Better Promises

Hebrews 7: 22, 8: 6

Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Hopefully you read yesterday’s devotional on the plan, or the covenant, of blessing we have under the Abrahamic Covenant. If you did you may well ask how there can be a better covenant or one enacted on better promises. The covenant of blessing was pretty huge and encompassing if you ask me. None the less, God was not satisfied with that covenant. He wanted more and better for us.

For many of us there was one major problem with the previous covenant. It was a promise to Israel, not to the gentiles so that was one important way God improved the deal. Through Jesus, we also became eligible for all of the promises under the Old Covenant. Obviously, Jesus brought a lot of benefits to us through his life, death, sacrifice and resurrection. He broke the power of hell over us and took away the sting of death. We were lost and he found us. We are redeemed, sanctified, justified, saved and restored. There is nothing in the whole Kingdom of God forbidden to us now. All of God’s thoughts and wisdom are ours. Every blessing has been poured out on all the children of earth. Sin has been cleaned away and we now stand boldly in the throne room of God unmarred by the stain of sin. Jesus did that for us. We were unable but because of his delivering grace, we have now been adopted into the family of God. We are truly and factually the children of Yahweh, Jehovah God. All He has, He has bequeathed to us. No longer are we limited to earthly blessings, the assets of heaven are now ours because of Jesus. So, yeah, he improved the covenant. It was fabulously good before but now it is off the scale wonderful.

How great is our God and glorious all His good deeds to His children. May all of His purposes be fulfilled in the earth and all of His beloved draw unto Him with great gladness.

The Plan of Blessing

Deuteronomy 28: 1 – 8

Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.
8 The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

I know the verses today are long but you’ve just got to know what was in God’s mind. You need to see His plan for you and it is spelled out very well in the passage above. This isn’t even all of it. The blessing continues for another six verses.

I am always surprised when people talk about the God of the Old Testament as mean, angry and vengeful. Have they read the Old Testament? Do fourteen verses of blessing sound vengeful? Besides, the Old Testament God is the same as the New Testament God. “God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change,” (Psalm 55: 19).

We saw yesterday that God had a plan for our well-being. His master plan for us was blessing upon blessing. How can you beat being blessed coming in and going out. How about, blessed in the country and blessed in the city? It is like saying you will be blessed when the sun is up and when it is down. Or, you will be blessed when you breathe in or when you exhale. That was God’s plan for you and is His plan for you. He has not changed, neither has His plan. So why aren’t more of us abundantly blessed.

There is a four letter word in answer here, “obey.” What an awful little word that is to so many of us, but let’s get a revelation of this. God is trying to get the blessing to us but we are busy trying to figure out how to be in neither the country nor the city, neither inside or outside. I often think of the Pony Express in these situations. If the Pony Express riders did not follow the prescribed path, if they didn’t go the way they were told, then they would have missed the waystation which held their provisions and fresh horse. We are like that rider sometimes. We don’t follow Dad’s instructions and then when we end up in the desert, hungry and thirsty we grumble and complain. We blame Him. All the while, His labor was spent pouring out the blessing. Your ship may well be in but you are in the desert instead of at the port. That is the purpose of obedience, to insure that we are in the right place at the right time.

Look at God’s plan, it was (and is) one of blessing. He isn’t trying to break you, hurt you or make you stronger. He is trying to fulfill His plan for good. His plan was not for calamity or trials but for blessing. Let this sink in, then think back to the last thing God told you to do and jump on it. It is part of the blessing.