What Kind Of People Ought We To Be? - Part 3

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of Peace.” Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. (Hebrews 7:1-3 NIV)

Jesus is said to be a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was the priest that met Abraham after he had won a great victory to rescue his nephew Lot, his family and his possessions. Melchizedek was a high priest long before there was the Mosaic Law, with a high priest who ministered to God on behalf of the people. A high priest is a mediator between two parties and this is significant because of the Abrahamic(Old) Covenant and the New Covenant. Both covenants had a high priest to mediate between God and mankind. God’s law for Israel prescribed a high priest to minister in the tabernacle and in the Holy of Holies, ministering the blood of animals first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people as seen in the book of Hebrews.

There are two major covenants in the Holy Bible, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant began with God’s covenant with Abraham and continued to later include the Law and the ordinances and provisions for the atonement and forgiveness of sins under the Law. The New Covenant began under the ministry of Jesus and was sealed when he died and poured out his blood at the cross.

16Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. (Hebrews 6:16 NIV)

In short, a covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties to accomplish a mutual goal. Before the Abrahamic Covenant mankind was basically uncivilized, in this case meaning that each person was out for his own gain, without any alliance with another to achieve anything. In order to protect himself from a stronger individual a man would make a covenant with that stronger man for his protection. He would offer within the covenant something that the stronger man would need or use. This was the seed of the covenant.

Tribes would use the same covenant concept to achieve even greater goals. A military tribe would offer protection to an agricultural tribe in exchange for food. When the covenant was sealed both tribes had what they needed and were bound for life to the agreement, transcending generations. They were bound for life because it was a contract sealed in blood. A blood covenant strongly implied that each party would give their lives for the other and they would die before they would break the covenant.

Many exchanges were made as the covenant ceremony took place. First, there would be an exchange of promises, what each party would bring to the agreement. Then they would exchange gifts, for example the chief of the military tribe might give the agricultural chief a sword or a spear. In turn the agricultural chief might give the other chief a scythe or a plow. This symbolizes the actual exchange of food for protection. Next, they would exchange items of clothing, perhaps armor for work clothes. Then they would share a meal of bread and wine, feeding each other the bread and holding the cup for the other.

Once these preliminary exchanges were made then the actual blood covenant was ready to take place. There would first be an exchange of blessings and curses, blessings for keeping the covenant, and curses for breaking it. They would then each make an incision in his own hand, dripping the blood into the cup of wine where their blood would mingle. They would each sip the wine/blood mixture and then clasp their hands/incisions together with their blood mingling as they clasped. Highly suggestive of the “handshake” agreement much later, this solemn culmination to the blood covenant ceremony was enough to remind each party of their “till death do us part” agreement. Not only their lives depended on covenant loyalty, so did the lives of everyone in their tribes. Finally, there was an exchange of names, where everyone would know that these two parties were in covenant together. The marriage covenant still uses this exchange.

This tendency to make blood covenant was understood by God and was probably his idea originally, as a blueprint for his redemptive plan. At any rate, we will see the progression of God’s covenant with Abram through the years that we have recorded in the book of Genesis.

1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go 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."(Genesis 12:1-3 NIV)

God comes to Abram and introduces the covenant with a blessing and a command. The blessing is God’s responsibility and the command is Abram’s. We see the blessings at work as Abram’s livestock, personnel, and possessions increase to such a degree that he and Lot would have to separate. Lot chose the land to the east toward Sodom, Abram to the west.
In Genesis 13, God gives Abram the dimensions, a holy survey, of the Promised Land:
14 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."(Genesis 13:14-17 NIV)

Note that this is the first time that God makes reference to Abram becoming a father of many offspring, more than the dust of the earth, more than could be counted. The covenant continues to expand.
Next, Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, offers the bread and wine that we mentioned earlier:
17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).
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 blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14:17-20 NIV)

Note also that Abram participated in the covenant exchange of gifts by giving the High Priest a tithe. This was long before God ever commanded tithes to be paid.
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself."
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath 23 that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.' 24 I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share."(Genesis 14:21-24 NIV)

Again, Abram raises his hand to the Lord and makes an oath in a covenant act. In addition, Abram renounces all provision except that which comes from the Lord. Remember Matthew 6:33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV)

We must never look to kings or the world for our provision, but to God alone.
Right after this exchange with Melchizedek and the king of Sodom, God speaks to Abram to formalize their covenant:

1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. "
2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6 NIV)

God promises Abram a son from his own body so that he may leave his inheritance to his own son instead of his best servant. This is the first time in the Bible that it says that Abram believed and was thus counted as righteous, or in right-standing with God.

7 He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."
8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
Doesn’t it say that Abram believed God? Here Abram says “How can I know?” This is why God was willing to show the unchangeableness of his word, because Abram needed something more on which to base the rest of his life. Hebrews 6:17-18 says:
17Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. (NIV)
At this point, God begins to swear the blood oath to Abram, something He is sure Abram will understand and remember. Abram is remembered as the “man of faith” and a “friend of God”.
9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."(Genesis 15:7-21 NIV)

Abram was not born again, not filled with the Holy Spirit as the Christians are today. God appealed to Abram on a strict sensory level, with things he could see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. Similar to the ceremonial foods and sacrifices under the Mosaic Law, Old Covenant participants remembered God’s promises and commands in relation to things recorded by their senses.
After this ceremony there was absolutely no doubt in Abram’s mind that God would keep His word. We know that later Abram would have his own son by Sarai, and would name him Isaac, meaning laughter. And we know that God would command Abram to offer Isaac up as a holy sacrifice to Him. And we know that Abram would faithfully offer up Isaac until his hand was staid by God. Abram did not struggle with the thought of losing not just his son, but also his future as father of many nations. He knew beyond a shadow of doubt that God would raise Isaac from the dead and that the promise would continue. What great faith!!! Abram’s faith was great because his hope was great. What was his hope? His hope was the covenant that God had made with him, the promise that He made and then the oath that he swore in the blood of animals. Abram knew that if God would swear an oath in blood that he was bound under threat of death to keep his promise. Two things in which God would never lie: His promise and His oath in blood.
The good news for us is that we have a hope made even more sure, sealed in the blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. By the way, Jesus is also referred to as the “seed of Abraham”.

16The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 NIV)

One more time, God came to Abram and swore His covenant with Abram. Notice God’s promises and commands, and also notice that at this point God changes Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai is changed to Sarah. This is covenant practice. And later in scripture God refers to himself as the God of Abraham, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God." (Genesis 17:1-8 NIV)

Now we know that God had used animals as a substitute for His own blood until Jesus would go to the cross. But, where was Abraham’s blood in the ceremony? We see in this passage that Abraham’s blood came from the act of circumcision, and from every male in his house and nation.

9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." (Genesis 17:9-14 NIV)
We have come a long way with a lot of scripture, but it is quite evident that this was all done in covenant context. God nailed down his promises, oaths, and commands in the form of a blood covenant so that Abraham could have a sure hope, a hope that surpassed every thing else that he could see, hear, feel, smell and taste. As it has been said, “We walk by faith and not by sight”. Abraham walked by faith in the hope that God had given him, a covenant sworn in blood. Abraham knew that God would do what He had said, and that Abraham could trust God with his life, and with Isaac’s life.

Where we want to get is where Abraham was, where we know God’s promises and that we trust him without a doubt to fulfill His word for us. Stick with us and we will certainly get there. Thank you for being with us today!!!