“No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the Lord, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the Lord: “If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:34-37).
Heavenly Father, Keeper of promises, delighting in mercy, relentless in love, and abundant in forgiveness! There is no God like You, because there is no other God! You are God all by Yourself, and we love You because You first loved us! May we never forget this and may we always respond in gratitude and love! In the Name of Jesus Christ we humbly pray. Amen!
For rhe past few days we have been observing the manner in which God, without denying human beings their freedom of choice, always found the way to help them come back into the Covenant that He had initiated in order to have a saving relationship based on love with them. We started on this premise, and after looking at the process from different angles we come back to observe God accomplishing His purpose to take the Good News of His love to all the world!
The Covenant Within was God’s way of telling humans that it will ” ‘Not [be] by might nor by power [that this will be done], but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts” ‘ ” (Zechariah 4:6), because His grace is sufficient, and God is faithful!
Notice how He very beautifully combine two covenant promises into an oath to prove that He will never abandon His people:
“Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the Lord, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.”
a) These words remind me of the words of the Covenant after the flood, “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).
Because the seasons will never cease to be; God’s people will never cease to be a people before Him!
“If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the Lord.“
b) These words remind me of the Covenant He made with Abraham, “[B]lessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. . .” (Genesis 22:17).
Because we cannot count the stars of heaven, nor the sand on the seashore, God will always reserve a remnant for Himself.
Our God is a promise-making, promise-keeping, covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. “The Lord of hosts is His name.” And we can trust Him! Amen!