Fri.’s Devo - The New Covenant

Read: Ezekiel 16:42-17:24; Hebrews 8:1-13; Psalm 106:13-31; Proverbs 27:7-9 God has to repay Jerusalem for her sins. Samaria was bad enough, filling her land with idols; she was compared to Sodom. Her sins were pride, gluttony and laziness and that she did nothing to help the poor with were right outside her door. But, one day her fortunes would be restored. *** Judah and Jerusalem did even worse than Samaria. She added lewdness to her sins. She broke her covenant with God, but one day God would reaffirm his covenant with her and cover her shame and forgive her. *** God gave Ezekiel a riddle about an eagle who came and lopped off the top of a cedar tree and carried it away and placed it beside a river, there the vine grew and prospered. Then another great eagle came and the vine sent its roots to get water from him. The Lord asked if its roots would prosper. The answer was “No.” It would be easily pulled up and transplanted. Then the Lord explained what the riddle meant. *** The first eagle was Babylon who came and took Jehoiachin to Babylon. The next great eagle was Egypt. Zedekiah went to Egypt to pay for their protection against the Babylonians. Zedekiah had also made a treaty with Babylon, but broke it when he thought he had Egypt’s backing. The Babylonians came and easily plucked them out of Jerusalem and Egypt didn’t come to their rescue. *** The greatest covenant Zedekiah broke was the one with the Lord. He would be taken and tried for treason in Babylon. *** God had a great plan for his people. He would send the Messiah to be the branch that would give shelter to all the trees. He would bring a new covenant better than the old one. *** Hebrews talks about this very covenant. The system of worship here on earth is only a copy of what is going on in heaven. That is the real altar. When Jesus died, he mediated a new and better covenant with God for us. In this new covenant God writes his laws on our hearts and minds. We instinctively know that we belong to God. He forgives our sins. The old covenant is out-dated and will soon disappear. *** Lord, thank you for securing us a better covenant. Thank your for writing your laws on our hearts that we might not sin against you.