“I now pronounce you husband and wife . . .”
When young women dream of those romantic words, they envision strolling down the aisle into a satisfying, life-long relationship. Through trial and error, a young couple can endure beyond the romance stage and arrive at a satisfying balance that matures into a loving, covenant partnership, abiding in the promises of faith, hope, and love.
As believers, we may quixotically receive God’s promises of grace and eternal life but tend to give less thought to our role in the New Covenant. This one-sided mentality is not an entirely unreasonable development. The whole covenant concept eludes us because a true example no longer exists in our modern society the way this relationship was once understood in ancient Middle Eastern cultures. Compromise and re-negotiation has become a convenient resort. Even the sacred vow of marriage has deteriorated into a nebulous contractual arrangement that is easily nullified.
I, the Lord do not Change
Throughout man’s turbulent history, God instituted several covenants to guard and protect His Beloved on earth and the Patriarchs appreciated the magnitude of the gesture. They understood that a covenant pledge involved an eternal commitment between parties who agreed to stand by their oaths no matter what.
After God sent the Flood, He established a covenant with every living creature. (Genesis 9:8-10) He commanded Noah to live peacefully and repopulate the earth. In return, He promised never again to send a flood to destroy His creation.
After the dispersal of
“I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord." (Exodus 6:7-8)
While God has remained ever faithful to His promises, mankind invariably, through disobedience and rebellion, breached each and every covenant oath. In the fullness of time, God sent His Messiah, Who put forth a renewed covenant proposal.
Here Comes the Bride
Because
covenants are eternal, the New Covenant isn’t really new at all but rather a
fulfillment of the Mosaic Covenant. The attached rider extends God’s grace to
all men who accept Jesus as Lord and these gentile believers are “grafted” into
the nation of
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:15)
New Covenant commentary refers to the Body of believers as a bride. This illustration conjures up images of the contemporary church wedding but the biblical marriage tradition, beginning with a formal betrothal, presents a more accurate covenant picture. Predominantly Jews, the writers of the Apostolic scriptures more likely had Hebraic wedding rites in mind when developing this metaphor.
Biblical betrothal was more binding than a traditional marriage engagement, where the limits of commitment directly relate to the price of a diamond ring. The groom and his agents, known as the friends of the bridegroom, negotiated the terms with the family of the intended bride. The covenant proposal, or ketubah, listed such things as the bride price and other concessions relating to her happiness and well being.[1]
After settling on the terms, the groom set a cup of wine before the bride and read the ketubah in her hearing and in the presence of her family. The bride elect was not free to quibble over the terms but could either accept or decline the marriage proposal.
Laban offered
Rebekah such a choice to accompany Abraham’s servant to
Then they
called Rebekah and said to her, "Will you go with this man?" And she
said, "I will go." (Genesis 24:58)
If the young woman disputed any one of the terms, she had only to push the cup aside and refuse to drink. By drinking before witnesses, the bride agreed to all the conditions of the ketubah and the couple was betrothed. They were in covenant.
The bride’s mother then covered her head, indicating that she was spoken for. The bridegroom presented her with a token, such as a ring, and announced. “Now, I go to my father’s house to prepare a place for you.”
As
One Man
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.” (Matthew 19:4-6a)
In covenant, the parties come into agreement as one being, caring for one another as a man would care for his own body. Under the terms of the New Covenant, we are united as one being with our Redeemer. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul compares the human marriage bond to our covenant with Jesus in his famous letter to the Ephesians. (Ephesians 5:22-30)
The Blood of the Covenant
Virgin blood seals the marriage covenant. Biblical pledges required the blood of animal sacrifice. Noah built an altar and made sacrifices from the clean animals and birds that he had on the ark. (Genesis 8:20) Abraham circumcised every male in his household as a sign of his submission to the covenant with the Creator. (Genesis 17:23-27) Moses sprinkled the Israelites with the blood of a bull.
And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words." (Exodus 24:8)
We no longer need the blood of an animal sacrifice when we enter covenant with our Creator. Jesus’ blood sealed the New Covenant for all believers. By His death and suffering, He satisfied the blood requirement forever.
And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.” (Mark 14:24)
Covenant is Eternal
Covenant is eternal. For conformation, we need only look to the bow of a rainbow.
The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I
will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." (Genesis 9:16)
Just how important is covenant to God? Let’s review Joshua’s covenant with the Gibeonites. (Joshua 9:3-26)
After
“We have sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them . . . we will let them live, so that no wrath will fall on us because of the oath we swore to them.’” (Joshua 9:19-20)
This story already presents a powerful testimony on behalf of the covenant oath but the ramifications of Gibeonite treaty didn’t end there. Four hundred years later, God still remembered.
“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.’” (2 Samuel 21:1)
God judged
The
Bible is Our Ketubah
God presents believers with the Holy Bible like a ketubah. We either accept all the stipulations as written or we push it away. To enter covenant with God and then willfully violate the terms lands us in breach, thus compromising His liberty to fulfill His promises to us.
“But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.”(Ezekiel 18:24)
Grace
not withstanding, God’s somber judgment extends beyond the cross.
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31)
You
are not Far from the
During His brief sojourn on earth, Jesus was perfectly obedient to His Father’s covenant commands. He is eternally One with the Father, enthroned at His right hand, and a perfect Example that we are to follow.
Jesus died for us.
That was His part. He didn’t do our part for us. Simply believing that Jesus
did His part doesn’t fulfill our covenant responsibilities, either.
We don’t serve a vacillating God, Who is easily swayed. Jesus didn’t balk before the rich young ruler but lovingly gave him the freedom to walk away in his sin. (Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22) God’s covenant is eternal but He added to the terms to extend the mercy of Salvation to all men.
Since the handing down of the commandment at
[1] Fred H.
Wright, Manners and Customs of Bible
Lands, Copyright, 1953, by the Moody Bible Institute of