Restoration And Transformation Through The New Covenant

Yesterday we read Psalm 34: 1-8, 19-22; Job 42: 1-6, 10-17; Mark 10: 46-52, and Hebrews 7 & 8.

The twin themes of "restoration" and "transformation" run through all of these readings.

In Job, God has finished questioning Job and now Job responds. Even though he had maintained his innocence throughout and was sure he was not a "sinner," now that God has made Himself known, Job realizes that though he spoke rightly about God, he really is a sinner and he repents. God restores what Job originally lost...double. God also blesses Job with ten more children. And here's where it gets interesting when considering God's covenant. We are given the names of Job's three daughters and not the names of his seven sons. Most unusual in the Hebrew Bible! The names of women are seldom given, while the names of men are everywhere. I know, patriarchal society and that's the way it was. True. But, we are also told Job included his daughters in his will along with their brothers. That's not the way it was! I think we're getting a glimpse of the time when God promised His sons and daughters will prophesy. And we're getting a foretaste of daughters sharing in the inheritance right along with sons. In God's eyes, we are all equal. It doesn't matter what society says in the long run about that. God's covenant restores and it transforms. Hallelujah!

As we move to our Psalm we see the transformation prayer brings. Even though fearful circumstances may not change, our response to them changes when we bring God into them and pray. We can know joy in the face of fear or shame. Instead of getting lost in times of trouble, God comes to our rescue. Instead of being thrown to the wolves, we know protection. Though God's covenant isn't mentioned, it doesn't need to be. God covenanted to be our God and we will be His people. That was the covenant to the House of Israel and as we come to Christ, and are adopted into the Family of God, that covenant extends to us as well. God's covenant with His people is behind all Scripture and does not need to always be explicitly stated. It's always implied. Always trusted.

Covenant. Binding. Much more than a flimsy promise we humans can make to each other. When God makes covenant, God means business. He made covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses (all those commandments...they were part of the covenant), the prophets. God speaks of His covenant often; often in terms of us breaking it. The "new covenant" the writer of Hebrews quotes comes from Jeremiah 31 and God has much to say about this new covenant to Jeremiah.

God also has much to say to Ezekiel. Particularly pertinent is Ezekiel 34. While God is definitely not pleased with His shepherds, and we preachers always need to hold ourselves up to God's criteria here, He has a comforting Word to His sheep. We come face-to-face with this Good Shepherd He promises in our reading in Mark.

Jesus Christ, God's new covenant personified. We see Jesus tending His sheep, bringing back the strays, strengthening the weak, bandaging the injured, bringing healing and hope...opening the eyes of the blind. Restoring Bartimaeus' physical vision and transforming his spiritual vision. Bartimaeus sees Who this Jesus really is and he follows Jesus.

We are all Bartimaeus at some time in our life. Up a tree, calling out to Jesus, people telling us to shut up (don't ever be that person telling someone who needs Christ to shut up), but we need mercy so we keep calling out. And Jesus hears and Jesus sees and Jesus looks at us and tells us, "Come on down out of that tree and we'll talk." And if we just come on down, Jesus is there, waiting. And He will talk with us, show us mercy, heal our hurts, restore us to society and to Himself, transform our lives, open our eyes. And if we're smart, we will choose to follow Him where He goes from there. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the New Covenant.

Well, we stand with the church the writer of Hebrews is preaching to. We are in the days that God's "new covenant" He gave through Jeremiah has been fulfilled in Christ. We aren't going to come in contact with the physical Jesus that touched Bartimaeus' eyes and opened them. But the physical Jesus couldn't write God's laws on our hearts or put them in our minds.

That's the Holy Spirit's job. We are post-Pentecostal. Job and the Psalmists were in pre-Pentecostal times and pointed to Christ. The Gospels show us God incarnate through Christ. So now, we live the "new covenant" promised through Jeremiah and will continue to live it until Christ comes again. God made the promise and God is keeping it. It hasn't been completely fulfilled. Yet.

What does living in the new covenant look like? We come to Christ, asking for mercy, we come to Him and He touches our lives and restores us and starts transforming our lives. Think of an Etch-A-Sketch. When we write/draw/doodle on it, it changes. It's not blank anymore, it's not "clean." As we come to God and He brings mercy, healing, and forgiveness...He shakes our Etch-A-Sketch. Look at the promise at the end of the new covenant..."And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins."

We all have "pasts" of some kind. We all have things we stand in need of forgiveness for. It would be more than enough if God just forgave. That alone would be awesome! But! God doesn't stop there. When God forgives, God forgets. That can be hard to wrap our human minds around because we aren't like that. Oh, we may forgive and let something go...but...we know exactly what we have forgiven and we remember what we let go of. We may forgive, but we do not forget.

God does.

And when God forgets, we become that blank Etch-A-Sketch, once again that He can write His covenant/laws on our hearts some more (remember, The Law was covenant) and our relationship with Him is restored and we continue to be transformed more and more into His Holy image. He IS our God and we ARE His people.

Oh this new covenant hasn't been completely fulfilled yet. Look around and look within. We still need to be taught. We aren't there yet when we don't need to teach our neighbors and our relatives about Jesus. We still need to be taught ourselves. And we aren't yet to the place where everyone knows Christ. We can still have days that we don't reflect that we know Him.

But God is at work and we can trust what He is doing.

So, today, when you hear His voice telling you to, "Come here" also here His voice reassuring you, "Go, for your faith has healed you."

Then take your erased Etch-A-Sketch and go and follow. Know restoration with God and a transformation of your life.

The process has begun.

The road is before you.

A fresh start is yours to take hold of and grow into. Your sins have been forgiven and not only forgiven but forgotten by God.

That's the promise and we can bank on it.

Not because I say so but because God says so.