This is a favorite topic for me. I'll throw this out for now and be back to expand on it later.

The Covenant of Blood

The covenant of blood, recorded by all ancient civilizations, is the most powerful and serious form of agreement ever established. It is this form of agreement that God used to reveal His love to His people.


I. Terms of the Blood Covenant
A. Families spent time together to determine the terms of the covenant
B. The covenant was based on strengths and weaknesses, not on common traits
C. A family that was weak in one area would bind themselves to another family that excelled in that particular area.

II. Covenant Site
A. A covenant representative was selected from each family
B. At the covenant site, in full view of both families, an animal was killed. The animal was split down the center (down the spine), and both halves were laid opposite each other, creating a walkway between them saturated with blood (Gen. 15:9,10).

III. Covenant Ceremony Begins
A. The covenant representatives exchanged coats as a symbol of the agreement between them.
1. The coats represented their tribes identity and authority. By giving each other their coats, they were saying “All That I do, all that I am. And all that I have now is yours.”
B. Next, they exchanged weapon belts containing their swords, shields, etc., saying “My strength is now your strength. Your enemies are now my enemies.”

IV. The Walk of Blood
A. Each representative paced twice through the blood-soaked path between the halves of the slain animal.
B. On each pass, they stopped and, standing in the midst of the blood, made promises to each other that could never be broken - the “blessings of the covenant.”
C. They swore, with God as their witness, that just as this animal had given its life, so they also would be willing to die to protect each other.
D. Then the covenant representatives cut their hands and wrists so that the blood would easily flow.
1. They bound their wrist together, allowing the blood to intermingle.
2. They swore by their God, raising their hands so that both families could see the blood and know that the covenant had been cut. God had now become a witness and a third party to the covenant.
E. Finally, the covenant meal was shared. The elders of each family fed each other bread and wine saying, “This signifies my body and my blood. I’ll die before I let anything happen to you. I am offering you my very life.”
F. A relationship had been born. A bond had been made signifying covenant love and fidelity. In Hebrew it’s called “Hesed”, in Greek “Agape.” It is the love that says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."