Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: covenant

  • A Temporary Throne – 17

    A Temporary Throne – 17

    CHAPTER 17

     NOAH AND HIS REMNANT OF MANKIND I SAVED IN AN ARK.

    I CLEANSED CREATION. I AM THE LORD.

    MORE THAN A YEAR NOAH COULD NOT SET FOOT ON THE EARTH. THEN NOAH WORSHIPED ME. I AM THE LORD.

    WITH A MAN I MADE MY COVENANT. NOAH MADE COVENANT WITH ME: I AM THE LORD.

    “YOU created a new beginning for man,” I exclaimed then continued, “but sin remained.”

    I could recall no words of Noah when he built the ark. Genesis does not record what undoubtedly was an ongoing conversation between God and Noah.

    “I learned the sign of your covenant when we drew rainbows as children in church.”

    I asked, “But, LORD, what was the covenant of Noah?”

    I instantly recalled:

     Genesis 6: “…everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark – “

    And as the GLORY OF THE LORD subsided, I was able to look down, past the THRONE and below the endless void, punctuated with glimmers of lesser light.

    I looked further past clouded swirls of stars and to a bright and beautiful garden of life in a lifeless sky. It was as what now man has seen from the eyes of man beyond the moon, looking back toward the blue and white earth.

    Beneath a great opening between tumultuous rolling cumulus, I saw from behind the THRONE a GREAT LIGHT, bent and bowed down in every direction to the ends of the earth. And on bended knee before an altar of stone, I saw an old man… and only a few more men and women and animals.

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.

  • Covenant and Truth of Christian Marriage

    Covenant and Truth of Christian Marriage

    Marriage: It should be so simple. Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Husband and wife make a promise “until death do us part.” They make a covenant, with witnesses. Confirm it publicly in a ceremony officiated by someone in authority. They speak vows of love (for better, for worse, etc.). They sign a covenant of marriage. They are pronounced husband and wife and go on their way to much celebration of this permanent union of love.

    Simple and so significant.

    “And they live happily ever after,” so the romantic story of love and marriage goes.

    As Christians committed to one another (as is our focus here), the covenant and truth and the love of God, the love of all other Christians, and their pledged love for each other should be reason enough for them to celebrate anniversary after anniversary as one – anniversary after anniversary as one joined as one to Christ Jesus, our Lord.

    … And they live eternally ever after…

    So it should be…

    Yet even Christian husbands and Christian wives struggle with the truths of marriage and the consequences of sin and divorce, just like anyone else.

    So rather than glossing over the Biblical model for marriage (which we will address) and pretending that Christian marriages have it all “for better and for even better” (an unrealistic fairy tale of some ideal Christian preaching), we will address the history of marriage through both the Old Testament and the New and look at some realities in the marriages of Christians through the light of scripture.

    Once upon a time, we could address the issues of marriage without having to define it; but in these post-Christian times it is best that we narrow our focus sharply on the Biblical.

    Marriage: in the Hebrew, multiple uses: – `ownah –  halal – yabam – ba`al – ‘iysh (husband) – ‘ishshah  (wife) 

    I am least of those to define these. There may be more, but study these and their several, related scriptures and you will begin to have an Old Testament understanding of marriage. (Please add your Comment to our site of any insight the Lord gives to you.)

    Marriage: in the Greek, the language of the New Testament:  gameō – and the root word: gamos.

    Again, look at the scriptures and context, which we will examine in more detail next week.

    Hebrews 13:4 

    Let marriage be held in honor among all,

    and let the marriage bed be undefiled,

    for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

    Christian Marriage: To be continued…

     

     

  • Covenant and Truth – 3

    Covenant and Truth – 3

    Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement;

    when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us:

    for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

    Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD,

    Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:

    he that believeth shall not make haste. – Isaiah 28:15-16 KJV

    Two issues & two cases continually used as precedent by God and Jesus (Advocate for believers):

    1. Covenant between God and man, broken by man
    2. Covenant between a man and his wife, broken by a man (who was the only one permitted by the Law to write a bill of divorce to put away his wife).

    Malachi addresses the issue of unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people of Judah and the Priests of the Temple in Jerusalem by comparison of Judah as the chosen wife of God.  Malachi 2:16 in the Revised Standard Version is translated:

    “For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.” – Malachi 2:16

    As we will address later, Jesus points out that from the beginning it was not so.

    IF God and Christ hate divorce, THEN so should Christians.

    IF God and Christ love truth, THEN so ought the vows of a Christian speak truth.

    Isaiah takes it a step further and points out that the unfaithfulness of God’s wife is a covenant with death and warns us that such unfaithfulness to God not only breaks His covenant with us, but places us as adulterers against God in a counter-covenant: and with hell are we at agreement.

    God instructs the Prophet Hosea to take the illustration of the covenant of marriage and the counter-covenant of the unfaithful woman with hell a step further. Hosea is told to marry a whore!

    We will address the witness and truth of Christian marriage once again, later. We will also address the issue of truth verses hypocrisy.

    Truth and covenant (solemn promise and vow of permanence) stand as witness before God in the Court of our betrothal to Righteousness.

    Again, as books are opened before God our Judge, Isaiah indicts:

    “for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves…”

    Yet before the all-knowing eyes of the Lord our Creator, we stand naked in our sin. Again, in Hosea, God threatens to uncover our nakedness for all to see! God will show our naked sin to all IF we do not repent and return to Him who has married us, against whom we have committed adultery.

     Hosea 13:14 

    Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?
    Shall I redeem them from Death?
    O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

    We have broken our covenant with God!

    Will the LORD not also punish the one who would stand before Him without truth?

    • Consider your covenant with God and with our Lord, Christ Jesus.

    Before we reexamine the covenant of our ‘Christian Marriage,’ next we will consider God’s premium He places on truth.

    To be continued…