The covenant of peace, as described in Isaiah 54, is primarily intended for the physical nation of Israel after Christ's return, yet it is a perpetual covenant that those called into the body of Christ are under right now. This same covenant, highlighted in Ezekiel 37, has been given as both a gift and a responsibility to those within the body of Christ. As shown in Hebrews 8 and 10, this covenant will also be Israel's in the Millennium, emphasizing that our justification, sanctification, glorification, and peacefully productive relationship with God come as a gift through Jesus Christ. Accepting this gift involves a great personal cost in living out our God-given opportunity in a world driven by prideful, carnal nature that is enmity against God and His Family. The covenant of perpetual peace with God, as exemplified by Stephen, required an incredible cost, even to the point of his life, yet he continued working in the Family business under the direction of the Holy Spirit until his last breath. At baptism, when one is buried with Jesus Christ and becomes part of the body of Christ, having made the covenant of peace with God, there is an extraordinary cost involved in learning to follow the leadership of our Elder Brother and engaging in the Family business. Forgiveness, a key aspect of maintaining this covenant of peace with the Father, is costly due to our carnal nature that often clings to pride and refuses to let go of faults. Jesus Christ emphasizes in Matthew 6:14-15 and Mark 11:25-26 that forgiveness, both received from God and extended to others, is pivotal to successful prayer and sustaining this covenant. Without actively seeking God's guidance to forgive as He forgives, we risk treating the sacrificial cost of Jesus Christ for our unpardonable debt with contempt. If we cannot absorb the personal cost involved in forgiving one another in humility, we tread contemptuously on the blood of Jesus Christ, who will ultimately bring Israel, Judah, and the nations of the earth together with heartfelt forgiveness in the covenant of peace.

In Isaiah 54, the lovingkindness of our God is vividly displayed through His enduring promises. As a testament to His everlasting compassion, God declares in Isaiah 54:9-10, "For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be angry with you, or rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has mercy on you." This covenant of peace, rooted in the promise made to Noah, assures that after the trials and tribulations, God's wrath will not return, and His kindness will remain forever. Just as Noah and his family emerged from the ark after a time of tribulation to receive God's promise of everlasting kindness, so too will those who endure the troubles at the end of this age come to the same promise of enduring peace. Through this covenant, God commits to shower His compassion on His people for all eternity, a promise that stands unchanging and unyielding.

The covenant of peace mentioned in Ezekiel 37 establishes the bounds of the relationship between God and Israel. This covenant of peace provides eternal stability and prosperity. The covenant establishes peace through the covenant for spiritual growth and entry into the Kingdom of God. This same covenant has been made with believers now and the conditions of peace exist for them. The covenant of peace that is mentioned there in verse 26 between God and Israel establishes the bounds of the relationship. God is very intelligent. When He gathers the people He says that this is the way it is going to be. This is David your king. And we are going to enforce this covenant and this is what you have to do. You have to keep My commandments My statutes and My judgments. You are going to have to come and do the things you need to do at My sanctuary and that is going to be a sign then of our agreement that I have come to sanctify Israel and everybody will know when looking from outside all the nations will say these are God's people. Obviously because He put His sanctuary in their midst. And they are the ones that have the contract with God that says that they do what He says and they will be His people. So this covenant of peace provides eternal stability and prosperity. Because of what the Israelites have just gone through each side is now fully invested in the relationship. They come back weeping and say we messed up and we want to do what is right now so we are going to abide by the terms of the covenant. And so they will voluntarily and entirely as well as they can keep the terms of the agreement. This is what God has prophesied that it is going to take the worst years of their lives the worst years of anybody's lives on the face of the earth to finally pound it into the Israelites' heads that they need to follow God but the ones that come out the other end are going to say we will do it. We do not want to go through that again. We were dumb. We repent in dust and ashes. So what we have here in this covenant is the establishment of peace a condition of peace a state of peace through the covenant so that what? What is the endgame here? What does God establish the covenant to do? Well just like the covenant has always done it is the environment if you will for spiritual growth and entry into the Kingdom of God. God wants His people to be righteous and so He makes a covenant with them so that they can achieve those things with His help. So we have the verse that I went to last time. What is going to happen is that after Christ's return He is going to establish an environment of peace in order to produce righteousness and growth. And eventually those people those Israelites who are part of the covenant because they have accepted it agreed to it will become members of God's Family. But they will have to go through the same process that we are going through now. Because this same covenant has been made with us and those same conditions of peace exist. You may not realize it but they do. The same covenant rules your life and if you agreed to it and you are doing what you should do as a party in the covenant the conditions of peace are yours. So this understanding that true peace is the ultimate expression of a right relationship with God through the covenant brings out an opposite observation. When we are not in a right relationship with God peace is impossible. In other words our sins or iniquities as Isaiah 59 says have separated you from your God. So you are not at peace. That is what we went over last time. Our sins create a state of war or at least conflict with God.

In the exploration of peace as a profound biblical concept, the covenant of peace stands as a central promise from God, embodying the fullness of well-being and harmony. As described in Ezekiel 37:24-28, God declares that David, His servant, shall be king over His people, uniting them under one shepherd, guiding them to walk in His judgments and observe His statutes. In this vision of restoration, God promises to make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant that ensures their establishment and multiplication. He will set His sanctuary in their midst forever, affirming His presence as their God and their identity as His people, a relationship recognized by all nations. This covenant of peace encapsulates comprehensive well-being, ensuring health in mind and body, satisfaction, contentment, and the absence of war. It promises great prosperity and long lives, fostering a wonderful relationship with God, who is the author of peace. Through this covenant, He offers everlasting stability and prosperity, as both God and His people fully invest in the relationship, with all enmity and sin removed. This divine promise sets the boundaries for an eternal, harmonious bond, highlighting that true peace is ultimately achieved through a right relationship with God, a state to be fully realized in the future.

God's profound commitment to restoring Israel includes establishing a covenant of peace, which is central to His plan of regathering and renewing His people. In Ezekiel 37:26-27, He declares that He will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant, establishing them, multiplying them, and setting His sanctuary in their midst forevermore, affirming that He will be their God and they shall be His people. This covenant, also referenced in Isaiah 54:10, ensures enduring peace, as God promises that though mountains and hills may remove, His covenant of peace will remain steadfast with Israel. This covenant of peace, identified as the New Covenant, marks a transformative addition to Israel's restoration, bringing a new heart and spirit as described in Ezekiel 36:26-27, where God promises to replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh and put His Spirit within them, enabling them to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments. This divine intervention ensures Israel's faithfulness, ending their history of backsliding and securing them against future wrath, a permanence underscored by the frequent use of terms like forever and everlasting in these prophecies. Furthermore, in Isaiah 27:5, God speaks of peace as a result of dependence on Him for protection, indicating that this covenant of peace fosters a renewed relationship where Israel becomes His friend, living in harmony with Him. This peace is not merely an absence of conflict but a profound state of alignment with God's will, integral to the restoration process that positions Israel for a significant role in His worldwide plan of salvation.