THE priests of the time of Malachi were breaking the covenant made by God with Levi, who was the father of the tribe of Levi, from which all the worship in Israel was found and directed. This half verse tells us the blessings of this covenant and what was being taken from the people by the priests' activity. We have seen how God’s covenant with Levi had been broken by the priests in the time of Malachi, and in the previous sermon we were shown God’s displeasure at the action of these priests, and the curse God placed on them for their evil practices. God now re-affirms the terms of the covenant he made with Levi in the first part of verse 5, and that he kept the terms of the covenant. God then goes on to show how Levi kept his side of the covenant, and how the priests of all ages in the Old Testament should have followed Levi’s example, and concludes this section by exposing how the priests in Malachi’s time had violated God’s covenant.

Let us first of all seek to understand what these words of Scripture are saying. These verses tell us that God drew up this Covenant, which contains the blessing God provided for and bestowed on the people. The usual way a covenant was drawn up was between two people who decided on the terms and both solemnly agreed to them. In the case of this covenant made by God, like all of God's covenants, it is shown that God acts alone. He is one. The other party simply agrees with the covenant and promises to abide by it. We see also that God's covenant here which was made with Levi, provided great blessing when adhered to carefully and fully. When the covenant was abided by, then life and peace flowed to the people. This reveals the meaning behind the words of Paul in Galatians 3: 20 where we read 'A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.' The mediator here refers to Moses who was given the Law of God on the mountain. He represented both parties in the covenant, but the active party was God, and Israel simply agreed to the covenant. God acted alone in the covenant made with Levi, and it was given then to Levi as a gift, which he agreed to abide by, and all the Levitical priests which followed. In the covenant were gifts of great blessing, recorded here as life and peace. So let us consider together these blessings – life and peace.

We need to notice and take to heart that the blessings of the covenant were a gift. This tells us that even when Levi abided by the covenant the blessings promised were still not deserved by Levi, but God in sovereign grace gave the blessings. Our duty to God is perfection, and even if we were able to live perfect lives, because this is our duty to God, the blessings God bestows are given, not because we deserve them, but because of God's grace – his undeserved favour. We can only deserve God's favour if our life is more perfect than God requires of us when he created humanity perfect. This is impossible, of course, and so the promises of life and peace, are a gracious favour from God.

LIFE.

God is the giver of life. By Adam's sin the whole human race abides in death. The soul that sins must die. Death revealed here is everlasting death in Hell, and spiritual deprivation in this life, whereby no true contentment can be found. God alone is the giver of life. It is of God’s grace towards humanity that he did not visit death on all humanity straight away, but sent Christ as the Saviour who wins life for all who will receive it. The inhabitants of the world can be divided in this simple way. Those who abide in death, which is every soul who has not received life through faith in Jesus, and includes all religions expect Christ’s religion, and all without regard to their standard of morality. The whole world is under the sentence of death. Then there are those who have received life through the faith they have been given in Jesus Christ, who has saved them from the death their sin deserves, and has raised them to new life in Christ. They abide in life, eternal life.

So what is this gift of life bound up in God’s covenant to Levi and the priests which followed him, and now in Christ, the one true and all-sufficient priest, who gave his life that all who believe on him may be given life.

God covenanted with Levi to give him and the people he acted for as priest, life. In the condition of life in Israel in the promised land, this life was God's continual blessing, protection, and preservation. He covenanted to be Israel's God, and give them his continual blessing. This meant that Israel could rely on God to defend them from all their enemies. They could look to him to make them prosperous. Also included in this life was the gift of being counted God's people both for time and eternity. These blessings were dependent on the people and the priests keeping the terms of the covenant to make God their God, and to serve him faithfully, and approach him in the way God prescribed in the covenant, by sacrifices to atone for sin, and seek justly God's forgiveness of their sins. The priests were responsible for seeing that the covenant was carried out faithfully, and this meant that it was essential that the priests made sure that the worship of the people as they brought their offerings to God were according to God's instructions in the covenant. The priests were in a position of responsibility to honour God by making sure his covenant was adhered to perfectly by all in Israel.

What we need to appreciate is that all this life, included in the covenant of God with Levi, was typical. The people had been delivered from bondage in Egypt, which typifies the believers deliverance from the bondage of sin and death under the dominion of Satan. They lived under the grace of God, which typifies the fact that all believers live their lives under the grace of God; and the Israelites were promised a land flowing with milk and honey, which typified the land of glory, heaven, to which Christ promises believers he has won for them by his perfect life and death. Jesus declared this when he told his disciples that he ascended into heaven to prepare a place for his believing people there.

As Israel was called to show that they believed the covenant and the blessings promised in the covenant, by adhering faithfully to the way God told them in the covenant, so they could safely come before him and know his gracious love; so we who believe in Jesus are called to abide by the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ, whereby our trust is in Jesus alone, and his work for us, and we seek to come before him only in the righteousness of Jesus imputed to all who believe on Jesus as Saviour. Further, like Israel we show our adherence to the covenant of grace in Christ by showing our thanksgiving by seeking to live a life which God approves, in worship and practice.

The true life, of which the life offered to Israel typified, is the life of God by new birth and new creation, and the promise of heaven; and such true life is unable to be hidden because this new life, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, can't help but be manifest in the way we who believe in Jesus behave and live.

So the life which is given in God's covenant is the gift of eternal life, which is manifest in the believers daily life, by the operation of the Spirit, as we live holy lives, and also find God's gift of life in purification by the Spirit, the guiding of the Spirit, and the protection of the Spirit, so that we find all things work together for our good, being called of God, and taught to love God.

PEACE.

The other part of the gift which was promised in the covenant made with Levi was the gift of peace. In the life of Israel at that time it revealed itself in the assurance of God's defence, keeping and provision throughout their journey to the promised land, together with the assurance that God would defend them from all their enemies. Peace was found in the truth of the covenant that God pledged himself to be Israel's God, and Israel would be his people, to defend and to provide for. This peace included the assurance God would bring them safely to the land he promised to give them.

This peace gave them the assurance that God was at peace with them, and all their sins were forgiven. It included the assurance of this forgiveness and acceptance by God which gave them peace of conscience, and peace as they faced the future. The peace was the assurance that God was with them and for them, and so who could be against them.

The certainty of the blessings of this covenant was bound up in Israel keeping the terms of the covenant, which was to approach God through the appointed means, which was by sacrifice of an innocent victim in their place, and showing thanksgiving in their lives, by living to please God.

In a similar way the type shown forth in the life and worship of Israel finds its true expression in the New Testament gospel, where faith in Jesus as our Saviour and sin-bearer, God justly justifies us in his sight, and accounts us righteous, which brings peace with God. (Romans 5: 1). This peace progresses because we stand in the grace of God which bestows upon us the assurance that Christ is our peace, protector, provider, defender, teacher, priest, lover of our soul, and guide. We have the peace because he is our shepherd leading us in the paths of righteousness for his names sake, until he brings us to the peaceful and lovely shores of his heavenly glory.

This peace continues in all the trials, tribulations and sufferings of this earthly life, and in particular the sufferings specially experienced through faithfulness to Jesus our Lord and King. We know that all our happenings in life are ordered by our heavenly Father, and as he is working all things for our good, we have this assured hope that we are safe in the arms of Jesus in all the cares of this life. This peace continues because we know that through faith in Christ, Satan and the Law has no power over us to condemn or capture us, for for freedom Christ has set us free.

This peace is ever present because we have a refuge for our souls in Jesus, to whom we can fly, and take refuge in him, against all temptation, all accusation of the evil one, all fear of failure, and all trials.

However these gifts are ours through gift of God's grace, and they can only be maintained when we worship God in Spirit and in truth. This means that we must live the life of faith in Christ as the all-sufficient priest who meditates before God for us, and live in obedience to Christ as Lord to whom we belong by creation and redemption. The Israelites failed in their journey because in the end they lost faith in the covenant. They failed to trust God who had given them this covenant, and when they were on the borders of the promised land, their faith failed, and they did not trust in God's covenant promise that he would be with them, and make the promised land their own.

In a similar way we are only safe in the arms of Jesus, when in total trust we rest in his perfect work for us, and his continual work of keeping us in his love, and his promise to prepare a place for us in heaven. Faith fails when we see our future in terms of our strength and righteousness. Faith is strong, and wins the day, when all our trust is in him.

CONCLUSION.

Let us remember that the gifts of God's covenant are gifts of grace. They are gifts which we can only receive and know by faith in Jesus. They are never deserved, but always and only bestowed through the unmerited favour of God.

Let us remember that faith is revealed only in living by the terms of the covenant, which in Israel was to come before God through the sacrifice of an unblemished animal dying in their place. For us who believe it means to rest our souls on Jesus and his sacrifice for us, and serve him as our Lord.