Note: Please make sure you read the previous article, so you can fully understand everything in this Blood Covenant series.
“Your life for mine. My life for yours,” is the root agreement in a blood covenant.
The journey to understanding the blood covenants starts with a man named Abram. God chose his dad, Terah, to be the man who enters into a covenant with God in the first man-and-God relationship since Noah. Noah, however, did not come into such a covenant with God, but the fact that Noah decided to obey God (take Him at His word), that meant he, and his three sons, were to build an ark that was meant to save many people from the coming deluge (aka flood). This act of mercy toward mankind occurred simultaneously with the act of judgment and condemnation of the Flood. This moment is akin to Jesus asking Father God to “forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”
The Flood did not solve the sin problem, but it curtailed the pandemic for awhile and powerfully changed the course of history of early mankind. So, you might ask, ‘Why did God send the Flood if it wasn’t to forever be rid of the sin problem?’ Well, we might as well ask the question, “Why doesn’t God just get rid of Satan and the demons once and for all?” We can read in Revelation 19-21 that God will bring judgment and condemnation onto Satan and his demons and all sinful mankind together, but there are things that must happen before that can take place … and for the simple fact that there is a Meal Covenant still at work.
To be clear, “sin” is the word used to describe any rebellious act toward God that reveals a person’s alliance with Satan. This alliance with Satan and mankind reveals the fulfillment of the Meal Covenant between him, his demons, and all human beings who reject Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Mankind was not created to be evil, but our selfish desires gave birth to sin/evil just like when Adam and Eve ate some fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Their act of rebellion cost them (and all mankind after them) their original birthright: an intimate relationship with God and all the blessings that come with it.*
Abram Becomes Abraham
In Genesis 12, God calls a man named Abram from a town by the name of Haran, which just so happened to be the name of the brother who died back in Ur before Terah took his family and left for the Promised Land.
“27 This is the account of Terah’s family line.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.”
The dream of going to Canaan seemed to have died in Haran as Terah stopped on his way to what God wanted to give him. By settling in Haran, it might have been that he named the place where they set camp after his dead son (might have been his favorite son). However, instead of this being the end of the story, God calls Abram to finish what his dad started — go to Canaan.
“The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.”
Abram draws near to God through this journey and finds he can trust God to provide for his every need and offer step-by-step direction as to where He wants them to settle. After having been there for some time, there was a terrible moment in Lot’s life where he had been living in Sodom and Abram had to rescue him. On Abram’s way back home from this, he met a man, Melchizedek, who was “priest of God Most High.” Look at what this man says to Abram:
“18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
The first thing you might notice is that this man, simultaneously the king of Salem and the priest of God Most High, is somehow connected to the same God that Abram has been following throughout his time in Canaan — YHWH. The Hebrew name, “El Elyon” in Hebrew, translates to “God in the Highest” which is one of the many ancient covenant names of our God, Yahweh.
Consider this: Abram, a most highly blessed and favored man, enters into a profound relationship with Melchizedek, though very brief. A powerful exchange of gifts are given by both men — Melchizedek offers bread and wine and a rich blessing while Abram offers Melchizedek 10% of everything he has with him. Where have you ever heard about sharing bread and wine? Communion, of course. Who partakes of Communion? People in a blood covenant with God. When does someone offer a tithe? When making a financial sacrifice before God.
So, who was this Melchizedek — this king/priest who was commissioned by God hundreds of years before both the Levitical priesthood and the Israelite kingship were established?
“1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.”
Melchizedek is not just a man. Many people, myself included, believe that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate Jesus. What do you think?
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You and thank You for the goodness You have shown people like Noah and Abraham throughout history. I also thank You for Your goodness to me as I continue to take steps in obedience toward not just defeating depression, as if that were my only goal in life, but in my relationship with You. It still amazes me how I am in a covenant with the one, true God and that You have great things planned for me even though my intentions toward You weren’t always pure. I look forward to fulfilling Your plans for my life and to eventually, be in that place where You and I flow so wonderfully together that everyone gives You glory. Please show me what I need to do next and please forgive me for _____ and help me do better next time. I await You, Lord! Shine Your glory light in the dark places of my soul and light my way by helping me to live in the way I should. Have Your way in me and through me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Banner photo by Cassi Josh on Unsplash
* The concept of Hell as promoted by un-biblical ‘scholars’ who claim Hell is simply a place of being separated from God and is not an actual place of torment and torture. Allow me to affirm and confirm this for you: Hell is very real and it is a place of mind-blowing torment and torture meted out by demons as they exact payment and punishment from each and every person for each and every one of their sins that Jesus had paid for, but they rejected Him and His redemption, so they must pay for their each and every sin out of their own flesh.