covenant

Words of comfort this morning from Psalm 105:8-9” “ He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham . . . .”

God’s covenant with Abraham came with a dramatic symbol. At the traditional covenant ceremony, when it came to the part where the two parties walk a path marked out by the parts of cut-up animals, God went alone. This bloody path was meant to show the consequences of not keeping the covenant. 

So when God excuse Abraham from walking that path, did he excuse him from consequence? I don’t think so. I think God was telling Abraham that he, God, would pay the price to keep the covenant for both sides. That’s how committed God was to this bargain.

The Psalmist reminds us that God will never forget his covenant, and Paul reminds me over and over in his letters that I too am now a child of the covenant.

That means that all the commitments God made to Abraham, to be his God and to prosper his people, also belong to me. Oh, I’ve messed up my end of the deal, which is to live obediently and to acknowledge God in all things. But God took care of that on the cross, literally fulfilling the demand made by those dismembered carcasses. 

God’s faithfulness to me is so unshakable that it becomes part of the context of my life. Just like the sun rises and sets, just like there is oxygen to breath, every day and always God loves me and rains his providence down on me. Who or what, then, shall I fear?