God’s Covenantal Signs Are Purposeful
3 Reflections
Every covenant God makes comes with a sign. Noah has just stepped off the ark onto a washed and empty earth, and God speaks a covenant over him: never again will a flood destroy the world. Then He sets His bow in the cloud and says, “This is the sign.” A wedding ring works the same way. A ring that hasn’t left a finger in forty years announces to everyone who sees it, and reminds its wearer every morning, that a promise was made and is still being kept. God never leaves a covenant without a sign. He gives His people something they can see.
The sign tells you what the covenant is for. God’s signs are never random. He put the rainbow in the storm clouds because the promise was about the storm. He gave Abraham circumcision because the promise was about offspring (Genesis 17:11). He gave Israel the Sabbath because the promise was rest (Exodus 31:16–17). So pay attention to the covenantal sign Jesus gave us: “This is My blood of the new covenant…” (Matthew 26:28). The sign is blood, because the promise is forgiveness. The new covenant washes and makes new, and its sign reminds us of that.
You honor a covenant by keeping its sign. As long as Israel kept the Sabbath, they announced that they belonged to the LORD. And whenever the church gathers around the bread and the cup, it announces that it belongs to Christ: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). That’s why the church takes communion whenever it gathers. Every time Noah’s children saw the rainbow, they had a reason to stop and remember what God had done. The table gives the church the same reason — to remember, and to tell its children, “We do this because we are sons and daughters of the new covenant.”
“As God looks upon the bow, that he may remember the covenant, so should we, that we also may be ever mindful of the covenant, with faith and thankfulness.” - Matthew Henry
2 Scriptures
“For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
— Isaiah 54:9-10
“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will.”
— Hebrews 13:20
1 Action
Ask yourself:
what is actually going through my mind when the bread and the cup come around on Sunday?
…Getting it over with, wondering if I’m clean enough to take it, thinking about lunch, keeping an eye on the kids. Then consider what the sign is for. God put the rainbow in the cloud so that His people would look at it and remember what He had done. The cup is the same kind of sign, and it says the same kind of thing: the blood was shed, the sins are forgiven, and you belong to Him. Take it like someone who is in covenant. Take it in celebration. And take it regularly.
Grace and peace,
NEIL
