The New Covenant
COVENANT
The Procedure of the word always pointing forward.
It is a prophetic book as well as an educational book.
Jesus is the Word of God.
Gal 3:15-17 Understand this that the law does not invalidate the covenant ratified by God.
So, covenant is more powerful than the law.
Jesus fulfilled the law and the covenant of His father with Abraham.
God with Abram Gen 15:9-10
1) Terms and Conditions of covenant discussed
The people making the covenant in ancient times in the Middle would be 3 years. (It could
be up to six if it was complicated), but 3 was the usual.
They would discuss one thing and then go away and share it with their families, they would
keep doing this with each part of the terms of the covenant until they all agreed
wholeheartedly on the terms: -
BECAUSE A COVENANT WAS IRREVOCABLE once it was ratified.
It was an everlasting agreement.
In a covenant you do not share, YOU GIVE EVERYTHING and yet you do not lose
what you give but you gain what you do not have, so you end up with two instead of
one.
If you start with 100 and you share it with the other you end up with 50,
If you give in covenant terms you retain your hundred and get their hundred so you have 200
and so do they. It is a multiplication and win win thing.
2. Set the day for cutting the covenant
All the families would come and be there at the making of the covenant.
3. Choose the place
Then they would choose a place to make the covenant. A place that was flat so that all the
families on both sides could see what was happening. One on one side and one on the other.
4. Choose the covenant animals
Then they would choose the covenant animals. A heifer, goat, ram, dove and pigeon.
Men did not break covenants. They were serious and binding.
5. The animals killed
They would then kill the animals and cut them in half lengthways so each had the same.
Then they would lay one half of the animal one side and the other half the other side with a
passageway in between where the blood from the animals would flow into.
They did not cut the two birds up.
It was the heads of the families or tribes that actually cut the covenant on behalf of their
family or tribe.
6. They then exchange cloaks
In middle eastern tradition the mantle or cloak of a man signified his authority.
(A father would take his cloak and put it over the shoulders of his son to show others who
was to become his successor and everyone would understand what this action meant).
So when he gave his coat to his covenant partner he was saying:-
Everything I have authority for I am passing it over to you.
The families would then give assent to what had happened.
7. There was an exchange of belts
The belts held their sword, bow and sheath of arrows the weapons of their warfare.
They signified one’s ability to fight. It showed their will to fight.
It said “Everything I can do in war I lay at your disposal.”
“Call upon me and I will be there.
Also all of my enemies I give to you even my battles I give to you. Which means when I
need you, you will come and fight with me. You will fight my battles and I will fight
your battles, you will deal with my enemies and anything I hate you will hate, anything
you love I will love.”
These men who had no Christianity would stand by their vow even if it meant death to
them.
8. The Walk through the blood and the proclamation
When they had done this then they would walk through the passage of blood, one from
one end the other from the other. They would walk the full length of the passageway
and then on the way back they would stand in the middle together. Then they would
shout these vows together so the families could hear them.
“As bodies lie on the left and bodies lie on the right and there is blood underneath
our feet, I promise you even in war I will never desert you. Bodies will fall on the right
and bodies will fall on the left and you can count on me, even when blood spills and
there is nothing left you can count on me”.
Each man speaks it out in turn so everyone can hear it and the families then give their
consent.
9. Then they speak out the terms and conditions
The blessings and the curses
Then they speak out the terms and conditions that they have negotiated over the 3 or so
years. They promise to abide by them.
These terms and conditions set the boundaries of their relationship.
They say when I do this to you, you will do this to me.
The terms and conditions also include curses as well as blessings.
10. The ‘cutting’ of the covenant, blood mingling (Memorial)
After this they would take a sharp tool and cut the vein in their wrists and tie them together
and then lift them up in the air so that the blood from each other mingled together and flowed
down into the ground so that no body would be able to differentiate which was which.
In the Middle East blood signified life.
This represented life spilt out for the other.
It was saying “That from today my life is spilt out and your life is spilt out and we have
become one. I am no longer myself and I am no longer my own, just as you are no
longer yourself and no longer your own, you and me have today become one. Anything
that concerns me from today concerns you including our families.”
Then they would proclaim “As this blood falls into this ground, if I ever break this
covenant may this soil reject me, may it vomit me out, may the curses pronounced come
upon me.” The middle eastern people believed that the land was a living thing and that it
testified to the covenants that they made.
Even God said to Israel if you break this covenant then the land will vomit you out.
11. Then they exchanged their names.
A name in the middle east signified what a man is, what he represents, what he owns, the
positive and the negative, his debts as well as his wealth, everything including his family and
children.
12. They broke bread together
Then they went to one of the men’s homes and they and the two families sat down. Then the
two heads would come in the middle and one would take a loaf of bread, and he would break
it and give it to the other and say
“Take this this is my body, I will give my body to be crushed, I will lay down my body
but I promise you that none of your children will lack while I am still alive, while any of
my family is still alive. We will work and we will labour and if any of your children are
taken into captivity, if they are under slavery, in hunger, in prison we will do anything
with our bodies, we will work whatever to pay what is needed to be paid so your
children will never be in lack a rescuer. So take my bread it will be crushed for you”.
The other one would take it and it would be handed over to his family and they would all
break a bit of it off and eat of it.
Both sides would do this in turn.
Then they would take the bread and have a meal and they would move around to each other
giving a bit of the meal to one another making the covenant now personal to every member
of the families.
13. Then they drank the wine
Then they would take a cup at the end of the meal and would say
“This is my blood, it will be poured out for you. There is nothing at all that I will hold
back from you, I will pour out my life for you.”
They then drank from the cup and shared it around all the families. This was the act that
sealed the covenant in the middle eastern way.
Now to the Abrahamic Covenant Gen 15:7-21 (Still in the Middle East)
God asked him to bring the animals Heifer, goat, ram dove and pigeon. Abram somehow
knew what should happen. He knew this was a covenant and so he prepared the animals (it
does not say that God told him what to do with the animals) just as they would have done
and waited to see what would happen next. He chased away the birds and waited and then he
fell into a deep sleep.
1. God stated the terms of the covenant and the promises of
the covenant with Abram. (Gen: Chapters 12-18)
2. Land was promised
The promise of land. Egypt to Euphrates (Gen 15:17-21)
Lebanon to the Brook Nile 109…36 on oath, 16 times for ever.
The Word states it is their’s forever (Gen 13:14-15)
3. God chose the day for making the covenant
4. God chose the place to make the covenant.
5. Abram had the animals ready (Heifer, goat, ram, dove and pigeon)
6. Abram killed the animals (Blood was shed)
7. Exchanged Mantles (coats)
God did not have a physical mantle to pass on but He said to Abraham “Everything I have
you can lay claim upon”
What kind of authority does God have in creation? All authority.
That was the authority He was giving to Abraham and his descendants in the covenant.
What kind of authority do we have?
That is what He asks us to give up to Him.
Our limited authority over our possessions and the things we have worked for. He says
give it to Me and I will give you what I HAVE.
Remember you do not lose what you give but you gain what He has so you have 200%.
Of a life in Him. Yours and His
God exchanged weapons.
Abram had an army of 380 men, but God has got a mighty army of angels..
Not just the host of heaven, but all creation is at His disposal to fight for us.
God said to Abram “I Am at your disposal, your battles are mine, I will bless those that
bless you and curse those who curse you or tamper with you”. Gen12:3
9. Walk through the blood.
At this point God comes down at night.
Like a smoking oven and a flaming torch (v 17) God walks through the passageway of
blood.
10. God laid out the promises (terms of the covenant) and set the boundaries. If you do
this I will do this.
The boundaries are not there to oppress us, they are not there to make life difficult for us,
they are there to make sure we abide in the promises and never in the curses.
11. The blood shed
The sign of the covenant and the shedding of blood came in the circumcision.
This took place in the part of the body of a man where life issues forth.
God promised Abram descendants and then told him to circumcise the men.
A permanent reminder of what God had promised. Gen 17:10-11
12. He then exchanged names with Abram. He made Abram - Abraham - father of nations
(God’s name).
God had promised Abraham that he would have a child and be the father or many nations.
Abram did not have a name to give God, so God said I will now be known as the God of
Abraham (Still to this day He is known as that).
13 Covenant meal
In Gen 18 If this is not stretching a point too far The Lord appeared to Abraham and he
made a meal for Him and told Abram that this time next year Sarah would have a child.
14. Memorial
The land was given to Abraham, but kept by God.
It is His, yet, He gave it in covenant to Abraham and His descendants.
This covenant was to those of the bloodline through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that carried
the promises of Jesus.
Jesus then fulfilled the promise by making a further covenant as promised in
Jer 31 thus establishing the past covenant, but taking it further to cover the gentile
believer (Eph 2:11-19)
See how the old covenant was pointing to the new
THE NEW COVENANT OF THE MESSIAH JESUS
1. Terms and conditions of the New Covenant.
He often said ‘you have heard it said - but now I say.....’
He told them ‘ if you will, then My Father in heaven will.....’
Jesus ministry was for 3 years
On earth Jesus went about negotiating and setting out the new terms and conditions
2. God set the day. He had an appointed time for Jesus to die.
He chose the Feast of Passover, when the lamb’s blood was shed for the redemption of
Israel and mankind.
3. God chose the place - Calvary on a hill where all could see.
4. God chose the covenant sacrifice. The perfect LAMB with no blemishes.
5. The LAMB OF GOD was killed
6. The Mantle (Cloak) The soldiers drew lots for it - it was not destroyed by
cutting it up, it remained intact.
7. Exchange His belt? His weapons. (2 Cor 10:4-5) Not of the flesh…
He gave us His weapons so we can deal with His enemies - binding and loosing - and
He will deal with our enemies.
Jesus has given us His authority - (Matt 28). His authority is that everything that is
in heaven submits to Him, everything on earth submits to Him AND THAT
AUTHORITY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO US. (Luke 10:19)
8. Blood was shed from His hands, His head, His feet and His side. As it fell to
the ground the land testified to the covenant.
9. Exchanged Names. Jesus was known as the Son of Man by the Jewish people
and now He is known as the son of God.
Jesus is seated in heaven and interceding and mediating AS THE SON OF God. He
gave us His name, Jesus to use in the spiritual realm
10. Covenant meal.
Night before He died - Last Supper
The disciples would have known this was a covenant act.
Bread and Wine: do this in remembrance of Me…1 Cor 11.
This is establishing your covenant with Him...do not do it unwisely.
Jesus walked the land promised to Abram by His Father. The land, still under
covenant, is waiting for its release (Rom 8:19-21) after its slavery to foreign gods.
It is waiting for its rightful owners, those who under the covenant were promised
it. We should be standing, with Christ Jesus, to see the fulfilment of God’s
covenant
The Father and the Son’s covenant are practically the same…the old and the new
are being fulfilled as we live today.
Therefore, we stand firmly with all those that He has covenanted with.
It is not a contract that can be broken by man…it is an everlasting COVENANT
that the Godhead will not break.
We are covenanted to be His children; therefore, He will fight for us and we will fight
with Him against His enemies.
If we have covenanted our whole life and all that is ours then we have all that is His.
The new covenant has fulfilled the old by Jesus entering into His Father’s covenant
made with His people.
Jesus actually fulfilled the law by keeping the covenant.
We to are fulfilling God’s law and covenant by keeping the new covenant.
Give all you have to God and you will still have it, plus all that He has for you.
Give Him your life. Family. Finances. Home. Friends. Your body soul and spirit.
Your spiritual understanding. Your calling. Your future.
Did you enter into the covenant when you gave your life to Jesus and His Father?
One has to abide in the conditions of the covenant to gain the benefits of it.
You do not need to kill any animals but you do have to crucify your flesh as part
of the conditions.
He has given all that He is to fulfill His side of the covenant…there is no more to
give, how much more is there for you to give?
Prayer is needed. Quality time with Him. Longs for all of you so that you can be
fully filled with Him.
Enjoy being ONE with Him and allow Him to be One with you.
Let us pray.
