Why Covenant?
May 07, 2010
Today we have so many different vehicles to help us define our relationships. Science, technology and the likes are rapidly advancing towards greater and greater heights. Adam and Eve had very little to keep them busy, maybe giving names to all the animals and the eating from the fruit of this tree and that tree, but very little else. Except for God that came and dwelt with them in the afternoon breeze, they had no one else to relate too, so maybe in that simplistic context one can maybe understand why God would consider calling their relationship method or vehicle a covenant.
Today with 6,5 billion people on this planet, not to mention all the high and lofty things that we keep ourselves busy with like career and fame and fortune. Clearly covenant is total overkill, maybe God did not consider our prowess and the intellectual and innovative capability of man when he cut covenant with our great, great, great grand parents.
Let’s look at some of the modern day methods we make use of when we regulate our relationships:
- A friendship is an association or friendly relationship you have with someone. We all have many Facebook friends and feel good about the number of friendship we have, but how strong and healthy are those relationships? What are those friendships worth to us? One of the ways that we can measure worth is to determine what we are prepared to pay or sacrifice to have something. Ultimately friendships may be determined by what we are prepared to lose in order that we may keep them. So often after we counted the cost it is very easy for us to let a friendship go. After all it is all about myself, is it not?
- A partnership is an association between two persons joined in a common business venture. Partnerships will normally add up to a 100% and not more. This means if your partner contributes 50% to the wellbeing of the partnership you should likewise bring 50% to the table. Some people like partnerships because they cannot over commit. A common misconception from married people is that marriage is a partnership, I give 50% and my spouse gives 50%. Well it does not take a rocket scientist to see where that marriage will end up.
- A contract is an agreement between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of something specified. A good contract would include certain terms and conditions and would clearly indicate if and when one of the parties is in breach of the agreement. This breach would normally end in the other party receiving compensation or in extreme situations the contract can be overturned and ended. So a contract would be conducive to keep a relationship between two parties going as long as things are mutually beneficial. But if one of the parties feel undone they can push to end the agreement, sometimes with and sometimes without costs.
- A covenant likewise is an agreement between two parties but with one major difference. Even if one of the parties does not own up to their part of the bargain, the other party has no recourse. How crazy is that! Does it mean that if my wife does not love me like she should, I must keep on giving a 100%? Jip! But that does not seem fair in our modern day society? Surely I have the right to be happy!!
O, how I thank God for covenant!! He does not treat us according to our performance. The mighty hand of God is ever present to hold onto our weak and puny little hands. He will not let you go, Jesus said that no one can snatch us from of the Father’s hand. Covenant promotes pleasing others and is devastating to self-preservation. Jesus understood covenant and joyfully endured the cross. He likened our relationships to a kernel of wheat.
John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
John Piper: “The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but that they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses.”
I have to admit that God knows best when it comes to covenantal relationships. What this relationally disfunctional world needs more than ever is people that live and understand covenant. Like the words of the song goes; ''He ain't heavy, he's my brother.''
