Forsake and Keep Covenant

The Lord calls His servants out from crooked households, vain alliances, and divided hearts. Jacob did not leave Laban because the road was easy, but because obedience required departure. He had “served his uncle Laban the Syrian for twenty years;” and only then, under God’s command, did he rise and go. Long endurance is not wasted when it is borne under the eye of God. Yet when God says, Return, delay becomes disobedience.

Isaiah also shows the vanity of nations that trust in swift messengers, schemes, and distant power. The earth’s proud traffic cannot save it from the Lord who watches, waits, and then cuts down human boasting. Men send reeds upon the waters; God summons all peoples to behold His work. Therefore let no Christian put confidence in craft, wealth, or protection purchased by compromise.

Then the Lord Christ restores the ancient yoke of faithfulness: what God has joined, man must not tear apart. Hardness of heart seeks loopholes; obedience keeps covenant. The same Lord then tells the rich man to loose his grip on possessions, and praises those who leave houses and kin for His name. Marriage is not to be cast off for desire, and riches are not to be clutched as life. In both, the question is the same: will a man keep what God has commanded, and forsake what keeps him from God?

As Chrysostom says, “Hear Peter, saying, Behold we have forsaken all, and followed You; what shall we have therefore? Matthew 19:27 Hear also Christ saying to them, You shall sit upon twelve thrones, and, every one that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or father, or mother, shall receive an hundredfold in this world, and shall inherit everlasting life.”