Faith a response to Covenant

What is covenant all about

Ephesians 2:11-22 (Amplified) at one time we were outside the covenants of promise. Understanding that covenant is foundational for everything else that we learn.

Covenant forms the basis of everything that we have in God.

It is out of Covenant relationship with God that we have; Salvation, Healing, Prosperity, Soundness of Mind. We are redeemed from the curse of the law and have been brought into the prosperity of God – Spirit, Soul and body. When we have an understanding of our covenant relationship with God it instils faith in us to believe for what we need in life. Covenant involves relationship between God and Man through the shedding of blood.

The most binding covenant is a blood covenant

We struggle with the idea of cutting flesh and mingling blood. The shedding of blood may seem to be a little extreme but, not in God's economy. In eastern culture and Biblical culture it was and in some cases still is a very normal practice instituted by God.

Western society understand contracts in business, marriage, shaking of hands often however they mean very little because a lawyer can and will get you out of it. In Western society covenant has lost its power simply because men and women cannot keep their words.

Biblically when we enter into a blood covenant it is the most binding, the most spiritual and powerful thing that you can enter into. The truth is you would never contemplate turning your back on the word you have given in blood covenant.

Covenant Cut with Man – Circumcision was a sign

Blood had to Flow - Genesis 17:11 in the book of Genesis the Word “covenant – berith” means “a blood flow or incision in the flesh”. Strong’s (in the sense of cutting); a compact (because it is made by passing between pieces of flesh) – confederacy, covenant, league. Circumcision let God’s people carry the “cut of the covenant” – it marked them as God’s special people. When someone wanted to enter into contract with you they asked to cut covenant with you. When that blood flowed you knew that you were absolutely bound by the blood of covenant – unbreakable. This taught the people the value of one shedding blood to enter into a binding, and unbreakable contract.

Mutual binding

A covenant agreement bound two parties together in a relationship that could never be cancelled. The blood covenant is an eternally binding thing. You could not back out when you felt like it e.g. Marriage, business etc. As long as both parties were alive the contract stood. If it was a contract between families, groups or countries they went on until a new covenant was struck which out weighed the original. That which belonged to one also belonged to the other.

Love and Devotion

The motivation for entering into a covenant was love and devotion to the one you stood in covenant with. Being faithful to your covenant partner was your priority, even if it meant your life.

Exchange of Authority

A covenant makes available the power, strength, possessions, name and authority of each party involved. It links (makes available) the strength of one to cover the weakness of the other.

The exchange – There are nine steps to a blood covenant

Take off the coat or robe. (Isaiah 61:10; Matthew 27:28-31; Revelation 7:9)

I would first take off my coat or robe and give it to you. To the Hebrew, a person’s robe represents the person. By taking off my robe and giving it to you, I am symbolically saying, “I am giving you all of myself. My total being and my life, I pledge to you.”

Then you would do the same. You would take off your coat or robe and put on my coat or robe. Think in terms of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Remember he took our clothing, which was sin, and gave us a cloak of righteousness, truth, love and faith.

Take off the belt. (Isaiah 54:17, 2 Corinthians 6:7 & 10:4; Ephesians 6:10-18; Revelation 19:8)

Next I take off my belt and give it to you. Now I do not use my belt to hold up my pants, but to hold up my weapons. My belt holds my armour together - my dagger, my bow and arrow, my sword. So symbolically I am giving you all my strength and pledging you all my support and protection. Moreover, as I give you my belt, I am saying, “Here is my strength and all my ability to fight. If anybody attacks you, they are also attacking me. Your battles are my battles and mine are yours. I will fight with you. I will help defend you and protect you.” You then do the same for me. This is similar to a compact nations might make today. However, this one cannot be broken.

Cut the covenant. (Jesus the Lamb that was slain. John 1:29, 36; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6-13)

(Take an animal and split it right down the middle. In the Bible, an animal is only cut down the middle and split in two in a covenant ceremony.

We lay each half to the side of us and stand in between the two bloody halves of the flesh, with our backs to each other. (Ephesians 2:15-16 these groups are opposed to each other and have no covenant with each other.)

We walk right through the bloody halves, making a figure eight, and come back to a stop facing each other. (We have now become two groups no longer opposed to each other. We will speak face to face with each other as friends as partners.)

In doing so, we are saying two things.

First, we are saying we are dying to ourselves, giving up the rights to our own life and beginning a new walk with our covenant partner unto death. You see, in this covenant, each half of the dead animal represents us.

Secondly, since the blood covenant is the most solemn pact, we each point down to the bloody animal split in two and say, “God do so to me and more if I ever try to break this covenant. Just split me right down the middle and feed me to the vultures because I tried to break the most sacred of all compacts.”

Raise the right arm and mix the blood. (Psalm 48:10; Isaiah 41:10, 62:8; 2 Corinthians 6:7)

Then we raise our right arms, cut our palms and bring them together. As we do, our blood intermingles. Then we swear allegiance to each other.

Remember how you did this as a kid? With eyes probably half closed, you and your closest friend pricked your finger and brought them together swearing allegiance forever until mum broke the covenant for you.

As our blood (our life flow) intermingles, we believe our lives are intermingling and becoming one life.

Therefore, we are putting off our old nature and putting on the nature of our blood covenant partner. Two separate parties become one.

Man has always believed that intermingling blood is our life entwined in one life. This symbolically shows the two of us becoming one.

Exchange names.

Then as we stand there with our blood intermingling, we, exchange names. I take your last name as part of my name, and you take my last name as part of your name.

Make a scar. (Isaiah 62:8, 63:12; Jesus had his hand scared, His blood was shed for us etc.)

The next step is to rub our blood together and make a scar as a permanent testimony to our covenant. The scar will bear witness to the covenant we have made. It will always be there to remind us of our covenant responsibilities to each other. It is the guarantee of our covenant.

If anyone tries to harm us, all we have to do is raise our right arm and show our scar. By that we are saying, “There’s more to me than meets the eye. If you are coming after me, then you are also going to have to fight my blood covenant partner. Moreover, you do not know how big he is. So what are you going to do? Are you going to take your chances, or back off?” If the would be attacker has any sense he will back off.

Therefore, the scar is our seal that testifies to the covenant.

Henry Stanley, on his explorations through Africa, cut covenant 50 times with various chieftains. We can certainly understand why. Anytime he would come across an unfriendly tribe, he would just hold up that right arm with those 50 scars and any would be attacker would take off running in the other direction. Today, when we meet friends, we do not show scars, we shake hands. There are many trappings of blood covenant in our modern society. We’ve just eliminated the blood.

Give covenant terms. (New Testament “Love one another”. John 14:15, 23; 1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 John 2)

Then we stand before witnesses and give the “terms of the covenant”.

“All my assets are yours. All my money, all my property and all my possessions are yours. If you need any of them, you do not even have to ask. Just come and get it. What’s mine is yours and what is yours is mine. And if I die, all my children are yours by adoption and you are responsible for my family.”

However, at the same time, you also get my liabilities.

“If I ever get in trouble financially, I don’t come ask you for money. I come to you and say, “Where’s our cheque book?”

We are in covenant.

“Everything I have is yours and yours is mine, both assets and liabilities. So we stand there and read off, before witnesses, our list of assets and liabilities.”

Eat a memorial meal. (We receive communion 1 Corinthians 11:23)

Then we have a memorial meal to complete the covenant union. In place of the animal and blood, we have bread and wine. In the Bible, wine is called the blood of the grapes (Genesis 49:11) and it represents our own lifeblood. The bread represents our flesh.

We take a loaf of bread and break it in two and feed it to each other saying,

“This is symbolic of my body and now I’m putting it in you.”

Then we serve each other the wine and say,

“This is symbolic of my life blood which is now your blood.”

Now, symbolically, I am in you and you are in me. We are now one together with a new nature.

Plant a memorial tree. (Psalm 1:1-6; Isaiah 61:3; Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14)

We now leave a memorial to the covenant. We want to remember the covenant forever. We do this by planting a tree that we have sprinkled with the blood of the animal. The blood-sprinkled tree, along with our scar, will always be a testimony to our covenant.

Well, this completes the ceremony. From now on, we are friends. In Bible terms, one did not use the word friend as loosely as we do today. You became friends only after you had cut covenant. Moreover, all our children are included in this covenant, even the unborn ones. They are in covenant because they are in us. Later, when they are born and come to an age of understanding about our covenant, they can choose to stay in it, or reject it.

Faith is a response to covenant not knowledge

Neil Davis, 08/04/2007