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The Blood Covenant
By Tom Brown
 As
for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your
prisoners from the waterless pit.
—Zech 9:11
The basis of all deliverance, healing and
salvation is the blood of God’s covenant. Understanding the blood covenant
will strengthen your faith in a way that I believe few revelations from
God’s Word will do for you. Unfortunately, the western branch of the body of
Christ is woefully ignorant of the blood covenant.
They are like the description Paul gives in
Ephesians 2:12: “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,
excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of
the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”
The concept of covenant is “foreign”
to many believers. The reason is because they have been far removed from
seeing covenants practiced in everyday life. They have witness “contracts”
instead of “covenants.” A covenant is a contract, but it is ratified in
blood and the agreement is all-inclusive—everything that belongs to one
party belongs to the other party as well. There is no sub-dividing or limit
of exchange on a blood covenant.
In a contract you may purchase a car and in
exchange you give a certain amount of money to the company, and in trade
they give you use of the car. You do not own the company and they don’t own
you. But in a covenant, you own everything the covenant party owns and they
own everything you own; you take all their assets and liabilities and they
do likewise.
Jesus made a covenant with us, not a simple
contract. At the Passover, Jesus took bread and wine and lifted it up and
said, “This is blood of the covenant” (Matt 26:28). He did not sit down at
a table and sign with ink an agreement. When you understand that you have a
covenant with God through Jesus Christ, then you live with unlimited
consciousness. You know if you lack something, then God is obligated by
covenant to meet the need.
I know the idea of God being obligated to
do anything is very foreign to many Christians. The reason is most have been
taught that God is a Sovereign God—He has the right to do anything He wants.
While it is true that God is originally Sovereign, He has chosen to “bind
himself” to us through a blood covenant. A blood covenant binds the parties
together, so they are not free to do “anything” they wish; they must
fulfill the obligations of the blood covenant. This is the only basis that
we can have faith in God. If God was free to do anything He wishes, then
there would be no solid foundation for our faith. We could not be sure what
God’s will was if He had not bound Himself to a blood oath.
God
Remembered His Covenant
God heard their groaning
and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So
God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (Exodus 2:24).
It was not enough that God heard their groaning—their pains, suffering,
slavery—He only moved when He remembered his covenant. Prayer is
powerful when we remind God of His covenant with us.
Abram knew the implication of a blood
covenant, so when God promised him all the land from the river of Egypt to
the Euphrates, Abram asked God, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I
will gain possession of it?” (Gen 15:8) Abram knew God was Sovereign and was
free to whatever He wished with Abram, so Abram wanted additional assurance
from God that he would gain possession of the Land. He was basically asking
God to make a covenant with him, and that is what God did: On that day
the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give
this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates”
(Gen 15:18).
The Hebrew writer comments on this passage
and says, “God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very
clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God
did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is
impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered
to us may be greatly encouraged” (Heb 6:17-18). There are two things God
cannot do: He cannot lie and He cannot break a covenant. Abram had both
God’s promise and the covenant to confirm the promise.
Like Abram, we have two foundations for our
faith: God’s promises and the covenant He made with us to confirm all His
promises. There is no point to feign humility and tell God, “Oh, Lord, I do
not want to hold you to anything, simply do what seems best to you.” Often
people pray like this, thinking they are praying in faith. But this is not a
faith-prayer. Praying in faith requires you to know what God has promised
and to hold Him to the promise because of the blood of Jesus.
Marriage
Covenant
Even though in our culture we
have not seen the practice of blood covenants, there is still one
institution where covenant is still the norm. It is marriage. Marriage
retains the concept of covenant, though some have water-down the covenant to
make it resemble more a contract; nevertheless most see marriage as a
covenant not a contract.
For example, in marriage,
rings are exchanged. Rings are a “memorial” to a covenant made. Rings remind
you on a daily basis that you are married. The blood covenant of Jesus is
something we must remind ourselves daily, or else, the devil takes advantage
of our memory lapse and brings discouragement.
The groom and bride at the
wedding reception will feed each other cake. The cake speaks of their
bodies. Basically they are saying to each other, my body is yours! You are
free to do whatever you like with my body. Then they take the wine glasses
and interlock their arms together and drink from the cups. By this act they
declare that their lives belong to each other. We are not our own. We are
owned by one another. We are not free to depart and go elsewhere. Do you see
the resemblance of the Lord’s Supper?
The best man and sometimes
the maid of honor will toast the newlyweds. This toast is a symbol of the
announcement of blessings and curses. Blessings if you keep your word and
curses if you break it. Of course, now, in an upbeat climate, there are
rarely any curses spoken over the couples, but only wishes for happiness.
In some ceremonies there is a
unity rope that is laid across the bride and groom. I’m from West Texas, and
so with our cowboy history, the unity rope is often called the lasso. The
wrong picture some have is of a macho-cowboy-groom who lassos his
heifer-bride and ties her down and says, “She’s mine!” This is not what the
rope symbolizes. Rather its origin is from an ancient soldier who carries
weapons tied to his hip by a rope. By removing the rope and giving it to his
covenant-partner, the person was saying that he will fight his partner’s
enemies. “His enemies are my enemies!” The bride and groom are saying that
they will fight together against any enemies that may come to break up their
union.
Coins are sometimes given in
a wedding ceremony. The coins are easy to understand: this is the bride and
groom’s way of saying that all their wealth belongs to each other. No one
owns any money independently of each other. They are heirs together.
Finally, a groom gives his
last name to the bride. This means that the wife will be treated with the
same respect as the groom. She can sign for any withdrawal from the bank.
She is Mrs. Groom and has the use of Mr. Groom’s name. His name is her name
and thus she has instantly becomes as rich as her husband.
Stories in
the Bible
As I describe for you the marriage
covenant, many of you, that are knowledgeable of the Bible, can immediately
recall scriptures or stories that illustrate the covenant we have with God.
For example, David’s utter confidence in
God helping him defeat Goliath is based on David’s belief in the covenant.
David begins by calling Goliath and “uncircumcised” Philistine. You see,
circumcision is the cutting so blood flows. What David was saying to Goliath
was “Goliath you do not have a covenant with God and I do! So the battle is
not mine, but the Lord’s! He is on my side!”
David also said, “You come against me with
a sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the
Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel” (1 Sam 17:45). Do you see
his complete assurance in the covenant? Being covenant-minded caused David
to have great faith, and the same will be true of you.
Not only does this story illustrate the
blood covenant, but there are many New Testament passages that we may be
very familiar with but don’t recognize that these famous scriptures were
based on the blood covenant. Here are some examples:
The Last Supper is a memorial meal for us
to keep until Jesus returns. This is why churches have crosses over their
buildings. Many people often set up trees as a memorial to a covenant. In
the same way, the cross is a memorial to a covenant.
In the covenant, God has pronounced
blessings upon us. It is not enough that God has saved us; He continues to
bless us, all because of the covenant.
The Bible says for us to put on the full
armor of God. Why? It is because God has given us a promise to fight our
battles. He gave us His armor so we can be assured of victory.
The Bible says we are heirs of God and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ (see Rom 8:17). Everything God has belongs to
us, because we have a blood covenant through Jesus Christ. If we need
wisdom, then God promises to give it to us. If we are weak, then He will be
our strength. If we lack anything, then God promises to make it up to us. He
does this because of the covenant we have with Him.
Jesus gave us the right to use his name.
“In my name you shall drive out demons and heal the sick. Whatever you ask
the Father in my name, He will give it to you.” Where did Jesus get the
concept of giving us His name? It has to do with the covenant we have with
Him. As our groom, He gives us His name. We are as rich as Jesus!
Plead the
Blood
Then they are to take some
of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the
houses where they eat the lambs (Exod 12:7). It is not enough that you
have a covenant with God, but you must apply the blood of Jesus over you
life. The reason many believers remain defeated is because they have not
applied the blood for their lives.
It is your responsibility to
put the blood on your life. How do you do it? It is simple; the way
the Israelites put the blood over the doorframes of their houses was by
taking a “hyssop” and dipping it into the blood and like a painter, coating
their doorframes with blood. A hyssop was a plant with water in its stems.
The water speaks of the Word of God. Blood and water flowed down Jesus’
side. You are to take the water of the Word of God, and with your hyssop—the
tongue—put the blood of Jesus over your life and family.
In other words, you apply the
blood by speaking the Word of God and pleading the blood of Jesus. The term
plead is a legal term. A lawyer may plead a case. They plead not in the
sense of “begging”, but in the sense of claiming their client’s “rights”.
The blood of Jesus gives you rights over the devil and rights with God. You
claim your rights by claiming the promises of God.
They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Rev 12:11). You
overcome Satan by two ways: first, the blood of Jesus and second, by you
speaking the testimony that the blood provides for you. When a lawyer brings
a case to court he brings to the stand “witnesses” to “testify.” Well, you
are the witness to testify to what the blood has done for you.
Testify that the blood
cleanses you from sin. Testify that the blood frees you from Satan’s power.
Testify that the blood heals all your diseases. Testify to the goodness of
God because of the blood. Without your testimony, Christ, who is your
advocate-lawyer cannot help you with your case. Your testimony is essential
to winning the victory.
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