Aren’t you glad that God does not forget His covenants, even though we who claim to be His disciples do? America not only has forgotten her covenant with God, but our leaders have forgotten His with Israel. Part of the problem is that we have a serious leadership vacuum here in America. I commented on leadership at my latest video blog:
I have no doubt that Bebe Netanyahu is familiar with the Davidic Covenant. Barack Obama…not so much. Many of the psalms were written in remembrance of God’s covenant with David. One such is Psalm 89:
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“My mercy I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall stand firm with him.†(Psalm 89:28)
Jews know that their redeemer Messiah is to come. Unfortunately they missed that part but the prophets recorded God’s promises for a Redeemer:
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“‘As for Me,’ says the LORD, ‘this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,’ says the LORD, ‘from this time and forevermore.’†(Isaiah 59:21)
A Bible student could literally earn his or her Ph.D just studying the remembrance of divine covenants found in the Old Testament. Here’s one last example:
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“And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.â€â€™â€ (Jeremiah 33:19-22)
There is a godless movement within the American Church to unhitch the Old and New Testaments. The only way that can safely be done is to remove many of the words of our church fathers from the New Testament. The Apostle Peter’s second recorded sermon, from Solomon’s Portico, reminds Jews of God’s covenant with them:
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“For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.†(Acts 3:22-26)
The Apostle Paul, when rebuking the Galatian church when they tried to depart from grace for the law, reminded the Galatians of the Abrahamic Covenant:
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“Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.†(Galatians 3:5-9)
In God’s mercy He did not and does not judge us as we deserve judgment. Throughout history, mankind has broken every covenant with God. And being a God of justice and righteousness, but also mercy, He had to establish a new covenant:
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“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,†for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ In that He says, ‘A new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.†(Hebrews 8:7-13)
It is very clear in Scripture that God does not forget His covenants and His covenant with Abraham and David, among the many, are still valid today. When Barack Obama forsook Israel’s safety last Thursday, he forgot the covenant God made with Israel and the curse that comes with that. And all indications point to Mr. Obama not backing down from his untenable position.
As my boss, a fellow believer, said last Friday…time to get your hurricane shudders and supplies ready.
Sound advice…here’s some more.
Pray!
In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4
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Copyright © 2011 David Jeffers
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Bible, Christian Activism, Covenant, Evangelism, Faith, Forgiveness, Grace, Israel, Mercy, Morality, Obama, Prayer, Revival, Sin, Wisdom