Page 17 - Advanced OT Survey Revised

This is the reason why more than 50% of marriages end in divorce. The degree of commitment is weak
to begin with, based on performance. Such is not the design of the marriage covenant.

Covenant of Blood

This was the highest level of commitment within covenants. It requires the
shedding of blood, normally an animal. In ancient days, when two people wanted to
seal the strongest possible covenant, they would take an animal, kill it, and cut it
into two halves. They would divide the halves by several feet with the blood of the
sacrifice between. Then the two individuals would walk hand in hand between the
two halves of the sacrificed animal. What they were saying was, “If I break my vow,
then what happened to this animal will happen to me, and my blood will be
required.”

In the Bible, wine is considered an acceptable symbol for shedding blood; it is the blood of the grape.
This is why we currently observe communion as we do. Through the wine, we are constantly renewing
the blood covenant that God initiated with Adam when he told him that as a result of sin, a Savior will
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come and shed His blood in payment for sin (Genesis 3:15). Jesus told his disciples, “this wine is a
symbol of my blood, which is shed for you” (I cor. 11:25-29). In this act, Jesus introduced his disciples to
a new covenant validated by His precious blood.

In Genesis 15, God told Abraham to bring a three-year-old heifer, a she-goat, and ram, a turtle dove, and
a young pigeon. When Abraham brought them, he asked God no questions about what they represented
or what to do with them. He simply cut the animals all in two and stood the halves against the walls of a
trench he had dug earlier. He did not cut the birds in two. The animal’s blood flowed down the trench,
forming a blood path the two parties would walk down to confirm the covenant. Abraham seemed to
know about this type of covenant validation.

In this passage, God makes an unconditional covenant with Abraham, that his seed will become like the
stars in heaven and shall inherit a land. Abraham asked God, “how can I know this will come to pass?”
God asked Abraham to create the blood path, and, while we are not explicitly told, God obviously
walked through the animals as a seal of His covenant to Abraham. No seal could be stronger.

Christ’s shedding of His blood is a seal that all those who believe in Him, WILL HAVE eternal life (John
3:16). It is a covenant of blood.

The Five different types in Covenants in Old Testament

There are basically six important covenants but for the purposes of this course, we will focus on five.

NOAHIC COVENANT
The covenant which God made with Noah is also called a re-creational
covenant. God destroyed the entire planet with water and then recreated it.
God also was now redefining his relationship with humanity for the first time
since Eden. God was beginning afresh with his fallen humanity. The covenant
that God was making is a clear echo of (Genesis 1:28-30),

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