Blood Covenant

Taken from Kay Arthur's, Our Covenant God

The animals had been slain-cut in half down the spine. Their bright blood stained the stones,
the dirt, the grass, vying with sprinkles of wildflowers in their display of color. A covenant
was being cut.
The two men stood opposite one another. Each removed his own robes and handed them to
the other, then clothed himself in his covenant brother's garment.
I am putting on you...and you me. We are one.
Picking up their weapons from the ground, each handed the other his sword, his bow. By this
action they understood...
When you are weak, my strength will be there for you.
In a figure-eight path, both walked through the pieces of flesh lying opposite one another. It
was a walk into death.
I am dying to my independent living...and to my rights.
They swore by an oath as they pointed first to heaven-
God, do so to me...
and then to the slain animals.
if I break this covenant!
Then each made a cut on his wrist, and with a handclasp the two men mingled their blood.
It is agreed: We-once two-have become one.
In turn each recited what he owned and what he owed; from this day forward they would
share all their resources.
What is mine is yours...what is yours is mine.
Each reached down and scooped up dirt mingled with small stones and rubbed this abrasive
into the cut in his wrist.
Wherever I am, when I lift my hand and see the scar, I will remember I have a covenant
partner.
They exchanged new names.
Because of covenant I have a new identity.
They sat down to partake of a covenant meal. One broke bread and placed it in his covenant
partner's mouth; then the other did the same.
You are eating me, and I you.
Finally a memorial was set up-a pile of stones, a planted tree, a written contract-as a
testimony of the covenant they had made.
Now I call you Friend-my Friend who sticks closer than a brother.
These were the customs of covenant, EACH PORTRAYING A TRUTH THAT APPLIES TO
YOU, TO YOUR DAILY WALK WITH THE LORD. They are customs we will examine one by
one, that you might understand the ramifications of the solemn, binding agreement that they
portray.
I can hardly wait for you to see it all! I wish I could see your eyes go wide with wonder and
hear your thoughts racing through the Word in total delight, as you suddenly see the
dimension of truths you once passed over lightly. However, before all that happens, we must
first examine the gravity of it all-THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BLOOD.

Covenant was a pledge to death. A pledge born of love. A pledge cut in blood. THIS IS THE ROOT OF COVENANT.
Can you imagine being loved that much-so much that someone would pledge himself or herself unto death for the security of your well being?
Staggering, isn't it? This is the love we long for, look for, but seldom see or discover, especially in the days in which we are living. We live in a time when more and more men, women, and children join the ranks of those who love self more than anyone else-even more than their parents, children, or mates. People walk away from others, abandoning their relationships, because the other person doesn't meet their needs anymore. Or because "the love is gone." But if love is gone, where then is the commitment that overrides a temporary loss of affection?
Covenant does not allow such abandonment-at least not without horrible consequences! AND THAT BELOVED, IS WHAT WE NEED TO SEE AND UNDERSTAND WHENEVER OUR VIEW OF GOD, OR OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND WITH JESUS CHRIST, IS SO WARPED THAT IT CAN'T STAND UP TO THE PLUMB LINE OF GOD'S WORD. WE THINK WE CAN HAVE GOD, JESUS CHRIST, AND ETERNAL LIFE AND ALL THE BLESSINGS THAT GO WITH IT ON OUR TERMS. THAT WE CAN INTERPRET FOR OURSELVES WHAT IT MEANS TO BE IN COVENANT WITH GOD. OUR LOGIC IS DANGEROUSLY SKEWED!

THE PROBLEM IS THAT WE DON'T KNOW HOW WARPED, HOW SKEWED IT IS. THAT'S WHY OUR CHRISTIANITY ISN'T WORKING. WHY OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDSHIPS ARE FALLING APART. WHY THE CHURCH'S STATISTICS OF SOCIAL AND MORAL FAILURE NEARLY MATCH THOSE OF THE WORLD. AND THIS IS WHY WE REALLY NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND COVENANT AND THE ONE WHO INSTITUTED IT ALL-
OUR COVENANT GOD.

The committed oneness established in covenant was often symbolized by the mingling of blood. As part of the covenant ceremony, the covenant partners would cut their wrists, then mingle their blood by clasping of hands. In this unforgettable way they portrayed the oneness that covenant brings. TWO BECAME ONE-BLOOD BROTHERS.
Dr. Clay Trumbull showed in his book The Blood Covenant that the practice of cutting covenants can be traced back all through recorded history and is represented in cultures all around the world. "There are historic traces of it, from time immemorial, in every quarter of the globe." As Dr. Trumbull studied these accounts, he saw over and over again the oneness brought about the act of cutting a covenant and in one way or another the mingling of the covenant partner's blood.
And how did two people "partake of the same blood," thereby signifying that they had become blood brothers? The commingling of the covenant partner's blood could be done in several ways.
For example, the covenant partners might make a small cut in the palm or wrist, then mix that bleeding flow through the clasping of hands or arms. The incision might also be in the forearm, in the center of the chest, in the pit of the stomach, on the cheek or forehead, or elsewhere. Sometimes there was a tasting of one another's blood from these cuts. Frequently a small amount of the blood was mixed with another liquid, then drunk from a common cup.
Dr. Trumbell noted that the "inter-transference of blood" in covenant was also represented in various cultures "by blood-bathing, by blood-anointing, and by blood sprinkling," while the simple mingling or the drinking of the blood of the two covenant partners seemed to be the most common ancient way of making a covenant.
Behind the oneness of covenant is a powerful concept that Dr. Trumbull's research uncovered as a prevailing idea among the peoples of the ancient world:

THAT BLOOD REPRESENTS LIFE; THAT THE GIVING OF BLOOD REPRESENTS
THE GIVING OF LIFE, THAT THE RECEIVING OF BLOOD REPRESENTS THE
RECEIVING OF LIFE; THAT THE INTER-COMMINGLING OF BLOOD REPRESENTS
THE INTER-COMMINGLING OF NATURES; AND THAT A DIVINE-HUMAN INTER-
UNION THROUGH BLOOD IS THE BASIS OF A DIVINE-HUMAN INTER-
COMMUNION IN THE SHARING OF FLESH OF THE SACRIFICIAL OFFERING
AS SACRED FOOD.
THE ROOT IDEA OF THIS RITE OF BLOOD-FRIENDSHIP SEEMS TO INCLUDE THE
BELIEF THAT THE BLOOD IS ESSENTIAL TO LIFE, BUT THAT IN A PECULIAR SENSE
IT IS LIFE; THAT IT ACTUALLY VIVIFIES ["GIVES LIFE"] BY ITS PRESENCE; AND
THAT BY ITS PASSING ROM ONE ORGANISM TO ANOTHER IT CARRIES AND
IMPARTS LIFE. THE INTER-COMMINGLING OF THE BLOOD OF TWO ORGANISMS
IS, THEREFORE, ACCORDING TO THIS VIEW, EQUIVALENT TO THE INTER-
COMMINGLING OF THE LIVES, OF THE PERSONALITIES, OF THE NATURES
THUS BROUGHT TOGETHER; SO THAT THERE IS, THEREBY AND THENCE-
FORWARD, ONE LIFE IN THE TWO BODIES, A COMMON LIFE BETWEEN THE
TWO FRIENDS.

But this foundational aspect of covenant is something that is deeper and more ancient even than man's age-old customs. IT IS A BASIC ASPECT OF LIFE IN GOD'S CREATION.

The book of Leviticus is a book of sacrifices and feasts-ordinances that explained the ways in which a holy God was to be approached and worshiped. This rather bloody book explains to us what science later discovered: LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD. Most doctors will not venture to diagnose an illness until they receive an analysis of the blood. They know the truth of God's statement, "As for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with it's life."
THIS MEDICAL TRUTH HAS SPIRITUAL APPLICATION. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission, no forgiveness of sins. In his explanation of the covenants, the writer of Hebrews says, "And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
It is because life is in the blood that the cutting of covenants results in such profound richness and security and oneness-RICHNESS AND SECURITY AND ONENESS THAT ARE MEANT FOR US TO EXPERIENCE!

Let me take you back to O. Palmer Robertson's book so that you can see that this is not just my concept of covenant. Earlier I gave you a quote from this book, which is preceded by these questions from Robertson: "What then is a covenant? How do you define the covenantal relation of God to his people?"
Remember his answer? "When God enters into a covenantal relationship with men, HE SOVEREIGNLY INSTITUTES A LIFE-AND-DEATH BOND. A covenant is a bond in blood, or a bond of life and death, sovereignly administered.
Robertson then goes on to elaborate on three characteristics of a divine covenant. FIRST, IT IS A BOND.

It is always a person, either God or man, who makes a covenant.

Still further it is another person who stands as the other party of

the covenant with few exceptions. The result of a covenant com-

mitment is the establishment of a relationship "in connection

with", "with," or"between" people...A covenant commits people

to one another.

The SECOND characteristic is that COVENANT IS A BOND OF BLOOD. Robertson continues,

By initiating covenants, God never enters into a casual or formal

relationship with man. instead the implications of his bonds

extend to the ultimate issues of life and death. The basic termi-

nology describing the inauguration of a covenantal relationship

vivifies the life-and-death intensity of the divine covenants. The

phrase translated "to make a covenant" in the Old Testament lit-

erally reads "TO CUT COVENANT"...The law, the prophets, and

and the writings all contain the phrase repeatedly.

If you don't remember that the Hebrew words karath beriyth, "CUT COVENANT," are translated into English in our Bibles as "make a covenant," you will miss the true sense of the fact that it is a BOND IN BLOOD AND THEREFORE A BOND THAT IS A PLEDGE TO THE DEATH, as Robertson says.

Robertson is not alone. Andrew Murray, H. Clay Trumbull, and others see it this way as well. When you know the "whole counsel" of the Bible, when you have the big picture of covenant, including the NEW COVENANT IN CHRIST'S BLOOD and our Lord's call to us, THE ENORMITY OF THIS COMMITMENT BECOMES OBVIOUS JUST FROM THE TEACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD.

I like to use this description:TO MAKE A COVENANT IS TO TAKE A WALK INTO DEATH. This understanding is so freeing, and I can hardly wait to show it to you, beloved, because it will also help you to SEE AND UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF BEING IN COVENANT WITH GOD and why there are so many who profess to know God yet have lifestyles contrary to His Word.

Now I want to give you Robertson's THIRD characteristic of a divine covenant:

A covenant is a bond-in-blood SOVEREIGNLY ADMINISTERED...No

such thing as bargaining, bartering, or contradicting characterizes

the divine covenants of Scripture. THE SOVEREIGN LORD OF HEAVEN

AND EARTH DICTATES THE TERMS OF HIS COVENANT.

Such a statement is TRUTH, but will not be well received in our post modern times, WHEN MEN WANT TO SAY TRUTH IS NOT UNIVERSAL OR ABSOLUTE AND THAT OUR OWN INTERPRETATION SHOULD SUPERSEDE THE AUTHOR'S INTENT OR MEANING. WE LIVE IN A TIME WHEN EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE-AND IT IS RELATIVE TO ME. I EITHER ACCEPT OR REJECT SOMETHING ACCORDING TO ITS THERAPEUTIC VALUE TO MY WELL BEING. SOMETHING IS TRUE ONLY IF I ACCEPT IT AS TRUE!

TO BELIEVE AND ACCEPT THIS MISTAKEN, POSTMODERNISTIC PHILOSOPHY IS TO BUY INTO A LIE THAT WILL ULTIMATELY DESTROY YOU. A DIVINE COVENANT IS JUST THAT-DIVINE. EITHER YOU COME TO GOD ON HIS TERMS OR YOU DON'T COME. IT IS THAT SIMPLE, THAT CLEAR-AND IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER WHAT MAN THINKS ABOUT IT.

When men made a covenant between themselves, there was an invocation of justice. They called upon God to take holy vengeance should the covenant be broken. In fact, a covenant cut in blood could require the blood of the one who broke the covenant-and it was God who would see to that!

The initial shedding of blood in the cutting of covenant establishes the gravity of covenant. we saw this modeled for us in God's covenant with Abram, when they cut the animals in two and God passed through the pieces of the animals in the form of a smoking oven an flaming torch.

And what do we see in the New Covenant? On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He gathered with His apostles in an upper room. As they were eating the Passover meal-the meal COMMEMORATING GOD'S REDEMPTION OF HIS PEOPLE THEY MARKED THEIR DOORWAYS WITH THE LAMB'S BLOOD-THE LAMB OF GOD "TOOK SOME BREAD, AND AFTER A BLESSING, HE BROKE IT AND GAVE IT TO THE DISCIPLES, AND SAID, 'TAKE, EAT;THIS IS MY BODY.' AND WHEN HE HAD TAKEN A CUP AND GIVEN THANKS, HE GAVE IT TO THEM, SAYING, 'DRINK FROM IT, ALL OF YOU; FOR THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE COVENANT, WHICH IS POURED OUT FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS'"

THE NEW COVENANT WAS INAUGURATED WITH BLOOD, JUST AS WAS THE OLD COVENANT.

WHEN YOU PAUSE TO THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE SON OF GOD WOULD SO LOVE US THAT HE WOULD DIE, SHEDDING HIS BLOOD FOR US SO THAT WE WHO WERE HIS ENEMIES MIGHT BECOME HIS COVENANT FRIENDS, SUCH COMMITMENT IS OVERWHELMING. "GREATER LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS, THAT ONE LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS." JESUS HIMSELF SAID IT- AND PROVED IT!

WHAT CONFIDENCE THIS OUT TO GIVE YOU, BELOVED, IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IF YOU HAVE TRULY BELIEVED ON HIM. IN COVENANT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD DEMONSTRATES AS NOTHING ELSE CAN "THE INTENSITY OF THE COMMITMENT OF THE COVENANT. BY THE COVENANT THEY ARE BOUND FOR LIFE AND DEATH." IT IS BECAUSE OF COVENANT THAT GOD PROMISES THAT HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.

WE DON'T HEAR AS MUCH ABOUT THE BLOOD OF CHRIST AS WE USED TO IN THE PREACHING DAYS GONE BY. IN FACT, SOME DENOMINATIONS HAVE SOUGHT TO REMOVE FROM THEIR HYMN BOOKS ALL THE HYMNS THAT SPEAK OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. IT IS DEEMED BY SOME AS DISGUSTING, BY OTHERS AS BARBARIC, AND BY OTHERS AS RIDICULOUS THAT WE WOULD THINK OF GOD AS ONE WHO MUST HAVE A BLOOD SACRIFICE TO SATISFY HIM. YET HOW CONTRARY SUCH THINKING IS TO THE SUBJECT OF KARATH BERIYTH- CUTTING A COVENANT.

Men made covenants, as Andrew Murray says in his book The Two Covenants, because

they know the advantages to be derived from them. As an end of

enmity or uncertainty, as a statement of services and benefits to

be rendered, as a security for their certain performance, as a

bond of amity and goodwill, as a ground for perfect confidence

and friendship, a covenant has often been of unspeakable value.

So valuable that they were cut in blood!

Murray goes on to say, "The blood is one of the strangest, the deepest, the mightiest, and the most heavenly of the thoughts of God. It lies at the very ROOT of BOTH COVENANTS, but especially of the NEW COVENANT." And man in his human covenants took his pattern from God and adapted it to his culture. Thus we keep finding men in the pages of history-from biblical times even until now in some cultures- cutting covenants involving bloodletting.

In his book The Blood Covenant, Dr. H. Clay Trumbull gave a fascinating overview of "the rite of blood-covenanting...by which two persons enter into the closest, the most enduring, and the most sacred of compacts, as friends and brothers, or as more than brothers, through the inter-commingling of their blood."

This close and sacred covenant relation, this rite of blood

friendship, this inter-oneness of life by an inter-oneness of

blood, shows itself in the primitive East...the wild and

prehistoric West...the frozen North...the torrid South. Its traces are

everywhere. It is of old, andit is of today; as universal and as

full of meaning as life itself.

Another fascinating point Dr. Trumbull makes is the profound consciousness of God that has always permeated man's thinking about blood and covenant. "Blood, as life, has been looked upon as belonging in the highest sense to the Author of all life." In every culture this God-consciousness prompted a yearning for Him-"Men longed for onenessof life with God." And in every culture, the covenant of blood was seen as the way to satisfy this yearning.

With such a vast and widespread heritage of covenant, an important quesion esily arises: Are the customs connected with covenant something man learned from God or something God adapted from human traditions? I personally believe that man learned and adapted it from God. It was God's flood that wiped out man. Thus we have no account of man before the flood except what is written in the book of Moses as given to him by God, the eye witness of dreation. Immediately after the flood we have the first mention of covenant, made with the eight persons who alone were left upon the earth.

Thus the record of the very first covenant is that of God, making a covenant-instigated not by man but by God. It is hard for me to believe that God would copy man, that He would take something invented by a man and adapt it to an action that would govern all His dealings with and promises to man!

It seems truly astonishing that we have been so ignorant of our covenant heritage as a human race. This lack of knowledge is either because covenant has not been modeled for us by those who know or because we haven't been taught. I certainly wasn't taught about covenant in all my years of growing up in the church! How I wish I had been. Such knowledge embraced could have changed the course of my life-exposed the emtiness of my "religion," and BROUGHT ME TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AND WHAT TRUE CHRISTIANITY IS ALL ABOUT, kept me rom divorce, saved my husband from suicide, and saved my sons from unnecessary pain.

I KNOW THAT GOD IS SOVEREIGN, AND I REST IN THAT. HE BROUGHT ME TO HIMSELF WHEN IT PLEASED HIM. AND YET, CONSIDERING THE RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF MAN, WE CANNOT ALLOW TRUTH TO PERISH IN THE STREETS, BECAUSE IT IS TRUTH THAT SETS US FREE!

I WASN'T TAUGHT THE TRUTH OF SALVATION; I WAS IGNORANT OF COVENANT CUT FOR ME. It was probably because my ministers, Sunday school teachers, and youth workers weren't taught about it either. And why weren't they? Undoubtedly it was because "the church" in large part TURNED FROM THE TRUTHS OF INERRANT SCRIPTURE TO PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY, THINKING WE WERE SO WISE THAT WE COULD DECIDE WHICH PORTIONS, IF ANY, OF THE WORD OF GOD WERE TRUE AND INSPIRED AND WHICH WEREN'T.

It was downhill from there. Men, women, and children continued in their sin, sinking deeper and deeper, reaping the bitter harvest of their ways. UNRESTRAINED BY A WHOLESOME FEAR OF GOD AND NOT KNOWING THE TRUTHS OF HIS WORD, they fell victim to the awful consequences of transgressing God's commandments. Left to their own devices and determined to survive with the help of philosophyand psychology, THEIR FOCUS TURNED TO SELF. AND BEING IGNORANT OF THE CROSS AND ITS COMPELLING CALL UPON OUR LIVES, OUR RELATIONSHIPS AND OUR COMMITMENTS TO GOD AND MAN were no longer respected or valued.

And all the while we called ourselves "Christian"! But can you really be a Christian WITHOUT A CROSS, WITHOUT TAKING "A WALK TO DEATH"?

Once you grasp it and decide to live accordingly, it can transform the way you view life, giving you a confidence you never dreamed possible! NOT A CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF-BUT A CONFIDENCE IN YOUR COVENANT GOD.