Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter"; therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: 'Whoever believes will not be in haste.' And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter." Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.
We made a covenant with death, but because our Husband vetoed it, that covenant, in Him, no longer remains. Covenant Heads are ultimately responsible for any covenants made by them or by anyone for whom they are responsible. If anyone under the Head's authority makes a covenant, the Head is ultimately responsible. That is why the Head can revoke or annul a covenant made by anyone under His care. In response to a covenant made by one under His care, He can: (1) do nothing and leave it in place, (2) agree with it and leave it in place, (3) disagree with it and make null and void the promise or deal made by the one for whom He has taken responsibility.
This can seem antiquated and perhaps even ring a bit chauvinistic to the modern mind unless you understand how covenants work and how blessed we are to be freed from of the covenants we entered into. If we assume ourselves wise, we will bristle at the thought of being second-guessed, but when we realize ourselves foolish, we are grateful for being guided. We chose to make a deal with death when we choose sin over our Sovereign. By His grace, our decision has been overruled and His decision for us stands in its place.
This same principle of covenant headship is on display in the following passage:
Numbers 30:3-5
If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
Since the father must answer for the daughter, he can veto or overturn any promise she makes. Again, to modern individualistic ears, this sounds like a lethal dose of toxic masculinity in all its wickedness, but it is actually the grace of God working through responsible heads to protect those for whom they are committed to protect.
It is by rule of this principle that we are free from sin. It is by God's insistence on this that we are saved. If not for covenant representative headship, we would all be bound to our deal with death and we would get what we deserve. Because of God's grace and His willingness to absorb the penalty of reneging on our promises, we are saved.
To reject this kind of thing is to reject the kindness of God.
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