Advent Reflections: God’s Covenant With Israel

We are now through Days 1-12 of our Advent Bible Reading Plan as we prepare our hearts in anticipation for Christmas this year and God continues to work through His Word in great ways! As promised, I’m going to be sharing a small reflection after each section of the reading plan, so this reflection is on Days 10-12 of the plan. If you missed Days 1-4, check them out here or Days 5-9, check them out here. This is not meant to be a devotional, a summary, a deep dive into the passage, or really anything to add to your Bible readings throughout advent, but simply some reflections from my family and I along the way. 

My main goal is to encourage my own heart to really stop, dwell, and reflect on what we are learning together. I pray it will cause you to do the same: to slow down and reflect as you read, and allow the Spirit to work on our heart.

Let’s dive into this section that is small, but mighty in so many ways as God continues to reveal how He will fulfill His promise to His people!! 

God’s Covenant With Israel

So far, we have traveled from creation to the fall and through God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bless all nations of the earth through His people. We begin this section in Egypt with the people of God crying out to God from their place of slavery in a foreign land. God does some INCREDIBLE and MIRACULOUS things to free His people and show Himself to be the One True God who is worthy of the praise of all peoples. He frees His people from slavery by sending twelve plagues that finish with an amazing picture of the gospel as He passes over the people who have the blood of the passover lamb on their doorposts. So many foreshadows of what Christ would one day do during the Passover to provide a way for all who believe in Him to be passed over because of His blood!

The story goes on as the people are chased down by Pharaoh and his men and the people of Israel walk through the Red Sea on dry ground because God parted it for them to walk through safely. Shortly after this, God talks to the people to instruct them in what it means to be His people and be set apart from the surrounding nations as they show who He is in the way they live and worship. The reading plan doesn’t cover this section, but skips ahead to when this is retold by Moses in Deuteronomy to a new generation as they prepare to finally enter the Promised Land.

This section of the plan finishes with the people of Israel crossing over yet another river on dry ground as God leads His people into the Promised Land.

Whew! A lot has happened, and again, the goal is not to unpack all of it. I just want to share what stood out to me and my family in this section.

Love God and Love Others

The main thing that stood out to me here was reading the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5) and the Shema (Deuteronomy 6) alongside Jesus’ answer to the greatest commandments in Matthew 22:34-40:

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

As you read the law, you can see how every single command that God gives points to either loving God or loving others. The grand plan of God for His people involved them loving God with all their hearts, souls, and minds, and loving their neighbors as themselves. Through this, we see His promise to be their God and to bless all the nations of the earth beginning to unfold. All the laws point to what it looks like to live in God’s Kingdom of love for God and others. It is a Kingdom of love, justice, mercy, and forgiveness.

As the Israelites and now believers everywhere live this set apart life, they reflect God’s love and shine His light into all corners of the world. We see that the life of following God involves heart change toward God and toward others. We will go on to discover that we really can’t do this on our own- we need this promised Messiah to come and bring this good news of great joy for all people to save us from our helplessness in order to fulfill the law God requires of us to be His people of love for Him and others.

It’s as we see the command to love God and love others that we are brought to our knees in humble recognition that we can’t do what God calls us to. We are helpless to perfectly obey His commands. And this is exactly why His grand plan comes not for the perfect, but for the poor in spirit who are in desperate need of a Savior. Apart from the grace of God in Christ, we are all unable to keep this beautiful law perfectly- we are unable to love God and love others as we should- we can’t make it to God on our own or restore ourselves to the way God created us to be. But God can. And He promises He will. And He does! One day He does through this promised, awaited Messiah, Jesus!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! There’s much to cover in our reading plan as we head into Israel’s broken kingdom. My prayer through this next section is to get a glimpse into the desperate need and longing for a Savior, as well as how God’s promise continues to unfold and be foretold perfectly.

I can’t wait to continue along the journey of advent with you in the coming weeks to see how God’s big story unfolds! How has God been revealing who He is and His grand plan to redeem His creation through Christ to you? I’d love to hear from you!

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