God’s Blood Covenant With Us!

The Bible is in two major divisions called testaments or covenants. The word testament is a translation of the Greek “diatheke” which was a translation of the Hebrew word “Berith” which means covenant. The covenant is not much understood today having been watered down in meaning. However in the Biblical times recorded covenants were binding contracts made by two parties sealed in blood and remained in effect until both parties were dead. Covenants were made based on strengths and weaknesses and not things in common. The shedding of blood was always a most important factor in ratification of the covenant!

GENERAL ORDER OF THE COVENANTS

In a covenant there was an exchange of strengths and weaknesses between the parties. They would:

1. Exchange coats, symbols of authority meaning all I have is yours and all yours is mine.

2. Exchange weapons signifying a giving of strength. Your enemies were now mine and my enemies were yours. I stand with you even to death!

3. Exchange names making the parties one forever. One family and one name!

4. Make promises that would be kept by both parties forever.

5. Pronounce curses if the covenant is broken

6. Walk through a pathway of blood made by splitting animals and drawing the halves apart

7. Together eat a covenant meal of bread and wine.

GOD MADE A COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM!

Genesis 15:1-21 KJV After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. 2 And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. 7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. 8 And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. 11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. 12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

YAHWEH ALONE walked the covenant path of blood, the red carpet of blood!. Abraham and his household were commanded to perform circumcision, thus shedding blood. The circumcision was a reminder of the powerful covenant Yahweh made with Abraham, Isaac and Israel but soon degenerated into mere form and ritual and superior pride.

YAHWEH remained faithful to His covenant and brought Israel out of Egypt by the blood of the Passover. The covenant sheds light on the reason David addressed Goliath as an uncircumcised Philistine! 1 Samuel 17:26 KJV And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?