Scripture Reading: Genesis 17:1-2
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.”
I am sure you have heard sermons on the subject of the Blood Covenant between God and man. But many times we failed to understand the magnitude of what it meant.
It is important to know that the Bible is made up of two covenants called the Old Testament and the New Testament. All of God’s dealings with the human race have revolved around these two testaments. Testament means ‘covenant’. And the word covenant comes from a verb meaning ‘to cut’, suggesting an incision from which blood flows. If I take your arm and made an incision on your flesh, blood will flow out. Covenant means ‘to cut’. We must fully understand that God’s plan is to use the covenant agreement to redeem mankind. The original meaning of the word ‘covenant’ is the strongest word a lawyer can use today to bind two parties to fulfill the obligations of an agreement. So it is a strong word used legally to bind two parties.
The blood covenant is based upon the oldest covenant rite known to the human family. Primitive people from the beginning of time have practiced blood covenants in some form. This custom is still practiced in many parts of the world today. They are incorporated into many witchcraft rituals, and even the Mafia in the underworld participates in blood covenants. In the Chinese triad gang, the Japanese Yakuza, the Hong Kong Triad gang and even the Singapore gangsters, blood covenant is practiced. Billy Tan was involved in these gangster groups in Malaysia. He shared with me that they are sworn brothers, so close that the head of the triad treat him like a son. So when the triad head bought a gift for his children, he is definitely included. In these triad gangs they would make an incision on their tips of their fingers, deep the combined blood into a bowl and drink it. They are actually making a covenant. They became blood brothers.
There are many reasons for a blood covenant. To those who practice it, there is no covenant more sacred. In a partnership, it is used to make sure that neither partner will take advantage of the other. Between friends, it is a symbol of love, devotion, and loyalty. The Yakuza, triad gangs understand this truth better than anyone of us. Primitive tribes regularly participate in blood covenants. A weaker tribe uses it to insure that a strong one will not destroy it.
David Livingstone, the famous explorer, was the first great missionary to Africa. He stayed in the jungles so long that England, fearing he was dead, sent another explorer, Sir Henry Stanley on an expedition to search for David Livingstone. A young African man, educated in England, accompanied Sir Henry Stanley and his party as their interpreter. They set out through the rugged wilds in search for David Livingstone. The country was filled with uncivilized tribes, and Stanley’s party was plagued with disease, starvation, and cannibals. On one occasion, the expedition came to an impasse when they encountered a powerful, hostile, equatorial tribe that had no desire to let them through. Sir Henry Stanley was outnumbered and he didn’t know what to do. Finally Stanley’s interpreter told him. ‘You’re going to have to cut a strong covenant with these people.’ ‘What do you mean, ‘cut a covenant’ with them?’ Stanley asked. He didn’t understand what the term meant. The interpreter explained. ‘This is what you’re going to do. First, the chieftain of the tribe will choose a substitute to represent him, and you’ll choose a substitute to represent you. The two substitutes will come together before a priest, who will cut the wrists of each one just enough to drip a few drops of their blood into the glass of wine. The wine will then be stirred and the bloods mixed. The cup will be handed to one man who will drink part of it. Then he will hand the cup to the second man, who will drink the remainder of the mixture, thereby uniting the parties in a blood covenant. Sometimes the two will rub their wrists together so their blood mingles, or they will touch their tongues to each other’s wounds to seal their covenant. After drinking the blood mixture, often the two parties will rub gunpowder in the wound on their wrists so they will forever be marked like a tattoo as a blood covenant man.’
The idea of a blood covenant was revolting to Stanley, but he knew their situation was desperate. So he agreed. After several days of negotiations, arrangements were made for the blood covenant ritual. Stanley chose his interpreter to be his substitute and the chief chose a prince as his substitute. The two substitutes went through the blood covenant rite while Stanley and the chief looked on. Both substitutes drank the blood mixture. Now Stanley and the chief were blood brothers. As soon as they finished, the priest stepped forward and pronounced the many blessings and good things the chief would now do for Stanley. ‘Oh, that sounded good!’ Stanley said. Then all of a sudden, the priest began pronouncing terrible curses upon Stanley. ‘What is he doing now? Stanley asked his interpreter. ‘Why is he cursing me?’ The interpreter answered. ‘He is pronouncing the curses that will come upon you if you ever dare break this covenant. Stanley’s interpreter then took his part and pronounced blessings upon the chieftain and his family and curses if he ever broke the covenant. After the covenant was sealed in their blood, Stanley said a marvelous thing happened. The chief stood up and said, ‘Now, buy and sell with Mr. Stanley. He is our blood brother. From that day on, Stanley never had to worry one moment about his goods anymore. Nobody would dare steal from him because he is in a covenant relationship with the chief and his tribe. Stealing from a blood brother carried a death penalty. Stanley said he never knew a blood covenant to be broken in Africa. No man dared to break the covenant. If he did, his own family would turn him over to the hands of the avenger to be killed. So sacred was the blood covenant that it was revered and kept by succeeding generations. It was a perpetual covenant that could not be broken or dissolved.
In Sir Henry Stanley’s story of the blood covenant, I am reminded of the ritual of communion. Jesus said, ‘this is my blood that is shed for you; he that drinketh unworthily drinketh damnation to himself.’ The Bible says, many are weak and sickly among us, and many have died early deaths. Only those who have been circumcised in heart should partake of the communion. The blood covenant is the foundation on which the New Covenant was established. When Jesus said, ‘This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you,’ the disciples knew that when they took the elements of the Communion with Jesus that night, they were entering into the strongest, most sacred covenant in existence. The communion is a kind of blood covenant. When we drink of the cup we are reminded of the covenant with God. Jesus was God’s substitute. If we partake of the communion with no intention to keep the blood covenant, curses will befall our lives. I am also reminded of Mount Ebal (curses) and Mount Gerizim (blessings). The blessings and the curses that befalls the people of God that is in a covenant relationship with God. Let’s try to understand the magnitude of the blood covenant.
1. God’s covenant with Abraham
God wants to cut a strong blood covenant with man. One day God approached Abraham about a covenant. At that time there was literally no harmony between God and the human race. Man had become the devil’s offspring. So God took the initiative and sought to cut a covenant with man. This covenant idea wasn’t man’s idea. It was God’s idea. Genesis 17:1-8 says, ‘So God appeared to Abraham and said, ‘I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make a covenant between me and thee, and multiply thee exceeding. And Abraham fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold MY covenant is with thee, and thou shall be a father of many nations. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.’ Abraham understood the significance of the blood covenant because he lived in a primitive age where blood covenant rituals were practiced.
Now the characteristics of a blood covenant is that anyone who enter into such a covenant had to be ready to make a complete surrender himself to the one with whom he covenanted. He must in fact, so love and trust, as to be willing to merge his separate individuality in the dual personality of which he becomes an integral part. Abraham has his own individuality and God has his own personality. And the covenant is going to merge the dual personality into a connected part. Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. The word ‘believe’ here signifies that Abraham made a total commitment of himself and all that he had to God.
Now the ritual. When God wanted to establish His covenant with man, He had to have a sacrifice/substitute to represent Him. He said to Abraham, ‘Take me an heifer of three years old.’ (Genesis 15:9). Notice, God said, ‘Take for Me a sacrifice’; God means ‘Abraham, I’m a party in the covenant and I’m going to establish with you. I’m a spirit being. I need somebody with two physical hands to take Me a sacrifice to be a substitute in My place. The heifer was God’s substitute and blood flowed out of that heifer when it was slain. How about Abraham? Genesis 17:10-11 says, ‘This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.’ God is saying, Abraham, My substitute has been slain. Now I want you to circumcise yourself by cutting off the foreskin, and let the blood flow. Let your blood mingle with the blood of My substitute. I believe God asked Abraham to cut the covenant at the place on his physical body which represented the very source of life for himself and his seed.
The moment a covenant is officially completed, everything a blood brother owns is at the disposal of his blood brother. Now God said, ‘Abraham, everything I have is at your disposal through the covenant. But also since you’re in a blood relationship with Me, everything you have – your best has to be at My disposal. Both God and Abraham were tested. God’s most treasured being is His only begotten Son which he gave for Abraham’s seed. And Abraham prized Isaac’s life far more than his own. He gave him to God’s disposal.
I want you to know that when you enter into a covenant relationship with God, He says, ‘Everything I have is yours. Everything I have is at your disposal.’ I’ve heard people say, ‘Brother, I wonder why God doesn’t do anything for me? This promise doesn’t seem to be fulfilled in my life. First I asked you and myself, ‘Is everything I have at God’s disposal? God is looking for committed covenant men and covenant women. For a committed covenanted man or woman, If God says, ‘God to Africa” they say, ‘Tell me when.’ If God says, ‘Give that man your car’, they answer, ‘Yes, Lord. If God says, ‘Give $500 to My work, they replied, ‘Who do you want the check make out to?’ Everything we have belongs to God. It’s at His disposal. And we’re not to dispense it through sympathy. We’re to be directed in our giving by Almighty God.
There was a Man of God that Pastor Lily and I respected very much and we read about his life and are amazed at the ways God was using him. He said this one day, ‘I believe that all God has is at my disposal. And I want to say humbly, because I mean it from the depths of my heart, all that I have is at God’s disposal. Years ago, God asked me to go across this nation, and I said, ‘I’ll go’. He wanted me to go to the Philippines, and I said, ‘I’ll go. He spoke to me to come back and pastor a church in United States and I said, ‘I’ll do it.” Now I’m waiting for His next call. God may allow me to pastor this church in America until I die. But when He asks me to go any place, I want to be willing. We have our home paid for. But if the Lord spoke to me, as He sweetly does sometimes, and said, ‘I want you to give your home to a certain couple, if I knew in my heart it was the Lord, I’d do it. And I know God. He would give me one back twice as big. God will never disappoint you. And you’ll never go wrong by doing what God asks you to do. This is the attitude of a Man of God in a blood covenant with God. And Pastor Lily and I read and can see that all of God’s is also at his disposal.
Such a powerful testimony. This man is a committed covenant person to God. All God has is at his disposal and all he has is at God’s disposal. I know this man had such an impact in the Philippines because once I went to the island where he ministered and the first thing the people mentioned to me was the name of this man and what great things He has done in that island through God. Now do you know why God didn’t do anything for you?
2. The key meaning of covenant is blessing
Why did God want to cut a covenant with Abraham? Why did God want to cut a covenant with us today? To bless. Let me point out here that the key meaning of covenant is blessing. And we are Abraham’s children. It is so dearly stated in Roman 11:17. It tells us that you and I are grafted in like a wild olive tree to receive the same blessings God gave to Israel (Abraham’s children).
Here are a few of the blessings of Abraham that belong to his descendants as a result of the covenant. These same promises belong to you. God said:
Deuteronomy 28:3-10
‘You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestocks – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. Then all the people on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.
Everything God’s people touched would be blessed when they kept God’s covenant. However, if they broke it, they would be cursed.
All that God has is at your disposal. Actually God obligated himself as a result of the blood covenant. God obligated himself to do for those who lived in a covenant relationship with him
God was under obligation to shield them from the armies of the nations that surrounded them
God was under obligation to see that their land brought forth large crops
God was under obligation by the covenant to see that their herds and flocks multiplied
The hand of God was upon them in blessing
They became the head of the nations and of wealth
Jerusalem became the richest city the world had ever known
Their hillsides were irrigated; their valleys teemed with wealth
There was no city like it, no nation like it.
God was their God; they were God’s covenant people
Under the covenant, one man could chase a thousand in war, and two could put ten thousand to flight.
As I was praying and reading the bible last night, I realized that because of the blood covenant Pastor Lily and I had with God, God obligates himself to bless my children. He says this, ‘My children are to be without blemish, well favored in appearances, skillful in all wisdom and discernment, and understanding, apt in knowledge, competent to stand before mighty man and to teach them literature and language. I was very surprised because Joy is very good in literature and Jan in language. When you are committed in the blood covenant with God, he obligates himself and the hand of God will be upon you in blessing.
I know that we are always ministering to the community people. They are extremely poor. They find scrap to sell for a living. They depended on government subsidies like the 4Ps to survive. They come to our church compound every Thursday for medicine. Recently Genevieve’s children fell sick because the community children’s sickness was transferred to them. And Genevieve bought a whole lot of medicine to curse the sickness of the community children. But I want to bring attention to all these community people that if they covenanted with God right now. God will come into their life. The best example was the children of Israel; they were slaves, outcast by the mighty Egyptians and were the lowest of the people in the whole of Egypt. But when they started to covenant themselves to follow God out of Egypt (sin), for forty years, God, without a drugstore, a doctor, a prescription, or a clothing store, kept His covenant and preserved His people in the wilderness. Their shoes didn’t wear out, their clothes didn’t get old. He fed them and gave them water to drink. If water had to come out of the rock, water will come out of the rock. Quails by the hundreds of thousands and heaven food will just appear in the morning in the community to feed them. If Jesus had to get a gold coin out of a fish to meet a need, he will do it to meet the needs of the community here. A group of Christians in Manila were flowing in the supernatural. And there was this amazing story about a young teenage girl by the name of Demielyn. Demielyn has been experiencing a lot of miracle money: Php 100, 500, etc – appearing out of unlikely places. At first, people close to her wondered if she steals them. Later they realized God has been supernaturally blessing her. Recently she found Php 1,000 inside the pages of the Bible she regularly reads from? For the children of Israel, He was their physician and kept them well and healthy by His divine power. Through astounding signs and wonders He brought his covenant people out of Egyptian bondage and kept them as a nation. Why? Because they had cut the covenant. Through substitutes, their blood had mingled with God’s blood. They were God’s covenant people. Likewise, I believe with all my heart, if the community people will covenant with God, mingled their blood with God’s blood, even they live like slaves, God will make sure they have food to eat, clothes to wear, healthy, preserved in the wilderness of their life. But then, are they willing to cut this blood covenant with God?
3. Covenant is a two way commitment
The Old Covenant was in Abraham. The New covenant is in Jesus. When Abraham was circumcised, he mingled his blood with God’s blood. Jesus shed His blood on the cross, mingling the human and the divine. God cut the covenant with Jesus. God didn’t cut the covenant with you and me. He cut it with His Son Jesus. All that God did in the Old Testament, He does it for the sake of Abraham. What He does today, He does it for the sake of Jesus Christ. Jesus took the blood of the covenant (his blood) and sprinkled it beyond the stars in the presence of the Father as an everlasting blood covenant. God has cut a covenant with me and with you through Jesus. Now, have you entered the blood covenant? We enter into the blood covenant today by circumcision. Not by the circumcision of the flesh, but by the circumcision of the heart, which is the new birth? This is what happened when I got saved. I was lost and undone without God. I wasn’t a covenant man. I was a sinner. Then somebody told me about Jesus. Jesus knocked at my heart when I was a young man. He was saying, ‘Did you know I’ve cut the covenant with the Father for you? Did you know that you can have all that God has for you?’ I said, ‘No, Jesus, I don’t want you. My Buddhist friends are more important than you. Their theology on the eightfold path is so sublime. The wearing of the Buddhist robe made me so sacred and holy.’ Then he knocked again. That night I couldn’t resist. It seemed like somebody walked besides me and began to knock and say, ‘Would you like to enter into the covenant with Me? Would you like to be circumcised in your heart and have all that God has for you? Would you like to have eternal life and be in a covenant relationship with God? Would you like to have all of God’s resources at your disposal and have eternal life? And would you like to be God’s man and be one with Him? I’ve cut the covenant for you. Would you like to get in on it by accepting Me as your savior? I didn’t understand all God said to me that day. But I said, ‘Yes, I want You Jesus.’ I didn’t understand it in my head, but I understood in my spirit that I could have God’s best. I had a right to God’s best and would get it if I gave Him my best. And anything He ever wants or asks of me, if I’m a covenant man, He has a right to ask me for it.
Covenant is a two way commitment. When Sir Stanley and the African chief cut the covenant, they did it without any reservation. They were totally committed to each other and forever bound by their covenant. Maybe one of you today says, ‘God, I’m tired of sin. I’m tired of the world. I’m tired of burdens. I don’t want to go to hell. I make an unqualified commitment of everything I’ve got, spirit, soul and body to You. I want to be a covenant man. I want Jesus. God will seal that covenant. And when you become a covenant person, God assigns angels to watch you and your family to see that no harm comes to you. God says, ‘Angels, I charge you to watch after him and see that no calamity or plague comes night his dwelling. I charge you to bear them up on your hands lest they dash their foot against a stone. I charge you, Angel. On your part; all that is yours is also at God’s disposal. It is a two way commitment.
Revelation 12:11 says ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
From the moment you become a blood covenant man three things happen:
First, by the blood of the Lamb. When the devil comes against you, hold up your Bible and say to him, ‘Devil, I want you to see this. This is God’s everlasting blood covenant that Jesus cut for me. Christ’ righteousness has been imparted to me. All of God’s power and blessings are mine. I command and charge you, Satan, look at that blood. You are already defeated
Second, by the word of their testimony. You can boldly say, ‘Satan, I dare to stand on God’s promises. It is written… They are tried and proved. I’m a covenant man and God will not break his covenant. I declare, I speak, I command the promises of God.
Third, they loved not their lives unto the death. These Christians made an unqualified commitment to God. All God had was theirs, and all they had was His. They were covenant men, covenant women. They were willing to even sacrifice their own lives, if necessary to live for Jesus and tell others of Jesus.
