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Annulling Our Covenants with Death
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Joseph Mattera
A covenant is an agreement we make with someone else.
Death in this context is speaking about something that separates
us from God. Let’s see what Scripture says about breaking a covenant with
death.
Text: Isaiah 28:16-19
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
“ Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”
“ Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”
I. The sure foundation is
prophetically speaking about Christ (1 Peter 2:4-6 shows this verse
in Isaiah 28:16 is referring to Christ)
• He is the only sure foundation that we have in our lives.
• The one who trusts in Christ will not be put to shame.
II. Justice and righteousness are the standards God established in
Christ (Isaiah 28:17)
• We receive our righteousness by faith from Him at the
moment of salvation.
• From that point on, God begins to work experiential
righteousness in every area of our lives.
III. God exposes our false refuges and hiding places (Isaiah
28:17)
• Hail and water in this passage are metaphors that stand
for difficult circumstances that God sends our way to demonstrate that what we
are trusting in is not good enough to hold us up.
• For example, Michael Jackson was a study of a person
trying to run from his pain with medications, performances, celebrity, and
relationships with young children. But he could never get away from the
internal pain that was eating away at him.
IV. God’s goal: To get us to break our covenants with death (Isaiah
28:18)
• He allows the circumstances of life to beat us down until
we finally break these internal agreements (read also Isaiah
29:3-4).
• His goal for us in these situations is for us to rest in
Him instead of finding different ways to run from Him to something else (Isaiah
30:15-16).
Dr.
Joseph Mattera is an internationally-known author, consultant, and
theologian whose mission is to influence leaders who influence culture. He is
the founding pastor of Resurrection Church, and leads several organizations,
including The U.S. Coalition of Apostolic Leaders and Christ Covenant
Coalition. Dr. Mattera is the author of 12 bestselling books, including his
latest “The Jesus Principles,” and is renown for applying Scripture to
contemporary culture. To order his books or to join the many thousands who
subscribe to his newsletter go to www.josephmattera.org.
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