40 - The Community of the Covenant

A covenant is fundamentally a commitment to a new relationship.  After a covenant has been formed a brand-new relationship exists.  Those who have taken part in the ceremony have been bonded together like the members of a family.  And one of the most ancient ways of expressing this new level of love and trust was to eat a meal together.  Somehow the very act of breaking bread together has always conveyed an acceptance of one another.  When we eat a meal together we tend to relax, drop our defenses and open our hearts to one another.  That’s why a powerful part of the covenant ceremony was the meal both parties ate together afterwards.  It was a statement saying, “All our divisions and distrust are gone.  Now we belong to each other like family.” In this sense forming a covenant was like adopting someone into your family.

At first glance the passage we’re reading today seems odd and out of place.  What are these elders doing at the top of Mt. Sinai eating and drinking before God? But once we recognize this to be a normal part of ancient covenant ceremonies we discover a profound spiritual statement is being made: a new spiritual family has been formed with God as its Father.  He has adopted Israel and committed to love them, and they have committed to love and be loyal to Him as well as to one another.  So this strange meal on the mountain suddenly becomes a prophetic voice calling us today as the people of a New Covenant to truly be the family of God.