The three-legged race is always fun to watch at. Perhaps you have noticed that some seem to run it with ease while others trip over each other. I have seen dads tied to their kids who simply pick them up and run without breaking the tie. It is a lot of fun but you'll notice that the team that wins moves in sync with each other so that with every stride they are matching their partner. When you have two independently minded people, however, you see two people going nowhere other than to a pile-up on the ground.
This is not unlike covenants: the origins of the most common OT word for covenant, Berit[h], refers to being bound, tied, or shackled together, not unlike the three-legged race.
We in the Salvation Army are a covenanted people. Our covenants are important to us. They can certainly be one of our organisational strengths. General Clifton wrote that our covenants are one of the main ways in which the Lord chooses to provide opportunities for us to join him in the work for the salvation of the world. It is a sacred covenant through which the Lord binds Himself to us.
Salvation Army soldiers pledge to uphold our doctrine and, among other things, abstain from all that can enslave the mind and body. Officers covenant to make soul-winning the primary focus of our lives. The Lord binds Himself to us in these covenants. As Christians we are all yoked together with Christ. Commissioner William Francis wrote that 'the key to upholding our sacred covenant is staying close to God, keeping faith with him.' This is significant and this relates very closely to the three-legged race.
Any of us who have ever been in a three-legged race will remember the challenges that this can hold when one tries to move at a different pace than another and I am sure I am not the only person who has fallen on the ground laughing as my partner and I stopped moving in unison: it is difficult to move, let alone win the race, when the one you are yoked together with is going in the other direction.
It is the same with our covenants. If we tie ourselves to YHWH in a sacred vow and do not follow Him, it is difficult to finish, let alone win the race and experience the victory with Christ. On the other hand, as we walk in step with each other; when, while bound, we put are arm around our partner and run together; when children lean on their parents and rely on their strength in the race, the race is easy and the child often moves even faster than if she were running on her own. As we remain faithful to our covenants and allow our Heavenly Father to put His arm around us we will find that through our covenants it is even easier to walk in step with our Lord. At times, often when things are most challenging as well, when look to Christ, indeed we will find that He is carrying us towards the finish line where we will celebrate that anticipated victory in Jesus.
This is what our covenants are like with the Lord. As we bind ourselves to Him with covenantal ties that won't be broken and as we continue to follow in proper covenants, the Lord's yoke is easy! And really, is there anything in life that we can accomplish on our own that isn't accomplished much more easily and effectively, when we were tied to the LORD?
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