The term covenant is a loaded. It is a type of contract, and oath. It frequently refers back to an act or a time. In both Leviticus and Colossians the LORD is referred as bring people out of slavery, out of bondage.
And as a result, there are changes in the behaviour one is supposed to show, and how one behaves. For we are not longer slaves. Or are we?
35If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. 36Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. 37You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit. 38I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
9For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So why talk about families providing for the poor and those in debt? We have the state, who will provide. We do not need to think about ancient and agricultural ideas of provison, care, love, obedience. Or God.
We can choose instead to live in the secular state. But we miss one fact. Julia, the Julia of Barak Obama’s campaign, is a slave. With rights, perhaps, but dependent, with the intrusive arms of the state reaching into her life.
This is more oppressive than the Roman State. Now the Romans were violent, oppressive, cruel… but they ruled a polyglot empire and did not expect anything but lip worship and taxes from their subjects. And that lip service was too much for the church. The current state wants to enslave our minds, as much as a heresy or addiction would.
Families have a duty to provide for each other. And we have a duty to do good today and avoid statist slavery along with our other besetting sins.
For we were brought with a price. We were made free by the power of God. We are not to turn away from this simply because it is inconvenient or hard.
