Covenantal Faith - Knowing and Doing God's Will - Day 9 Through the Bible

Roaring Fork Falls - just up the road from Mt. Celo Church

Hiking is one of our favorite sports here.  This is across the road from Mt. Mitchell Golf Course. (See post archive)

One of the amazing things to me in the years I have done these Daily Study Bible readings is seeing how much the lessons taught overlap throughout the Bible on each particular day.

The Abrahamic Covenant - Abraham and Sarah (new names for new lives) are talking with God but doubting God’s ability to perform the impossible.  They LAUGHED at what God said.  This was the first reaction of the great man of faith.  God’s answer: Is anything too hard for the Lord? “ Gen. 17:14 Yet, from this beginning of faith, Abraham dares to continue in discussion with God – albeit humbly.  Abraham pleads for the lives of the righteous in Sodom – if there are any. God has come to earth because of the outcries against the people of Sodom.  He has heard prayers, and He is acting.  He hears Abraham.  He hears us.  He acts – in His time – in His way.

In David’s Psalm centuries later, this faithful son still continues the outcries to God with pleas to act to thwart the evil, the wickedness, the destruction - the rebellion against God.  David believes and knows that God can and will intervene to bring down this evil.  He was taught well and learned these lessons well.   But even more wonderful, David – as did Abraham – speaks to God on behalf of the righteous – those who trust in God – that they be joyful and blessed.  God hears.  God acts.

In Proverbs we are told to get wisdom and knowledge into the depth of our beings, that these will lead to discretion and understanding that will preserve and keep us.  The opposite path of this is pointed out, the path that leads to death – those who rejoice in evil, are crooked, devious, immoral - who forget the covenant of God. Thus we commit to this study – to know God – to live in His wisdom, His way.

Jesus continues His Sermon on the Mount about wisdom living. We are not to judge others (Matt 7:1), but we are called to be discerning, “Do not cast what is holy before the dogs.” (Matt 7 6.)  We are to be diligent in prayer – ask – it will be given, seek – you will find, knock – it will be opened to you (notice the progressive intensity in each of these.)  Here are the two crucial lessons: The vertical relationship first – communion/prayer with God, - that pours over into the horizontal relationship –with man and the Golden Rule – “Whatever we want men to do to us, we must also do to them.” Matt. 7:12  But there is a covenantal warning:  Don’t just hear these words – do them.

Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us. Ps. 90:17