A Covenant Is A Serious Thing

The men of Gibeon quickly sent messengers to Joshua at his camp in Gilgal. “Don’t abandon your servants now!” they pleaded. “Come at once! Save us! Help us! For all the Amorite kings who live in the hill country have joined forces to attack us.” So Joshua and his entire army, including his best warriors, left Gilgal and set out for Gibeon. “Do not be afraid of them,” the LORD said to Joshua, “for I have given you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.” [Joshua 10.6-8]

When the kings of Jerusalem. Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon decided to ally themselves and attack the people of Gibeon, something extremely interesting happened!

Remember, the Gibeonites were the very ones who tricked Israel into making a covenant with them (not to destroy them) as if they were from a far distant land. Israel made that covenant and then, would not destroy them because of that covenant when the truth was finally known.

As kingdoms go, a covenant is a serious thing.

Israel could just as easily have thought, "We goofed up and made a covenant with these people, but we cannot control what other people do to them..." WRONG! 

So strong was the covenant Israel made with Gibeon, that they would even take Gibeon's battles as their own! REMEMBER, the Gibeonites were the folks who lied to Israel and tricked them!

Why is this important to understand? Because, since the time of Adam, covenants have been in place. We would do well to recognize these covenants - we would do well to understand how they factored in to every circumstance and event in the Bible! We even need to understand how covenants affect the role of our enemy.

Of course, it would be easier just to mindlessly pass off these covenants as cultural stuff from the past. However, if we do that, we can never fully comprehend the New Covenant of Jesus Christ on our behalf! If we are to fully grasp the meaning of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we must educate ourselves about these covenants that are continually mentioned in the Bible. 

We can be sure that the Kingdom of God still operates within the parameters of covenants!

Father, help me to pay extra attention to all the covenants mentioned in the Bible. Help me to understand each and every covenant's specific importance to the time at hand, as well as it's general importance to the universe today.