It isn't God's intention that the covenant be confirmed once
and for all but that He personally confirm it.
Solomon could have rested in the covenant made with David and in many
ways he did. His prayer of consecration
at the temple was based in that very faith, that the Lord had made an
everlasting covenant with David and that he was heir to the promises made to
his father. The Lord, however, wants
more than a second-hand relationship with him, and therefore speaks to him as
He spoke to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and affirms and renews the covenant but
also explains the conditions of the relationship. He will bless the temple and will bless
Solomon as king but the experience of that blessing is conditioned on Solomon
"walk(ing) before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart
and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping
my statutes and my rules." He
always needs to make clear that keeping covenant is important, not just being
in covenant. If Solomon fails to keep
covenant, things will go very badly. As
the leader goes, so goes the nation.
How horrible for Peter that he fulfilled Jesus'
prophecy. Rich Mullins wrote a song
called We Are Not as Strong as We Think We Are and the chorus says: " We are frail,
we are fearfully and wonderfully made, forged in the fires of human passion, choking
on the fumes of selfish rage. And with these
our hells and our heavens, so few inches apart, we must be awfully small and
not as strong as we think we are."
Peter overestimated the strength of his flesh and his will. He thought he was a courageous man when in
fact he feared for his life more than he loved Jesus. We know Peter was married because we know he
had a mother-in-law, was that what was in his mind this night, the fear of what
would happen to his family? We'll never
know but we do know that this Peter, so frail and fearful, would become the man
he always believed himself to be after the resurrection and after
Pentecost. Belief in self has to die
before we can be the person we want to be.
When you came to faith did you envision a quiet life for
yourself where you cocooned until you died or did you have a vision for life
that had endless possibilities because of the resurrection and the promise of
eternal life? James says that faith does
two things, it impels us to action and shows itself by those actions. Faith is a catalyst for an active life of
service, not an excuse to entropy. Just
like Peter, we are called to risk boldly for the kingdom of God secure in the
knowledge that there is life after death, we have nothing to lose by
action. Keeping covenant means a new
life of action. Following Jesus is
active not passive.
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