God's People

You will be my people and I will be your God (Ez. 36:28)

Several times in the Old Testament, God makes the statement "You will be my people and I will be your God." 

This language is that of a formal, binding covenant, such as a marriage oath. I do not refer to a marriage "contract," because a contract is a legal arrangement, forging customers in the agreement:  you get this; I get that.  A marriage oath is much more; it forms a indissolvable union---we are part of one another.  In fact, Genesis 2:23-24 puts it this way:

This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called 'woman'

for she was taken out of man.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The words "one flesh" in Hebrew actually mean a "new creation," or a new species---something that has never before existed on earth. 

When God says, "You shall be my people, and I shall be your God," He is not talking about a legal arrangement, but about a spiritual reality-- a new creation, a new species on earth.  We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, for we are taken out of Him, born of Him, according to John I: 12-13.  For this reason, Jesus left His "father and mother," His ancestral home in heaven, to be united to us, His wife, His bride, so that we could become one flesh, one body, an indissolvable union, a new species.

When children make a blood covenant, they are saying that forever after, they belong to one another.  Whoever attacks one attacks the other; whoever does good to the one does good to the other.  When Saul was attacking the early church, Jesus stood before him:  Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? 

The covenant had been sealed in blood;  there was no difference between attacking Christ and attacking the members of His body. 

At one time, perhaps even today in primitive areas, it was the custom for tribal chiefs to send their sons to a neighboring tribe as part of a covenant agreement.  Thereafter, each tribe was covenanted to protect the other, for in doing so they would be protecting their own flesh.  God has sent the human race His own son as a seal upon His promise---You shall be my people, and I shall be your God.  We now come to Him sealed in the blood, the life, of the lamb of God.  We no longer belong to the world of corruption and evil, but to the land of peace and rest carved out by the Son of God.  We are blessed indeed!