#DailyDevotion We Have A Lord Who Makes And Keeps His Covenants

Easter Week 2 Wednesday

Read Ex 24:1–18

Exo 24:3  Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” …:6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.  (7)  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”  (8)  And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

 

It was a great and terrible sight, the Lord’s glory on Mt. Sinai and even more terrible was the voice of the Almighty speaking from the cloud. Now Moses has the words of the Lord and all his rules and presents them to the people. He puts forth the covenant of the Lord with his people Israel. The people’s response, “Everything the Lord as spoken, we will do.” And you know what, I believe them. I believe they were sincere when they spoke.

 

Then Moses sealed the covenant with blood. The point of the blood and the sacrifices when making covenants in the Mid-East at the time was to say, may what happened to these animals happen to us if we break the covenant. The Lord would have to keep his word and the Israelites would have to obey the rules of covenant. The blood was thrown on the altar representing the Lord and upon the people. They were made one through the blood.

 

Now we know the Israelites did not keep the covenant. But the Lord is faithful. He made another covenant, a new one as he said he would in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The Lord himself becomes the covenant. He will become one of us spill his own blood and give his body upon the altar of the cross. Jesus the Lord of Old is now Lord of the New Covenant. If we believe he suffered for us what was due us on the cross, then we will not experience on Judgment Day. If you do not take part of his covenant, trusting what he has done for you, then you get what you deserve. His covenant to you is free and is a gift. There is nothing you need to do to earn or merit it.

 

He gives us the assurance of our participation in this covenant when we partake his body and blood in Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, where the words of the covenant and the seal of the covenant is given, his body and his blood. There we are assured, I will forgive them their sins and remember them no more.

Heavenly Father, may we ever partake of the New Covenant make with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that his sacrifice on the cross removes from us the judgment of our sins. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.