The Covenant of Peace

UV 2008/10000 The Covenant of Peace
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore
Ezekiel 37 v 26

Our personal relationship with the Lord is based on a covenant that is both written and sacred. It is not temporal or temporary but everlasting. By the terms of this covenant, the Lord promises to secure us against the “evil” in this world. He promises to set His tabernacle in our midst or to reside among us and within us. His tabernacle is our sanctuary, a place to worship, to learn, to renew oneself daily and continually, a place of rest and peace. He promises to multiply us numerically and in terms of every type of blessing, physical, relational, financial, spiritual, intellectual and emotional. We enter into this covenant with the Lord of our own free will or volition. The Lord promise to do good unto us and He sets fear in our hearts that we do not partake of evil and if we do, to repent and turn back to Him. He offers us sure and eternal mercy by the blood of the sacrificial Lamb, Shepherd and King Jesus.
The closest thing to covenant on earth or among human institutions is marriage. The difference is that a marriage can be dissolved by death or divorce. Our covenant is based not on a static knowledge of the Lord but a personal knowledge that grows by the day and with every experience. We are wedded to the Lord in righteousness, in faithfulness, in the sure mercies that David, the shepherd turned king enjoyed with the Lord. We are wedded to Him in truth, in kindness and love. The Lord promises to remain with us, to be faithful to His promises that are individual, personal and specific to us. The covenant gives us access to all the blessings, promises, rights of inheritance, roots, fruit that are contained in the Word.

The covenant is not ceremonial, formal, impersonal, imaginary but it is true and real. It is subjected to the tests of reality. The covenant completes us. It is a covenant of peace and reconciliation with God and all mankind. Peace does not imply the absence of struggle and conflict in our lives but the promise of resolution of it in due time. It implies the continual presence of God being with us and the power of God being available to us. The covenant is our cover , our shield, our source of hope and strength, the reason for our rejoicing. The Word and the Spirit are given as free gifts of the Lord to establish the covenant in and through our lives. The covenant implies mutuality and reciprocity of commitment and expression of love. No part of our lives is excluded from the application of the covenant. It is the highest, deepest, all encompassing commitment of our lives. The Lord does not want us to make Him our only love but certainly He wants us to make Him the greatest and the first love of our lives.

Prateep V Philip