When Life Falls Apart

Covenant or Contract
Job 1: 6-12

Yesterday the air-conditioning/heating maintenance office called. After we had a big problem with the air conditioning last year, I took out a maintenance contract to try to avoid a recurrence of problems of that magnitude, so I now pay a certain amount per year, and the company comes to check the air conditioning and the heating system. As long as I continue to pay, they will show up twice a year; as long as they show up twice a year, I will continue to send the check. A contract is a mutual, conditional commitment of that kind. It’s different from a covenant. When my wife and I married a few weeks ago, we made a different kind of mutual commitment. It’s not dependent on whether one of us continues to be able to write checks; it’s for richer, for poorer. It’s not dependent on whether one of us is sick and unable to fulfill all the roles one might expect of a husband or wife; it’s in sickness and in health. It’s not dependent on the feelings of one or the other person; it’s till death do us part. Is God’s relationship with us more like a contract or more like a covenant?...