The Blood Of The Covenant

In my younger years I remember hearing it said "Blood is thicker than water." I was told then; and many people still believe; that what the saying means is that blood relationships to family is more important than anyone else like friends or others outside of the family. That the family should stick together through thick and thin, that brothers, (and I have three brothers who we all fought each other) should stick up for each other against all outsiders that would attack any one for any reason. And while that may be a laudable goal, it is not what that saying is about, nor what it means.

The well known saying, blood is thicker than water is actually a shortened version of an old adage that has the opposite meaning. The real saying is" The Blood of the Covenant is Thicker Than the Water of the Womb." Taken in full, the meaning is turned around to mean that when two people have a blood covenant together, then family takes a back seat to the covenant!

. There are several places in the Old Testament that talk about covenants. In fact, the Old and New Testaments are sometimes called the Old and New Covenants. The ones I am wanting to focus on in this blog is the covenants God makes with man. I recently learned more about this subject when I heard a podcast dealing with covenants. The hosts talked about that the two parties in these covenants are called is Suzerain and Vassal, which is more of a feudal system during the middle ages, but it basically comes down to an agreement between two parties, which entails one side being the dominant party (the suzerain) and the lessor party being the vassal. 

 Many times there is a vast difference between the needs of the one party, (the vassal) and the provision of the other party. (the suzerain) and there is often a token or a sign of that agreement. That token, or sign is what proves the vassal has this agreement with the suzerain, and it is something they are careful not to lose. If they lose or break the agreement of the covenant, then the blessing promised is now no longer valid. The suzerain in that case would be free to withdraw their protection from the vassal, and it could go very badly for them after that.

Circumcision is an example of the sign of the covenant God has made with the Children of Israel. It is certainly a sign they could never lose, and one that is a constant reminder of that covenant they have with God. And yet Israel constantly would break the covenant, and would suffer consequences for their action, and yet the covenant remained.

The "Bow" in the sky; or what we call the rainbow, is a sign of the covenant that God made with man, and is a visible reminder of God's promise to never destroy the earth with a flood.

Many of the covenants God makes with man, God knows that man cannot keep their side of the covenant anyway, and so God promises to keep both sides of the covenant, since there is no one greater to swear by, God would swear by Himself, and man gets the benefit without the consequences when they break it, and God takes that consequence upon Himself. 

An example of this takes place with the covenant God made with Abraham which can be found in more detail Here . The idea is that God would then be responsible for keeping both sides of the covenant and Abraham would never lose out on the promises made even if he or hid descendants did not keep the agreement. This covenant is sealed in blood. 

All of this talk about covenants is leading to a greater point I will try to explain in the next post, which when recently some pieces fell together like a puzzle and I saw some amazing connections having to do with what I believe to be a covenant God made with Adam. To me, this clears up a lot of questions people have about the sovereignty of God and His plan for creation. We will see more clearly why the water of the womb, is of less importance than  The Blood Of The Covenant.