The Blood that Ran…
Part 1- The Covenant
Text: 1 Kings 22:35
Intro: In this passage we see a king that went out to battle. The King of Israel (Ahab) along with the King of Judea (Jehosephat). The King of Israel was killed in that Battle.
Now there are several things we could learn from this. Including don’t trust your life to anyone other than God. We could learn that a battle most always brings Death in some form or anther.
But what I want us to see today is this. I want us to see a parallel between the King that died in this battle and the King that gave his life in another battle.
1. We, for a little while this morning, are going to talk about the Blood of Jesus Christ.
2. We will be on this subject this morning and tonight at least and it maybe next Sunday and next Sunday night as well, and maybe even on into Easter Morning.
3. I want to parallel 1 kings 22:35 with What Jesus, Himself went through on the cross.
a. The King Ahab
b. The King Jesus
c. The battle Raged on (earthly)
d. The battle raged on (Heavenly)
e. Propped up for all to see (Ahab)
f. Hung up for all to see (Jesus) if I be lifted up I will draw all men…
g. The Life Gone (Ahab) The battle over
h. The Life Gone (Jesus) the battle for sin over.
i. The Blood that ran to the chariot
j. The blood that ran to the earth (Jesus’ spiritual chariot)
Today we start a series entitle THE BLOOD THAT RAN…
We will come to find out the significance of the blood of Jesus and the significance of the times his blood ran or was shed for us.
In Genesis 3 man lost the covenant with God and it took an immediate sacrifice to cover mans sin. Gen 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them.
I. CIRCUMCISION:
The first instance we are going to look at today is going to be the CIRCUMCISION.
This is the first time that Jesus shed blood for you and I. And he did it at the very young age of 8 DAYS
Luke 2:21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
A. To understand more clearly the meaning of the circumcision we must go back to the Genesis or beginning Genesis 17:1-12
B. We find in these scriptures that Abram was getting ready to get the best gift that could ever be given.
C. He was fixing to get a covenant with the most high. God.
D. What the covenant was is very simple but at the same time very difficult to understand.
E. The cutting of a covenant was simply the intermingling of blood from one person to another.
F. The Hebrew word for covenant literally means to “to cut”. It gives the suggestion of an incision were blood is to flow.
II. The method of cutting the covenant
a. 2 men that wish to cut the covenant come together with friends and a priest
b. First they exchange gifts. By this exchange of gifts they indicate that all that one has the other is entitle to or owns if necessary.
c. After the exchange of gifts, they bring a cup of wine and there is an incision made in the arm of one of the persons that are involved and his blood is shed into the wine cup. The other then does likewise.
d. The wine is stirred and the two drink from the cup and thus the form a covenant.
e. There blood from the wounds is then mixed by rubbing there wounds together.
III. The sacredness of cutting the covenant
a. There was a man name Stanley that traveled all over the continent of Africa and in his travels he came upon numerous tribes and numerous times he cut the covenant with them.
b. He said of the all his travels never did he find that the covenant was broken no matter the provocation or reason.
c. No matter where they traveled they found that the covenant was not to be broken no matter what.
d. The vilest enemies become trusted friends as soon as the covenant is cut.
e. It is so sacred that the children to the third and fourth generations revere it.
f. In other words it is a perpetual covenant, indissoluble a covenant that cannot be annulled.
ILLUSTRATION.
One day when Stanely was trying to seek out a man named Livingstone he came up on a very powerful tribe that was very warring.
The man Stanely was not in any shape to go to war with a tribe so finally the interpreter asked him why he did not make a covenant with the tribe. Stanely then asked what it entailed and the interpreter told him.
Of course like us that repulsed Stanley.
However things kept getting worse and worse for the team and for Stanely and he eventually gave in to the act of cutting the covenant with this chief of this tribe.
After several days of negotiations they came to terms of the covenant.
First came the parley in which the chief questioned Stanely as to his motives and standing and the ability he had to keep a covenant.
Then came the time to exchange the gifts.
Stanely was poor in health and he always had a goat with him because he could only drink the milk that came from the goat to keep up strength.
This of course is what the chief wanted in the agreement of the covenant.
After some time Stanley gave up the goat and in turn he got a 7 foot spear woven from copper.
Now at the time Stanely did not realize the significance of the spear.
He found that everywhere he went with the spear that in all of Africa people bowed and submitted to him.
He now had authority
Church that is exactly what Jesus does for us.
We don’t realize it but when we cut the covenant with God we are in essence having his blood mingled with our own.
The difference is this
That when we walk into this covenant we are then into something that is not just a play toy. We are bound by a covenant with the ALL MIGHTY.
IV. Jehovah cuts the covenant with Abraham
a. When God entered into the covenant with Abraham there were some very striking things that happened.
1. The most important was the changing of his old name.
2. He was now called a prince of God and his wife a princess of God.
3. In other words he lifted him up into the royal family.
4. When his blood was mingled it was no longer stained with the sin of this world but was made immunized by God.
5. This covenant was sealed by the circumcision of Abraham and all his descendants.
6. This covenant bound not only Abraham but also his children and his children’s children.
7. When Abraham was 99 years old God appeared unto him as God Almighty or as EL-SHADDAI.
8. He told Abraham to walk before him and be thou perfect.
Now this brings us back to the fact that in Luke chapter 2 Jesus was circumcised showing his acceptance of the covenant.
But not only that he was making a new covenant with God and that was the purging of all mans sins.
He came to spill his blood in order that we might have life.
The circumcision represents the old covenant with God in a new way.
Friend the blood that ran from Jesus on that day was the beginning of a new covenant.
The gifts was Jesus our gift is our life.
How about you?
Have you made a covenant with God?
