7th Post - Spiritual Food & Drink Con't.

Earlier I mentioned a new covenant. A covenant is a very strong contract. In ancient times if you went to a new town and you did not know anyone, this is before banks, and you needed to sell something you would go to the market place and look for the oldest most scarred person you could find. You would do this because you knew that only an old person with many scars was the most trustworthy person in the town. If he was not trustworthy no one would do business with them, the fact he is scarred a lot tells you he has handled many covenants in the past. This is how the covenant or contract worked, you would enter into an agreement, animals would be cut in half and spread out on the ground; you and the other party of the contract would hold hands and repeat the terms of the covenant as you walked around and between the carcasses. The carcasses symbolized what would happen to anyone who broke this contract. Refer to Genesis chapter 15, this covenant was between Abram and God, after this Abram was known as Abraham. This is all part of the covenant. First you walk between the animals then you each cut yourselves and mingle the blood, then you take a letter from each person and add it to your name. If you go back to the Genesis 15 account, Abram is asleep and wakes up to see a smoking pot and a torch moving through the carcasses by themselves. God was telling Abram that God alone would be responsible for keeping His word. Notice also Abram was now known as Abraham. Abraham has to be circumcised, this is the shedding of blood needed to make the contract binding. Wait, only Abraham sheds blood what about God? Good question, this contract points to the cross and Jesus said "It is finished". I will say more on this when we study Jesus words from the cross. I see I have run out of room again. Stay tuned for more next week.