Covenant Makers

“And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the LORD’S people.” (2Ch 23:16 AV)

Notice in particular that the covenant spoken of here is between the king and his people.  The covenant is also the people with one another.  When we typically think of spiritual covenants, we typically think of God’s covenants with man.  In the above covenant, the people are making an agreement that they will be God’s people.  The thing to remember is that as far as God is concerned, this covenant was made with Israel way back in Abraham’s time.  It was and is unconditional.  Therefore, they are God’s people regardless of the covenant they are making above.  Regardless of what God’s people choose to do, the LORD will not break His covenant to His people.  There is strength in making a pact.  When Jehoiada and the people made this covenant, they made it together.  The leadership and the people coveted between themselves to love the LORD and live as His people should live.  To make this covenant even stronger, the people made this covenant between themselves.  This mutual covenant supplies two things.  Mutual encouragement and accountability.

I don’t know if it was Mark Twain, or just something young boys did, but it was common for us to form a club and make a blood oath.  If anyone is familiar with Mark Twain and his best friend, Huckleberry Finn, they remember an oath they made because they saw something they wished they had never seen.  They pricked their fingers and wrote out a simple document.  They pressed their bloodied thumb on the document and forever and ever, they would keep that secret.  I remember making the same sort of pact with a friend or two.  First, it started with my younger brother.  Then it grew to my best friend.  He had a neighbor friend who also got in on it.  I cannot remember what the oath was.  It probably had to do with hating girls, or something like that.  I remember the room in which it all started.  We were in my mother’s sewing room.  It was a small room about six feet by four feet.  It was probably intended to be a closet.  There we sat.  My brother and I.  We took one of her sewing needles, poked our thumbs, and pressed them to a document.  Soon forgotten, I turned to my best friend.  We did the same.  Then came along a third.  It is interesting that to this day, we keep in touch.  The covenant established when we were kids still holds today.  Especially with my best friend.

As I ponder this event, I cannot help but think how different our churches would be if we made a mutual pact.  What would happen if we offered a document that promised certain things and we signed our name to it?  What if we agreed there would be no judging if a person did not sign it?  What if it was sealed where no one could know who signed it or didn’t sign it?  I wonder how much more faithful the individual church member would be to living a holy life, edifying the saints, and evangelizing the lost.  I know it was a good idea.  The downside of this idea is that it only lasted as long as the people lived.  When a new generation arose, the covenant was forgotten.  Judah went back into apostacy.  But the idea is sound.  What would happen to biblical Christianity if the saints agreed to mutual care and shared accountability?  How effect would we be in our goal to glorify God?  What would our nation or world look like with God’s people in agreement that they would live and minister according to God’s holy word?  Perhaps this doesn’t have to be done on a congregationally wide basis.  Perhaps small groups at a time could.  Whatever the idea, I wonder if the LORD would have us to take our walk with God to the next level by making agreements with one another, holding one another accountable, and encouraging one another when we fail.