There is a strong interest by many about the Everlasting Covenant, enquiring about the details of it: Who was it made with?; Who can claim it?; What are its essential promises?; Is it the same as the New Covenant?; Or is it a Divinely designated title which encompasses the central message of every Covenant God made with His people? Namely: God’s deep, heartfelt desire to be good and kind and helpful to those who desire to come back to Him. If we are to return to our Creator, and wish to be restored back into His Family, then let the Everlasting Covenant speak its life into our hearts.
We have already seen that every Covenant mentioned so far, includes this divinely appointed designation, the ‘everlasting covenant’. In most likelihood, I think, the ‘everlasting covenant’ in general terms can be described as God’s unbreakable pledge that He will Save all who want to be Saved. As the covenantal and salvation information continued to unfold, that conclusion becomes stronger. In its most concise form, the message of all Covenants is the same: “I will Save you. Please let Me do it”.
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This what I will quote next is an eyeopening illustration – a most graphic, most painful description of brazen, heartless betrayal of God’s love and generosity by a young woman – an allegorical representation of every sinner from Adam to the end of time. It’s original audience were the people of Jerusalem and Judah, but I believe it is aimed at all sinners, at all times, which includes you and me. You will feel horrors of injustice and disloyalty unlike any other that could have been conceived in the worst case of depravity. You will weep, and probably condemn the unimaginable evil – but don’t, because this story shows what you and I may really be like – as seen from God’s perspective. Please forgive me for bringing this up, but God’s Covenants of love and mercy will be better understood and appreciated if we take a glimpse at the depth of the pit from which God is rescuing us.
This is Ezekiel chapter 16, and it is very long. I am inviting you to persevere with me. You will be disgusted and horrified, but that is precisely the reason God gave this content to Ezekiel so that, hopefully, we may be shocked out of our own stupor, and seek mercy and pardon from our Gracious God while His forbearance still lingers. This story is unimaginably shocking, but what is even more shocking and surprising, is that God, at the end of it all, —FORGIVES! How can anyone think it possible! How can anyone grasp the depth of mercy and undeserved grace by One hurt so brutally, so ruthlessly and brazenly rejected? Yet He still lingers. Still hopes. Still calls. Still waits. This is so unexpected ending, so unimaginable, because we all in our pain and horror watching all this – have probably already decided, that the only just ending for that unfaithful load of wickedness – is an eternal torment in the unquenchable fires of hell. And if there is no such a thing as hell – it probably should be invented, just so that the just punishment may be meted out to that ungrateful blot of abomination. But if we can conceive the possibility that this story actually describes my life, and your life – then, and only then, we can look on God in amazement, as we read: “Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.” (These are the words toward the end of this gruesome, heartbreaking chapter). It shows how intensely God desires to save us!
Here is the chapter. Oh dear God, help us.
Ezekiel 16:1-63 NLT
“Then another message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable sins. Give her this message from the Sovereign Lord: You are nothing but a Canaanite! Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth. No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die. “But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood. As you lay there, I said, ‘Live!’ And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel. Your breasts became full, and your body hair grew, but you were still naked. And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine. “Then I bathed you and washed off your blood, and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin. I gave you expensive clothing of fine linen and silk, beautifully embroidered, and sandals made of fine goatskin leather. I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, beautiful necklaces, a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head. And so you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen and costly fabric and were beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods—choice flour, honey, and olive oil—and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were! Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign Lord. “But you thought your fame and beauty were your own. So you gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was theirs for the asking. You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you played the prostitute. Unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen? You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I had given you and made statues of men and worshiped them. This is adultery against me! You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you to dress your idols. Then you used my special oil and my incense to worship them. Imagine it! You set before them as a sacrifice the choice flour, olive oil, and honey I had given you, says the Sovereign Lord. “Then you took your sons and daughters—the children you had borne to me—and sacrificed them to your gods. Was your prostitution not enough? Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols? In all your years of adultery and detestable sin, you have not once remembered the days long ago when you lay naked in a field, kicking about in your own blood. “What sorrow awaits you, says the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square. On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution. Then you added lustful Egypt to your lovers, provoking my anger with your increasing promiscuity. That is why I struck you with my fist and reduced your boundaries. I handed you over to your enemies, the Philistines, and even they were shocked by your lewd conduct. You have prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, too. It seems you can never find enough new lovers! And after your prostitution there, you still were not satisfied. You added to your lovers by embracing Babylonia, the land of merchants, but you still weren’t satisfied. “What a sick heart you have, says the Sovereign Lord, to do such things as these, acting like a shameless prostitute. You build your pagan shrines on every street corner and your altars to idols in every square. In fact, you have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even demanded payment. Yes, you are an adulterous wife who takes in strangers instead of her own husband. Prostitutes charge for their services—but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come and have sex with you. So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. You pay your lovers instead of their paying you! “Therefore, you prostitute, listen to this message from the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have poured out your lust and exposed yourself in prostitution to all your lovers, and because you have worshiped detestable idols, and because you have slaughtered your children as sacrifices to your gods, this is what I am going to do. I will gather together all your allies—the lovers with whom you have sinned, both those you loved and those you hated—and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can stare at you. I will punish you for your murder and adultery. I will cover you with blood in my jealous fury. Then I will give you to these many nations who are your lovers, and they will destroy you. They will knock down your pagan shrines and the altars to your idols. They will strip you and take your beautiful jewels, leaving you stark naked. They will band together in a mob to stone you and cut you up with swords. They will burn your homes and punish you in front of many women. I will stop your prostitution and end your payments to your many lovers. “Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore. But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins. Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and so do you. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. “Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south. But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption. As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. “Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous. “But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too. Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison. Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored, and at that time you also will be restored. In your proud days you held Sodom in contempt. But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom and all her neighbors and by Philistia. This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sins, says the Lord. “Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant. And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!””
Ezekiel 16:1-63 NLT
I wish to add here some information which is not found in this chapter but certainly belongs to it. The information is that God, in His Son Jesus, took upon Himself the penalty for our wrongdoing, and endured the justice of full retribution for this unimaginably wicked behaviour so graphically described in the chapter — Innocent for the guilty. Pure for the abominably loathsome. Holy for the despicably abhorrent. —This is revealed in the words at the end of this gruesome chapter where God says: “when I forgive you of all that you have done”.
The forgiving was made possible, because our Gracious God Himself took the full measure of damnation our sins deserved – took it upon Himself, and suffered the entire just punishment together with Jesus –punishment which was decreed against us for the life of our abominable behaviour. Can you understand this goodness of the loving heart of God? Jesus volunteered to suffer in our stead. He did that so they can set us free. Because of this selfless, sacrificial act, we have been forgiven, washed in the blood to be pure and clean. Now, whosoever will, may return to our loving God – without any recriminations for the past. That is how strong and how thorough and how deep God’s gracious rescue mission is.