Keeping Covenant
The Word says: “God is not
a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He
should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has
He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers
23:19). It seems the writer is saying that it is common
for man to speak and not make good on those commitments.
Yet God is not so – He keeps His word.
One of the areas in which
we break our agreements is in the covenant of marriage.
Did you know that the divorce rate in America is higher for Christians than
for non-Christians? What does that say about our ability
and willingness to make good on our covenants? If it is
so easy for Christians to break their vows to their
spouses, then it must be a lot easier to renege on any
other commitments we make including commitments to the
Lord. Oh, we have many reasons why the covenant we made
on our wedding day was a mistake and why we should not
be bound by it, but throughout scripture, there are
examples of the fact that we are bound by our word
whether we understood the implications of that
commitment or not. God honors those who honor their word
and blesses everyone who keeps to their agreements no
matter what the cost.
Oftentimes we keep the
letter of our marriage vows but not the spirit, but the
Lord expects us to not only maintain a façade of
commitment, but to do so in truth and reality. The Lord,
speaking through Malachi says that he rejects Israel’s
sacrifices: “Because the Lord has been witness between
you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt
treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife
by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a
remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly
offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let
none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth”
(Malachi 2:14,15). Notice the warning to take heed to
our spirit. In other words, watch your attitude to your
covenants and to your wife. It is no good being in the
right legally, but having the wrong attitude, because
the Lord witnessed the vows and those vows did not only
contain words but there were spiritual and emotional
promises between the two which transcended the words of
the agreement. Are we keeping to the spirit as well as
to the letter of the agreements with our partners?
In most legal contracts
there is a line which lets one party off the hook should
the other person default on the agreement, so that the
agreement becomes void the moment one side does not
fulfill their obligations. But we cannot take those
worldly rules and standards and apply them to God’s
laws. The fact that your partner is not keeping to the
agreement (in your eyes), is no reason to feel that you
are not obliged to keep your side of the bargain. Can
you imagine what would happen to us if the Lord broke
His covenant with us every time we defaulted in our
commitment to Him? Look at His dealings with Israel. Israel constantly committed adultery with other
gods and almost never kept to the Covenant yet God
remains faithful to the covenants with Israel and will fulfill His
obligations in letter and spirit. Covenants made before
God are not annulled because one party defaults.
Modern lawyers, just like
their counterparts in Jesus’ day, make much of their
living finding ways to break agreements and to get
around the laws. For example, they would declare their
possessions as having been given to God (Korban), just
so they would not have to meet their obligations to
their parents. So it seems we have developed a culture
of finding excuses for breaking our agreements with our
spouses. Our agreements are not only limited to our
marriage vows but the many other promises we make to our
partners that we never keep. What about those promises
to spend more time with each other, or promises to
change some habit which irritates the other person? All
promises are serious and have to be kept. If we make a
habit of breaking our agreements on the small things, we
develop a culture of breaking covenant and eventually
become so desensitized that no contract is sacred any
longer.
Christians often wonder
why their prayers go unanswered or why the Lord does not
bless them in various ways. One reason may be because we
are not fulfilling our marriage vows. In the text from
Malachi, the Lord says that we may even make sacrifices
and cry long tears at the altar, but God is not
listening because we have broken our promises. Peter
confirms this in the New Testament when he speaks of
brothers’ prayers being hindered because they do not
treat their wives correctly (1 Peter 3:7). On the other
hand, the Lord blesses obedience and when we are
obedient to His Word to the extent that we keep our
marriage covenants in spite of insurmountable odds, He
blesses that with many blessings.
It is exactly because
Christians no longer feel obligated to keep their vows
that divorce becomes such an easy way out. When divorce
is not an option, we somehow find grace to work through
the problems and to make it work. More and more scholars
are now confirming that success in marriage has very
little to do with compatibility and almost everything to
do with commitment. But, that commitment needs to be to
more than just remaining faithful. It has to be a
commitment to making the marriage as good for the
other person as possible. When that commitment is
present, the marriage will be good. Not only because we
are working on it, but because the Lord will pour His
abundant blessing on our obedience.
Statistically speaking,
more than half the readers of this article may be
divorced. This message is not to heap guilt on you for
the past. The Lord is able, and does, forgive our past
sins. However, each of us needs to resolve that we will,
by His grace, commit one hundred per cent to our current
relationships and we will do everything we can to make
good on those promises to which God was our witness.
Anton Bosch
anton@abcd.co.za
www.abcd.co.za/offi
www.abcd.co.za/plumbline
Tel 033 347 0463
Fax 033 347 0013
17 Frankish
Road
Pietermaritzburg
3202
South Africa