Covenant: Context and Understanding

Fifty2 Sunday’s ~ Listening for God

            Last Sunday’s sermon was taken from Hosea. As always happens, this small book reminds me of something that occurred thirty six years ago. At the time, my life was in a bit of turmoil and for some reason, although I was not a Christian at the time nor attending church or even thinking about doing so, I thought having a bible would help-so I bought one . My first attempt at reading it  was to begin where it opened which happened to be in Hosea. I was utterly confused and bewildered by what I read and quickly shut it with no inclination to try again. I had not understood what I read because I had no framework for it - and no one to explain it to me at the time. The ability to understand a matter is dependent upon knowing the context. This sermon illustrated the importance of this point.

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In the book of Hosea, God tells the prophet to marry Gomer, an “adulteress” (Hosea 1:2-3), Hosea does as he is instructed even though he knows his wife will not be faithful to him. This is the story of God and his people-covenants have been made and repeatedly broken and still God persistently desires to be in relationship. Through the prophet (Hosea 2:16-20) God speaks about a covenant that would someday be established - a new kind of covenant. This covenant was described by Jeremiah (31:31-34):

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel

and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant

I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant,

though I was a husband to them ” declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel

after that time,” declares the Lord.

“I will put my law in their minds

and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

No longer will they teach their neighbor,

or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’

because they will all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.

“For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more.”

In saying that he came to “fulfill the law” Jesus commented that not “the smallest letter” of the law would disappear until everything is accomplished or fulfilled (Matthew 5:17 & 18). Obviously the law was important to Jesus but more so, the ‘new’ covenant he came to establish. To understand this covenant one has to know why the old covenant was not suffice making a new/different one necessary(context).

Key Point	Context	Understanding
The covenant (the “law”) God established with Moses was not sufficient to forgive sins once and for all (Hebrews 10:1-4) and so it was made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).	A blood sacrifice was required for God to forgive sins. The death of Christ on the cross-fulfilled this requirement and cleanses sins in the way that the sprinkling of the blood of goats and calves never could (Hebrews 9:13 & 14).	It was God’s will that Christ be the sacrifice of atonement by the shedding of his blood—that we by  faith may receive forgiveness of our sins  (Romans 3:25a).
Christ fulfills the law and establishes a new covenant and serves as its “mediator” (Hebrews 9:15).	The new covenant was instituted during the Passover by Jesus at the Last Supper:  “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:19-20).	“Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

           

Before I came to faith none of this ever made sense to me-especially the part about why a blood sacrifice was required. I think it is important for any of us who may have been “in Christ” now for a while to recognize that what we know, what we say, what we do may not be clear or make sense to those who have no context upon which to build an understanding.  It is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch that comes to mind; “The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:34 & 35). Phillip provided the eunuch the context he needed to understand.