Stephen
Terry, Director
The Everlasting Covenant
Commentary
for the October 16, 2021, Sabbath School Lesson
"For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him." John 3:17, NIV
Our Sabbath School Quarterly
this week reminds us that in Deuteronomy and elsewhere the Bible refers to an
everlasting covenant. This presents somewhat of a paradox to us. A covenant is
a contract and contracts, in our experience, are not eternal. Often time itself
makes them invalid. For instance, a rancher on the western frontier in the
nineteenth century who entered into a contract with the Pony Express to deliver
one hundred horses per month might consider himself blessed with good fortune.
But the contract would have become unenforceable once the Express went out of
business, replaced by the telegraph.
Contracts expire due to unforeseen
circumstances, the death of the parties or the parties simply agree to a common
termination. Some contracts may last for a few
generations, but usually not in their original form as changing circumstances
required negotiations to allow either one or both of the parties to adapt to change.
But an everlasting contract can only be so based either on circumstances that can
never change or if the parties themselves are eternal. In the case of the
everlasting covenant referenced to here, God, one of the parties, is eternal.
Man was
created to be eternal also.[i]
This implies that the foundation of an eternal covenant existed, not in Deuteronomy,
but in the early chapters of Genesis. Humankind chose to walk away from that
covenant, seizing the opportunity to have what they thought was a better one
offered by a competitor who misrepresented the terms he could offer. But the contract
was not nullified. God continued to offer that eternal covenant to those who were
willing to renegotiate the terms.
It could not be like it was.
Too much had changed for that. Humankind had walked away, believing he was
right. Now they had to turn around and walk back, admitting they had made a
mistake, a process called repentance.[ii]
However, things were complicated as the other party to their contract, signed
at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Devil, preferred to keep his
contract with humankind in force. He is willing to use any means possible to
enforce his terms. Extortion, drugs, even murder have not been beyond him in
forcing others to stay bound to him. His most effective tools have been guilt
and doubt. He points out our guilt by revealing to us the terms of the original
contract with God and showing how we have broken every one of them.[iii]
The covenant is
often considered to be a matter of observance of the statutes in the Decalogue.[iv] In
Jesus' day, the Jews were very faithful observers of the Law, believing that would
fulfill their side of the covenant. But when asked about it, Jesus revealed that
the covenant was not fulfilled in that way.[v] It
is possible to literally observe every statute in the
Decalogue, in canon law, and in church dogma and still not be fulfilling the
covenant. Too often we are cavilers, looking to exploit the loopholes we believe
we have found. We convince ourselves that we may not help a neighbor in need,
but since we have not murdered him or stolen his wife or his property, we have
fulfilled the requirements of the covenant. Jesus however, quoting from
Deuteronomy and Leviticus, shared that the contract was not based on the Decalogue,
but something simpler and more profound. When asked about it, he replied, "'Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, 'Love
your neighbor as yourself.'" (Matthew 22:37-39) Those who literally
keep all the Ten Commandments may still not be doing this, but those who
are keeping these two automatically fulfill the Decalogue perfectly.
The Devil likes to point to the
Decalogue and any other lesser requirements and point out our failure to keep
them, knowing that if he can get us to obsess about them, we will miss the real
requirements of the contract broken in Eden. When Eve chose to partake of the
fruit, she had rejected the idea of loving God supremely. Adam did the same
when he accepted the fruit from Eve and ate. When Eve offered the fruit to Adam,
the second part of the contract, "love your neighbor," was broken. Walking
away from that covenant swiftly brought all the other violations in its wake.
The first murder was only a generation away. Thousands of years of cruelty and
guilt followed. Every bit of it the Devil exploited. He not only made sure he
rubbed our noses in our guilt, but he made sure we doubted God would ever try
to resurrect the contract we once had with him. He continually reminds us that
we are too far gone to ever come clean. I have had many people ask me if I
think that they have committed the unforgivable sin.[vi]
This thought originates with the "accuser of the brethren,"[vii]
the Devil, who wants us to doubt the covenant can ever be repaired. He will
even go as far as pointing out others and reminding us that we cannot even
measure up to their works, so how can we measure up to God's standards? But the
Devil is doing the same to them. He is the father of lies,[viii]
so he is not above using the most profligate individuals for such work. In
tempting that supposedly more righteous individual, he may be even using us, in
our sins, as examples of righteousness. He knows we cannot see into he hearts and
minds of others to see how desperate their situation really is, just as they
cannot see into ours.
He is willing to lie about us
to fulfil his ends; he is also willing to lie about God's willingness to be
back in covenant with us. He points to those lost in the Noahic flood and
eagerly says "That's you buddy! God's not going to save you. You are too far
gone!" Unfortunately, he has had plenty, even in the clergy, willing to spread
that lie. Jonathan Edwards, a Church of Christ minister preached at the Enfield,
Connecticut church in 1741, "The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much
as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and
is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon
you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer
Eyes than to bear to have you in his sight." It is hard to see a God to be
loved completely, a God who is love,[ix]
in those words. Based on what Jesus shared about the requirements of the
covenant, it would be impossible for us to see that kind of God as willing to
reinstate it.
But Jesus gives us a different
picture, as our opening verse said, he did not come to condemn anyone, but to
save all he could. But the Devil would have us believe he is up there in
heaven, looking for every conceivable way to move someone from his nice list to
the naughty list. That would be the kind of God who would tally up the minutes
and even seconds that someone might violate the Sabbath of the fourth
commandment by not guarding its edges, so he can add them to the list of those
destined for the fire. But Jesus says it is not about seconds and minutes, even
if your transgression of any part of the Decalogue has been glaringly obvious,
he did not come to condemn, but to open the door for reconciliation.
Some may be tempted to think of
women as a lesser gender because of what happened with Eve. How fitting it is
then that Jesus was so amenable to using a woman, taken in the act of violating
one of the Ten Commandments as a centerpiece to illustrate he was here to save
not condemn. Since he claimed to be one with the Father, then by attribution,
God's character is not seeking to condemn, but to save.
We have forgotten that the covenant set up so
many millennia ago was founded on love. We are so inundated in the exact
opposite with fictional depravity and murder in movies and videos, and
nonfictional in the news that it is hard to disengage ourselves from all of
that. When wronged, we find it hard to love. We may not even know how anymore. Instead,
our ire rises as Cain's did before he slew his brother, Abel. We may even feel
righteous in the moment, until it all catches up to us and we realize what we
have done. The Devil chortles about it. He realizes he has yet another mark
against us to point out and tell us that God will never accept us with
blood-stained hands. But Jesus sees that we are like a man on a ledge, ready to
jump in despair. He sees the Devil encouraging us to give up and end it all,
but he says "Look at me! Come towards me! I want to save you from all of this!
You only need to start walking toward me, and I can do the rest." He offers his
hand. Who will take it?