Blood is Thicker Than Water -- About Covenants

2005.07.D.07 Blood is Thicker Than Water -- About Covenants

Greetings

Attached please find an article about the sanctity and importance of blood covenants.

Warm regards and blessings

* Hear Oh Yisrael Yahweh Our Mighty One Yahweh Is One

* *And You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Introduction

The expression "blood is thicker than water" may be familiar with us in general terms, but it's true scriptural covenantal meaning, especially in our Western culture, has been lost or become “a strange thing”. It has come to be interpreted to mean that bloodrelated members of a family should be considered more important than anyone else.

The original significance of the expression is: "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb," or alternatively, "One’s relationship with those to whom one is joined in covenant should be considered more important than that relationship with a natural brother with whom one may have once shared the womb."

Some knowledge of ancient eastern covenants helps to shed new light to this obscure phrase.

When parties sought to make an ancient covenant, they would divide a specified animal (or animals) in half, stand together in the blood of the animals while each held the other’s right hand. They then swore an oath that bound the parties to each other. The result was a union sealed under this blood oath - such oath never to be broken (although usually the death of one party ends the covenant).

Both participants in the covenant effectively became "blood brothers" - one flesh. Indeed, the relationship “birthed” by this union was so intertwined, that brothers made so through the blood of covenants were closer to each other than brothers who were born from the same mother – from the same womb. Hence, the blood of the covenant was thought to be thicker than the water of the womb. (Though the water of the womb is itself a mixture of

water and blood).

Selected Examples in Scripture

15:8 And he said, Sovereign (YAHWEH), whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 15:9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 15:10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against

another: but the birds divided he not. 15:11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.  15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 15:14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15:15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 15:17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 15:18 In the same day

(YAHWEH) made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Here we find Abba YAHWEH cutting the brit (covenant/pact) of faithful obedience with Avram and making the eternal promise of the estrangement and then return of his descendants with great abundance to the promised land. Note that certain of these animals - the heifer, she goat and ram - are divided into two (blood thereby being shed) and YAHWEH’s burning lamp (a picture of The Torah as both light and sword) passes between the animal pieces and the blood to seal the pact.

ShemuEl Alef/I Samuel 20:16,17, "So Yehonatan (Jonathan) made (brit/cut) a covenant with the house of Daweed (David), saying, 'Let (YAHWEH) even require it at the hand of Daweed's enemies.' And Yehonatan caused Daweed to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul."

Above we find that Yehonatan and Daweed cut a covenant and become, likewise, blood brothers. This bond lasted until death.

MattithYahu (Matthew) 26:27,28, "And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the Brit Chadashah (Renewed Covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'

In the Mattithyahu passage above, Mashiach Yahshua also enters into a blood covenant with his shleekim (sent ones/apostles) and talmidim (taught ones/disciples) thereby binding Himself to them - and all others who follow Him - with a covenant that exceeds any natural relationship.

As believers, when we partake of the symbolic blood of Yahshua (and the matzah/ unleavened bread) as we do each year in remembrance during Pesach, it pictures the bond of our blood covenant with Yahshua and with one another. We are one flesh and one blood.

I Corinthians 10:16, 17 affirms, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Mashiach? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Mashiach? For we being many are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread."

The promises of Yahshua to all believers contained in the TaNaK and the Edut Brit Chadashah (testimony of the Renewed Covenant) are eternal promises cut (brit) deep in the blood of the eternal covenant between Mashiach Yahshua and the Father, by which we are made His heirs.

Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

II Corinthians 1:20 "For all the promises of (YAHWEH) in him (Mashiach Yahshua) are yea, and in Him, Omein."

I found another related expression that also has been separated from its original Hebraic scriptural covenantal context.

Friend

Mishle (Prov) 18:24 "...there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother."

Here, the term friend has also lost its original covenantal bloodrelated meaning. In its original sense, it means much more than a mere acquaintance, or one for whom one has some “affection”, it is actually a term to be used to refer to one with whom one is joined, by blood, in covenant.

Yochanan (John) 15:15 “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Master doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

The death of any one of the parties to the blood covenant usually ends the pact. Of course, that is only true where death still operates. But we know that through Yahshua’s shed blood death has been swallowed up thereby reestablishing the eternal life YAHWEH desired for haAdam. And through our belief on Yahshua’s atoning sacrifice and blood, we too share in that eternal life. So through Yahshua – neither party can die to end the covenant.

This is why Yahshua says at Yochanan Moshe (Mark) 12:24:

Mark 14:24 “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many.” .  The only covenant that stands out in scripture as having been made in blood and then set aside for a season SOLELY WITH RESPECT TO THE NORTHERN KINGDOM OF YISRAEL - through divorce – and thereby REQUIRING a re-sealing of that covenant by Yahshua HaMashiach is the Mosaic covenant of Torah. [1] And Yahshua re-sealed that covenant in His blood at his death upon the stake 2,000 years ago.

Shemot (Exodus) 24:8 “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled [it] on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the

covenant, which (YAHWEH) hath made with you concerning all these words.”

Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 3:8 “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Yisrael committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; (i.e., the northern kingdom) yet her treacherous sister Yehudah (the southern kingdom) feared not, but went and played the harlot also.” Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:31-34 “Behold, the days come, saith (YAHWEH), that I will make a renewed covenant with the house of Yisrael, and with the house of Yehudah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt); which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith (YAHWEH): 33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith (YAHWEH), I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know (YAHWEH): for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith (YAHWEH): for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Blood is thicker than water.

Shalom.

ENDNOTES

[1] By “set aside” I do not mean that the Torah’s Mosaic covenant was abolished altogether. For it is an eternal covenant. Some say it was a conditional covenant and since broken, it is now abolished. However, that position lacks understanding of how this covenant operates. It is conditioned upon certain actions which if obeyed lead to blessings and if disobeyed lead to curses. Continued disobedience could lead to separation from the covenant. (YAHWEH) divorced the northern kingdom for their disobedience of the Mosaic covenant.  However, House of Yahudah violated the covenant far worse than Ephraim.

(YAHWEH) considered the southern kingdom of House of Yahudah more perverse than the northern tribes for they should have known better than to violate the Mosaic covenant. Yet (YAHWEH) maintained his Mosaic covenant with the southern tribes for the sake of King David, the City of Yerushalayim, and for the sake of His Great Name. So (YAHWEH) maintained the eternal the Mosaic covenant by allowing Yahudah to return to His instructions.

(YAHWEH) remained divorced from a part of Yisrael, namely, House of Ephraim. The Mosaic Torah covenant itself remains, but the northern tribes (YAHWEH) separated from it for a season as a punishment. That season of punishment and divorce came to an end at the death, burial, and resurrection of Yahshua HaMashiach. He resealed the Mosaic covenant in His blood at the stake of impalement; accordingly, it is imperative for House of Yahudah AND House of Ephraim to believe BOTH on the blood atonement AND its purpose. That purpose is to return Yisrael to fellowship with (YAHWEH) and His ways, those ways being written in the Torah. (YAHWEH) promised that in the last of the last days, more and more of His Yisraelites will have the Mosaic covenant Torah written on their hearts. Any one who does so – including non-Yisraelites – join Yisrael in this precious restoration. We are in the last of the last days. For more information, please read the various detailed Two Houses of Yisrael articles by clicking here:

http://www.restorationrecords.com/articles/restored_yisrael_index.html

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