Jesus throughout the Scriptures: Pre-exilic Prophets 4 (3)Pray Psalm 28.8, 9.
The LORD is their strength,
And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
Save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance;
Shepherd them also,
And bear them up forever
Sing Psalm 28.8, 9.
(Angel’s Story: O Jesus, I Have Promised)
Our strength are You, O Savior, our strong defense and sure.
Anointed with Your favor, we rest in You secure.
Save us, and bless us, Jesus, upon us turn Your face.
With shepherd’s care, LORD, keep us forever in Your grace.
Read Jeremiah 11.1-8; meditate on verses 2-4.
Preparation
1. What did God require in His covenant with Judah and Jerusalem?
2. What did He promise?
Meditation
The heart of God’s covenant is obedience to His Word. But the people of Judah and Jerusalem, to whom God sent Jeremiah shortly before the captivity in Babylon, had rejected and rebelled against God’s covenant. Jeremiah’s calling was to show the people clearly how they had failed in obedience to God. The old covenant, made with Moses and the fathers, would no longer suffice, but only because—as would become evident—the people had no heart for God. God’s people were about to know the curse of the covenant, rather than its blessing. Only when He gave them a new heart and a new covenant would He be their God and they His people (v. 4; cf. Jer. 31.31ff).
If we are to be His people, and to know Him as our God, then we must obey Him. He knows what is best for us, and what the parameters are within which we may know His love, live in His truth, and flourish in our appointed callings. By obeying the LORD, we show that we believe Him, are grateful to Him, and want to glorify Him in all our ways. It is our duty to hear and understand God’s Word and prayerfully to obey it. We cannot do this perfectly, so God has done it for us in Jesus. Jesus has borne the curse of God’s covenant for us, so that we may be renewed to life in Him.
And all the promises of God and of His covenant are Yes! and Amen! in Jesus (2 Cor. 1.20). Look to Jesus, let the Word of God dwell in you richly, be filled with the Spirit and walk in Him. Thus you will know the fullness of God in His covenant, the blessings and not the curse.
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162The Cambridge dictionary defines a covenant as a formal agreement or promise between two or more people.
It is not a one-sided contract. And although for our purposes, we are discussing God’s covenant with His people—God being the supreme Writer and Negotiator—still we are involved as the secondary participants.
Regarding this covenant, God said: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant…Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God…Hear the words of this covenant and do them…Obey My voice” (Jer. 11.3, 4, 6, 7).
When the death angel was preparing to strike in Egypt, God made very clear what the protocols and procedures for safety entailed. Through Moses He instructed His people:
“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you” (Ex. 12.21-23).
This was a life-or-death situation. The firstborn dwelling in an unproperly marked house, be they Egyptian or Israelite, would perish.
Those whom God warned about this covenant dared not equivocate.
“How about if we just put blood on one doorpost?”
“What if I prefer chicken to lamb?”
“Will it really go poorly if I step outside to watch the carnage?”
Do you ever feel like today’s Christians fudge the line on God’s covenant?
“Do you really mean for me to keep all Ten?”
“What about grace?”
“When You mentioned tithing, does that really mean ten percent isn’t mine? But Yours?”
“How will it look if I set myself outside the norm and follow You completely?”
“Is keeping Your commands really the only way I can show You that I love You?”
“Won’t showing up for church suffice? I put the blood on the lintel—aren’t You pleased about that?”
This all sounds so familiar. God must get so bored—frustrated and angry—with His children.
“Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done” (Jer. 11.8).
“ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5.8). And now that we are saved, we are eager participants in God’s covenant and we need to hold up—keep—our part of it.
“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12.1, 2).
And this needed transformation takes place daily as we:
study God’s Word,
meet with Him in prayer,
take up our cross
and follow Jesus.
Reflection
1. What has God done to bring us into a new covenant relationship with Him? Why is this good news?
2. What has God promised in His covenant? What does He require of us? How can we make ourselves ready and able to fulfill that?
3. Why is God such a stickler for obedience? Why can’t He just let us do what we think is best?
God never promised to bestow blessings on his rational creatures, while they persist in willful disobedience. Pardon and acceptance are promised freely to all believers; but no man can be saved who does not obey the command of God to repent, to believe in Christ, to separate from sin and the world, to choose self-denial and newness of life. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Jeremiah 11.1-10
Pray Psalm 28.1-7.
Thank God for the new covenant He has made with us in Jesus. Call on Him to strengthen and guide you for obedience to His Word today.
Sing Psalm 28.1-7.
(Angel’s Story: O Jesus, I Have Promised)
I cry to You, our Savior, O, be not deaf to me!
LORD, speak to me with favor, lest I should dying be.
Hear now my supplications when for Your help I cry.
Receive these, my oblations, before Your throne on high.
LORD, count me not among those who walk in sinful ways.
With words of peace their tongue glows while evil fills their days.
Your works they disregard, LORD, while evil fills their hands.
Destroy them by Your Word, LORD, and let them no more stand.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus, for He will hear our prayer.
His strength protects and shields us with mercy and with care.
In You our heart rejoices; You help us by Your Word.
To You we raise our voices to praise and thank You, LORD.
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Support for Scriptorium comes from our faithful and generous God, who moves our readers to share financially in our work. If this article was helpful, please give Him thanks and praise.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
