Weekly Sermon

The Lovingkindness of God (Part 2)

God did not enter into covenant with us because He had to—He did it so He could reveal His mercy, His lovingkindness, again and again.

Related Scripture

5 Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again.
26 But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp.
27 So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
28 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”
29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Well, the covenant that was cut is what we were discussing, because we have been talking about God as hesed—mercy, lovingkindness—and we will conclude this tonight.

Let me read to you from Psalm 36:5: “Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”

So God is hesed.

Now sometimes when we think of covenant, we think of obligations—because really, covenanting is obligation. The Hebrew word literally means “to cut,” so there is always the shedding of blood whenever a covenant is instituted.

Now, there are two kinds of covenant in the Bible. We have talked about this before.

Number one is a covenant between equal parties—meaning both parties are equally powerful, equally resourced. They enter into covenant so they will not destroy each other, and also so they can combine their strength and become more secure against enemies. That is what treaties among nations are doing even today.

But then there is another kind of covenant—between unequal parties. The stronger party is called the suzerain, and the lesser is the vassal. The stronger party could destroy the weaker one—but instead, chooses mercy. Instead of shedding blood, he offers covenant: “You come under my protection, you give tribute, and I will preserve you.”

Now this is the kind of covenant God made with us.

Because we are not in a position to negotiate with God—no way.

And this is where people misunderstand covenant. They say, “Well, if God is in covenant, then He is obligated.” And yes, legally speaking, covenant carries obligation—but listen carefully.

God did not cut covenant because He was forced to.

God cut covenant because He is mercy.

It gave Him the right to continually reveal Himself—to show His lovingkindness again and again in our lives.

Now, we also have to be careful, because in these last days, many will rise claiming to speak for God. The Bible already warned us about that—that many prophets will arise, but many of them are false.

A prophet is simply one who speaks for God. But that must align with the Word.

You remember what Moses said—“I wish all God’s people were prophets.” And in the Book of Numbers, when the Spirit was distributed among the seventy elders, even those who were not physically present still received and prophesied.

What does that show you?

That God’s Spirit, God’s mercy, God’s lovingkindness—it is not confined the way people think.

God is revealing Himself.

And everything about covenant is rooted in that—His desire to show mercy, not just obligation.