Behold, I Make A Covenant: Exodus 34:1-10

Exodus 34:1-10: "1 And the LORD said to Moses, 'Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. 2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. 3 And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.' 4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 5 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.' 8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, 'If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.' 10 And He said: 'Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.'"

Our Lord God tells Moses to hewn out of stone two tablets, and bring them to Him, so that He might once again write the Law on them with His own finger. There is a difference in this second set of stone tablets, in that Moses is the one providing the materials. In the first set, the ones that Moses broke in his anger, the Lord provided both the materials and the writing on them. Why the difference? We are not told. Perhaps it was because Moses was the one who broke them, therefore he must replace them. Perhaps our Lord God now required some action on behalf of the Israelites, who would perform it through Moses, whereas in the first case, He was willing to give the Law freely to the Israelites without any action on their part, other than to stay away from the mountain. What the reason is we do not know, but we do notice this difference.

Another intriguing thing about this pericope, is the manifestation of God's glory to Moses that is shown to us in verse 5. This is the fulfillment of God, which He made to Moses in chapter 33, when He told Moses that He would put him in the cleft of the rock, and pass by showing him His back, but not His face. We are only revealed two things about this, first, that Moses fell to his face and worshipped God. The second, is that we are not told what Moses saw, only that as He passed by, the Lord spoke, as Martin Luther called it, the great "sermon on the Name of the Lord."

"The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." This is very similar to the introduction to the Commandments, which in Martin Luther's Small Catechism, is placed as the Close of the Commandments, wherein our Lord God, declared that He would both punish sin, and would forgive sin. Hear what Keil and Delitzsch have to say regarding this passage regarding the Lord's Name:

"It proclaimed that God is love, but that kind of love in which mercy, grace, long-suffering, goodness, and truth are united with holiness and justice. As the merciful One, who is great in goodness and truth, Jehovah shows mercy to the thousandth, forgiving sin and iniquity in long-suffering and grace; but He does not leave sin altogether unpunished, and in His justice visits the sin of the fathers upon the children and the children's children even unto the fourth generation. The Lord had already revealed Himself to the whole nation from Mount Sinai as visiting sin and showing mercy (Exo 20:5.). But whereas on that occasion the burning zeal of Jehovah which visits sin stood in the foreground, and mercy only followed afterwards, here grace, mercy, and goodness are placed in the front. And accordingly all the words which the language contained to express the idea of grace in its varied manifestations to the sinner, are crowded together here, to reveal the fact that in His inmost being God is love. But in order that grace may not be perverted by sinners into a ground of wantonness, justice is not wanting even here with its solemn threatenings, although it only follows mercy, to show that mercy is mightier than wrath, and that holy love does not punish till sinners despise the riches of the goodness, patience, and long-suffering of God. As Jehovah here proclaimed His name, so did He continue to bear witness of it to the Israelites, from their departure from Sinai till their entrance into Canaan, and from that time forward till their dispersion among the heathen, and even now in their exile showing mercy to the thousandth, when they turn to the Redeemer who has come out of Zion."

Thus far Keil and Delitzsch.

The whole purpose of this scene we have to remember, is because Moses what some proof from God that He indeed desired the Israelites to be His people. Now having seen the glory of God, Moses once again intercedes on behalf of the Israelites. Or to say it another way, now that the proof has been given, and that Moses has been shown that God desires to have the people of Israel as His people, he immediately reminds the Lord of His promise to lead them into the promised land of Canaan Himself, and not through and His Angel.

Therefore, Moses confesses his sin, and the sin of the Israelites, proclaiming himself and the Israelites to be "stiff-necked people." What Moses is doing here is pleading on behalf of our Lord God's grace and mercy, which He just proclaimed Himself to be, in proclaiming His Name to Moses. On account of Moses' intercession, the Lord proclaims that He will make a covenant with the people of Israel, that only they will see the signs and wonders that He will do for them, and the rest of the nations will not get to see these.

Hence, from the people of Israel, our Lord God would reveal Himself in the flesh. This would be His greatest sign and wonder that He would do, that He would take on our flesh, and suffer and die for not just the Jews, but for all nations.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

This Is My Covenant Which You Shall Keep: Genesis 17:1-22

Genesis 17:1-22: "1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.' 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 'As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.' 9 And God said to Abraham: 'As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.' 15 Then God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.' 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, 'Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?' 18 And Abraham said to God, 'Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!' 19 Then God said: 'No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.' 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham."

Abram gets a name change. Now he will be called Abraham, which means "father of a multitude." (Abram means "exalted father.") Or to say it another way, he went from being a father of one, to a father of many. Sarai (meaning "princess") also gets a name change. Her name will now be Sarah, which means "noblewoman," or to say it another way, she went from being a princess to a queen. This is the result of the Holy Blessed Trinity making a covenant with Abraham, his and his wife's name are changed. The covenant itself is made through circumcision.

Circumcision is the removal of the flesh of the foreskin of a male child. The cutting of flesh was how covenants were made. In most cases that involved sacrificing of an animal, as we saw in previous readings where the animal of sacrifice was cut in two. This became the basis for the Old Testament Temple ritual of sacrifice certain animals for purification or forgiveness. The covenant that the Holy Trinity makes with Abraham involved this same cutting of the flesh.

Circumcision, the means of the covenant, was not meant to be a pleasant thing. It was a small representation of the punishment that sin brings, which is death. In order for death to be averted in the Old Testament, a sacrifice, that is, a life, had to be taken, and offered up to our Lord God. In circumcision there was a shedding of blood. This shedding of blood represented the penalty for sin being appeased. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the eighth day after His incarnation, entered into that covenant by His circumcision. Already on the eighth day of His earthly life He is shedding His blood for us.

Notice too, the words of the Blessed Trinity, that it was HIS covenant. This was not a two-way agreement, like we see in many contracts where one side agrees to give something in exchange for something else. This covenant is His covenant, He is the one making it, and He is the one promising to act upon it. This is good news for those under His covenant, because on account of sin, they would break that covenant, as is shown throughout Israel's history, evidenced by the majority of the kings of both the northern and southern kingdoms. This covenant of our Lord God finds its ultimate fulfillment in our Lord Jesus. Our Lord, comes of His own free will to be born a man; God in the flesh. In this flesh He fulfills the covenant by offering Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He is then buried, and rises again on the third day.

Circumcision symbolized death. It was the death of the foreskin. And it prefigured our Lord's death on the cross, and His shedding of blood. But circumcision was only a foreshadowing of the true means of God's grace and mercy. For those who partook of the covenant, who agreed to be apart of our Lord God's promise, were considered by Him to be His sons. And our Lord Jesus gives to us, His holy Church, a new covenant. This covenant of our Lord God, in which He promises us forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation is Holy Baptism.

This new covenant also symbolizes death. It symbolizes the death of sin and death. It is the symbol of our Lord's death and grave. But just as our Lord rose on the third day to new life, bringing eternal life to all who believe on Him, this new covenant, called Holy Baptism, raises us out of sin and death, into eternal life in Heaven with Him. And again, this covenant of Holy Baptism, is not our covenant. It is not our agreement with our Lord God. But it is rather, His agreement with us. He is the one who offers the covenant. He is the one who enacts the covenant. He is the one who completes the covenant by sending His Holy Spirit upon those who are baptized.

Also notice that our Lord God tells Abraham that the covenant shall be kept by him. This is not an inconsistancy. Our Lord God is not saying, "This is My covenant which you have do the work on." Our Lord does the work, but Abraham, and his descendants, have to participate in this covenant. And they participate by the act of circumcision. In the same way, we participate in the Holy Trinity's promises by participating in Holy Baptism. As our Lord Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; But he that believeth not shall be damned." Meaning, if we wish to be saved, we must be baptized. Or to say it another way, if we wish to receive our Lord God's grace and mercy, we must participate in the means which He has given to us to receive His grace and mercy.

Abraham, and his descendants, participated in the covenant of our Lord God, because he believed in the covenant. We who have been baptized, also come to believe and trust in our Holy Baptism, as the means whereby we receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. Therefore, we learn to live daily in our Holy Baptisms, confessing our sins daily to our Lord God, and weekly in private to our minister, drowning anew the Old Adam of sin that dwells within us, so that we might, like our Lord, rise each new day as a new man before our Lord without sin, wrapped in His righteousness and in His works.

And because we live our lives this way we learn to become like Isaac, the son of Abraham, whose name means "he laughed." In other words, we live in joy and happiness. Every time we see water, we are once again reminded of our Lord God's covenant with us and we rejoice that our sins are forgiven. May you too learn today to laugh and rejoice in your Holy Baptism, standing before our Lord God as a new man.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

I Am Your Shield, Your Exceedingly Great Reward: Genesis 15:1-21

Genesis 15:1-21: "1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.' 2 But Abram said, 'Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?' 3 Then Abram said, 'Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!' 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 'This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.' 5 Then He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. 7 Then He said to him, 'I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.' 8 And he said, 'Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?' 9 So He said to him, 'Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.' 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: 'Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.' 17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates--19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'"

Abram shows a moment of doubt towards God's promise. He hears the promise, but doesn't see the results. There are times we can certainly relate. God has promised in His Word that His Word will not return to Him void, yet, from our perspective we often don't see this happening. We see congregations disdaining the Word of God, exchanging it for man-made platitudes. We see discord among brother ministers of the Word, where we should see unity. We see strife between clergy and lay people, where there should be peace. We see Church bodies forsaking the Word of God by teaching things that God does not teach. We would think that this world would hear God's Word more attentively than it does.

Of course this is really our own sinful desire to place demands upon God. We expect to see results, just like Abram did. However, as God in the pericope points out to Abram, just because there are no visible results, does not mean that the promise won't come true.

The same is true of our Lord's second coming. This promise was given almost 2,000 years ago, and yet we still wait for His return. There are some who are so antsy for His return that they start making up dates. Again, this is our sinful desire to place demands upon God, instead of trusting that His promises will come true in His own time, and on His own terms.

However, our Lord God doesn't just tell Abram to trust in Him, of which Abram would have been content, for his faith is strenghtened simply by the repetition of the promise, and we are told that this is counted as righteousness, but God actually makes a covenant with Abram, through the sacrifices of the animals that Abram offers. The same is true for us as well, God doesn't simply just remind us of His promises through the spoken, preached Word, but He actually gives us signs that testify to His promises. These signs are His holy Sacraments, and means of grace, that is, Baptism, Absolution, the Lord's Supper, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren, in addition to preaching.

Through Baptism and the Lord's Supper we have actual physical signs we can point to that not only proclaim our Lord God's promises, but actually impart forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation, which was won for us by our Lord Jesus's death on the cross. These simple signs of water, bread and wine, when connected to the Word of God, remind us of the promise, and place us once again into His covenant that He made with Abram. Even a case could be made for preaching and absolution, for the sign would be the man of God who was sent by Him to impart forgiveness, and proclaim the good things that our Lord has done for us. This minister is a visible sign that God fulfills His promises, for he represents the mouth of God Himself, when He preaches the Word of God in its truth and purity, and administers the Sacraments according to Christ's institution.

The same can be said about the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren, for wherever two or three are gathered together in the Name of our Lord Jesus, He is there amongst them. When we are surrounded by fellow believers in Christ, we have a visible example that God keeps His promises, for we are shown by the gathering of the saints, that God's Word is not fruitless, but has fulfilled its purpose.

Now granted, the men of God, and the gathering together of the saints, aren't as sure signs as the water, bread and wine, since these elements never fail, unless one would use elements unfit for these Sacraments. On account of sin, however, mankind does fail from time to time to give a decent witness of the promises of God. This, however, does not render the promises untrue. Rather, it makes them more true, for we see from these simple mundane things our Lord's grace and mercy, working through what we might consider inferior vessels.

Our Lord God tells Abram that He is his Shield, and His exceedingly great reward. This is the same promise that is made to us. How great it would be if we had faith like Abram's and believed and trusted in God simply when He spoke to us, no matter in what form that Word came to us. Our doubts would be assuaged, and we would have joy knowing that our Lord God is fulfilling His promises.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

I Will Establish My Covenant With You: Genesis 6:9-22

Genesis 6:9-22: "9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark--you , your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.' 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did."

This evening's reading tells us that Noah was a just and perfect man; that he walked with God. Noah is a picture of another just and perfect man, our dear Lord Jesus. That Noah walked with God, doesn't just simply mean that he went for walks with Him. It means that Noah did as God desired. He was in complete fellowship with Him, walking in all His ways. Noah is contrasted by the rest of the world. "Indeed it was corrupt." Noah is the only one who is righteous, and so God plans to destroy that which is corrupt, through a flood.

One can see two images in this narrative. The Cross of our dear Lord Jesus, and our baptism. In the Cross, God destroys all that is corrupt in mankind. Our Lord Jesus stands as both the Victim and the High Priest, offering Himself to the Father, as a sacrifice for all of mankind. He dies, we live. He suffers, we go free. We who are corrupt, suffer no punishment. He who is just and perfect, suffers our punishment. Like Noah, our Lord Jesus is also place in a type of Ark, but He is only in this Ark for three days; it is His tomb. Noah is carried through the death of the world, to life again after the flood. Our dear Lord Jesus is carried through the Tomb and death and, even hell, to life eternal.

The Cross and the Tomb, as well as the Flood, are all pictures of our Baptism. We are buried, through the waters of baptism, into Christ's death. For us Christians, this is our death. It is the death of all that is corrupt in us, that which we inherited from Adam. But just as we are brought out of the waters of baptism, so are we brought out of sin and death, so that now we have forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation in Christ Jesus alone. Noah too was buried in the waters, carried safe and sound through those waters, to life again on the other side.

This is the covenant that God makes with Noah. That he will live with Him. And it is the covenant that God has made with us. He fulfilled this covenant through His Son's death on the Cross. And He makes us a part of that covenant through our baptism. When we receive the Flood of baptism, God places us into an Ark. He places us into the Church. Perhaps you have wondered why the main seating area in a church building is called the Nave? Nave, is the Latin word for ship. And in most historic looking church buildings, if you look up at the ceiling, the ribs of the  arches look like the underbelly of a ship. The Church is the ship, or to say it another way, the Ark, that carries those who have been called out of corruption, and put on the perfection of our dear Lord Jesus, to our heavenly home. We are carried through this sea, this life of death and trouble, to our eternal home.

This is God's covenant with mankind, this is His covenant with you. Rejoice at your baptism, and rejoice that when you come to the house of God, you are being carried through this flood of life, and nourished by the preaching of the Gospel, and by the very Body and Blood of Jesus given in bread and wine. And these gifts of God to you will sustain you, and strengthen you through this vale of tears, until you reach your heavenly home.

God's peace be with you!

Deacon Dulas