COVENANT OF PEACE
From The HeartPublish date: 07/02/2006
Sing, o barren one, you who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child! For the [spiritual] children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married wife, says the Lord. 2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, 3 For you will spread abroad to the right hand and to the left; and your offspring will possess the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4 Fear not, for you shall not be ashamed; neither be confounded and depressed, for you shall not be put to shame. For you shall forget the shame of your youth, and you shall not [seriously] remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. 5 For your Maker is your Husband--the Lord of hosts is His name--and the Holy one of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth He is called. 6 For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit, and heartsore--even a wife [wooed and won] in youth, when she is [later] refused and scorned, says your God. 7 For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion and mercy I will gather you [to Me] again. 8 In a little burst of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with age-enduring love and kindness I will have compassion and mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. 9 For this is like the days of Noah to Me; as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. 10 For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:1-10 AMPBecause of God’s great love for us, He has made a covenant with us to take care of us: to bless us, protect us, and provide for us. Covenants are never one-sided. They require the active participation of both parties in order to be in force. The Bible says that God has never ever broken a covenant. That means that it has always been man who broke the covenant. Thank God that He sent Jesus to cut an unbreakable covenant. Jesus, representing God, and Jesus, representing man, cut the covenant and sealed it in His own blood. He will never break this covenant and so it is an eternal covenant.
There are many times that men have let God down and out-rightly rebelled against and defied Him. He had every reason to be angry with them and leave them to be destroyed by the devil. You see, the devil is the destroyer. God is the only One who can save you from him. God has put boundaries and limits on the devil. He cannot violate your free will and he only has the power over you that you have given him. The devil is a liar and a thief. His plan is to keep you ignorant of the Word of God and ignorant of his own devices so that he can attack and destroy you. The devil hates you because you are God’s crowning creation. God created you and He loves you. You are His precious treasure!
But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness and truth. Psalms 86:15 AMP
For His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime or in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Psalms 30:5 AMP
It takes a lot to make God angry and it takes a long time to make God angry, and even if He does finally get really angry, it takes very little for Him to turn around and show His mercy once more.
As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him [with reverence, worship, and awe]. 14 For He knows our frame, He [earnestly] remembers and imprints [on His heart] that we are dust. Psalms 103:13-14 AMP
God is so kind and loving and understanding with us. He is aware how fragile we are. He knows what we go through living in this body of flesh (dust).
For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but one Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. Hebrews 4:15 AMP
Jesus is our High Priest who has walked in our shoes. He has been through want we have been through; He has been tempted with the same things we have been tempted with. He knows us and He understands us. Because He loves us, He has compassion on us. He promised that if we will just turn to him and not away from Him that, no matter what happens, His love and kindness will never depart from us, neither shall His covenant of peace and completeness be removed.