THE COVENANT OF GOD
[p. 71] THE COVENANT OF GOD
Ezekiel 20:33 - 37; 2 Chronicles 34:29 - 32; Isaiah 56:6 - 8
These scriptures all speak of the covenant, the covenant of God. As many of us know, this subject has a great place in Scripture. On account of our limitations as creatures, He uses terms that are intelligible to us, terms already known amongst men, so that He might become intelligible to us, that we might know Him. For instance, we are told that the promises which He had made, He confirmed by an oath. God cannot lie, so there is no reason why He should swear, but He does, by Himself, there being no greater to swear by. He does it to assure our feeble hearts, for at best they are feeble and doubting. God entered into covenant, committed Himself to promises, and in order to assure those to whom the promises were made, He confirmed them by an oath, “that by two unchangeable things in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement”, Hebrews 6:18 not only encouragement, but a strong encouragement, that our hearts should be fortified by the promises and the oath. This is in keeping with the incarnation itself. God would come in in the lowest way to get near to us, to be beside us to be compassable by us. Not that the Lord Jesus, even as a Babe, was compassable. He was ever what He was, the Same, the unchanging One. But He took the form of a Babe which would assure every heart. So the angels said to the shepherds, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”. Luke 2:11 They might have said ‘born unto God’, but no, “unto you is born ... a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”. The sign was they should find a babe wrapped [p. 72] in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. He came into circumstances that were well known, a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. Perhaps the position lying in a manger was not so common. But they were to see a sign and this was the sign — a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger, nothing to terrify or repulse man, but rather everything to encourage him. These things were knowable, that which was unknowable would be now known, and lovable, too. ‘The Creator’ speaks of the eternal power and divinity of God, but that hardly suggests attraction or love. It might be said that love is spoken of before the incarnation but all had incarnation in view. The divine work of the Spirit had incarnation in view. When God came in in one way or another, it looked forward to Bethlehem’s manger, and the Babe in it. He used human language to show that He was and is love. He would be loved, too, that is what He wanted — that He should be loved. “We love him, because he first loved us”. 1 John 4:19. That love is attested in Jesus become Man.
Now in the covenant God takes up a word that is intelligible to man. The covenant is one of the most important subjects in Scripture. There are several covenants, but I cannot enter into them all now. One is the covenant at Horeb, and then the new covenant of which the one at Horeb was in a certain sense the type. The new covenant into which we have come is made with Israel and Judah, but we all have part in it. There is a touching reference to it in Haggai 2:4,5, “I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts. The word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit, remain among you”. As if God would say ‘the covenant involves all that I am towards you in love and thoughtfulness, and My Spirit makes it good in your hearts, remaining in you’ — all that God is in Christ Jesus our Lord and it is in Him that it is available to us. All that is with [p. 73] us here in this hall tonight, and the Holy Spirit as well by whom it is made a reality to us. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. Romans 5:5. So that we do not need to fear, we are rendered independent of all the human religions around us, for these two things remain with us, the covenant and the Spirit. It is in the light of these things that we are here tonight. The Holy Spirit is present to touch our hearts as to the covenant of God, so that the thing might be clear to us.
The Lord after He had blessed the cup said, “This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many”. Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24. In Mark’s gospel it says, “and they all drank out of it”. Mark 14:23. That may apply to most of us here. We have all drunk out of it. What a precious thought, “they all drank out of it”. It is not ‘cups’, it is “the cup”, so they all drank out of it. The Lord said, “This is my blood, that of the new covenant”. Then He said, “I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine”, alluding to the passover cup, “until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God”. Mark 14:25. He says ‘in a new way’ which we can now understand. The new covenant is different from the old. It is to be drunk, but in a new way in the kingdom of God. We understand that, that christianity is new, and we have been brought into it, but the Lord speaks of Himself, “I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God”. Mark 14:25. He gave up the earthly side in the last passover, and set up the new thing in keeping with the new covenant in which we have part.
I want to show how the prophet urges on us the bond of the covenant. I have spoken from Haggai, who with Zechariah is one of the latest of the prophets; they both laboured in the building of the house in Jerusalem after they returned from Babylon, so they have a peculiar place, they were peculiar men, they [p. 74] not only unfolded the mind of God, but they worked with their hands to build the temple. So Haggai has a peculiar kind of right to speak to us and he tells us that the covenant remains with us. It is well to notice the place that the prophets have. In the main they refer to the patience of God, God’s long suffering, the patience of His service to us, His perfect service to us. The Lord said, “The law and the prophets were until John”. Luke 16:16. But there are also the Psalms which have a great place, too, but the prophets generally represent the patience of God, particularly in His service to us, that He has the very best things for us. God comes into our way of speaking, because we know God. Ezekiel was one who was in the place to receive communications for he was one of the captives by the river Chebar in Babylon. This marked him, so he has a right to speak to us because he had a part in the captivity as we have. We cannot rightly understand Scripture without seeing the moral bearing these Old Testament scriptures have on us. They speak directly to us, they have a word for us, they appeal to all circumstances, to all times. In the passage I read in Ezekiel we have God’s dealings with His people. He brings them to “the wilderness of the peoples”. Though they are among the nations, the nations become just a wilderness to them, nothing can make it such to them apart from the work of God in them. I know something of the Jewish way of thought, for we have about two million Jews in New York. I know the peoples are not a wilderness to them, it is all a question of making money, of getting on in the world. So the change will be wrought by the work of God. The nations will never become a wilderness to us except as we become the subjects of the work of God. Naturally the world is not a wilderness to us. We are born into it, we love it, we hanker after it, we would like to get on in it, to find our enjoyment in it. But God works in us;
[p. 75] young people are the subjects of the work of God, worldly companionship ceases to be a pleasure to them, rather is it a wilderness out of which they would seek to go, and find their companions among those who, like themselves, are the subjects of the work of God. The circle of the saints is a sphere of life, of course it is limited, but still it is life. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”. 1 John 3:14.
Then He says, “I will cause you to pass under the rod”, but first He speaks of the wilderness of the land of Egypt. That is what Egypt becomes to them, because God wrought and pleaded with them, in His love for them. He would have them understand, He brings them to Himself, He enters into covenant with them. And now He says, “I will cause you to pass under the rod”. These verses are progressive. He brings us into the wilderness of the peoples and how the Lord pleads with each one of us. In how many ways He brings Himself before us, as we see in the early chapters of Exodus, chapters 13,14,15,16,17,19. For instance He was in the cloud, the cloud went before them, and then it moved behind them so as to be between them and the Egyptians. What consideration of God for them that they might be free and restful. Then they come into the wilderness and He enters into covenant with them at Horeb. But here there is the thought of the rod which should be noticed. “I will cause you to pass under the rod”. The rod may be found in those chapters in Exodus; certainly there was the rod of Moses, the rod of authority which they passed under. Today it is the rod of Christ. Paul speaks of coming to Corinth with a rod, it was necessary. He greatly modified that remark by sending Timotheus to them, his child, one who was a very much younger man, but he knew Paul and he knew Paul’s ways. The apostle uses marvellous skill in changing from severity to meekness [p. 76] and love, but the rod was there. Indeed it shows the Lord’s way with each one of us. Troubles come, sickness, sorrow, and other things, they are all to be taken as the evidence of the Lord’s disposition towards us, every bit is for the good of the saints. “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth”. Proverbs 3:12. There is love in the rod, and there is sonship in it, too. It makes the rod a very different thing when we see sonship in it. The rod will surely be used of God, it is not a rod of iron. When we see these two great words are blazoned on it — love and sonship — that enables us to submit, and thus we become partakers of His holiness. The shepherd uses his rod to count his sheep, you are honoured by being taken notice of. He leads His people, and they know they are honoured by being taken notice of — called out by God, so that we may come into the bond of the covenant, recognising that there is the bond. He is looking for some response, not only in love but in consideration, because it is this sort of thing that makes men of us. In 1 Corinthians we read, “Quit yourselves like men; be strong” 1 Corinthians 16:13 and thus become grown men. It is the bond of the covenant, that I am obligated to God, He has made a proposition to me and I have to take it on. “I will bring you into the bond of the covenant”. That involves not only my obligation to God, but it includes my obligation to my brethren. In other words, it is fellowship. That is the bearing of things, that we should take account as to whether we are true to the bond, true to God, true to the brethren.
Now I want to show from Chronicles how it works out, how a king comes into it. We have been speaking of the rod of authority in Moses. In the case of Josiah we get his whole life portrayed from eight years of age when he began to reign. You cannot attach the thought of much officialism to a boy like that, he is a tender person. You will see in this chapter how [p. 77] the Holy Spirit speaks of different stages of this boy’s life. That is, Josiah represents life, but life in its development. The boy draws out your sympathy, almost pity, to be found in such an exalted position. You are not afraid of a boy of eight years. But there he is the king. The Lord would come into our hearts in that way. Hilkijah finds the book of the law, the law of God, and brings it to the king, he had great interest in that; that is very suggestive, he had great interest in the book of the law. He rent his clothes with shame that the law, the covenant, had been so little regarded, should indeed have been lost sight of. That is how this chapter presents Josiah to us. He appeals to the prophetess Huldah. She tells him of the covenant of the Lord and the terrible consequences of their disobedience. The rights of God have been disregarded. But the king is in his place and he gets the elders to the house of the Lord. That is what the Lord is doing. He is getting the responsible ones to the house of the Lord.
If anyone does not understand, how He appeals to us to come to the house. So here “the king went up into the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah;” That is a most important section. The thing is opened up to us, you are given to understand the need, you are responsible. Anyone who is not responsible is not worthy of the name of a christian. Responsibility marks christianity. That is the point here. The king gets the responsible ones to the house of the Lord and reads to them the words of the law. Then in verse 31 “the king stood in his place”, he stands to it. Now that is what I want to press. The covenant was made that they should keep it, the covenant of God. It has been recovered, and he [p. 78] brings the responsible ones there and reads the words of the covenant. Now He is calling us all to stand to it, that is what the Lord is doing. He calls us to stand to it. The way He has of doing it I cannot enter into now, but He has the means. He is the King. He can do things, we are not stronger than He. If He is bent on making us stand to the covenant He will do it and it may be a very serious matter in our histories. He is bent on making us stand to the covenant, not to be trifling with it, but to stand to it.
That is why I read the passage in Isaiah: “The sons of the alien, that join themselves to Jehovah”. You see how the prophecy comes in and has a bearing on the present time. We were once aliens and strangers, but the work of God has changed all that and we are of those who have joined themselves to Jehovah, that is to God. I am not asking you to join yourself to any company, it is a question of joining Jehovah, joining the Lord to minister to Him and to love His name. Where will you get a finer statement of the position of one in whom God has worked? He has joined himself to Jehovah to minister to Him and to love His name, to be His servant. Is there anyone ready to come forward tonight for the first time? We gentiles were all aliens to God and to His covenant. What are you going to do? If there is a stranger among us, wishing to join himself to the Lord, to minister to Him and love His name and be His servant, this chapter is most encouraging to you. He goes on to say, “Every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast to my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer”. Now that, dear brethren, is a wonderful proposition for anyone tonight who has not taken his place as a stranger before God and joined himself to Jehovah. God shows us how He brings us to His holy mountain — the term is full of spiritual meaning, “My holy mountain” and “my house of prayer”. Not the house of burden but the place of joy. The music and the dancing are there. God brings things down to the young that they may be encouraged as to what He has for them. The elder brother heard the music and the dancing. It is going on today and God is offering it to us. The Lord Jesus said, “We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced”; Matthew 11:17, Luke 7:32 the Lord is the Musician. In the Father’s house there were both music and dancing. “The Lord Jehovah, who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith: Yet will I gather others to him, with those of his that are gathered”. This verse is an encouragement to us at this moment. It is a question of the covenant. The keeping of the sabbath means to us our recognising the Lord’s supper in the setting of the covenant to all those who keep it from pollution. He has recovered it for us and it is for us to keep it from pollution. Then there is to be positive gain, progress and addition. “I will gather others”.