The Covenant

For Lent this year my wife and I are using the SHE READS TRUTH & HE READS TRUTH study that walks through the book of Exodus. Russ Ramsey wrote a great piece on Understanding Exodus Through the Cross here. Yesterday was the first day of our reading through Exodus and it was these two verses that stuck out to me: 

[24] And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. [25] God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. (Exodus 2:24–25 ESV)

Two things about this passage stood out to me:

1. God hears- God heard the cries of His people. In my experience I think it is hard to keep our view of God in balance. It is easy to view God as the all powerful creator who is up in Heaven or as our loving Father who is near. But he is both and is always and at all times, both. I am reminded of Paul's sermon at Mars Hill in Acts 17 where he makes the two statements, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.... Yet he is actually not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:24–25, 27 ESV) God does hear, but not only does He hear, he also has the power to act. For believers today we need to remember that God hears us when we cry out to him. Often in the midst of our storms it can feel as through he is far away and cannot (or does not) hear us. But he does and he desires to hear from us.
2. God keeps His covenant- It says that He remembered his covenant. If you read through the Old Testament you see how serious God takes covenants, especially when they are broken (go read the first two chapters of Amos). Our God is a covenant keeping God. He honored the covenant that he had made with the Hebrews forefathers. When Christ came he instituted a new covenant. In Luke 22:20 Jesus says, "And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." Also the author of Hebrews writes, "Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15 ESV) We can rest in the knowledge that the forgiveness of our sin and salvation was brought about by a God who keeps his covenants. Our salvation, our freedom, purchased by the blood of Christ, is secure.

I hope that you are joining me in this season of Lent! It is not to late to join in. If you are interested in following along in our journey through exodus you can check it out at shereadstruth.com and hereadstruth.com and catch up or just jump right in.

Grace and Peace,

JD