Tuesday Thoughts – Death’s Covenant

For the next few Tuesdays I’d like to share some Scripture God has laid on my heart.

It starts with a post-it. I have a special way I like to read through the Bible.  It takes me about 3 years to read the entire Bible this way, mostly because I’m not consistent.  I write the following on a post-it and stick in the back of my Bible:

Genesis 1

Psalm 1

Matthew 1

I read three chapters a day. The next day, I write a little “2” beside it.  And so on.  At the end of a book, I start with the next book. After Psalms, I read Proverbs. After Proverbs I go back to Psalms.  So I’m always reading out of Psalms or Proverbs as well as a chapter in the Old Testament and one in New.

This time around, I didn’t want to start in Genesis. Sometimes it becomes too familiar. Exercises like this become habit, which is good. But then habits become routine and routines lose their significance.  So, I began in Isaiah.  As I sat down to read Isaiah 28 today, I found these verses:

Isaiah 28:16, 18

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of sure foundation; ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’…Then your covenant with death will be annulled.

Death is all around us. We face the death of loved ones. We live in the wake of death as we watch the news every night. As we close our eyes, wishing sleep to come, we mourn the death of the dreams that have died.  Sometimes our life isn’t what we thought it would be….a death of expectations. And we mourn.  We mourn more than the loss of loved ones. Other losses in our life sometimes feels like death.  A job loss. A broken friendship. Wrong choices.

Yes – Jesus is our cornerstone – but did you see what this Cornerstone did? I couldn’t get over that phrase: Then your covenant with death will be annulled. I suddenly realized, as I turned to Matthew 28 that God was connecting the dots for me. What is recorded in Matthew 28? The resurrection!

Death’s covenant has been annulled.  We may feel like we can’t escape death.  We read about death of children. Of husbands. Of mothers and fathers. Our dreams sometime die right before taking flight. Expectations are dashed as we bring home a child with a physical limitation.

Death seems, so well, powerful.

But death is not the end.  Eve’s sin and the curse of death in Genesis 3 is not the end of the story. Death’s covenant with us – the hold and grip it seems to have on our hearts – is GONE!  And we read in Matthew 28:6: “He is not here, for he has risen.”

Are you letting death and heartache control you? Are you thinking that you can’t outrun its power and control in your life? Let go of death’s hold. Show Death that Jesus has won.

Jesus says: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” {Revelation 1:17-18)

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