Covenant Privileges! Pt. 1    By James L Lantz

A covenant is formed between two people or two parties in which each gives or shares with the other that which is agreed upon. A marriage between two believers gives the world a front row view of what a covenant looks like. Nothing is to be withheld from one another. A prenuptial agreement that withholds from the other is not a marriage covenant. In the marriage covenant we give ourselves and everything that we have wholly to each other. We covenant to love and care for each other and keep ourselves only for our spouse as long as we both are alive. A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his bride and they become one flesh. Every man is commanded to love his wife as he loves himself and every wife is to see that she reverences her husband.  Eph. 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Love is recognizable by all! Everyone who is in Christ has the love of God in them and will be recognized by their love for one another.  John 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

In previous covenants we see God loving, caring, and protecting His beloved man. God shed the blood of animals and made a leather suit for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness. He drove them from the garden to protect them from eating of the tree of life and being separated from Him forever.
He delivered Noah and his family from being destroyed by the flood.  Proverbs 11:4  Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.  God gave signs of His covenant! He reminds us with the rainbow that He will never destroy the earth with a flood again. God protected Abraham and Sarah from all their enemies and gave them their promised son. He gave Abraham the sign of circumcision for every male that belonged to God.  Gen. 17:14  And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.  He remembered His covenant with Abraham and delivered his descendants from Egyptian bondage. He honored the blood of the lambs that was put over their doorways and denied the death angel from killing their firstborn. He counted the eating of the lamb for healing to those that left Egypt. God protected and guided Israel with a cloud by day and kept them warm with fire by night. He fed all of them supernaturally in the wilderness for forty years and kept their clothes from wearing out. They had no excuse to not be at the tabernacle to hear their ministers, Moses and Joshua, teach them the ways of God. After Moses death Israel was now well trained, organized, and ready to follow Joshua’s leadership and take the promised land. In the covenant given to Moses on the mountain God promised to set Israel high above every other nation and bless them mightily. Their part of the covenant was to hearken diligently unto God’s voice and observe to do all His commands.  Deut. 28:2  And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.  This blessing would be on them everywhere and on their children, on their livestock, their daily work, and their storehouses. God would cause their enemies to be defeated and to flee from them. The blessing of the Lord was to be on everything they put their hand to and they would be established as His holy people. Everyone would see how God blessed Israel and they would be afraid of them. This covenant blessing makes them the lender and not the borrower, the head and not the tail to all that hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God and refuse to turn aside to serve other gods. This same blessing is still active to all who believe in Jesus!  Galatians 3:7  Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

David understood that he had a covenant with God from his youth. I am sure this blessing of the Lord was on David’s mind when he rose up to kill the lion and the bear who endeavored to take his father’s lambs. We know what David was thinking when he told Goliath that he was coming to fight him in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.        1 Sam. 17:46  This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.  David understood that he was the lesser one who was privileged to be in covenant with the Almighty and that his part was to fulfill all of God’s will! God testified that he had found David, the son of Jesse, a man after His own heart, who would fulfill all His will.  Acts 13:22  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.  Being in covenant with God through the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest gift that God could give us! David understood the benefits of being in covenant with the one who forgives, heals, redeems us from destruction, crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies, and satisfies our mouth with good so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon all that fear Him, and his righteousness will be on all of our descendants who keep His covenant!

Jonathon’s soul was knit to David’s as he listened to David conversing with his father, while still holding the giant’s head in his hand.  1 Samuel 18:3  Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.  Later, David recommitted his covenant pledge to Johnathan confirming that he would show kindness to him and his house forever.  Pro. 27:10  Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.  Years after King Saul and Johnathan were killed in battle, David remembered his covenant with Johnathan and showed kindness to Johnathan’s son, Mephibosheth.

Honesty is a key and important component with God. It is written, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Jesus said, I Am the Truth! The Holy Spirit is called, the Spirit of Truth. When the early church began to be multiplied the apostles asked the disciples to pick seven men with two outstanding characteristics to serve in the church. One might think that all christians are honest and yielded to the Spirit but obviously some are more Christ like than others.  Acts 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.  The Spirit of God through Paul says that we are not to pay back evil for evil and to provide things honest in the sight of everyone.  Rom. 12:17  Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.  We live in a world where deceit and lies are all around us but we are not to be conformed to this world. Packaging and buzz words are used to make things appear larger, harmless, more glamorous, and healthier than they really are. The truth of the mortality of man and his need for The Savior has been removed from many platforms, classrooms, and discussions and yet wisdom is crying out. We must be honest with God in order to receive of His grace! Jesus revealed how the condition of a man’s heart determines if he receives or rejects the eternal word of God. The starting place in our coming into relationship with Father God is being honest about our lost condition and His ability and desire to save us! TO BE CONTINUED

John 15:7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.