Recovering the Covenant

Centuries ago the priests of the Old Testament were doing some repair work in the temple. In the midst of the project, they found an important book. They hurried with their discovery to the young king of the day, Josiah. One of the scribes read from the book, and the king responded with sorrow, and tore his clothes (2 Kings 22:8ff.).

Why did Josiah respond in such a way? Because the discovery made that day was the book of the law, God’s written guidelines for how His covenant people were to live. Upon hearing from the book, Josiah realized how far the nation had strayed from God, and he knew he was responsible to do something about it.

The good news is that this discovery prompted Josiah to institute reforms that restored the people to covenant faithfulness.

Recovering the covenant and living in it faithfully is exactly what we need in our own day.

Our society is in huge decline, and everyone knows it. What few realize, though, is how to reverse the slide toward the abyss. Every four years we elect a new president with the hope that maybe something will change, but it never does. Conditions only get worse.

Why? Because we’ve forgotten the covenant.

God calls us to live in covenant with Him. This covenant is a solemn, personal bond whereby He promises to be our God, and we are obliged to live as His people. When we are faithful to Him, we are blessed. When we forsake the covenant and His ways, we suffer.

Overcoming your circumstances

Some years back there was a slapstick comedian who used to regularly say, “I’m a victim of circumstance.” That line sums up the thoughts of a lot of people today.

There’s a growing number of people who look at the direction of their lives and see it getting out of control. They see themselves as “victims of circumstance.” The outcome is that stress, conflict, and depression are on the increase. Rash and foolish decisions are becoming more common, too.

Are tough circumstances getting you down? They don’t need to. The key is to live with a perspective of God’s covenant.

When people think of the Bible and living the Christian life, they often think in terms of living up to a moral code. That’s all.

But this falls so far short of the truth.