A Covenant for the People

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
5 This is what God the LORD says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
   who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
   who gives breath to its people,
   and life to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
   I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
   to be a covenant for the people
   and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind,
   to free captives from prison
   and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

8 “I am the LORD; that is my name!
   I will not yield my glory to another
   or my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have taken place,
   and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
   I announce them to you.” (Isaiah 42:5-9, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
Throughout this passage Yahweh—the LORD—is speaking! The Creator of the heavens and the earth, who gives breath and spirit to those who walk upon it. Pay attention! Hear the calling! 

Hear, Israel, what the Lord God has done for you and will do through you. You have been given as a covenant to the people. To the nations you are light, to the blind you bring sight, to the prisoners of darkness you bring liberation. 

Look and see! The first prophecies have come to pass. These, now, are new things that God the Lord is foretelling. They will “spring forth” says God. God dispatches a servant to fulfill old promises: “the former things have come to pass.” 

Be aware that God, the Lord of all, brings new things into being! As Christians, we who affirm the Servant who completed the former promises acknowledge the One who comes to fulfill the “new things” of the latter days. For Christians, that servant is Jesus Christ. We recall that Jesus “on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.’... He took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this... in remembrance of me’” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). 

Jesus, the light of the world. Jesus who gave sight to the blind. Jesus who raised the dead from their prisons of darkness. Jesus who fulfilled the law and the prophets. Jesus, broken bread and poured-out wine, a new covenant of grace and love for all.


EXPERIENCE HIS PRESENCE:
Take a piece of torn bread and a small glass of grape juice. Lay them out before you. Lean back into God’s presence and prayerfully envision Jesus offering them to you with his words of the new covenant in his body broken and blood shed for you and for all. Give thanks!


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I rejoice in the gracious generosity of our covenant-keeping Creator! He gave himself fully to us so that we might know Life—so that our eyes might see and that our chains might be loosed. Rejoice!