OUR COVENANT, Part 3
October 18, 2019
Two weeks ago, we were talking about
the original Covenant that God made with Abraham. We got part way into that picture, but then I
temporarily side-tracked that last week to talk about the Covenant of Marriage. Let’s pick up today with where we left off.
We started
off this discussion talking about the fact that Adam and
Eve -- and by virtue of descending from them, the whole human race -- were
created in the image of God, imbued with his character and makeup, and given
the same creative power of speech. This is absolutely critical to our
understanding the makeup of covenant.
One of the
most important aspects of true covenant is the promise made between the
parties. The promise embodies both irrevocable commitment and creative
power which implements the conditions of the covenant. The speaking forth
of the promise creates and sets in motion the circumstances which empower the
covenant.
But
there's a whole lot more to this. Watch!
I noted two
weeks ago that the Lord instructed Abraham to bring Him "an
heifer of three years old, a she-goat of three years old, a ram of three years
old, and a turtledove and a young pigeon."
The
animals were slaughtered, their carcasses divided in two parts and laid out
with each half facing the other. One bird was placed on one side, and the
other bird the other side. The halved carcasses were placed far enough
apart that Abraham could stand between them and the Lord could pass between
them.
The
significance of this IS relevant since the parties to this covenant would be
standing and/or walking in blood as the covenant was struck. Why?
We'll get
to this picture in due time, but let's finish our review of Abraham and the
Lord and the covenant the Lord made with Abraham.
One of the
common misconceptions about covenant is that it is an agreement between equals
in which they combine their strengths. Wrong. It IS a commitment
between equals, but covenant takes the weaknesses of both parties and places
them under the protection of the combined strength of the parties to the
covenant. The lives of the parties to the covenant are at stake.
The bloodshed of the animals -- in Abraham's case -- was both prophetic of
things to come and symbolic of the lives of the two parties to the covenant: in
this case, the Lord God and Abraham.
Bear with
me while I show you how this unfolds.
Abraham
grew up in a world where an understanding of covenant -- real covenant -- was
embodied in all of society. It had been embodied and incorporated into
every man and woman since the Lord killed the animal(s) and made leather
clothing for Adam and Eve.
History
and archaeology show us the following.
Whenever a
covenant was cut between two parties, the first thing to happen was that the
initiating party took his cloak or outer garment off and gave it to the other
party. The second party likewise removed his cloak and gave it to the
first party.
The cloak
represented covering. Each party was saying to the other by this act that
all that they were, all that they had, all their abilities would cover each
other. They would lack for nothing so far as it was in the power of each
party to fulfill.
The second
act of covenant was for the first party to remove his girdle and give it to the
second party, who then reciprocated with his girdle. A girdle was not
what we commonly think of in today's understanding, but rather a weapons
belt. It was the mainstay of one's sword, and any other weapons they
might choose to carry.
Along with
the girdles, the parties gave each other their best sword, their best bow and
arrow or their best spear -- whatever their primary weapons were. The
transfer of weapons symbolized the fact that each party was saying to the
other, I give you the best of my defenses, and I will defend you against all
enemies to the death.
The third
act of covenant was the shedding of blood. Prior to God's command to
Abraham, and the enactment of what we have come to call the "Abrahamic Covenant," parties to a covenant would draw
a knife across their hand to draw blood, then let that blood drip into a goblet
or drinking vessel of some kind and mingle it with wine. Both parties
would drink from the goblet until it was consumed.
In so
doing, each party thereby had the blood of each other, thus making them
"of one blood" in a somewhat literal and yet metaphorical sense now
considering themselves and their descendants and kin from that day forward to
all be of the same family.
The
consequence of this final act meant that each party put their lives on the line
to the agreement struck between each other. If either party to that
covenant violated or breached the covenant, death was the consequence, and if
the offending party avoided death at the hands of the aggrieved party, the
descendants of the aggrieved party could hunt down and kill the descendants of
the offending party to the fourth generation.
THAT's how
strong the enforcement was of a covenant!
In
Abraham's case (and for that matter in every case of covenant since where God
is concerned) one did not drink blood. God's command to Moses (see
Leviticus 3:17) was that, "It shall be a perpetual
statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings that ye eat neither
fat nor blood."
God
established His covenant with Abraham by substituting the blood of animals for
human blood, and instead of drinking it, they walked or passed through
it. Notice what happens when God fulfills His acts within His covenant
with Abraham.
"And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon
Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 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; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward
shall they come out with great substance.
“And thou shalt go to thy fathers in
peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of
the Amorites is not yet full.
"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. 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: The Kenites, and
the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
I've underlined
a significant phrase in these passages. We have two distinct
illustrations of the presence of the Lord manifested in the smoking furnace and
the burning lamp.
Proverbs
20:27 can be rendered from the Hebrew text, "The spirit of
man is the torch of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the soul and
body." (RAC Translation
& Amplification)
The
phrase, "smoking furnace," is a Hebrew metaphor for "burning
love," great, intense feeling and emotion: that which burns within a
person.
It
clarifies the picture of the spirit of the Lord passing between the halves of
the slain animals, standing in the midst of the blood, having intense love for
Abraham as He covenants with him to give him all of the land from the Nile to
the
The
covenant that God made with Abraham is so profound, and so far-reaching as to
boggle the imagination. What we see in this covenant was only the
beginning of God's covenants with Abraham.
First
let's review the binding nature as it has unfolded throughout the centuries,
and just how much covenant has impacted our lives and many traditions we take
for granted.
Whenever
two people entered into covenant -- and by the way, covenants were struck
between men: not women -- blood was drawn. We've already talked about the
tradition that existed for centuries and millennia in which the blood was
mingled with wine, and the parties to the covenant drank of it. What
followed was the searing of a mark in the flesh signifying that covenant.
One of the
common methods was to heat a knife or a sword in the fire, then take it an lay
it across the flesh where a cut had been made to draw blood, searing the flesh
and creating a burn that would leave a lifetime scar. Whenever anyone saw
the scar, they knew it represented a "to the death" covenant that had
been cut; and family members and relatives had enormous reverence and respect
for the parties to that covenant.
Throughout
the centuries, new methods developed to signify the covenant. When two
men cut a covenant, they frequently took a sharp knife and cut around their
thumbs in a circle. Instead of burning the flesh with a knife, they would
rub dirt or powder (in more recent times, gunpowder) into the cut so that it
would fester. This process continued until the cut eventually healed,
leaving a ringed mark on the thumb (or forefinger) that could not be removed or
eradicated in any way short of cutting off the finger or hand. Anyone
seeing that ring knew that a covenant had been made.
Traditions
in different cultures varied the practice, and sometimes it was a circular mark
on one's arm creating the look of a band around the arm. Eventually, the
practice evolved into the easier method of placing a gold ring on one's finger
or a gold band around one's arm. The tradition of exchanging rings with
wedding vows grew out of this practice between a husband and wife, eventually
replacing the cutting of the flesh and creation of a permanent mark on the
hands of the husband and wife.
Originally,
there was no cut made on the hand of the woman taken in marriage. Rather the cuts were made in the hands of the
bridegroom-to-be and the father of the bride, who gave his daughter in marriage
as part of a larger covenant merging the two families. The young woman
taken in marriage was given a gold ring which she wore as a symbol of the mark
her father had in his hand.
Covenants
joined families inseparably for at least four generations. As noted
previously, if one of the parties to the covenant breached their pact in some
way, death was the consequence. The phrase in our modern wedding
ceremony, "'til death do us part", is a product of that understanding
of covenant. If the covenant was breached, and the individual committing
the breach escaped death at the hand of his covenant brother, the descendants
could avenge that breach to the fourth generation.
As I noted
last week, one of the most important aspects of true covenant is the promise
made between the parties. The promise embodies both irrevocable commitment
and creative power which implements the conditions of the covenant. The
speaking forth of the promise creates and sets in motion the circumstances
which empower the covenant.
Thus,
God's promise to Abraham was irrevocable. The covenant made with Abraham
applied to all the seed that would follow as a product of God's covenant.
Abraham,
however, did not yet have the mark of that covenant in his body. After
the Lord appeared to Abraham and the ceremony of the covenant took place with
the slaughter of the animals, and the Lord passed through the blood between the
halves in the cloud ( ashan --
cloud, vapor, smoke) and the burning torch, Abraham (still referred
to as "Abram") obviously shared the experience with his household.
Sarah
(still called Sarai at this moment in time) had not
been a part of the experience and covenant, and she -- unfortunately -- thought
to take things into her own hands to make the covenant come to pass.
Believing herself to be beyond childbearing, she took her fairly young Egyptian
handmaid, Hagar, and gave her to Abraham (that always baffled me, personally)
in the expectation that Hagar could bear a child, and that child would become
hers. What came out of that mistake was Ishmael: perhaps the costliest
misstep to a people in all of history.
But God
had covenanted with Abraham, and that covenant meant that God was about to do
the creative in order to bring it to pass. A dozen years pass, and the
Lord appears to Abraham again and establishes another covenant. This
time, Abraham is going to undergo both a physical change in his body and a name
(shem-onoma)
change. So is Sarah. Abram (high
father) now becomes Abraham (father
of a multitude). Sarai (dominative) now becomes Sarah (noble woman - queen).
Physical
change to Abraham is evidenced in the cutting of his flesh. Just as
covenants were normally enacted with a visible sign in the flesh (the ring
around the thumb, a scar on one's side, a mark on the right hand or forehead),
Abraham was going to have a visible sign in his flesh. Never before had
such a covenant been cut with such a sign. Abraham was going to shed his
blood by having his foreskin circumcised.
Thought I
was going to wrap up this beginning of Covenant with Abraham today, but there’s
still more to cover. That’s where we
will take it next week.
In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment
of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are
available by conference call – usually at about 10:30AM Pacific. That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the access code
is 308640#. We are now making these gatherings available on
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participate by video on ZOOM, our login ID is 835-926-513. If you miss the live voice-only call, you can
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not yet, anyway.
Blessings
on you!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
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