Blood Covenant.1447
BLOOD COVENANT
Ref. 1447
BIBLE READING: Genesis 15
INTRODUCTION:
This is one of the foundation chapters of the Bible. In this chapter we see the beginning of what we were talking about in the first part of the Blood Covenant.
The walking between the pieces - but first God puts Abram to sleep, he can't add anything to the covenant. In this covenant we need to understand a Greek word, which is DIATHEKÉ (A covenant where one party does all the giving).
In a vision, in the place that he should have been, Abram sees a 'flaming torch', Someone else takes his place. This has to be - If we can say it respectfully, God is in a dilema, He wants to enter into a covenant with man, but how can He? God is Holy, man is sinful. Therefore God makes a plan for substitution.
There is another Greek word for covenant, SYNTHEKÉ - (an equal covenant), two partners put something into it. This is to be DIATHEKÉ - one sided.
There are three persons in the Godhead, one of those persons became man - so that God could enter covenant with God (as man). Jesus said, "Abraham saw my day and was glad". When did that happen? When Jesus, as a radiant light took his place between the pieces.
SIGN - CIRCUMCISION
The seal to the covenant had to be a sign in the flesh - which was Circumcision. GEN 17:10-13 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.
Jesus bore in His body the sign of the covenant. Luke 2:21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
NAME CHANGED
GEN 17:4-5 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
God changed Abram to AbraHam and Sarai to SaraH. The central letter _ from God's
name YHVH. GEN 17:15-16 God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her." God took a new Title, He became known as the God of Abraham.
In the Covenant that God made, He promised to do three things:
1. You shall have a seed. Descendants. A descendant. In Him all the earth will be blessed.
2. In blessing I will bless thee.
3. This land will be yours.
TIME PASSES
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 12 sons, they beget, beget, beget for 400 years until their numbers have increased to approximately 2,000,000 people. But they are slaves - and they begin to pray. Note how they prayed - they groaned and God heard and REMEMBERED His covenant with Abraham Exodus 2:24. These people are in covenant although separated by over 400 years from the time of Abraham. And God brings them out of Egypt. Food, water, provision (shoes did not wear out etc.), protection, Health, Wisdom. Moses referred them all back to God. They just have to learn to rest in God. Learn, in a sense, how to be helpless.
Likewise, we are in covenant with God - if we lack wisdom, love, faith etc. we must try to remember that we are in covenant. All we lack, He has.
Eventually, the children of Israel come into the promised land. Later, the Philistines come to take the land. They challenge the people. A youth, by the name of David, who knows and has probably been studying the covenant, says in
1 SAM 17:26 " David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
1 SAMUEL 17:45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
So he goes out in the strength of the Lord and conquers.
What can people of today do, to come into this covenant relationship with God?
Not a thing! It's DIATHEKÉ - A lop-sided covenant.
a. All you can give toward it is your sin.
b. You can say "Yes" to the terms of the covenant.
God says, "I have accomplished your salvation". We can respond with: "Yes Lord, Thank You!"
God says, "I have defeated the devil for you ..... I have given you my Spirit ..
... I will put my Spirit in you so that you will want to obey me.
But Lord! that’s not fair on you, I want to do something myself.
Sorry! if you want to do something you are not ready to be saved.
The life of faith begins with helplessness. There are no extenuating
circumstances. We cannot blame the devil or anyone else. I am the bankrupt soul. I want to sin because I love darkness rather than light, because my deeds are evil. I am dead in trespasses and sin. A corpse can do nothing to bring itself to life.
COLOSSIANS 2:13-14 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.