The covenants of promise
The “covenants of promise” are basic to the gospel (Eph. 2:12). They concern the “seed” Jesus Christ, his obedience even “unto death” (Phil. 2:8), his resurrection, his priesthood, and his return in glory.
Why Ever Should the Creator bind Himself with a covenant? A covenant is a promise, contract, or agreement which is sealed by an oath, that is to say, a solemn public declaration of intent. Indeed, God has affirmed that He has committed Himself by “two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). And the reason? That “we might have a strong consolation”!
God is our refuge
The apostle in Hebrews 6 uses very interesting picture-language based upon the geography of the land of promise. God selected six “cities of refuge.” All were on prominent hilltops. These walled cities were sanctuaries to which any person guilty of accidental homicide could run and be safe from vengeance. For such a person, the only hope of survival in this terrible situation was that city on the skyline. Men would have selected places in the lowlands, easier to reach. God chose mountain-top sites that signified Himself, the heavenly and only true refuge. Archaeologists have revealed that the roads up to these cities were kept — unlike roads in the Caribbean today! — in a constant state of good repair. The writer to the Hebrews says that the sanctuary of God’s presence is the real refuge, just as David recognized (Psalm 14 and fourteen other psalms as well).
Our forerunner
Jesus was the first to flee there. He entered and was saved. He is our forerunner. We follow him, and if we make it into God’s place of refuge, we will be saved. He has made a solemn covenant that we will be granted unconditional pardon, our life will not be forfeit, and we will stay safe there for ever. In the old typology, the manslayer could not leave the city of refuge during the lifetime of the high priest (Num. 35:25). Our high priest is immortal! We will abide with God for ever.
Do we keep our covenants?
Covenants are very unpopular nowadays. When made, as in marriage or in legal and industrial contracts, they are hardly taken seriously at all. A bail bond is a legal covenant; but absconding from bail is looked upon not only as normal. but as clever, and honouring it voluntarily is considered stupid beyond belief. Recently, Bro. Melvin, my husband, was out of work for months because some workers walked off the job leaving highly hazardous equipment running unattended, threatening the lives of many people.
On a major Caribbean radio station recently, a well-known, talk-show host, actually suggested that since times are so difficult and economic hardship so severe, people should not bother to take any commitment seriously (because politicians don’t, was his reasoning!) but just be selfish and “think of number one” (and he didn’t mean God!). But “God is not mocked” in these unscrupulous ways (Gal. 6:7).
Job took his covenants seriously!
Job had a lot more troubles than most of us. Not least of them was a very supportive wife (Job 2:9). Yet, to his eternal credit, at the very lowest point in his fortunes and his distress, he acknowledged that his marriage contract was absolutely sacred, and he was going to stand by it come what may: “I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think [lustfully] upon a maiden? If mine heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. For this is a heinous crime, yes, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. For it is a fire that consumes to destruction” (31:1,9-12).
The use of covenants
In the early days of the truth in the Caribbean a century ago, brothers and sisters formed a Christadelphian Friendly and Burial Society. Most members were very poor, some desperately so, but they put up a few dollars, and covenanted with one another that in times of bereavement or acute hardship, they would help one another. And they did. That covenant was the only way many Christadelphian families avoided their loved ones being thrown into a pauper’s grave.
A wonderful thing
It is a wonderful thing, beyond all our comprehension, that the living and eternal God should decide to deal with us on the basis of covenant, His covenant. Covenants were solemnised by blood, the blood of a sacrificial animal. Blood is the life, and this ritual meant one thing: a covenant was pledged on life itself. To renege on a covenant was to forfeit the right to life. Though the rituals have changed, the principle has not.
The covenant of baptism
As the Brotherhood spreads through the non-Christian world, new converts to Bible Truth are finding that their neighbours and their governments are taking the covenant of baptism into Jesus Christ very seriously indeed, with life threatening persecution as an inevitable consequence. In our generally more tolerant Caribbean societies, how seriously have we taken the covenant of baptism?
“God hath said…”
We often quote the words, “I will never leave thee or forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5). But look at the context. “He [God] hath said… ” those words. What does that mean for us? It means that we can count on that covenant of God utterly, “so that we may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me'”!
Do we keep covenants like that? So that our word alone is our bond? (Matt. 5:33). Do we still keep them when everything has gone wrong, just as when things are going smoothly? If we want life eternal, we must.
Salvation itself is a matter of covenant relationship. God has pledged Himself. So have we. He cannot lie or renege. Having free will, we can. But we are fools if we do. “For the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children, to such as keep His covenant… (Psa. 103:17-18).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One