Yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine.
Two immutable, things
Biographies are generally interesting, if they are biographies; that is to say, if the events of the person’s life are truly told; but the most interesting biography to any man is his own life. Turn over the pages of the book of memory, and think of those first times when you sought and found the Saviour, when you repented, when you believed, when you yielded yourself up to Jesus, when He took you to be His, and you took Him to be yours. I am sure that this exercise will awaken many happy thoughts, and I feel equally certain that it will suggest many regrets; but the happiness will be good for you if it excites your gratitude, and the regrets will be good for you if they deepen your penitence. Beloved, tim time of our conversion, the time when we joyously realised that we were saved, was a covenanting time. It is a somewhat singular thing that, in this chapter, God does not say anything about Israel’s part of the covenant; He seems to pass that over as though it were never worth mentioning. So, at this time, I shall not say much about the covenant that you made with God; do not forget it, and do not forget that you have often forgotten it.
I. It was a covenant freely made.
1. It was a covenant which He made at His own suggestion, out of the greatness of His own love; for the nation of Israel, of which He speaks, had nothing in its pedigree to suggest it. There are some who do not believe in the depravity of human nature. I must believe in it if I am myself a fair specimen of human nature; and every man who has watched his own heart,, and has any idea of the sin which dwells within him, will know that his origin is tainted, that from the very first there is a tendency to evil, and only evil; and, therefore, that there is nothing in him as to his birth that can command or deserve the favour of God.
2. There was nothing in our condition to commend it. This poor child had never been washed or clothed--it was left in all its filthiness to die; there was nothing about it to commend it to the attention of the passer-by. And what were we by nature?
3. It was also a covenant freely made because there was nothing in our beauty to warrant it. Whatever there was there, was undeveloped and, worse still, unclean. And in that day when Jesus took us to Himself, and we took Him to be our Saviour, there was nothing as yet apparent of that which His grace has now wrought in us; it was totally absent then.
II. It was a covenant entirely of love.
1. Taking our text in its connection, we learn that this covenant was a marriage covenant.
2. That it was a covenant which was meant to be entirely of love is proved by the way in which it was carried out (Eze_16:9-13). This is a covenant all of love, for these are all love-tokens, love-gifts to the beloved one. Now, will you go back in thought, and recollect when you used to receive those gifts from the Lord?
3. It must be a covenant all of love which God has made with such creatures as we are, because it could bring the Lord no profit.
III. It was a most sure covenant: “I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee.”
1. The covenant which God makes with believers is intended to remain forever. It is not something which may be broken in a few hours, like a child’s toys; it is an everlasting covenant (Eze_16:60).
2. In proof that He intended it to remain, He ratified it by an oath.
3. To make a covenant even surer than by an oath, men were accustomed to seal it by a sacrifice. Now, beloved, you who believe have the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, to confirm the covenant of grace.
4. I would have you notice, in our text, that the covenant is remembered by God. It is He who Says, “I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee.”
5. Yet once more, this covenant will be remembered by Him forever (Eze_16:60; Eze_16:62).
IV. This covenant involves very gracious consequences. “Thou becamest Mine.”
1. If God has entered into covenant with us, we have become the Lord’s. Whose were you before? The world’s? Your own? The devil’s? Well, we will not dispute with the many claimants; but now you can say, “O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us: but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name.”
2. Now, we ought to be the Lord’s more and more.
3. If that be our feeling, it will lead us practically to renew the bond of the covenant.
4. And you who have never done so, may you come to Jesus this very moment! Your only hope lies in Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God’s covenant with the reclaimed soul
In Canada they build palaces of ice in the winter time, and very beautiful things they are; but then, when spring comes where are those palaces? And in summer, the very foundation upon which they were built has melted back into the St. Lawrence. God does not make with His believing people covenants like those ice palaces; His covenant stands secure, though earth’s old columns bow. If God has promised to save thee,--as He has done if thou believest in Jesus,--He will save thee in the teeth of death and hell. Rest thou sure of this, and say with David, “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” Here is something to rest upon: “I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee.” He intended it to remain. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The moment of being possessed by Christ
“Thou becamest Mine.” Do you recollect the spot--perhaps it was your own little room--where, as a youth, you sat after having long prayed and wept? And at last you felt that Jesus was yours; and you sat still, and you said to yourself “Yes, I am His, every bit of me. He has bought me with His blood, I am His.” Do you remember those first few days in which you felt half afraid to do anything lest you should grieve that dear Lover of your soul? Then you wanted to do everything that you might please Him whose servant you had become. I remember a verse of Scripture which, as a young believer, I used often to repeat; for it was very dear to me. I daresay you love it too; it is this: “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” We did feel then that we were wholly Christ’s; do we feel it as much now? “Thou becamest Mine.” To come back to the marriage covenant of which the Lord speaks,--when the husband put the ring upon his bride’s finger, he said to her, “Thou hast become mine.” Do you remember when you felt upon your finger the ring of infinite, everlasting, covenant love that Christ put there. “Thou becamest Mine.” Oh, it was a joyful day, a blessed day! Happy day, happy day, when His choice was known to me, and fixed my choice on Him! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Owned by God
It is a great privilege not to be one’s own. A vessel is drifting on the Atlantic hither and thither, and its end no man knoweth. It is derelict, deserted by all its crew; it is the property of no man; it is the prey of every storm and the sport of every wind; rocks, quicksands, and shoals wait to destroy it; the ocean yearns to engulf it. It drifts onward to no man’s land, and no man will mourn its shipwreck. But mark well yonder bark of the Thames, which its owner surveys with pleasure. In its attempt to reach the sea it may run ashore, or come into collision with other vessels, or in a thousand ways suffer damage; but there is no fear, it will pass through the floating forest of “the Pool”; it will thread the winding channel and reach the Nore, because the owner will secure it pilotage, skilful and apt. How thankful you and I should be that we are not derelict today! We are not our own, not left on the wild “waste of chance to be tossed to and fro by fortuitous circumstances, but there is a Hand upon the helm; we have on board a Pilot who owns us, and will surely steer us into the Fair Heavens of eternal rest. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The adornments of Christ’s Church
It was observed of Queen Elizabeth (as of her father before her), that she loved to go very richly arrayed. Her sister Queen Mary had, at her coronation, her head so laden with:jewels that she could hardly hold it up. King Richard II had one coat of gold and stone valued at 30,000 marks. This was much, but nothing to the Church’s beauty and bravery, which yet was all but borrowed, as is said in the next verse. (J. Trapp.)
How to obtain Christ’s beauty
God’s beauty which He puts upon His people is His own moral loveliness. This attribute of Divine goodness, while enshrined in the teaching of the Word of God, is most effectively seen in the person of the Lord Jesus. It is from Him we catch it, if at all. As the sun imprints the image upon the sensitive plate in the camera when it is exposed to it, so Christ’s beauty is put upon us if we are exposed to Him by a life of communion. We do not, however, own Christ’s beauty merely passively, there must be a constant deliberate imitation of His holy example. “I must go home and deepen the colouring of my infant Hercules,” exclaimed Sir Joshua Reynolds after gazing on the beautiful sunburnt face of a peasant boy. Frequent communings with Christ make one dissatisfied with his poor copying of so beautiful a character. “I must be more Christlike” must be the great resolve as we go forth from His presence if we would own Christ’s beauty. (Charles Deal.)
The transformation grace works
John Ruskin was one day walking along the streets of London. The weather had been very wet, and the mud was plentiful and most sticky. The thought occurred to him that he would have the mud analysed to find out exactly the inorganic elements in it. This was accordingly done, and the London mud was found to consist of sand, clay, soot, and water. Musing upon that fact, it struck him that these are the very substances from which our precious jewels and gems are formed. From the sand or silica come the onyx, chrysolite, agate, beryl, cornelian, chalcedony, jasper, sardine, amethyst; from the clay come the sapphire, ruby, emerald, topaz; and from the soot is formed the diamond. London mud composed of priceless jewels! Man cannot transform the mud into those glittering points of light, but God transforms and recreates the mud of depraved humanity into the glory of redeemed and beautiful souls. (John Robertson.)
