Garden Wedding, Covenant God
By Sue Maakestad
In the beginning God created the world, a man and a woman.
He brought the woman to the man and the party was in gear.
He set up the most gorgeous venue for their garden wedding, where He single-handedly served as Wedding Planner, Minister, Father of the Bride (and Groom), Best Man and Witness.
Seeing this great amount of attention and interest, you’d think He had a big stake in these people, wouldn’t you?
Well, He does. He’s always been a huge part of the family. Its Patriarch, to be exact.
“For this reason,” the Apostle Paul says, “I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14-15).
God’s whole purpose in creating human beings is to bring earth into the kingdom of heaven – which in turn produces heaven on earth.
Throughout history God has shown humans He loves them and wants to be bound up in relationship with them. He accomplishes that by making covenants with people, and his covenants are always made in the context of family.
Right off the bat, in time for them to share their first sunset, He joins the man and the woman in marriage to mirror the covenant He wants with His bride, the church.
Now, there’s a difference between a contract and a covenant, He tells them. A contract can be broken by either party the moment one of them gets a burr under their saddle.
But covenant is forever. In a marriage covenant you leave your parents – I’ll explain what those are later – and you become one flesh. That means it’s going to hurt a good deal if you try to pull it apart. Not a good idea. Covenant ends only when one party or both die. That’s why marriage is a covenant “till death do you part.”
The good news is God is a Covenant Maker. But the bad news is man is a covenant breaker. Adam and Eve enjoyed sweet fellowship and evening strolls with God till they took Him for granted and were tricked into feeling they deserved more (Genesis 3:1-6).
Selfish ambition and pity parties mean death to any relationship.
But God always holds up His end of the bargain.
Although He must drop-kick his kids out of their favorite picnic spot with Him, He immediately kills animals, refreshes His blood covenant with them and forgives them. Then He makes an incredible promise: He’ll collaborate with humans to bring forth the perfect Savior, God in human form, who will be the Mediator of an unending covenant that will establish His relationship with the human family forever.
Thank God for His wonderful grace!
When violence and sin cover the land, God saves Noah and his family. As Noah’s sacrifice comes before God, the Lord sets the rainbow in the sky as the sign of His covenant never again to bring a worldwide flood (Genesis 8:20-22).
Later when idolatry has taken over, God establishes His covenant with Abram and his family in Genesis chapter 15, and renews it in chapter 17:7: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” God seals this covenant with the blood of the circumcision and changes Abram’s name to Abraham, the father of a multitude. Family.
In fact, before raining fire and brimstone on Sodom, He must first tell Abraham. Why does He have to tell Abraham? Isn’t He God? Yes, but He is a covenant God. He chooses to bind Himself to human beings by His promises.
And listen to the reason He gives for bringing Abraham in on His plan in Genesis 18:19: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
It is because Abraham is the godly head of his household, teaching his children to keep the covenant he made with the Lord, that God can fulfill His end of the bargain and bring Abraham into his destiny. Family.
So then Israel rebels, is enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, and is then delivered — all of which God told Abraham would happen at the outset when He made His covenant with him in Genesis chapter 17, by the way. Now He re-establishes His covenant with Moses and the children of Israel, Abraham’s descendants. Still the same family.
God tells them in Exodus 34:10: “Behold, I made a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.”
Here lies the purpose of God’s covenants. That we should be His special people, His children for whom He can show Himself mighty and awesome before all the inhabitants of the earth. It’s all about His glory shown in us, for us, and through us as He spoils His kids. Kind of makes you want to be His kid, huh?
Well, you’re in luck! His new covenant is for you! You know it by its other name, The New Testament. Since the days of the prophets, God had promised a new testament: another blood covenant that would fulfill all His previous covenants and be put in place forever. The New Testament was also sealed by blood: the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for the sin of the world. And that brings you into God’s family and makes you His child.
But, wait a second. Let’s back up and look at a covenant we missed: In 2 Samuel 7, God makes a covenant with King David, telling him that his kingdom will be established forever. Well, forever is a long time! David sits before the Lord and tries to figure that one out for quite a while, and finally tells Him, “For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. So let Your name be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel.’ And let the house of Your servant David be established before You.”
In other words, I don’t get how You’re going to pull that one off, God, but you can do anything, so go for it! And God does, by sending us the perfect sacrifice for His last covenant: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, born to Mary, of the house of David, of the family of Abraham, of the family of Adam. Because Jesus is eternal God, His reign will never end. And in Him, all the families of the earth are blessed, as God promised in Genesis 22:18.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 7:24 that Jesus has an eternal priesthood, too: “But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
God’s got us covered. Jesus is the Priest to end all priests, and by His own blood sacrifice, He has established with us the Covenant to end all covenants: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:12-14).
Forever is a long time. As David told God in 2 Samuel 7:19, “You have spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come.” As He revealed to Jeremiah (29:11), God’s thoughts are always for our good, to give us a future and a hope.
We have a future and a hope as individuals with our family and as part of our church family. And ultimately we have a future and a hope as members of the family in heaven and earth that bears God’s name. Because God always holds up His end of the bargain.