Scripture
16Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and prayed, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 17And now, O God, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! You speak as though I were someone very great, O Lord God! 18“What more can I say to you about the way you have honored me? You know what your servant is really like. 1 Chronicles 17:16-18
Observation
God knew David more than David knew David. He knew David’s heart was running after Him. God also knew his heart was easily swayed. Yet, despite this, despite knowing what David “is really like” He still makes an eternal covenant with David. Despite David’s future sins his covenant would not be broken. It was an unconditional covenant stretching all the way to the son of David, Jesus Himself, who would make a way for all who believe to be a part of this covenant as well. This covenant was bigger than David and his lineage. This idea of reigning with the royalty of God should cause each of us to have the same reaction as David. “Who am I?” Yet, it’s not about me but the Savior who climbed the hill to Calvary to keep this covenant. This is so wondrous that all of heaven sings this song: “9And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)
Application
I went to see Guy Ritchie’s “The Covenant” this week with my parents. I was very impressed and it has left a lasting impression on me. The movie follows “Sgt. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal), who on his last tour of duty in Afghanistan is teamed with local interpreter, Ahmed (Dar Salim), to survey the region. When their unit is ambushed on patrol, Kinley and Ahmed are the only survivors and with enemy combatants in pursuit, Ahmed risks his own life to carry an injured Kinley across miles of grueling terrain to safety.” There’s a moment when Ahmed has no more strength left and as the sun is beating down on him he can’t push the cart carrying Kinley over a rut in the road on a steep incline. Ahmed sits down in sheer exhaustion, catches his breath as he looks out on the arid landscape, and then musters all his strength to get back up to keep his covenant with Kinley and protect him at all costs. With all the strength he has left he pushes the cart out of the hole. Every couple, every parent, every friend, every person in covenant has been in that place with another where they had no strength left to give. Where the one they were in covenant with was nothing more than dead weight, a burden to born, with no promise of any recompense or return. Yet, we choose to keep going. We lay our lives down no matter what it takes. Why? Well, when my parents were asked by my boys how their marriage has lasted for 52 years and Pop’s answer was clear, “The covenant of marriage is bigger than both of us.” Mom said, “You have to love your Savior more than your spouse because when your love runs out His never will.” I don’t want to spoil the movie, but when Kinley finds himself safely back in the US he discovers Ahmed is on the run for his life with his family and the US aren’t doing anything to help him. Kinley stands before his Sergeant and says these words that describe the strength and endurance of true covenant: “Oh, I see. You brought me here for an intervention. Or to slap my wrist. That's not why I'm here. Do you think if I could be shot of this debt, I wouldn't be? Do you think if I could just go through the usual channels, I wouldn't? That is not how this debt works. It demands a result, not an appeasement. There is a hook in me. One that you cannot see. But it is there.” He chooses to leave the comfort of home to return to Afghanistan to lay his life down in the same way Ahmed did for him. Covenant is bigger than both of us. Covenant costs. In a world of broken agreements we must return to the power of the covenant. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Prayer
Lord, Jesus I ask this morning, “Who am I?” That You would come for me, die for me, rise for me and call me to rule and reign with You is too much for my mind to comprehend. Though I don’t understand it I’m so thankful for it. I also know You provided a model for me of covenant in a world of broken promises. The covenant with my wife, my sons, my family, my friends, my church flows from my covenant with You and requires nothing less than laying down my life on a daily basis. When Im at that rut in the road and feel I have nothing left to give let me remember how You have given it all to me.
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