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Tag Archives: covenant with God

God’s Covenant of Love

03 Apr

Over the last few posts, I’ve been talking about God’s love. If we’re to love Him, we must first know His love.

So far, I’ve talked about some general aspects of His love. The Lord blesses us, He sows His Word in us, He disciplines us, and He gives Himself for us.

Today, I want to take it to a higher level. True love desires fellowship and sharing. But there has to be a commitment of sharing.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV

This is the first time in Scripture that the term, covenant of love, is used. We know that we serve a God of covenant. The fact is that entering into covenant is God’s desire.

The Lord doesn’t just talk about love. He wants a commitment to love. That’s why His faithfulness is emphasized in this verse.

That word, faithful, literally means firmness or certainty, like the arms of a parent holding a helpless infant. His faithfulness is long-lasting. 1000 generations, which equals about 20,000 years. That’s much longer than I need to worry about!

The problem is that in our society, we don’t understand covenant. We do agreements and contracts. These are based upon unfaithfulness and mistrust. If I don’t put it in writing, I have no guarantee you’ll fulfill your part in this.

A covenant, on the other hand, is based upon faithfulness and trust. You don’t enter covenant with someone, unless you know the one you are covenanting with. I have to unconditionally trust the one I’m in covenant with.

Job had it right.

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.

Job 13:15 NIV

That’s quite a statement of faith. He didn’t have the Bible like we do. Yet this was Job’s way of saying,”I don’t understand what’s happening to me. But, if God himself stood before me right now and took my life, I would die trusting Him.”

I look at that and then I think about how we react to God sometimes.

“God, I tithed this week, where’s the money I asked you for?”

We don’t really seem to understand love based upon covenant.

And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

1 Samuel 18:3 NIV

You have to understand that Jonathan and David were old army buddies. They had fought together. They knew that they had each other’s back. Their covenant formalized that bond. Men don’t think it’s “manly” to admit this bond today.

Historically, covenants were made for different reasons. Sometimes for mutual protection. Sometimes to increase their wealth, families joined in covenant.

But, ours is a covenant of love that we’re talking about. We’ve stuck together through victory and defeat. So, we want to officially declare our commitment to each other’s welfare.

This is the type of covenant that God is speaking about. He wants us to understand His commitment to us. It’s very important that we understand this concept. So, I’ll continue to explain more about it in the next few posts.

Question: How have you seen God’s faithfulness in your life?

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 3, 2026 in Encouragement, Faith, Fellowship, Relationships

 

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Salt and Fire

25 Apr

We have been looking at the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus is teaching His disciples how we need to treat each other in the body of Christ.  As the leadership of the church, they needed to understand these principles.

The Lord continues in this context.

“Everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Mark 9:49-50

As a part of the Jewish people, there were some things that the disciples understood about this.  First of all, salt was representative of their covenant with God.  Even today in cultures where covenants are used, close friends will say, “We have salt between us.”

This is what God says about the share of the offerings belonging to the Levites.

“Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share.  It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring.”
Numbers 18:19

But a question that many have is; how can salt lose its saltiness?  It doesn’t in our culture because of the purity.  Back in ancient Israel there was always a small amount of sand that couldn’t be removed.  So if the salt got wet, the real salt would melt out with the water, leaving only sand.

Nobody wants to put sand on their food.  Of course, that’s why we leave a bad taste in the mouth of the world if we water down the Gospel.

There is, however, a deeper truth here than salt merely being used as a spice or a preservative.  We’re talking about covenant and how we treat each other.

Jesus was not just talking about salt.  He spoke of salt and fire.  This was something else that a devout Jew would understand.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices — gum resin, onycha and galbanum — and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer.  It is to be salted and pure and sacred.
Exodus 30:34-35

Salt was a part of the fragrant incense that was used in the worship of God.  The incense represents our prayers rising up to the Father (Revelation 5:8).  The salt is a reminder of how those prayers can enter His presence – because of the covenant we have through the shed blood of Christ.

As the smoke of our prayers rises up to the throne of Heaven, it’s all one cloud.  There’s no differentiating where the individual wisps came from.  We are all one in Christ.

Salt and fire speak of the unity of the spirit as we pray in God’s presence.  That’s why we’re told again and again to walk in unity and agreement with our brothers and sisters in the faith.

That’s what Jesus’ final statement is all about.  He is summing up everything He just taught them.

Have salt in yourselves.  Understand that you’re in covenant with God and therefore with each other.

Then He commands us to be at peace with each other.  There should be no hint of factions or discord between the Lord’s people.  As far as it depends on me, I have to keep my relationships on solid ground.

Question: How does our treatment of others affect our covenant with God?

© 2018 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 25, 2018 in Fellowship, Prayer, Spiritual Walk, The Church

 

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