Ezekiel 16:42-17:24; Hebrews 8:1-13; Psalm 106:13-31;
Proverbs 27:7-9
One of the things I love about Scripture is that it is so
full of hope. It may be a little harder to see that as we are reading through
all this doom and gloom in the prophets, but the Lord is faithful to show us
his true heart in every single passage of Scripture. And what is this heart? An
eternal desire for redemption and restoration to right relationship with him.
He just wants to be with his people. To be in a beautiful covenant relationship
with those he loves. Isn’t that what we are all looking for to? Enduring, deep,
covenant relationships?
Here’s how I saw that in our reading today. It took me
until I got to Hebrews to start making some connections. Hebrews 8:7 says, “For
if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have
been sought for another.” And then, in verses 8-12, the writer of Hebrews goes on
to quote some verses we read for ourselves not too long ago in Jeremiah 31.
“'The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah'” (Heb. 8:8).
I think we can all agree that something wasn’t working
quite right with the covenant between God and Israel in the Old Testament.
We’ve been reading about their struggles for many months now, as Esther pointed
out in her recent post, and it doesn’t seem like this pattern of rebellion is
going to change. No matter how much truth they get preached at them by the
prophets, the people don’t seem to change. They need some kind of complete
overhaul.
Again, today in Ezekiel, we read about this promised new
covenant. “Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your
youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you….Then I will make
atonement for you and for all you have done” (Ez. 16:60, 63). Jesus is
coming!
Over and over we see Israel’s rebellion and turning away,
yet over and over we see forgiveness and restoration from the Lord. And now, in
Hebrews, we have seen how this new covenant through the blood of Jesus has made
the first covenant through the blood of lambs obsolete. Jesus made a way for us
to stay in right relationship with God. We don’t have to rebel and turn away
and go through the same cycles they did. We are actually free from our sin. It
doesn’t hold us.
Sometimes I think the people around us who seem to be
bogged down by sin and shame and can’t ever quite break from those cycles don’t
need more truth preached at them. They need a complete overhaul. They need to
truly experience the life-changing power of the blood of Jesus in their lives.
His death and resurrection change everything. Sin and death have been defeated.
We all live under the blessings of this new covenant. Let
us walk in the freedom and power found in true and right relationship with our
God.
- Mary Matthias
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