THE BLOOD COVENANT TO THE KINGDOM
By,Robin Bremer
In order to understand about the gospel of the kingdom, I must start with the covenant.
God made the earth and gave it to man to subdue it and have dominion over it and increase the Garden of Eden to the rest of the planet.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion …over all the earth…And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (fill it up with the garden), and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 1
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. 2
God made Man to have authority and dominion over the earth, and when Adam disobeyed God and chose to obey the devil, then Satan became man’s ruler and owned man's authority. Satan became the ruler over earth, the one to have man’s dominion and authority over the planet. Because God follows His own rules and gave the planet to man, He could not go in as God and take back the planet from Satan. So in order to restore man to the rightful position of ruler, God made the covenant with man.
Because of the covenant, Jesus could bring God’s help to man. Through the Holy Spirit, we are empowered with God and can legally be empowered to rule, reign, have dominion and subdue the planet. We now carry the government inside us to enforce the judgment of the devil (guilty) and man (innocent) and bring about justice that the blood of Jesus paid for us to have. We will go over that in the rest of the book.
A blood covenant was between 2 people or groups, and the purpose was to exchange strengths for what the other was weak in.
For example, one group might be good farmers, but they kept getting beat up by neighbors and losing their livestock. The second group might be great warriors, but not have fertile ground to grow their food. So they would make a covenant: one getting food and the other, protection.
Here is how it worked:
Exchange strength and weakness for the other group’s strength and weakness.
1. Exchange weapons—a symbol of giving each other their strength. Now the enemies of one are the enemies of both.
2. Exchange coats: a symbol of my authority. All I have is yours and yours is mine.
3. Exchange names: they would cut themselves and intermingle their blood to show loyalty. They now were one.
Then they sacrificed an animal and walked through the blood. They stood in the middle, saying curses and blessings to each other.
4. Each person pronounced blessings/promises to each other that could never be broken.
5. Each group pronounced curses/penalty to each other. Death, if the promises were broken. They even said by what curse they would die.
6. They ate a covenant meal together of bread and wine, which showed their willingness to lay down their lives for each other.
The bread represented their flesh and the wine their blood. Let me show you what I mean. This is where this story begins. It is the story of a man named Abraham and his family. Abraham had a covenant like this and this is his story. Abraham had a “Blood Covenant” and his covenant partner was GOD.
Abraham’s part of the covenant was to do certain things which were called Levitical’ rules. These laws are in the Bible in the book called Leviticus. Some of the rules were: stand before a gray-haired man, don’t tattoo your body, and don’t sow mixed seeds in the field. Don’t gossip, don’t hate in your heart, don’t hold a grudge, and no homosexuality. Don’t cut the sides of your beard.
One of the rules of the covenant is that whatever your covenant partner did, you must be willing to do it too. Well, God asked Abraham to do something strange. He asked him to sacrifice his first-born son instead of a lamb. Wow, what would you do? Abraham obeyed and was willing to kill his son. This meant that God now was required by covenant law to also sacrifice His first-born Son. Now remember, if you broke your side of the covenant, the penalty was death.
Well…. Abraham and his children broke the covenant…. but God said, “I don’t want you to die. No, instead YOU kill an animal in YOUR PLACE.”
Later, God replace the Levitical’ rules with the 10 Commandments, which were easier for Abraham to follow. You still had to sacrifice an animal if you broke one rule.
Abraham got old and died, but the covenant still went on.
One day, the children of Abraham were under slavery in Egypt and they wanted to go make a sacrifice to God, their covenant partner, but the slave masters wouldn’t let them go. So, one of the curses (or plagues) came on the land. It was a very sad curse or plague: all the first-born children and animals would die at midnight. To protect His children who had a covenant with Him, God said to sacrifice a lamb, smear its blood on your door, and the death angel will PASS OVER your house and can’t touch anyone in your house. That blood was a reminder or a sign of the blood covenant that God had with Abraham and his children. This event is called “The Passover.” God did this because He loved His partners.
Let’s go forward in time with this LOVE story.
God was now ready to sacrifice His Son. So He sent Jesus to earth. He lived a perfect, sinless life, but was murdered; He went to hell, paid our penalty for breaking our covenant…. BUT three days later, after He died, He rose from the dead. He rose from the dead to give us a new covenant and to make sure that the new covenant is enforced. 3
He changed the rule from the 10 commands to one…. LOVE. This event is called Easter.
Easter is about how God sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for our sins, and how He went to hell for us, and three days later rose from the dead, having victory over the devil. Then He went to heaven, sent back the Holy Spirit so we could be reunited with God and become part of God’s family, and enforce the defeat of the devil. Jesus was our sacrificial lamb.
Gal 3:29 says we are Abraham’s seed, so we are part of this covenant. Even though you and I and everyone are guilty for breaking the law and we should die, we are free because Jesus, God’s Son, became our sacrificial lamb. …all things are purified with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission.4 We don’t even have the curse for breaking the law anymore. 5 Today, the old covenant is fulfilled by Jesus, and we have a better covenant in the New Testament.
The blessings are in Deut 28:1-14 and Gal 3:9
The curses are in Deut 28:15-68
Jesus redeemed us from the curse according to Gal 3:13
1. Exchange names; we bear the Name of JESUS
2. Exchange weapons; in Eph 6 is the whole armor of God
3. Exchange coats; authority, at the name of Jesus
That lets us come to today. When we take communion, we are having our covenant meal that seals the deal. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. We drink the wine (His blood) and eat the bread (His body) that was shed for us. When we take communion we are remembering the New Covenant Jesus made for us
Because of the covenant, Jesus could bring God's help to man. Through the Holy Spirit, we are empowered with God and can legally be empowered to rule, reign, have dominion and subdue the planet. We now carry the government inside us to enforce the judgment of the devil (guilty) and man (innocent) and bring about justice that the blood of Jesus paid for us to have.
Excerpts from "Feed My People Joy... Kingdom Living For End Times" author Robin Bremer, Ribbons the clown/ventriloquist due out about June 1, 2010
Suggested Resource: Ultimate Passion
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Robin is a licensed minister who has been clowning for 15 years. She ministers with her husband Allen who has scored music for their recent video's. They offer a fun filled variety show that ministers the "Joy of the Lord" to the whole family. Her show offers ventriloquism, balloons, audience participation, silly magic, juggling, singing and dancing. They've opened for the Christian television show "Duncan The Puppet." They have clowned for the Kellogg's Cereal Company, as well as school assemblies, birthday parties, churches and many other events. Robin and Allen's ministry goal is to impart the joy of the Lord.
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