How we say “yes" to God

“Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today.  Learn them and be sure to follow them.  The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.  It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.”  Deuteronomy 5:1-3

[To read about the giving of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:1-22, click here.]

A little covenant theology, anyone?

OK, now that it's just you and me ... let’s look at three covenant “basics” and then apply them today.


Covenants.  Since the fall of man, God has made “agreements” with his people through covenants.  Unlike mutually forged contracts, God’s covenants are not negotiated, rather he alone sets their terms.  Our involvement lies in our response: we accept his terms or we reject them; we enter into his covenant, or we don’t; we say “yes” to God or we say “no” to God.

Covenant terms.  God speaks in two types of covenants terms: promises and commands.  Typically, both types are delivered together, one nestled within the other.  When God called Abraham, for instance, he began with a command: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”  Then showing his love for Abraham, God encouraged him for his task with rich promises of descendants, a land and a blessing.

So in the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses, we can already see two covenant basics in operation.  Clearly, God did not negotiate with Moses; rather he commanded while Moses dutifully took notes.  But what about encouragement for the people of the Exodus?  Had God no covenant terms of promise for them?

Yes, he did.  He had already delivered them.  Ten promises, to be exact.  They’re found in Exodus 6:6-8:  (1) I am the Lord, (2) and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.  (3) I will free you from being slaves to them, (4) and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.  (5) I will take you as my own people, (6) and I will be your God.  (7) Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.  (8) And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.  (9) I will give it to you as a possession.  (10) I am the Lord.

In these Ten Promises – three of which are “I am the Lord” – God expressed his love and compassion for his people.  And into this reality did he then give them the Law, the Ten Commandments.

Saying “yes” to God.  So God speaks in unilateral covenant terms of promise and command.  Ours is to respond.  So how do we enter into his covenants?

It depends on the covenant terms.  We say “yes” to God’s promises by believing them and entrusting our entire lives to them.  And we “yes” to God's commands by obeying them, doing what he tells us to do.

Looking, then, at the Great Commission in Matthew 28, let’s apply our three covenant basics.  When Jesus unilaterally commands, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” we say “yes” by obeying him.  And when, in encouragement, he unilaterally promises, “And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age,” we say “yes” to such loving assurance by believing him.

It is in the power of God’s promises that we keep his commandments.  Believing, we obey.  Today.