants are the prelude to binding ordinances both of blessing and exaltation, and include baptism, confirmation, priesthood ordination (for men) and various other covenants and ordinances only found and entered into in sacred temples set apart for those purposes.  In this life the highest and most revered covenantal ordinance is temple marriage that seals husbands and wives and their offspring together for eternity.  On a weekly or regular basis, all of these covenantal ordinances are renewed in communion or by returning to the temple and performing ordinances in behalf of deceased family members who did not have the opportunity to do so while in this life. (see 1 Corinthians 15:29)

The biblical theme of the covenant was so central and important to understanding God’s plan for us, that the Apostle Paul spoke of it often:

Galatians 3:7-8  “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Covenant of Abraham)

Romans 4:13 “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (Covenant heirs through faith and then the works of faith -ordinances)

Romans 8:15-17 – 15, 23 “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together…. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”  (Adopted into the Covenant)

Ephesians 1:4-5  “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated (foreordained) us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will….” (Adopted by Covenant)

Acts 3:25 “Earlier, Luke records, “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.”  (Children of the Covenant)

These brief words and references, associated with receiving Christ and His kingdom, are simply to remind us of the importance of covenants both anciently and now, in our day.

Thus our meditative verse reminds us:

God keeps His covenants made with manEach fulfilled in His own time and wayMay we covenant to obey His commandAnd make our adoption sure someday

The Covenant

And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfil the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel….And because of the mercies of the Father unto the Gentiles, and also the judgments of the Father upon my people who are of the house of Israel, …. then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.

Book of Mormon   3 Nephi 16:5, 9-11

Between God and Israel there is a covenant

That He is fulfilling in this day and time

A contract He will not revoke or recant

Covenant blessings - eternal and sublime

Oft would the Lord have gathered them

Like nurturing chicks under His wing

But they would not honor or obey Him

But mocked and crucified their King

 Israel now gathers throughout the earth

Though earlier crushed and cast out

God is bringing salvation and rebirth

For Abraham’s seed – all who are devout

For Israel will, if they will, be reborn

And yet receive the gospel of Christ

Worshiping Him they have forsworn
He, who for them paid the ultimate price

Abraham’s Covenant has been restored

With authority to sanctify, seal and bind

Families adopted and blessed by Lord

Eternal, covenant families, as God designed

God keeps His covenants made with man

Each fulfilled in His own time and way

May we covenant to obey His command

And make our adoption sure someday

Larry Doyle Crenshaw