A Covenant of Blood

 The New Covenant. The Old Covenant. God’s covenant with Noah. God’s covenant with Abraham. Abraham’s covenant with Abimelech. Isaac’s covenant with Abimelech. Jacob’s covenant with Laban. A marriage covenant.

We find most of those just in the Book of Genesis! God’s Word contains many covenants, many more than those listed here. The New King James Version of the Bible mentions the word “covenant” 313 times!

We see several different types of covenants, too: alliances, resolving disputes, marriages, and covenants between God and man. Though we often read of covenants in the Bible, it’s easy to read right over them without considering what they mean. So let’s spend a little time considering covenants.

What, exactly, is a covenant? What does it accomplish?

Scripture reveals that the primary purpose of a covenant is to bring two or more parties together into an agreement. A covenant is more than words; it’s a blood oath with the penalty of Divine judgment for breaking it.

Cutting a Covenant

When we come across the phrase “make a covenant” in our Bibles, that’s usually translated from the Hebrew words karat and b’rit. Karat (Strong’s # H3772) means “cut,” and b’rit (Strong’s # H1285) means “covenant.” So the literal, Biblical phrase is not “make a covenant,” but rather, “cut a covenant.”

This phrase “cut a covenant” stems from the Old Testament custom of sealing a covenant with blood, and, more specifically, cutting sacrificial animals in half. When the parties announced their agreement, they’d confirm it by walking between the pieces of the animals. The implication was that any covenant breaker would be cut in half like the animals!

When God made a covenant with Abraham, He told Abraham, “‘Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two” (Gen. 15:9-10).

After swearing that He would watch over and bless Abraham’s descendants, God walked between those pieces: “And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces” (Gen. 15:17).

Again, in Jer. 34, the leaders of Judah cut a covenant to obey God’s law, namely, that they’d liberate their slaves in the year of release. “They cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it” (Jer. 34:18). Afterward, they changed their minds and broke their covenant. More on that later.

A covenant is no ordinary agreement, but an oath sealed with blood. It involves walking a straight and narrow path, not only between the pieces of the animals, but also in adhering to the terms of the covenant.

Once agreed upon and sealed, a covenant doesn’t change. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it” (Gal. 3:15).

Our Covenant With God

As His death loomed near, Jesus Christ told His disciples that His blood would seal a covenant: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Heb. 9:15 tells us that Jesus “is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death.” Heb. 10:29 describes His sacrifice as “the blood of the covenant.” And Heb. 13:20 repeats that His blood is “the blood of the everlasting covenant.”

In fact, we see covenant symbolism throughout God’s Holy Days and plan of salvation. In Egypt, God told the Israelites to smear the blood of the Passover lambs “on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it” (Ex. 12:7). When the Israelites entered their dwellings to eat the Passover, they walked between the bloody doorposts.

When God brought the Israelites through the Red Sea on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, “the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (Ex. 14:22, 29). They walked the narrow path between the walls of the sea, but God slew the Egyptians in the sea. Whether literally or only figuratively, blood was spilled.

And when God brought the Israelites to Mt. Sinai and delivered His law from the mountaintop on Pentecost, He offered them an agreement. A covenant between two parties, God and man. Accepting or rejecting the covenant represented a choice between God’s way or man’s way, the way of life or the way of death.

When Israel accepted God’s covenant, Moses sealed it with blood: “Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you’” (Heb. 9:18-20).

Everything that happened to Israel happened “for our learning” (Rom. 15:4) and “these things became our examples” (1 Cor. 10:6). The Old Covenant foreshadowed the New.

The Passover lambs in Egypt foreshadowed Jesus Christ as our Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea foreshadowed baptism (1 Cor. 10:2). And the law given on Mt. Sinai foreshadowed the Holy Spirit given on the same day, the Day of Pentecost, in Acts 2.

Thus, when Jesus ushered in the New Covenant through His blood, He was crucified between two men (Mat. 27:38; Mark 15:27; John 19:18; Luke 23:32-33). Jesus died between two men, symbolizing His death on behalf of all mankind, for He died to reconcile us to the Father (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18).

When we get baptized, we agree to the covenant of reconciliation which God has offered us. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Rom.6:3).

And when we receive the Holy Spirit, God writes His laws, not on stone tablets, but on our hearts (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:7-13). At this point, He seals the covenant: “You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, [which] is the guarantee of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13-14). If we then turn our backs on our Creator and forsake His covenant, our blood will be on our own heads! More on that later.

Elements of a Covenant

Biblical covenants often contained five elements or stages: the sacrifice, the oaths, walking between the animal parts, sharing a meal, and exchanging reminders or tokens of the covenant. Different verses mention different elements.

In order for the parties to walk between the pieces of animals, it’s obvious that a sacrifice must happen first. We already read about the sacrifice offered for God’s covenant with Abraham. When Jacob and Laban cut a covenant, “Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain” (Gen. 31:54). When the children of Israel accepted God’s covenant at Mt. Sinai, they “offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings” (Ex. 24:5).

Naturally, every covenant must include promises or vows. Otherwise, nothing is agreed upon and nothing is accomplished. One of the best examples is Abraham’s covenant with Abimelech in Gen. 21. We read, “Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there. Thus they made [cut] a covenant at Beersheba” (Gen. 21:31-32). “Oath” is translated from the Hebrew shava (Strong’s # H7650), which means “swear, seven oneself, bind oneself by seven things.”

After making their vows and walking between the pieces, the next step is for the parties to share a meal. After Jacob and Laban cut a covenant and swore an oath, we read, “Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain” (Gen. 31:54). After Israel accepted God’s covenant, God called Moses and seventy elders of Israel to come up to the mountain and dine with Him (Ex. 24:9-11).

The final step is to exchange tokens or reminders of the covenant. When God made a covenant with Noah, He placed a seven-colored rainbow in the sky as a reminder (Gen. 9:13-17). For God’s people, the seventh day Sabbath serves as a weekly reminder of His covenant with us (Ex. 31:13; Ezek. 20:20).

Another covenant token is a written copy of the agreement. At Mt. Sinai, God gave Israel His ten commandments engraved on two stone tablets, “the tablets of the covenant” (Deut. 9:9). And Moses wrote down all of God’s laws in “the Book of the Covenant” (Ex. 24:7).

Though we no longer offer animal sacrifices and no longer walk between animal parts, these covenant elements remain to this day. So, too, do the other elements.

The New Covenant began with a sacrifice, the death of Jesus Christ. When we accept His sacrifice, agree to the covenant, and get baptized, we are making an oath. We are vowing to give our whole selves to God, to obey Him with our whole hearts, and to treasure Him and His way of life above all else.

As Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Mat. 10:37-38).

Remember, this is a blood covenant, sealed with the blood of our Savior. Though we don’t walk between any pieces, we’re immersed in His blood, for He “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Rev. 1:5).

There’s a meal involved, too, for every year at Passover, we partake of Christ’s sacrifice. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).

Finally, God gave us several reminders or tokens of His covenant. We have the Sabbath and Holy Days, God’s laws, and His Holy Spirit. We’ve covered these signs of the covenant in a previous blog post.

Before moving on, I also find it interesting that two numbers keep popping up in connection with covenants: 2 and 7. Most covenants involve two parties. Swearing an oath, in Scripture, means “to seven oneself.” Furthermore, both the seven-colored rainbow and the seventh-day Sabbath serve as tokens of God’s promises to us.

Now, when Jesus Christ died as our Passover Lamb and ushered in the New Covenant, what day did that happen? Nisan 14 — the 14th being two sevens!

After God’s covenant, the second-most important covenant any of us can enter into is a marriage covenant. God’s Word leaves no doubt that marriage is a covenant: “Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant” (Mal. 2:14). God condemns the adulteress “who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God” (Prov. 2:17).

Marriage, of course, serves as an earthly model of our covenant with God, for Eph. 5:22-32 tells us,

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.

24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,

26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,

27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.

29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

So it should be no surprise that we see the elements of a covenant preserved in weddings to this day. At least we see them in Western weddings; I’m not familiar with others.

A wedding joins two people, a bride and groom, together as one — the very purpose of a covenant. The two exchange vows “in the presence of God and these witnesses.” At this point, the marriage covenant becomes part of God’s covenant — sealed by Jesus’ sacrifice — and one’s oath to obey God carries over into the marriage. One cannot be a rebellious wife or an abusive husband and still be a true Christian!

After exchanging their vows, the bride and groom both walk down the aisle, between the witnesses. The “reception,” or wedding feast, follows. There are tokens of the covenant as well: wedding rings and a marriage certificate signed by at least two witnesses.

The Gravity of a Covenant

So how seriously does God take covenants? It’s hard to overstate the gravity He places on covenants. A covenant or oath made with God or in His name must never be broken, and woe betide him who does!

Deut. 23:21 tells us, “When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.” And in Num. 30:2, we find, “If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

King Solomon warned, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed — better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?” (Eccl. 5:4-6).

Thus, when we accept God’s offer of eternal life and agree to His covenant, we must never forsake it. As Jesus said, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

When a bride and groom make vows to each other in God’s presence and before witnesses to love and honor each other until death, those had better not be empty words. God will hold them accountable and judge between them should either one break that covenant:

14 The LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

15 But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

16 For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence. (Mal. 2:14-16.)

A covenant can be lawfully annulled only if another covenant trumps it. For example, in the Book of Ezra, the people of Judah broke God’s law by intermarrying with the heathens around them (Ezra 9:1-2), a sin which God even called an abomination (Mal. 2:11). Because the people’s covenant with God trumped their marriage covenants with the pagans, those marriages were nullified (Ezra 10).

Likewise, sodomite “marriages” are not binding in God’s sight because there’s no such thing as same-sex marriage in the first place. This wicked and degenerate society may call that grotesque perversion a “marriage,” but that doesn’t make it so.

No covenant, vow, or oath which requires disobedience to God’s law can be binding. God’s covenant trumps all others.

The Penalty of Unfaithfulness

God judges those who break covenants, even in this life. Because He is very patient, His justice may not always be swift by our standards, but it is certain.

Remember the leaders of Judah who vowed to obey God’s law and free their Jewish slaves in the year of release? And who then changed their minds and broke their covenant? In Jer. 34:17-22, God proclaimed His judgment:

17 “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you,’ says the LORD — ‘to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 ‘And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it —

19 ‘the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf —

20 ‘I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth.

21 ‘And I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army which has gone back from you.

22 ‘Behold, I will command,’ says the LORD, ‘and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’ ”

As for King Zedekiah himself, he had ascended the throne by cutting a covenant and swearing an oath with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And he broke this covenant also. 2 Chron. 36:13 tells us, “And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God” (2 Chron. 36:13). The Book of Ezekiel gives us more details:

13 “And [Nebuchadnezzar] took the king’s offspring [Zedekiah], made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land,

14 “that the kingdom might be brought low and not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.

15 “But [Zedekiah] rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still be delivered?

16 “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely in the place where [Nebuchadnezzar] dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke — with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.

18 “Since he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and in fact gave his hand and still did all these things, he shall not escape.”

19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “As I live, surely My oath which he despised, and My covenant which he broke, I will recompense on his own head.

20 “I will spread My net over him, and he shall be taken in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and try him there for the treason which he committed against Me.” (Ezek. 17:11-16, 18-20.)

And so, when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, “The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death” (Jer. 52:10-11).

Remember that breaking a covenant carried an implied penalty of being cut in two like the animals one walked between? In a parable of an unfaithful servant, Jesus Christ said, “The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers” (Luke 12:46).

What about those who forsake the marriage covenant through violence, adultery, or desertion? God will hold the guilty party accountable: “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4).

But the worst sin of all — and the one with the worst penalty — is to forsake our covenant with God. After making a covenant with God and then willfully turning our backs on Him, there are no second chances. This is a sin so terrible that it cannot be forgiven. Heb. 10:26-31 tells us,

26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”

31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Again, in Psa. 50:22, God warns the unfaithful to repent and turn back to Him: “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.”

Conclusion

Now, all this talk of blood, judgment, and the weight of covenants can induce a sense of fear. This is good. A healthy sense of fear can help keep us focused. It can help us stick to the straight and narrow path.

Yet this should also fill us with joy, awe, and thankfulness. Remember, we aren’t the only party to the covenant. Our great Creator is the other party to the covenant, and He is eternally faithful.

God cannot lie (Tit. 1:2). He cannot change (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8). “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut. 7:9).

We all stumble from time to time. We all sin (1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chron. 6:36; Eccl. 7:20). Yet if our hearts remain true to our God and if we seek Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, then we can take comfort in His vow: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5; Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5; 1 Chron. 28:20).

God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ have bound Themselves to us by an everlasting covenant. A covenant of blood.