Message
God is faithful; He never breaks His promises, nor does He go back on His word. says that there is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (), and He never breaks His covenants. However, if a fellow breaks a covenant he or she has made with God, then God is under no obligation to keep His part of the covenant.
In , God made a covenant of eternal priesthood with Phinehas, Eleazar’s son, because, in his zeal for the Lord, he struck a man and his concubine dead. However, in today’s Bible reading, God told Eli, “I entered into a covenant that you and your father’s house will stand before Me forever, but since you have broken the covenant, I am saying, let it be far from Me.” Eli’s carelessness annulled the covenant God made with his ancestor, Phinehas. As a result of the broken covenant, God’s hedge of protection departed from Eli’s household, and his two sons died on the same day. When Eli heard the news of their death, he also died that same day, along with the wife of one of his sons. This illustrates the importance of a covenant and that the consequence of breaking one is usually death.
The death of a person who is a party to a covenant typically releases such a person from fulfilling his or her part in the covenant; however, God remains faithful to His covenants, even after a person He is in covenant with dies. says that He keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to the thousandth generation. tells us that He keeps mercy for thousands. When you keep your covenant with God, it will extend to your descendants. When God promised Abraham that through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed (), that promise found its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus, who came 42 generations after Abraham, approximately 2,000 years later. When God promised David that he would always have a seed to sit on the throne (,29), He never broke His side of the covenant. That covenant was also fulfilled in Jesus.
Beloved, remain faithful to your covenant with God, for in doing so, you will release immeasurable blessings upon yourself and your descendants for generations to come.