As the years went by, people stopped cutting themselves, and began wearing wedding rings on their fingers. But it's a reminder of the days when blood covenants were made. The phrase in wedding vows which say, "till death do us part" is a reminder that the breaking of the blood covenant meant death for the person who broke their vows.
God's First Covenant With Abraham
God made covenants with different people in the Bible. Abraham was a person God had a covenant with. Abraham was a very wealthy man but he lacked one thing. What was it? He didn't have a son. He prayed, asking for one, and God promised him one.
In fact, God promised he would have so many children they would be impossible to count. He said there would be as many as the grains of sand on a beach, or stars in the sky.
God wanted Abraham to know He would not break His promise. Because it was a common practice in his day, Abraham knew how serious blood covenants were. No man had actually cut a covenant with God Himself before, but it was about to happen before his very eyes.
The Lord God told Abraham to take a cow, a female goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon and cut them in half, which of course meant the shedding of blood. He then laid the halves out on the ground.
That night, God appeared as a flame of fire, or a torch and walked up and down between the two halves of the animals. As He did it He made a covenant with Abraham concerning his future children.
Abraham knew once a blood covenant was made it could never be broken. Imagine what that meant to him as he watched God go through this process.
He knew if God ever broke His promise, it meant His death! That's why Abraham was so confident. There was no question about it—someday he would have a son! God had to do it or die because they had cut a blood covenant with each other!
Abraham held the promise in his heart until he and his wife Sarah were much too old to have children. They waited over twenty-five years, and the day finally came when the promised son was born.
Isaac was the child of promise. Even little Isaac was a symbol, and type and shadow of Jesus; the long awaited Son of God would come. The point now is, God made a blood covenant and kept His promise.
God's Covenant With Us
This all has very interesting meaning for us because God has made many promises to us in the Bible. We, too, have a blood covenant with God.
He didn't shed the blood of animals like He did with Abraham. Instead, He shed the blood of His own dear son, Jesus. The shedding of Jesus' blood on the cross was a blood covenant with you and I that can never be broken.
No matter how good covenants were in the past with the blood of bulls and goats, the Bible lets us know Jesus has made "a better covenant based on better promises" (Heb. 8:6). As with Abraham He can never break His promises with us because He signed the promise in blood!
Besides, "It's impossible for God to lie," (Heb. 6:18). With this covenant, our sins are not just covered over as in the case of the blood of bulls and goats. But through the blood of Jesus our sins are totally wiped out of the universe! They no longer exist.
The Israelites were expected to obey God's laws even though their nature had not been changed. But since Jesus died and rose again, when we ask Him into our hearts, we are completely changed. God said, " I will put my laws in their minds so they will understand them, and I will write them on their hearts so they will obey them. I will be their God, and they will be my people," (Heb. 8:10 LB).
He takes our hard hearts of stone, and gives us a soft heart of flesh to serve Him. But think of all His other promises as well, promises about healing our bodies, meeting all of our needs, lifting us up when we are discouraged, never leaving or forsaking us, even if our mothers and fathers forsake us, He won't.
There are over five hundred promises in the Bible for everything we could possibly need in life. Whatever belongs to our covenant partner belongs to us! God is obligated to share them all with us, because He made the promises and signed them in Jesus' blood!
Excerpt permission granted by Kids In Ministry International