“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” – Hebrews 8:13
Beginning in 1784, first Spain and then Mexico carved the Southwest into vast tracts of land, called ranchos that authorities used to reward California's leading citizens and soldiers. These lucky rancheros then became virtual princes, ruling over their fiefs from an adobe ranch house.
After California became a territory of the United States in 1847, many grantees struggled to hold on to these ranchos as U.S. tax law and a cumbersome title-confirmation process forced them to sell or mortgage their vast estates.
At The Sherman Library in Corona del Mar, California, documents for Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana in Orange County, California are stored. These faded land grants are no longer valid. The charters to these ranchos were replaced with new United States land titles.
Old, fragile covenants have disappeared and are replaced by the “new” living and eternal covenant we have in Jesus Christ. Today in prayer, praise the Lord that the old covenant has faded and we have a vibrant new life found in Jesus.
“It is a new heart-righteousness which the prophets foresaw as one of the blessings of the Messianic age. ‘I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts.’ God promised to Jeremiah. How would he do it? He told Ezekiel ‘I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes.’” – John Stott
God’s Word: “In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” – 1 Corinthians 11:25
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