The Blood Covenant
Remember that in previous chapters we defined poverty as something much more than a lack of material goods. Poverty is being oppressed and/or lacking in any area of life. I knew a very successful millionaire that admitted to me that he was miserable. In effect he was saying that he was "poor." Poor in spirit is not having resources adequate to meet the demands made upon you.
God thoughts are so much higher than man's. Our thinking is so limited and is so anchored to how we understand things. God is so much greater, and most often He does things in ways that we would never predict. In John chapter 6 we see Jesus refusing to feed a multitude of people the second day in a row. Instead He is attempting to show them a permanent solution to their hunger.
God made man to function from the inside out. He intended that we should be supplied by the life that resides in us (Ephesians 3:20). Most people look for their help from the outside, even help from God. Matthew 6:28,29 says, "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Solomon was one of the wealthiest men that ever lived, yet Jesus said that the lily was clothed much greater then he. Why? Because a lily has a type of life inside of it that supplies its' needs and automatically creates its' beauty and purpose. Solomon needed to have his needs supplied from the outside.
Solomon was the king's son. He grew up in a royal palace. His life's experiences were always prosperity and success. So many of us are limited by our life's experiences. We look back at our life and cannot possibly imagine God doing something better with us. We see our continued sickness, financial lack, lack of purpose, marriage failures, rebellious children, etc., and we limit God with our own inability and failures.
What is God's solution to our "poverty mindset?" I believe that He wants to renew our mind with the Word of God, especially with stories and parables. Eventually our mind needs to see a positive image and an expectant hope for the future, but our past experiences along with Satan and his demons bombard our mind with negative thoughts. In this chapter we will see how Jesus endeavored to paint a positive picture on the minds of the "poor" people He was dealing with. He used the same strategy with the people he addressed in Matthew 6 mentioned above when He spoke about Solomon and lilies. He was painting mental images of spiritual truths. Jesus spoke some very intriguing words in order to capture their imagination.
Let's follow Jesus to see how he treated some "poor" people when they brought their needs to Him. We have the right to see Jesus treating us much in the same way today.
John chapter 6 tells of Jesus encountering a multitude of people near the Sea of Tiberias, the far side of the Sea of Galilee. Many were following Him because they had seen His miracles of healing the sick. It was nearing the time of Passover when all Jewish families would need to go to Jerusalem and observe this historic feast. Their forefathers, during the time of their escape from Egypt thousands of years earlier, followed God's order to kill a perfect lamb and put its blood over their doors and windows. By doing this they would be protected from all evil and harm. I believe that Jesus had this in mind while dealing with these people.
These people had followed Jesus looking for more miracles and they found themselves without any food. They were isolated from any hope of satisfying their hunger. Jesus took five barley loaves and two small fish and with them fed 5,000 people. Witnessing the miracle, the people assumed that Jesus was the prophet foretold by Moses in Deutoronomy 18:18. Actually Jesus was indeed that prophet, however the people thought that this prophet would be just like Moses. During Moses' time in history God fed the millions of his followers in the desert with manna which was supernatural bread that fell out of Heaven in the morning. This took place for forty years.
Eventually these people found Jesus on the other side of the lake the next day and asked for more miracle food. Jesus' response was no! He told them that they should stop toiling for physical food but rather strive for the food that produces eternal life. He went on to say that this work or striving that they needed to do was to believe. The words "believe" and "faith" have two actions. One is to hear, and the other to take action and obey what you have heard. The two key ingredients are knowledge and discipline. Hearing infers a direct personal contact with God.
Jesus is determined to give us a permanent solution to our poverty.
The homeless in downtown Atlanta receive blankets and food, but that does not relieve their poverty. Jesus has a heart to feed the poor and help the homeless, but He would much rather give them a permanent solution. He said, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). God expresses His love to us through the Cross and the blood covenant.
Jesus knew that His Father had the riches of Heaven for these people. Jesus' task was to turn them to their true source. His compassion was in action. He was not at all being hard hearted. When you feel like Jesus is not responding to you to give you a quick fix, remember His desire is to give you riches beyond your wildest dreams! "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us"(Ephesians 3:20).
In John 6:31 the people reminded Jesus that God fed their forefathers with manna, free food. Jesus turned the conversation back to the real issue again and told them that He was the real bread. "And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). He expanded the conversation to something even more important; eternal life. The people scoffed at Jesus. However Jesus pressed the issue again and told them that He was the true and Living Bread. He gave them a hard saying. He told them that He was the real manna from Heaven and not what God gave the people in Moses' time. He told them that if they would feed on Him that they would never hunger and thirst again.
Jesus then told them what they needed was to eat His flesh and drink His blood. "Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53). He was talking about a blood covenant with deity, with God Himself. Why would Jesus talk about a blood covenant when what they needed was food? Why a blood covenant? They were hungry. Jesus knows what we all need is not more temporal things, not even food, what we really need is a life exchange. Lilies and birds have life in them and that life gives them all that they need. His message was, if you have God's life inside of you all of your needs will be generated by that life.
Why did they, and why do we need a life exchange?
Our natural life is under a curse, and most likely, many curses. According to author Derek Prince, a curse in one's life is like "Wrestling with shadows." We continue to fail and hit dead ends no matter how hard we try to make life work. Curses have many causes and manifest in many different ways. We will cover this subject in detail in future chapters. Our old nature is subject to Satan's authority because of our forefather Adam.
It all began in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
When they trusted in their own resources and turned from living on the Word of God, they put themselves under a curse. God did not curse them, but He announced to them what they had done. The Holy Spirit departed and the life of God not longer abided in Adam.
"So the LORD God said to the serpent: 'Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.'" "To the woman He said: 'I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.'" "Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life'" (Genesis 3:14, 16, 17). Remember, lilies don't toil for food because they have life in them.
The next step God took was to employ the remedy for the curse.
The wages of sin is death. There is no way around it. God cannot, and certainly we cannot clean up our old cursed lives. We are destined to die, that is the only way to rid ourselves of the curse. That is God's justice system. However, God loves us so much that He Himself took the curse for us. He traded his blessed life for our cursed life.
Blood was shed. "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21). God shed the blood of an innocent victim as a substitute for Adam and Eve's eternal punishment. From the beginning of time, the blood covenant, the blood sacrifice, the placing of God's wrath on an innocent victim has been the remedy for the curse.
Obviously the killing of this animal in the Garden of Eden was the foreshadow of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary thousands of years later. If you follow the Old Testament you will find the path of blood all the way to Jesus at the Cross. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')" (Galatians 3:13).
The curse was first recorded in the first book of the Bible.
The curse is recorded as finally dealt with in the last book of the Bible. "And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him" (Revelation 22:3).
We will cover the path that one must take to reverse the curse in later chapters. Some experience a marvelous immediate deliverance upon discovering the problem and positioning themselves with God properly. Others go through the process of "overcoming." In my opinion, overcoming not only removes the curse for our lives, but also for our future generations. Overcoming can take time, and it can involve suffering. I submit that when the overcoming is finalized, that it not only removes the curse, but it puts the demons who have been propagating it into an early retirement to the Pit (Matthew 8:29). It is, as Jesus said, "the day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2).
God set up the Universe so that life is in the blood.
In order to exchange lives blood must be exchanged. "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life" (Leviticus 17:11). Blood covenants exchange the very life of the parties involved. We did not need our old Adamic nature cleaned up and improved, we needed it replaced! Only a blood covenant can accomplish that.
People for ages have endeavored to change their spiritual life by exchanging physical blood. Tribes in Africa, in American Indian culture, and other Asian type societies have always looked for ways to swap or trade blessings and curses with other people. Since ancient times, people have drank blood which was offered to their god, so that they could be like God. Many cultures still make blood covenants. However, this does not really work because they are just dealing with the physical life. They may be committed to each other, but nothing inside them has really changed; their spirit is still the same. Hebrews 9:13-14 says, "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" There are many counterfeits used by primitive cultures and occults.
Jesus and you "drank each other's blood" and exchanged races. He did the "drinking of your blood" or He took into Himself your very life, in the Garden of Gethsemene when He took your sin, the sin of the world, and all the after affects of it, onto Himself. He poured out His blood voluntarily at Golgotha on the Cross.
In a blood covenant with God, Jesus got your race and you got His. That is why His virgin birth took place. Jesus inherited God's blood from his father when the angel spoke the Word to Mary and He was conceived. Jesus' Father is God Himself. He received God's blood just like Adam did. Jesus is the last Adam. Jesus took your entire sin nature, not just your sin, and died with it. He gave you His righteous nature, and you were born again into a new creation. He did not clean up your old life; He gave you a brand new life, one related to Deity. The only destiny and penalty for your old nature is death. You died with Christ. You are no longer guilty of sin; you have the sinless one living inside of you! All of that is the result of a blood covenant, an exchanged life.
The Cross took place 2,000 years ago. How can that affect me? Hebrews 9:14 says, "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" The word "eternal" does not mean a long period of time, it means a realm which transcends time. We can partake of all of the benefits of the Cross at any time in history just the same as if it were taking place right now in our lives. Before the Foundation of the World, God prearranged to have Jesus crucified according to the eternal Spirit, which means that the substitution principle was in effect before any man was created (Revelation 13:8).
The people He was speaking to in John chapter 6 could not comprehend.
"The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, 'How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?'" (John 6:52). Actually they knew what Jesus was talking about. They knew He was talking about a blood covenant, but they could not comprehend how that would be possible, and what that had to do with being hungry. "Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, 'This is a hard saying; who can understand it?'" (John 6:60). Perhaps it is because human nature does not want to admit it is sinful and therefore only good for the grave. Humans are always looking for ways to make themselves better. Conversely many people are like the ones in this story believe in God but they want to be on His welfare role without allowing Him to change them from the inside out.
Unfortunately not many people have the knowledge of the blood covenant. Religion does not even touch on the truth of this good news, this Gospel. God not only wants us to have the knowledge of the blood covenant, His goal is for us to trust only in it. Ask yourself, "Do I trust only in the blood of Jesus, or do I add my performance to it?" In John 6:29 Jesus made this clear when He said, "Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (John 6:29). What are we to believe? The facts. The blood covenant is a done deal! We just need to step in to it and take up our cross.
Jesus pressed them even further! "What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?" (John 6:62). In other words, what if you cannot even catch me to eat my flesh and drink my blood?
Right when Jesus had their attention with this highly unusual conversation, He gave them (and us) the bottom line! Jesus carries on conversations in some of the most unusual ways, even sometimes with a great sense of humor. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). You "drink" His blood when you partake of and receive The Word of the Covenant. Fortunately, our new birth does not require you to physically drink blood (the Bible forbids that). The Word of God is the transfer agent for the blood covenant. Words are the only connection between the visible and the invisible spiritual realm.
There were two reactions from His disciples and the people. "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?' But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'" (John 6:66-69).
Words make covenants. Jesus is the Word of God.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1,2). "But He answered and said, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live (have their very life sustained) by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God''" (Matthew 4:4). This is why it is so important to invest large amounts of time and energy in the Word. The more Word, the more of God's blood covenant, the more of God's life, the more victory in your life. Listen to the Word in your vehicle, read it in the Bible, study books about it, listen to it on television, or where ever you can find it. Marinate yourself in the Word!
The most amazing thing about this blood covenant is that it is so one sided. Often two tribes would make covenant, for instance, one being stronger in warfare and the other in agriculture. That way both would have some mutual benefit. However in our case, we were slaves and Jesus was King of the Universe. What a lopsided deal that was. He had to become a slave so that we could become kings! Not only did He have to become a slave with our slave nature, but also He had to purchase us from slavery. Now we need to keep in mind that we have indeed been purchased and we no longer belong to Satan, neither to we belong to ourselves, but God owns us.
What can we give Him as our side of the covenant?
First and foremost we can give Him our time and intimacy. Second, we will be called to take up our cross, a subject to be discussed in future chapters. Also, we can give Him access to the earth. We are the only legal means He has to do anything here. And finally, we can allow Him to use us for His "vengeance" as stated in Isaiah 61:2.
We will study the Cross of Jesus Christ and the blood covenant that resulted from it in later chapters. If you truly open your ears to hear this the real Gospel, you will begin to understand the depths of the work of the Cross, your life will never be the same again. Your normal reaction to the love of God and His awesome provisions at the Cross will cause you to worship Him, and joyfully take up your cross and follow Him.
Spend your energy to believe in Him and His Word. Do not spend it to perform. "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (John 6:29).