Isaiah 54:10-17
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”
Here, the covenant idea comes back into the Sacred Writ. Instead of referring to the covenant Christ will bring as the New Covenant, here in Isaiah, it is called a “Covenant of Peace”. Under the Old Covenant God will say,
Deuteronomy 30:15-18
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.”
What we should hear is that before, God was establishing a Covenant that had the potential to bring life and peace………if kept. But if Israel chose disobedience it had the potential to bring death, a curse, and judgment. Again, since man is fallen, death, curse, and judgment were inevitable. The Old Covenant could never end in peace with God, not because there was fault or weakness in the Law, but because there is fault and weakness in man. What was the solution? Again, it could not be to make a different covenant with fallen men, since the nature of man was the problem.
Galatians 4:4-6
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
The New Covenant does not just have the potential to bring peace, it is a Covenant of Peace. It brings the regenerating life of the Holy Spirit to all that come to Christ the Divine Son. He changes every person that comes to Him from an enemy to a sibling, from a slave to a son. Because of Jesus the Divine Son we now can say, “Abba Father”, and God responds to us, peace, be still, and know that I am your God.