ESOCS Devotional 8 January 2022: Vengeance of the Covenant

ESOCS Devotional 8 January 2022

TEXT: LEVITICUS 26:14-46

MEMORY VERSE:

“And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy” Leviticus26:2

God’s covenant is a two sided covenant.  There are Blessings of the Covenant (Lev. 26:1-13; Deut. 28:1-14); and there are Curses of the Covenant, also known as Vengeance of the Covenant (Lev. 26:14-39; Deut. 28:15-29:1).  Vengeance of the Covenant is when God sends a sword, pestilence, famine, etc upon us as punishment for our sins.  Its first aim is to make us return to Him in repentance and obedience to the terms of the covenant, so that the blessings can resume.  The second is that when we are obstinate after several punishments and the longsuffering of God, He gives us a reprobate mind and leaves us to die in our sins.

God is ever jealous for His covenant and fully committed to keeping both sides of the covenant (blessings and curses). On our part as the children of a holy God, we are charged to live up to our responsibilities of knowing, observing, keeping and doing the commandments upon which the covenant is premised. Let us identify a few of the things that could provoke the release of Vengeance of the Covenant:-

1. Contempt of God’s commandments – refusal to hearken and do all the commandments (v 14)
2. Despising God’s statutes (v 15)
3. Abhorring or detesting His judgments (v 15)
4. Breaking God’s covenant (v 15)

Let us also note some of the dreadful visitations of the first instance of vengeance of the covenant, what in modern terms can we may call first warning strike:

1. Terror
2. Consumption
3. The burning ague that hurts the eyes
4. Sorrow
5. Planting for your enemies to harvest
6. God’s face set against the sinner
7. Killed by your enemies, unable to stand in war before your enemies; enemies ruling over you
8. Running when no one pursues you – fear, dread, faint heartedness

The above are to say the least, so dreadful that a remembrance of them should keep us glued to strictly keeping the terms of the covenant. Unfortunately, our fathers (the Israelites) failed and vengeance was severally visited upon them, as God severally sold them to their enemies to plunder and kill in the era of the judges. This error continued until they were given to the Babylonian captivity.  God made good all His threats and conditions of the covenant, as He said He would do in stages of His patience (vs. 16, 18, 21, 24 and 28).

While we rejoice in the grace of Jesus Christ who took our sins and nailed them to his cross, took the punishment that was our due and blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that were against us, which was contrary to us, we should take heed of the warning in Hebrews 10:28-29, and not continue in sin expecting grace to abound.

• Have you any challenges in keeping the terms of the covenant?  Resolve to overcome them or in spite of them keep the covenant, for upon it hangs your future, not upon the challenges.
• LORD have mercy upon me, forgive me all my sins against your covenant.  Help me to serve you and keep your covenants, through Jesus Christ my Lord

Read Other ESOCS Devotional here

FURTHER READING: Songs of Solomon 5:2-6:3; Matthew 6:1-13; Ephesians 5:15-33.

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ESOCS Devotional 8 January 2022