Deuteronomy 5-7
Moses continues his message. “Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces to destroy them.”
This father figure reiterates again and again that the people are to be faithful. He knows how fragile this covenant is – not from God’s side, but from man’s. He has seen these people fall back into unbelief many times as he has led them. He wants to make sure that they understand that they have to be faithful to the One true God if they are to benefit from the covenant.
Today we are in a different covenant – the one cut for us by Jesus on the cross, but certain principles still apply. We decide the level of our covenant. Do we want all that God has? Good. Let’s give Him all that we have. It’s up to us.
But if we disregard this covenant, we must realize that we won’t be getting His best. He won’t destroy us, as in the first covenant, but we will be walking out from under the umbrella of His blessing. No promises there.
However, if we are living our lives with our God in the forefront and His will in our hearts, we can count on His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation. He is faithful to His Word.
One more note here. When Jesus quoted scripture to the devil as He was being tempted, two of the three verses came from Deuteronomy. One of those is 6:16,”You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Jesus obviously loved Deuteronomy!
I do, too.
Mark 11:1-18
Jesus performs what we call a “prophetic act.” Just as the prophets did in the Old Testament, Jesus here is demonstrating a spiritual truth by His actions.
So what is the spiritual truth? Several years ago, as I was reading this passage, the Lord spoke to me and said, “This is like David carrying the Ark of the Covenant into Zion.”Then I saw it so clearly.
We’ll read about this later, but you may remember that David, after some missteps, had the Ark of the Covenant carried into Zion, the most Holy Place of Jerusalem. David danced with all his might, and had singers and dancers join in with exuberant praise for God and His goodness as they delivered the Ark to Jerusalem.
In today’s passage, we see Jesus being carried on the back of a donkey into Jerusalem, amidst lots of praise and worship. Up until this moment, He has not wanted much attention or praise, so why now? He is making a statement.
Jesus is announcing to the people who can hear, that He is now the Ark of the Covenant – He carries the presence of God. He is ushered into Jerusalem just like the Ark was under David, so that the people can understand who He is.
God no longer dwells in buildings of stone, or in arks of wood, but in the heart of His Son, who has come to the earth.
Now that’s a cause for some rejoicing! Wouldn’t you say?
