Jeremiah 33-34 / 1 Timothy 4 / Psalm 89:1-13 / Proverbs 25:23-24
Covenant is a word we don’t use much these days. Perhaps the people of God are familiar with the word and what it means. I believe there is also a legal term and meaning behind the word covenant. Marriage is a covenant. Let’s define this word from Merriam Webster then let’s talk about some biblical covenant.
Covenant is defined as a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement. A written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action. The common-law action to recover damages for breach of such a contract.
Covenant as a verb is defined this way: to promise by a covenant: pledge. To enter into a covenant: contract. This is what we do when we marry someone or agree to business arrangements, etc.
In a covenant there are always at least two parties. One would not make a covenant with herself – usually. But wait! There’s more that I’ll explain in a minute. In the Old Testament when a covenant was being established one of the customs was to cut an animal down the middle, and place the two halves some distance apart, allowing the two parties to walk in a figure 8 pattern between the two halves.
It’s hard to know all the possible penalties for breaking such a covenant, but I’m sure that as serious as the covenant making was, you would not want to be caught breaking the agreement. I’d say some scary consequences awaited the one who broke covenant. As I read Jeremiah 34:19, The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem made covenants in the way described above, but they had broken their covenant.
As a result of these men breaking the covenant they had made, they were being taken into captivity by Babylon, and some of them were going to die. It appears as if one should soberly enter these type covenants with God. Perhaps they did not count the cost of what would happen should they not uphold their end of the bargain.
In Jeremiah 33:23-26 God is declaring that He does not break the covenants that He establishes. He does not break His side of the bargain, ever. The wording is strong when He tells Jeremiah this: If I have not made my covenant with day and night and established the laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.
If God has promised that He will do something, He will never go back on that promise. We are fickle, God is not. When God made His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, He did not allow Abraham to walk between the two halves of the animal. God walked for both parties. God took both sides of the covenant. God made an unbreakable covenant because He made the covenant with Himself. I know of nowhere else in history where one made a covenant with himself – at least not a legal, binding covenant.
Perhaps you have made pledges and promises to yourself, but that is different. We are always going to be imperfect in our ability to keep our promises; God is never imperfect. If God has said something to you, He will accomplish what He said. I encourage you today to allow God to be the covenant keeper in your life. He knows your weaknesses, He sees your best efforts and loves you for them, but we can never outdo God when it comes to covenant.
