God’s covenant still holds

Oaths and covenants. Perhaps the words are old-fashioned, or maybe they represent concepts for which we no longer have any use?

What got me thinking of this was a reminder of an oath I took long ago. When I joined the Navy I took the same oath, with a minor word change or two, as the president makes the day he takes office. In it we both swore to protect and defend the Constitution and people of the United States, so help us God.

Specifically, though I was honorably discharged from service in the Navy six years later, I was never formally relieved of the oath to protect and serve. Am I still, four decades later, under the obligation I took up then?

Before anyone answers that, let’s go back to Genesis 15. God told Abraham to set up a sacrifice along very specific lines but not to set it alight.

Abraham did so, then stood watch over the carcasses. As the day drew to a close Abraham had a vision. In it, he stood to the side as a burning lamp passed back and forth between the pieces of the sacrifice.

The lamp symbolized the presence of God acknowledging the sacrifice and ratifying the terms of the covenant He had made with Abraham. The usual practice of the time would have had both parties meeting in the middle.

This would signify that the covenant was binding on both parties, as a permanent arrangement.

However, in the vision, Abraham was standing to the side, which would usually mean he had no part in the agreement. End of agreement!

Actually, not the end, but a different meaning altogether.

God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be uncountable, that they would go through very hard times, and that no matter what, God would stand with them.

No matter what also included whether or not Abraham’s descendants remained true to the covenant or not. God would honor their covenant down through time, even at those times when Abraham’s descendants did not. By leaving Abraham to the side, in the witness position, God was telling him that He was taking responsibility for both sides of the bargain and would see it through under any and all conditions.

God would always be the God of Abraham and his descendants. It was, and is, an unalterable promise.

Fast forward a couple of millennia. Jesus walks the earth.

He continues to fulfill the covenant shown to Abraham. Jesus also fulfills the promise God made in Genesis 3, repairing the relationship between God and humanity by His own sacrifice, validating it through His resurrection.

The last words Jesus spoke before He ascended are, “… I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20b)

Put another way, just as God made the covenant with Abraham, so also did He make a similar covenant with us through the sacrifice and words of Christ.

Even as God acknowledged the frailty of Abraham and his children with their lack of ability to uphold the covenant perfectly and therefore took all the responsibility for it Himself, so also did

Jesus do for us. Unlike with me, with God there is no question.

He has never relieved Himself of the obligation to us that He took up. He never will.

(Philip Severi, a former Bishop resident, previously wrote a weekly column for The Inyo Register.)