Covenant Life

Exodus 34:10  Then the Lord said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation  in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you."

Historically, this was done with the nation of Israel, made up collectively of all the descendants of Abraham and others who chose to enter the covenant through the cutting of flesh and shedding of blood. It dealt with the relationship God had with the people, the nation, of Israel, which was different from God's relationship with the tribes, the city-nations, the political powers, that lived in the geographical area which God had promised to Abraham and the nation that descend through Isaac, the miraculous son born of promise, and through Jacob, the grasper and the supplanter who became Israel, one who has power with God and with man.

The Scriptures indicate that God had brought the Caananites and other tribes into the land many generations earlier for it to be a pleasant place to live and to worship God for His blessings. But the people who settled there left the true worship of God and went after idols, corrupting the land and polluting it with their graven images and devil-worship. Therefore God promised to give them up to the Israelites, making them powerless to stand before the covenant people of God, and to drive them out of the land, which was good and pleasant, leaving cities full of houses and vineyards and olive groves and every pleasant thing.

Today, the scripture still stands true, but the New Covenant is realized inside each of us as individuals, with the goal being to conquer ourselves, the internal land of our intents and purposes, that we would become a holy people, regardless of what geographical area we are in. Our battle is not against other people, but against the forces that tempt our thoughts to stray and our desires to seek to gain ascendancy over the will of God.

The covenant is established with the circumcision of our heart, the cutting of the fleshly appetites and desires of our nature. As we walk with God, we yield our will in obedience to God, following the leading of His Spirit, dying to our selves that He may increasingly live within us and move through us and flow out of us.

The enemy of God was created before man, and was given beauty and skill to give praise and worship to God the Creator. The goal became subverted from giving praise and worship to getting praise and worship. God is Jealous and will not allow His majesty to be claimed by anyone else. So He broke the power of the enemy by defeating, through the obedience of Jesus on the cross, all those powers and principalities in the spirit that exalt themselves against God. 

As they try to stand against the increase of the kingdom of God, the Spirit leads us against the powers of lust to defeat that in our lives, just as God lead Joshua and the Israelites against the city-state of the Amorites to conquer them and remove them and their practices from the land they would be living in. Thus they cleansed the land to make it a holy place for God to dwell, just as we cleanse our lives, giving God a holy temple in which to dwell. 

Just as there were many nations and tribes living in the Promised Land that had to be defeated, so we face on-going battles against selfishness, greed, sloth, envy, hatred, and so on. Each one can be defeated, one at a time, through the power of the Word of God, through walking in the power of the Spirit, through trusting in God's leading and provision. God led Joshua in a different strategy with each battle, and so He will give us the wisdom and the strength to fight a winning battle against those works of the flesh that are rebellious against and abhorrent to the Lord God.

Exodus 34:12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.

God has made His covenant with us so that we would be a holy people, dedicated and consecrated to Him and to His service. If we make a covenant or a treaty with the powers that are disobedient to God, how can we cleanse or conqueror our selves to be sanctified unto God? In all we do, let us stay in the Word to gain understanding, and walk in the fear of God to gain wisdom, and let the Lord show us anywhere that we need to separate ourselves from practices, habits, thought patterns, beliefs, traditions, superstitions, and more. As we cleanse ourselves, the temple of God, we find He fills us with more of His love and grace.

Proverbs 8:34 Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home!

Lord, we engage You in conversation throughout the day! We turn to You when the day is finished! We look for You and wait on You when the day is new! We walk in reverential obedience toward You, Lord, that we may lack nothing when we come face to face with the lions that are seeking prey. They have been given up, they have no Rock to defend them, they are weak and hungry, for You, O Lord, are our deliverer!

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