I struggled with this word a little until I realized to whom it was written. The verse comes from the letter to the Hebrews--the chosen people of God from the time of Abraham, and those who were familiar with the concepts of blood covenants and sacrifice.
Covenant is defined in Webster as a binding and solemn agreement; a formal, sealed contract which allows a for a suit for damages if it is violated. We know that God was an establisher of covenants with man very early in time. He covenanted with Noah that He would never again destroy the earth by flood and sealed it with a rainbow; He covenanted with Abraham to be his God and the God of his descendants which was sealed by circumcision; He covenanted with Moses on the receipt of the law by the Hebrews which he sealed by the sprinkling of blood; He covenanted with David to establish his dynasty upon the throne of Israel. There was another covenant with Abraham, a blood covenant established and enacted by God at the request of the man:
15:4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
15:6 And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.
15:7 And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
15:8 And he said, O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
15:9 And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.
15:10 And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not.
15:11 And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.
15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners 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 But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
15:16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorite 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 flaming torch that passed between these pieces.
15:18 In that day
Jehovah 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:
15:19 the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,
15:20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,
15:21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.
This is a fascinating covenant on so many levels there is not the time or space to go into all of them. First, in ancient times those making a covenant could sure it up by walking down an isle made by the halved carcasses of slain animals (Jer. 34:18-19). This symbolized the oath, "If I break my promise, may I also be slain like these animals." It was God in the form of the "smoking furnace [pot]" that passed through the midst of the slain animals to assure Abraham of His unconditional promise to establish his people, at first the literal seed of Abraham, and then his spiritual descendants through Jesus Christ.
8:6 But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he [Jesus]is also the
mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
8:7 For if that first `covenant' had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second.
8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israeland with the house of Judah ;
8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt;
For they continued not in my covenant, And I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people:
8:11 And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them.
8:12 For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.
8:13 In that he saith, A new `covenant' he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.
Jeremiah prophesied this "new covenant" in 31:31-35:
31:31 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
31:32 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 Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah.
31:33 But
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
31:34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
31:35 Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar; Jehovah of hosts is his name:
Jeremiah revealed to the Hebrews that there would be establishment of a kingdom beyond the type with which they were familiar. God worked out events in time that would reinforce His word. The date of the initial blood covenant made with Abraham coincides directly to the dates of the Passover, the salvation of the Jews in the Book of Esther, and the crucifixion. Remember that Jesus was celebrating the Passover when He told His disciples, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt 26:28).
Jesus Christ went in place of sinful man, the enemy of the covenant of God, to be slain according to the oath, and to establish a renewal of the covenant that would stand forever. The Hebrew, then, would have received the full meaning from the author of the letter when he wrote:
2:3 how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard;
6:4 For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
6:5 and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,
6:6 and `then' fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
6:7 For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God:
6:8 but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
and
9:26 else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this `cometh' judgment;
9:28 so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.
The covenant was made, the blood was applied, and punishment for breaking the covenant had been dealt--to Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb. And in His act of grace, He offered the covenant back with added benefits. If anyone still turns away, what else can He do? As Paul, also a Hebrew, wrote to the Galations:
3:16 Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
3:17 Now this I say: A
covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect.
3:18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise: but God hath granted it to Abraham by promise.
3:19 What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; `and it was' ordained through angels by the
hand of a mediator. 3:20 Now a mediator is not `a mediator' of one; but God is one.
3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law.
3:22 But the scriptures shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
3:23 But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
3:24 So that the law is become our tutor `to bring us' unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
3:25 But now faith that is come, we are no longer under a tutor.
3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus.
3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.
3:28 There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one `man' in Christ Jesus.
3:29 And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.
And the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes:
12:18 For ye are not come unto `a mount' that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
12:19 and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which `voice' they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them;
12:20 for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;
12:21 and so fearful was the appearance, `that' Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:
12:22 but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
12:24 and to Jesus the
mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than `that of' Abel.
12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned `them' on earth, much more `shall not' we `escape' who turn away from him that `warneth' from heaven:
12:26 whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.
12:27 And this `word', Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
12:28 Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe:
12:29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Thank You Jesus that You have established an eternal covenant that cannot be shaken, and that being the continuation of the covenant with Abraham, making me one of the family of the inheritance. How great, how rich, how powerful an inheritance You have provided! Help me to abandon sin, as You have given the knowledge and become the sacrifice. And thank You for Your awesome word that over and over proves that You continue the same yesterday, today, and forever. Your Kingdom come! Amen
10:26 For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Follow this blog
