“Even if the mountains were to crumble
and the hills disappear,
my heart of steadfast, faithful love
will never leave you,
and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken,”
says Yahweh,
whose love and compassion will never give up on you.
Isaiah 54:8-10
Four words/phrases from verse 10 stood out to me today…mountains, hills, covenant of peace and compassion.
A Mother’s Heart
The heart behind this writing stirs from the Hebrew meaning for the word compassion found in this verse. A compassion symbolizing the fierce heart of love a mother feels for the child she carries in her womb. Consider this the context and heart for the rest of what I’m seeing and feeling. A context of the mother-heart-of-God keeping us protected and safe in the womb of His care. A place of nourishment and hiddenness. A place of expectation and purpose…something to be born out. A very nurtured, overwhelmingly loved, protected from the world, safe in a place of intimacy with Him.
When Great Men are Gone
One commentary, while studying the words mountains and hills, mentioned that these two words symbolized “great men.”
Of course, the implication within Isa 54 is that “even if [great men] were to crumble and [great men] were to fall” that God’s covenant of peace would remain firm and intact.
My first instinct was to consider this as representative of both the shaking and changing we see occurring in our world right now. Yet, it also connotes the crumbling and disappearance of “great men” and that their disappearance does not indicate a ceasing of God’s covenant of peace over us…which I’ll dive into more here in a second.
God has been shaking the church, which is where he usually begins, from our unhealthy co-dependence on the “great men” leaders we may have esteemed too highly. Now, we have an amazing opportunity to explore, expand and investigate what life looks like for every person to learn to hear the Lord, trust in Him and seek Him out for ourselves without distraction. Let me say it another way, the bridegroom is “making romantic moves” on his bride. He is jealous for you and me without the middleman of other people, no matter how great they may be, getting between us.
The Covenant
The scene has been set. The heart of a mother richly nurturing us through a time when everything is changing and either the great-men are crumbling or disappearing, or the lockdowns prevent us from being dependent on those great-men to define how we feel about ourselves. Instead, we are left to stand before God for ourselves…the way he intended…in closeness and intimacy with Him.
The Lord, seeing all that is going on, saw fit to leave us with a covenant. The word peace here is Shalom in Hebrew and means more than just peace. It means God has entered into a covenant that includes these attributes for our lives; completeness, soundness, welfare, success, wholeness, and well-being.
A covenant to keep our hearts and minds sound throughout all the shifting, shaking and crumbling. A covenant to keep us, and to steward our welfare and well-being. A covenant of wholeness, rather than a gnawing sense of brokenness. A covenant of success where others might see failure. A covenant to prosper us in all facets of living even though everything else in the world may be experience the exact opposite!
What I sense and see…
I sense the Lion of Judah roaring confidently and unwaveringly over His people. Roaring over His tribe so they will know the King IS in control and in command despite the chaos we may/may not be experiencing. A roar that shakes our hearts, and the hearts of our enemies, to the core. A roar that causes our enemies to tremble at this mother’s-heart covenant-promise-filled roar while that same roar awakens the true children of God to roar back to the Father with confessions, prayers, proclamations and declarations of His Word and His truth! Young lions standing with their dad roaring with Him as He roars over us.
What’s the roar that fills our mouths? It’s the simple faith declarations we confessed as we entered into relationship with Jesus…a confession of our mouths and a belief in our hearts concerning what He says is true. What’s the confession of our mouths right now? It’s the acknowledgement of the covenant promised in Isa. 54:10.
A roar that shouts out saying, “though the world crumble around me, though everything I used to know changes, though the great men and women I used to follow are out of my reach right now, His covenant of peace over me cannot be undermined or cancelled. I have a right to peace. I will stand in peace. I will pursue His peace.”
A roar confessing with our mouths and believing in our hearts that God has made an unbreakable covenant for our very completeness, prosperity, success, wholeness, welfare, soundness, and well-being. THIS is His covenant with us in the midst of normalcy, change and/or chaos. THIS is the report of the Lord we choose to believe.
A roaring declaration filling our homes as we intercede for our seemingly crumbing nation saying “I stand under the covenant of the lion of Judah and nothing can rob us of the supernatural favor made available to us in this season and this year. Nothing can rob us of the provisions he established for us in this season. His covenant with us transcends the current state of our nation or world. Nothing about our government and/or the world state-of-affairs can come against the wholeness of being, emotions and health He promises us in this covenant. I will be sound of mind. Whole of heart. Established in health. Protected in finances. Overwhelmingly blessed. Without lack of any good thing.”
Let us declare “I will find favor in this economy where the world finds failure. I will be of sound mind and restful peace though the world is anxious and fearful. I am cared-for and protected like a child in the womb. His covenant promise of success will embolden us though others may cower in fear. I will stand in the complete and unshakeable protection, shielding, sheltering, guarding, guidance, goodness, grace and keeping-power of Psalm 121 knowing I’m watched over and guarded by God himself. I, personally, have God’s full attention, care, protection and love right now, in this moment and in each moment that unfolds today.”
“No matter what occurs in my city, state, nation or world there is a covenant of Shalom resting over me like a warm blanket and I will warm up under its promises as I meditate on it, proclaim it aloud and declare it over my life, my family, my church, my city, my county, my state and my nation.”
Let children of God join with the roar of our Father proclaiming His covenant promises and His compassionately-fierce mother’s heart of nurturing, protection and well-being He is “reigning” down on our lives this very day. Let it quiet the fears and the lies and may we, as we draw into Proverbs 1:33, “always [listening] to [Him]” so that we might “live undisturbed in a heavenly peace. Free from fear, confident and courageous…[resting] unafraid and sheltered from the storms of life.”
May God establish His reality of covenant shalom on the earth and in His peoples hearts as He has already established in heaven.