A New Covenant
“I will place my residence among you, and I will not reject you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.” Leviticus 26:11-13
Leviticus 26:11-13 is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. It is full of seven truths that get me really excited and show us who God is and what he wants to do in us.
I will place my residence among you.
I will not reject you.
I will walk among you.
I will be your God and you will be my people.
I am the LORD your God.
I brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.
To really grasp God’s promises here and what they mean for us, understanding the context in which these promises were given is critical. God states these promises in the giving of the Mosaic covenant to Moses at Mount Sinai. He has rescued the Israelites from a few centuries of slavery in Egypt and brought them out to Mount Sinai. Here he makes a covenant with the Israelites, marking a new relationship between God and this people. This covenant is conditional, meaning that both God and Israel have things they must do to keep the covenant. These promises in Leviticus 26 will happen only if the Israelites obey God’s commands (Leviticus 26:3). Right after these verses are the curses the Israelites will receive instead if they are not obedient to the Word of the Lord.
In a heartbreaking turn of events, Israel is not obedient and therefore these beautiful blessings are taken away. Centuries after Sinai, Israel is brought into exile and Jerusalem and the temple, where God’s presence had dwelled, is destroyed. This seems like the end, but because “the LORD is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth” (Exodus 34:6) it is not. Hope is not lost. Jeremiah, right before the Israelites are taken into exile, prophesies hope for God’s people. The LORD is going to make a new covenant that will forgive their sin. It is their sin that has separated them from God and his good promises, but God will provide a way for that sin to be forgiven and relationship with him to be righted.
In the old covenant, forgiveness was brought about through the sacrifice of animals. Blood had to be shed. Jesus, at the Last Supper alludes to this when, in reference to the cup of wine he is sharing with his disciples, says “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Jesus’s blood initiates this new covenant as our sins are forgiven through his death and we are made new through his resurrection. This is the covenant under which we live, so we receive the blessings from Leviticus 26:
God resides in us through his Spirit.
Jesus takes on our unrighteousness on the cross and we are given his righteousness instead, so we are accepted not rejected.
God gives us the church so we do not walk alone and one day there will be a new heavens and a new earth where we will get to physically walk with God.
We are brought into God’s people, adopted through Jesus.
We get a relationship with the LORD. He is my God, your God, our God.
God brings us out of separation and darkness into his presence and marvelous light.
We receive freedom in Christ (it is for freedom that he sets us free!) and we get to trade our heavy yoke for Christ’s light one.
I’ll admit, suffering can make these blessings hard to see in our lives or, even if we see them, they may not matter. I remember in the first couple of weeks following the death of my husband telling the Lord that I knew he was good, but I did not really care because he was not good in the way I wanted him to be. He did not save my husband. These were not necessarily the blessings I wanted at first, but as time went on, I realized these were the blessings I desperately needed as I walked through this life of widowhood and single parenting.
The sufferings of this life can make us feel as if we are under curses rather than blessings. We feel like we are in exile, waiting for the future hope God had promised. We feel the weight of the brokenness of the world, as I am sure the exiles tangibly did. They had seen their friends and family die by sword and famine, they had watched the places they loved be burned and torn apart. They walked among brokenness daily and they carried the weight of it. Unlike the exiles, much of our suffering is not due to our sin, but it reminds us of how broken our world is. We carry the weight of that moment death struck nearer than we ever wanted it to. We carry the weight of the pain of our children. We carry the weight of the doctors who made a mistake, or the driver who did not follow the law, or the depression or addiction that sunk so deep. We have heavy yokes to carry.
We feel like we are in exile as loneliness scars our hearts and loss makes us feel homeless. We look around us and cannot help but wonder if we are the only ones who have experienced this much pain. We wonder if anyone will ever understand us again. We wonder if part of us will always be alone even when we’re standing in a group of people.
We feel like we are in exile as our lives seem characterized by darkness. We feel as if there is no way out. Suffering and loss blind us from the path and leave us adrift. Anything good feels worthless and hope seems pointless.
But friend, you are not Israel in exile. You are under a new covenant, one that has made you a daughter of the King. One in which you are known, loved, and accepted. Under this covenant you are not alone for God resides in you and walks with you, he calls you child, and is personally, intimately in relationship with you. Under this covenant, God shines his perfect light into your life and uses it to lead you to him. Under this covenant, Christ took the burden of your sin and the yoke of this broken world upon himself and gives you freedom, rest, and lightness. Yes, the fulfilment of this happens in heaven, but God gifts us these blessings right now. Live in them.
In Christ,