Marriage Covenant Series

Next week I will deal with the actual marriage vows, but this morning I want to touch on the blood covenant that takes place in a marriage. It is very similar to my first example with Stanley and Livingstone. When a couple goes through the wedding vows and make the verbal commitment for what they are willing to do in this union, the official ceremony ends with both saying “I do”. The covenant now has been reached and signed – all that is yet to be done is the sealing of the covenant through blood. Now I want to say this so that you will understand this and hopefully make it clear why God’s will is that we remain virgins until we are married. After the wedding and everything has been completed, the newlywed goes off to seal the union by coming together physically. God designed the woman’s body so that “under normal circumstances” (we will talk more about this in bible study) there is a small amount of blood shed during the first time the couple comes together physically. This shedding of blood seals the marriage vows and becomes a blood covenant. Also, all of the body fluids to some degree, has some blood cells in them. You can actually sweat blood as Jesus possibly did in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:44 (a medical condition that can happen the body is under extreme strain and anger). So whenever you enter into a sexual relationship, you are establishing a blood covenant. Do you understanding what I am saying? So this small amount of blood seals the union.

Once the marriage has been sealed and the blood shed, you have entered into a blood covenant. Remember what I said at the beginning about a reason that divorces would not exist? Remember how Mr. Stanley and the chieftain negotiated the covenant before the entered into it? If we entered into our marriage blood covenants as they did, divorces would not exist for two reasons. One, it would mean certain death because one would be breaking the covenant. And two, because the attitude of both parties is that they now have access to everything the other covenant partner has, there is total transparency. We do not enter into marriage, generally, thinking that everything my partner has is available to me and vice-versa. We now have “pre-nuptial” agreements to ensure that “when” the covenant is broken I get to keep what is mine. Our understanding of what we are doing when we enter into a marriage blood covenant is very flawed.

As I close this message, I want to ask you a question. Whatever your current situation, whether you are happily married or not, divorced and planning to remarry, divorced with no desire to marry, single and may marry one day, do you understand what it means to enter into a blood covenant? Are you willing to keep your end of the covenant? When you say, “I do”, are you willing to keep that vow? Think on these questions this week. Next week I will complete this message by reviewing with you what we agree to when we say the words of the marriage vow.