GOD KEEPS HIS COVENANTS

The Rainbow

Genesis 9:13-15, “’I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.’”

The Land

God made a covenant with Abram that He would give him the land, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates…” Over 400 years later, God heard the groanings of the children of Israel in Egypt and He “remembered his covenant”. (Exodus 2:24)

The Blood of Jesus

God calls the blood of Jesus the “blood of the everlasting covenant”. (Hebrews 13:20) We can thank God that He keeps His covenant, and yet how easy it seems for us twenty-first century Christians to break our covenants. I believe that God sees covenants as sacred and, come what may and no matter what the cost, they should be kept.

Those who keep His commandments

Daniel prayed, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him, and with those who keep his commandments.” (Daniel 9:4)

CONSEQUENCES OF NOT KEEPING VOWS

Joshua’s Vow

During King David’s reign there was a famine that lasted for three years. David sought the Lord to find out the reason. God told him that it was because Saul broke the covenant which the children of Israel made with the Gibeonites. This had happened many years previously, but God did not forget the covenant they made. David went to the Gibeonites and asked them what he could do to make atonement for the broken covenant. They asked for seven of Saul’s descendants which they hanged. Only then did the famine cease. You can read the whole story in 2 Samuel 21:1-9.

Jephthah’s Vow

Read the tragic story in Judges Chapter 11 of the unwise vow that Jephthah made and which cost him his daughter. This true story reveals how men in Bible days fulfilled their vows, no matter what the cost.

Jonah’s Vow

Jonah evidently had not paid his vows to God, but after three days and nights in the dark belly of the whale, he finally decides it is better to pay his vows and cries out, “I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2:9)

The Brotherly Vow

Amos prophesied the words of the Lord, “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, which shall devour its palaces.” (Amos 1:9)

This brotherly covenant was made hundreds of years before by Solomon, king of Israel, and Hiram, King of Tyre. (1 Kings 5:12) It seems that instead of offering protection to the fleeing Israelis, they rejected them. But God took note that they broke a vow that was made hundreds of years previously.