|
|
What is a covenant?
...the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth,
against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. Malachi 2:14 Marriage is a covenant. If we don't understand what a covenant is, we cannot properly understand divorce and remarriage according to the Scriptures. How to establish a covenant
And I will establish my covenant with you;
neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. Genesis 9:11 To establish a covenant, one only need speak the words.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram, saying,
Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt
unto the great river, the river Euphrates...
Genesis 15:18 Jesus further clears this up by saying:
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
A COVENANT BEGINS WITH A MAN'S WORD
Matthew 5:33-37 Here are a couple examples of God keeping His word for 430 years.I will just give a couple examples of God's covenant. Example 1: Amalek
And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this [for] a memorial in a book, and rehearse [it] in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Exodus 17:14 430 years pass until God's promise to put out the Amalekites as recorded in First Samuel 15:2-3:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember [that] which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid [wait] for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
1 Samuel 15:2-3 God kept His word for 430 years. Example 2: God punishes Israel for slaying the Gibeonites
And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them,
to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. Joshua 9:15 Joshua made a covenant with the Gibeonites against the will of God. It was God's desire that Joshua should slay all the men in the land of Canaan. But 430 years later, God still expected the Israelites to keep their word to the Gibeonites:
Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, [It is] for Saul, and for [his] bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites [were] not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)
2 Samuel 21:1-2
|