Devo 68: A Covenant of Life & Peace

Devo 68: A Covenant of Life and Peace October 14, 2010

“My covenant was with him (Levi), one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear me; and so he feared me and was reverent before My name. The law of Truth was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 2:5-7

In this passage in Malachi, the Lord is addressing the backslidden and careless states of the priests of Israel during this time period. The Lord was stating that the covenant He gave to Levi was one of “life and peace.” Levi was the tribe that Aaron and his sons came out of and they were the first priests of Israel. The Lord promised that this tribe would be His priesthood, and through Moses, the Lord gave them many instructions to follow so that the Lord’s name would be feared and reverenced among the people. The covenant was put into place not to allow for carelessness and false grace to ensue, but for the Fear of the Lord and holiness to become a part of their lives.

The problem, however, is that over and over again it was the priests (and judges, and kings) who led the people astray. The Lord was constantly calling them back to holiness. The book of Malachi was the last book written in the Old Testament, just before the “400 years of silence” called the “Intertestamental Period,” or the time of the Maccabean Revolt in Israel. This last book was a call—primarily to the priesthood, to come back to holiness and the law of the Lord and stop leading people astray.

Some of the foremost accusations revolved around the degradation of marriage, marrying daughters of other gods, adultery, divorce, and not taking care of wives, orphans, widows and children. The Lord warned the priests that He would not hear a man’s prayers who abandoned his wife for a newer model. He also said that He would send a prophet who would turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the children back to the fathers, otherwise He would smite the land with a curse. Unfornately, the Lord ended the very last sentence of the Holy Scriptures with the word “curse.” Four hundred years of silence followed that last word. Now days, Jews will not even finish the book of Malachi like it is written because they dislike the last word being curse, so they reread verse 5 at the end of their liturgy practices.

The problem was not just the outward behavior of the priests, but it was way deeper than that. They had no fear of the Lord. They did not honor or respect Him—Creator of the universe, Father of all, and yet they dishonored Him and disregarded His name as though He did not exist.
Unfortunately, these same symptoms are rampant in our society today—and throughout the world. However, we can still take the book of Malachi and apply it to our lives and ask the Lord to change us and make us Holy priests before Him. I Peter 2:9 says that we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” Under the new covenant, they are no longer only certain ones who are priests, but now the identity of EVERY BELIEVER is a priest.

A priest is someone who stands before the Lord in worship and intercession. Worship is adoring Him and telling Him how beautiful He is and intercession is praying what He tells you to pray. Intercession is prayer on behalf of someone or something else. You can actually intercede for yourself as well, but the idea is that you are an “intercessor” or someone who is a voice for someone else. Jesus was the ultimate intercessor who lived and died for the people. He was our ultimate High Priest who sympathized with our weakness and now we can boldly approach the throne of God as intercessors and priests (Heb. 4).

Intercession and Communion are to different expressions of prayer but they both revolve around friendship and dialogue with God. The amazing thing about the new covenant is that now we do not have to go into a temple made with hands, but we can have fellowship or communion with a God who lives INSIDE US! He is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

Romans 8 is a classic passage that speaks of the indwelling Holy Spirit and His relationship with us in prayer and intercession. See, the Lord wants to make us 24/7 houses of prayer on the inside! In Romans 8:4, Paul says that a life in the Spirit is “life and peace.” I believe He is referring back to this “covenant of life and peace” God made with Levi. As long as Levi was walking in the covenant of God, He had life and peace.

As long as justice was on His lips and he was walking in peace and equity, and turning people from sin, Levi was walking in life and peace. As soon as he stepped outside that covenant however, and used the grace he was given as permission for sin and carelessness, he stepped outside of God’s covering. The grace given of “life and peace” was for the furthering of holiness, not for disregarding the Lord and forgetting about a relationship with Him.

It is the same for us to learn how to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). God has given us the Spirit so that we can walk in the priesthood of all believers and be in constant communion with Him (John 15) and constant intercession for others (Romans 8:26). Paul says that we do not know how to pray as we should, but that the Spirit will help us in our weakness and will intercede for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26).

The Lord gives us the same grace (or ability) to walk in the priestly covenant of life and peace that He gave the priests of Levi. He made each one of us to be messengers with the law of God written on our hearts and lips. Even if we are not Bible scholars at all, the Holy Spirit who is called the Spirit of Truth will come and teach us all things and bring everything He has taught us tom remembrance (John 14:26). Even if we are not able to spend long hours in a prayer room, the Holy Spirit will give us the grace for prayer and worship so that we are a walking, talking, living breathing house of prayer where God is worshipped in Spirit and truth from every place in the world (John 4).

So, let us take up that life and peace and enter into our identity as priests of the Holy God. Let us ask Him to truly give us the Fear of the Lord that enables us to live lives of holiness and dedication to Him. Let us lead others into the law of the Lord and become living houses of prayer.

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amanda

©Copyright Amanda Rich 2010