God's Covenant

God's Covenant
Genesis 7-9 | Psalm 3 | John 3

After God's judgement on the earth recorded in Genesis chapters 6-8, we immediately find God blessing Noah, the one obedient inhabitant of the earth before the flood, and the head of the only living family on earth after the flood. This blessing came in the form of a covenant (which means 'agreement') from God to mankind, that "Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth".

Tomorrow we will read of a covenant that God makes with one man, Abram (Gen. 12:2-3), that He will bless him and his descendants for all generations to come. Throughout our reading of the Old testament we will see that this covenant is renewed repeatedly with Abram's descendants, who eventually form the nation of Israel.

The notion of covenant is important throughout the Bible, indeed the major Biblical divisions of the "Old Testament" and "New Testament" refer respectively to the Old Covenant and the New Covanant. The beginnings of the Old Covenant are traced to the previously mentioned Abram, as God chose him and his descendants as His people, promising him (and them) land, great numbers of offspring, great general blessing and that all people on earth would be blessed through him/them. It is in this final promise, that "all people on earth would be blessed through him", that we realise a great plan of some sort is evident in God's actions.

From the 'original sin' of Adam and Eve, to the murder of Abel, to the sins of the people in the time of Noah, it is abundantly clear that mankind had become inherantly rebellious. Even after the destruction of the earth by flood, sin remained prominent amongst the eight human survivors - no sooner had the 'righteous' Noah survived the great flood than he "became drunk" and lay naked... and his son Ham enjoyed the spectacle of his father's failings, gossipping about it to his brothers (which was not particularly honouring to His father). At any rate, the problem of sin that started with Adam and Eve would continue on the earth forever, and God would always be justly angered and hurt by this constant rebellion - remember yesterday's Psalm: "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?"

Romans 6:23 tells us that "the wages of sin is death". This is a universal truth or law akin to the saying "what goes up must come down". Sin has the consequence of death. If you fail to do with your life what you are supposed to do, that life will be taken from you. Adam and Eve found this out the hard way - they were made to live forever without suffering, but their sin meant that they died. And this is the situation of the human race - sin is inherent within us and we will all die.

God could not stand that His beloved creation were inevitably subject to death in this way. We will read that God introduced a sacrificial system to Abram's descendants where the punishment of death was inflicted on a prized animal or similar possession of the person deserving death rather than on the person himself. In this way the importance and destructiveness of sin was highlighted and God's merciful provision was shown yet again. However, we find that this system too, left much to be desired - how can a flawed sheep be a substitute for a man? How can any animal be a substitute for a man who is supposed to be flawless?

Enter Jesus, A descendant of Abram, known as "the Christ" and also known as God's Son. John 3:16, arguably the most quoted verse of the Bible, tells us that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Jesus was a perfect man who made Himself the substitute for all other men. The "New Covenant" is built on Jesus' blood. It is an agreement from God to man that whoever puts their faith in the blood of Jesus will not persih but have eternal life.

It is easy to read that verse as promising that which we know we will not receive - eternal life on earth. Our lives now are flawed, and all who believe in Jesus are still destined to die one day. But they will not perish in the eternal death that follows physical death for those who rebelled in their physical lives. Instead they will receive eternal life as it was meant to be: in paradise with God.

When believers speak of their eternal focus, it is this to which they refer. Eternal life as it was meant to be. No suffering. No more death. No illness. No hatred... God has promised through the blood of His Son.

Pray and thank God for providing and sacrificing His Son for you; and ask for constant reminder of your eternal focus, that you may be seeking eternal reward, not temporary luxuries in this fallen world.