God’s Last Will and Testament?

By Mark Swegar

God our Father is obsessed with Covenant. Covenants are mentioned 300 times in the Bible, including more than 2 dozen times in the first book, Genesis. It would appear that He really wants us to understand this concept. However, most of us have little idea what it means. Maybe we’ve heard of covenants in real estate jargon, or in legal contract mumbo-jumbo. A covenant means roughly the same thing as a testament, but we usually only hear of the Old and New Testaments, or the last will and testament when someone dies. We don’t understand it well, because it all seems so technical and ethereal. But in our ignorance we miss one of the most important foundation stones in our relationship with God.

Covenant comes from an ancient Hebrew word meaning to split firewood, referring to the practice of sacrificing an animal as a sign of the covenant. In Genesis 15:10, Abram cuts 3 animals in half before the Lord. This is where the idea of a blood covenant arose. It binds two people “by blood,” meaning that it can never be undone, and that the blood testifies unto Heaven itself. (Recall that after Cain killed Abel, the Lord said “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Genesis 4:10)

God required the Jewish people to sacrifice animals to forgive sins and restore relationship. The entire Old Testament, or Old Covenant, was focused on this provision. But in the New Testament, Jesus Christ Himself comes, a perfect unblemished lamb, and sacrifices Himself in what the book of Hebrews calls “a better covenant.” This perfect sacrifice, once for all, gives us full restoration and access to the Throne of Grace where God Himself sits with open arms. It’s as though the Lord Himself made out His last will and testament, stating that when He dies, His children inherit everything. The really good news is that God Himself really did die, through Jesus Christ, and now we really do have access to His full inheritance, through Jesus Christ who has sent the Holy Spirit. He was not satisfied with His first testament, because it did not offer us enough, and so He bore the blood sacrifice in the second, new, perfect testament, to offer us everything! The more we understand Jewish traditions and feasts, the more we understand God’s love for us.

In fact, we are currently in the feast season of Tabernacles. It began in late September with the Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets (essentially New Year’s Day), and continues into mid-October, culminating with the Feast of Tabernacles, when God “set up His tent” among His people. This feast is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, called Emmanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14), who now dwells with us (John 1:14). He is our tabernacle, our shelter, our entrance to Almighty God, and the perfect testament. In Him we live and move and breathe and have eternal life. Now that’s a great reason to celebrate! In the Lord, each day becomes a feast, every day a celebration, of our perfect covenant with Him, sealed with His blood.

Mark Swegar writes from Medford, Oregon.markswegar@yahoo.com