God’s Eternal Blood Covenant Pattern
God’s Circle of Inclusion – Part 1
Beloved Family… now that we’ve embarked on an exploratory journey and are entering the mysterious Blood Covenant World provided for us by our Heavenly Father, let’s meditate on some important and timely texts. I may have driven some of you mad with frustration as I’ve continually quoted them so often in the past. But, remember:
‘Repetition is the Mother of Mastery and Skill’…
and dabbling around is the mother of mediocrity and failure! 😜
So I ask you to pore over these texts once more. But this time, do it with this in mind: Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to see… to equip you with what we in FMM describe as ‘Covenant Eyes.’ Ask Him to enable you to see into His spiritual Realm, and equip you to interpret, and react and interact in the midst of your earthly realities as Father’s true image and likeness. To do that, you will need ‘Covenant Eyes’ to be able to see and grasp what Father actually meant to reveal and see it through the eyes and hearts with which the original inspired writers and the readers of their texts, would have seen and understood what God was saying to them in ancient times.
In the trying days that lie ahead, I believe we too will need ‘Covenant Eyes’… to enable us to persevere through the tough times and obstacles and challenges that await us. We’ll also need them if we’re going to be equipped to serve as fit and worthy guides and leaders for those we will encounter, who are new to the faith, and also those who do not yet know God and His wonderful way of dealing with Sin-full, lost and hurting people. Amid the chaotic turmoil to come, that Scripture sternly warns about, there will be strong forces that will be continually tearing at and disintegrating the fabric of human societies throughout the world! And people who lack ‘Covenant Eyes’ will be spiritually blind and unable to read the signs of the times accurately. They will not be able to spot and navigate safely through the dangerous demonic traps that have been placed everywhere around and amid, and within us all. It is through those people who remain spiritually ‘blind and deaf’, that the powers of Darkness will be able to speak, act and continue to wreak their malevolent havoc and plan and execute their deadly schemes.
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)
The height of the Last Days Era will drive people everywhere, into intense levels of frustration, confusion and terror… as everything around them continues to crumble and disintegrate! Life as they once knew it will literally be disappearing before their eyes. And they will be desperately seeking answers, hope, relief and wise reliable guidance. And this will be part of our Heavenly Father’s incomprehensible Wisdom and Redemptive Strategy! And that’s when He will move His beloved Son’s Last Days disciples into the picture. They will be the ones that He has been training and teaching and preparing… for such a time as this.
These Last Days disciples will have ‘Covenant Eyes,’ the equivalent of ‘night vision equipment’… that will enable them to navigate, operate, and fulfill their battlefield commissions forcefully, efficiently and effectively, regardless of what chaotic conditions they may have to face. Their ‘Covenant Eyes’ will prove that they’ve been fully primed and trained, and are combat-ready. And they will automatically and instinctively, step up and assume their God-assigned leadership positions and duties.
We said recently that, in the wilds of the African continent, trustworthy guides must have ‘Bush Eyes.’ They must lead others on safaris and help others to fulfill business ventures and negotiations of various kinds with local tribal leaders and their people. That kind of practical wisdom, skill and expertise only comes from hard-earned personal experience. Experience imparts a treasury of practical wisdom and lore that promotes these guides to levels of authority that are universally recognized, followed and appreciated. There can be no substitute for these abilities. In such harsh and dangerous environments, anyone who does not ‘know the ropes’ and remains ignorant of the true ‘lay of the land’ will perish in very short order! So, Beloved, notice what Scripture says is ahead of the Lord’s Last Days disciples:
“And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His Name and His Tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in Heaven.
“It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.” (Revelation 13:3b-8. Amplification and emphasis added.)
So beloved, can you see why we say that modern day disciples need ‘Covenant Eyes?’ They are critical to our ability to abide and walk in perfect alignment, synchronization and coordination with our risen Lord and the Holy Spirit. And that vital spiritual equipping provides another essential asset and ability: Covenant Eyes equip and empower disciples to think, act, react and interact ‘as One’ with the other true, living, Fruit-bearing members of our Messiah’s earthly Body! Covenant Eyes transform us from a rabble of isolated lone ranger types… into a tight-knit, well-coordinated, synchronized Army made up of combat-ready battle units through which our Lord and Master and Commander will be able to manifest the glories of His Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption!
“Now it came to pass when Joshua was near Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there was a Man standing in front of him with His sword drawn in His hand. Joshua approached Him and said to Him: “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”
“Neither,” he said. “Rather, I have now come as COMMANDER OF ADONAI’S ARMY!”
Then Joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshipped. Then he asked him, “What is my Lord saying to his servant?”
“Then the commander of Adonai’s army replied to Joshua, “Take your sandal off of your foot, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.” (Joshua 5:13-15 TLV. Emphasis added.)
Reading Scripture through Covenant Eyes
With all of this in mind now, let’s consider our texts… looking specifically for the Blood Covenant revelations, connections and references that are embedded within. Notice the parts of the texts that are capitalized and emphasized. They signify technical Blood Covenant catch-words and phrases that are packed with deep meaning and they show the significance of the Blood Covenant Union and Oneness that this Eternal Bond with God’s Living Word makes real for us all:
“No one has ascended into Heaven, but He who descended from Heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that WHOEVER believes (and obeys Him, according to God’s Covenant Pattern) will, IN HIM, have Eternal Life!
“For God so loved the (entire) world, that He gave His only begotten Son (to be the Last Adam), that WHOEVER believes IN HIM shall not perish, but have Eternal Life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved THROUGH HIM. He who believes IN HIM is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed IN THE NAME OF the only begotten Son of God.
“ This is the Judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the (Self-life) Darkness rather than the (one with God, ‘Covenant Blood brother’) Light…, for their deeds were evil.
“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and (by his own deliberate volition) DOES NOT COME TO THE LIGHT for fear that his (radically independent dead) deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the Truth COMES TO THE LIGHT, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought IN (total everlasting Blood brother Union with, and from, Almighty) GOD!” (John 3:13-21. Amplification and emphasis added.)
Here are some salient points we would do well to examine through our Covenant Eyes:
The term ‘In Him’ is one of those technical blood covenant terms. Here, the word ‘IN’ delineates the specific purpose and significance of a God-designated Blood Covenant Representative and what happens to, and for, those he represents. ‘In Him’ is speaking of people who are bonded as one with a covenant representative and vice versa. The unity created by the covenant bond causes them to view themselves as being IN THEIR REPRESENTATIVE, and their representative as being ‘IN THEM.’ The same is true when we see the term, ‘In the name of’…
And there’s another blood covenant fact that is very important, embedded within the above text. It’s the fact that God loves and wants to include the entire human race in His Salvation and Restoration Initiative. As far as God is concerned, no one is to be excluded. Everyone is invited, and desired, and will be fully welcomed… if they choose to accept the offer God places before them.
‘God so loved the (entire) world, that He gave His only begotten Son… that WHOEVER believes IN HIM shall not perish, but have Eternal Life… Dear ones, notice what is highlighted. God makes no exceptions! Whoever believes His revelation, and acts on it by becoming one with Messiah Yeshua in the New Covenant can and will be saved! This is what God intends; and it is what His Blood Covenant makes possible for each one of us! So… as far as God is concerned… everyone is included without exception.
Therefore, if we agree to identify with and abide as one with our Representative, the Last Adam, then whatever happens to Him and whatever belongs to Him, will happen to us and will belong to us also. And, because the Word is one with His Heavenly Father, when we are IN HIM, we also become one with the Father and His Holy Spirit who revealed our Representative, and brought Him into our midst. And so we can see that God makes no exceptions to this! All of us are most welcome to participate.
So notice God’s deep concern with, and for, each one of us! He intends to include everyone! And that’s why there are no separate deals that individual humans can make with God. There is absolutely no discrimination on God’s part. He loves the whole world… not just certain portions that He considers ‘better’ or ‘more worthy’ than others. So there’s no need for ‘special deals or arrangements’ because God does not discriminate or exclude or make exceptions. He wants us all with an eternal passion!
But the critical aspect is this: Whether we have a part in this or not, is entirely up to us and our free will choices. For us to be accepted and included by God, we must choose to believe and trust in, and wholeheartedly accept the Initiative God has already exercised on our behalf. He sent His designated Blood Covenant Representative to become one with us… on God’s Blood Covenant terms! So notice the word ‘IN.’ When Scripture says, ‘IN Him’… ‘IN God’… or ‘IN the Beloved,’ this is an expression of the unique new reality and status that becomes ours as soon as we agree to enter into Covenant with our Representative. If we’re one with Him, we’re one with the Perfect Performance before God that He has turned in… in our name.
The Unbreakable Bond Between Covenant Blood Brothers
The perpetual bond the Blood Covenant creates between the Representative, and anyone He represents, makes them to be forever ONE with each other! That is what is meant by the term ‘blood brothers.’ The two are no longer considered to be separate from each other. They are now a corporate, integrated and fully synchronized, integral working unit. In this sense, the person who is represented has ‘married’ into all that the representative is and has and does.
So please realize how important this is to God: when you become one with His Living Word made flesh… you become one with the Father and the Holy Spirit who sent Him to you, for God is ONE! And when the Covenant is in force, you are properly aligned and made compatible with God’s ‘blueprint specifications for a true authentic Human Being’… and you are in position to be able to be fitted and reconfigured into God’s own ‘image and likeness.’ And God’s Holy Spirit can now abide within you and make you to be one with all that God IS… and with all that He HAS, and with all HE HAS DONE ON YOUR BEHALF!
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; FOR IT IS GOD WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU, BOTH TO WILL AND TO WORK FOR HIS GOOD PLEASURE!” (Philippians 2:12-13. Emphasis added.)
God sent His only begotten Son for all of us! Whoever believes IN HIM and obeys His terms, will be saved… with no exceptions! In other words, in exchange for our former lives of rebellious radical independence from our Creator… God will from now on, be our New Eternal Life… indwelling our innermost being… and we will be able to draw and live FROM HIM… the way branches of a grape vine abide in their vine and bear the fruit that only the vine can produce.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am The Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing!
“If anyone does not abide in Me (by his own deliberate choice to reject Me, My Father honors His wish and), he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:1-8)
“Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his (God-less radically independent) life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it!” (Matthew 16:24-25 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.)
So imagine that God has drawn an immense Blood Covenant Circle of Inclusion. He didn’t merely draw that circle around Himself… and then proceed to pick and choose which of us He would allow to join Him in it. No… He offers Covenant Union with His Living Word to all of us, and that, in effect, means that God drew His Circle of Inclusion all around the entire human race, right from the beginning! In His mind, we were all included!
So… the only way that cannot work… is when various individuals respond to God’s offer by deliberately using their gift of free will to CHOOSE TO REJECT God’s freely-given offer. They deliberately TURN AWAY FROM GOD’S WORD, and thus automatically exclude themselves from what He offers. They reject God, in favor of some other substitute alternative of their choosing. And because God created us to be free beings, in His own image, He honors our free will and the use we make of it. Therefore, He must honor, and go along with, whatever choices we make… along with all their inevitable consequences.
So God invites each one of us to believe, trust and agree to join Him on these blood covenant terms. This is what He had in mind since the Beginning when He taught this Pattern to Adam… and renewed it with Noah… and began to refine and define and unpack its meaning with Abram, the Chaldean moon worshipper, who was later renamed, ‘Abraham.’ All the while, God means to embrace and include the entire human race, by grafting those who believed and obeyed into this original Blood Covenant Union Root System.
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And IN YOU ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH will be blessed!” (Genesis 12:1-3. Emphasis added.)
“Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are (Blood Covenant) sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer (that is, they are considered by God to be IN Abraham… and therefore, they are one with God Himself).” (Galatians 3:6-9, Amplification and emphasis added.)
Can you see the ‘Covenant Eyes’ perspectives in these texts? Can you recognize the awesome significance and importance of a Covenant Representative and his union with all those he represents in the Covenant? When you are IN a Covenant Representative, then whatever happens to him, happens to you, and whatever is his, is also yours… and whatever he does, will be credited to you… not in yourself… not by your personal performance… but only IN him and by his performance! And so, despite our chronic human brokenness and disability and futile mortality, God offers this unspeakably glorious alternative that does not depend on us Sin-battered, highly damaged humans. He makes Eternal Salvation and Restoration Blessings available to us all… thanks to the Perfect Performance that His Living Word made flesh accomplished in the name of us all!
Inclusion By and Through the Blood Covenant Pattern
So, through His Blood Covenant Pattern, God has drawn an immense ‘Circle of Inclusion’ around the entire human race, with no discrimination or exceptions. We all have the right to believe and accept this offer, the way Adam, Noah, and Abraham did. And, if we trustingly and obediently abide within that circle that makes us to be one with God the same way Abraham did, God can put all of us fallen sons of the First Adam… into the even bigger Circle of Inclusion that He created for us through His Covenant Bond with The Last Adam! Thus the New Covenant of the Last Adam… embraces and swallows up and perfectly fulfills the violated Covenant that God originally made with the First Adam!
To fulfill His New Covenant, God chose His own Living Word to represent us all. And He sent Him into our midst in the first century C.E. And thus the Eternal Living Word of God became flesh, just like us, except for Sin. And, as our Representative, He introduced and launched God’s New Covenant in the midst of His chosen people, Israel. This was to fulfill the promises God had made originally to Abram… the Chaldean moon worshipper:
“…I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed!” (Genesis 12:2-3. Emphasis added.)
So people who accuse God of ‘causing Sin to exist’ or ‘sending people to Hell’ or ‘playing favorites’ have it all wrong. He has invited us all to avail ourselves of the one and only Source of Eternal Life… His Living Word… the only real Source of Salvation, Redemption and Full Restoration available. Thanks to the choices our first parents made, we who are their descendants and inheritors, were all trapped within humanity’s fallen, mortally wounded state that came from the violation committed by the First Adam. Even so, if ANYONE believes, trusts and embraces the New Covenant Representative that God has sent to us… His own Beloved Son, He gladly puts us INTO His Son. And then the Son, who is authorized to become one with the First Adam and his personal household, and all of his children from future generations, can bring each one of us, into His Father’s Circle of Inclusion… the New and Eternal Covenant.
So… as far as God is concerned, despite what has happened in the past, everyone is invited and accepted and considered to be one with Him in His Plan of Salvation. He excludes no one… because He is operating out of the Self-less Love that is natural to Him… the Love that devotes itself exclusively to the best interests of the beloved (the word for this unique level of Love is, ‘Chesed’ in Hebrew, or ‘Agape’ in Greek. Both of those words depict God’s unique infinite, eternal and universal Blood Covenant Faithfulness, Loyalty and Trustworthiness. It is within this awesome unique Heavenly Covenant Circle of Love… that God regards us… and calls and embraces… whoever from among us will believe and trust and rely upon His Son. As far as God is concerned… we are all to be included in His Awesome Circle of Covenant Union.
So this tells us, Beloved, that any discrimination or expulsion or exclusion that may take place certainly does not originate with God. Any division, separation or alienation that may enter into the picture can only be initiated by us, when we deliberately refuse God’s offer and reject the Covenant Representative Son that the Father has sent to be our Redeemer and Rescuer! God never rejects us. We are the ones who reject Him! And, as long as we remain trapped in the delusion that keeps us in our defiant radically independent state, we remain out of position to receive His Grace, and lack the ability to benefit from God’s Love the way He wants to apply it to us. Nor are we able to correspondingly reflect His Love back to Him just as it is… in its Wholehearted, Unreserved, Eternal, and totally Self-less Perfection. But if that is our choice, the consequences that follow are not at all God’s choice! To His great grief, He is obligated to honor what the eternal outcomes that we have chosen for ourselves.
“I have come IN MY FATHER’S NAME, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the Glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:43-47. Emphasis added.)
So… because we have Sin-corrupted fallen human nature, the kind of ‘love’ we are able to summon from within us, is altogether different from God’s kind of Love. As we’ve seen, His Love is perfectly Self-less. And our love is utterly Selfish! So God includes us… but thanks to our spiritual blindness and twisted perspectives, many of us choose to exclude ourselves, and others, and then we go our own independent way!
“The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste of death.’ Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?”
“Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His Word.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM!” Therefore (assuming He was just a man who was blaspheming against God) they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” (John 8:52-59 Amplification and emphasis added.)
As we said, the Greek word ‘Agape’ is what Scripture uses to express this unique Truth about God’s Love Nature. Before the time of Yeshua’s arrival, the word ‘agape’ was included in the Greek dictionary. But prior to its usage by the apostolic writers of Scripture, it was not commonly used in the Greek-speaking world. It’s almost as if the Holy Spirit saw to it that it would be put into the Greek language… but it was not to be used until the time arrived for the inspired writers of Scripture to use it to reveal and describe God’s awesome unique kind of Love and distinguish it from the selfish, predatory aspects of the kind of ‘love’ that is normal to the fallen, Sin-corrupted flesh of the children of the First Adam. The following text describes God’s kind of Love. The word used by Paul for ‘love’, in the original text that follows, is ‘agape’.
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
“Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13)
Until the New Covenant revelations were given, other commonly used Greek words for ‘Love’ were used. For example, there was ‘Phileo’ which describes a fraternal, brotherly kind of affection and loyalty. And there was ‘Storge’ an unconditional, familial, protective, kinship based love. And ‘Eros’ which depicted a romantic, passionate, even lustful kind of love. That kind of ‘Love’ is very common throughout the entire world of men. Today, Eros has taken on a very pronounced sexual connotation that extends into what is pornographic in nature. Our word ‘erotic’ comes from it. The nature of the word Eros is also what we use to describe that picky, discriminating, shopper mentality impulse that prompts us to pick and choose for ourselves from among whatever options are available for us in any specific situation. That is what this world commonly understands as ‘Love.’ I learned from Malcolm Smith’s teachings to unpack and express it like this:
“I want what I judge to be the finest, the best, the most beautiful, desirable, advantageous and of the highest quality among people, possessions, situations, positions and activities… FOR MYSELF. I won’t settle for any less. I must have the best for myself – even if it has to be at somebody else’s expense.”
Beloved, this is the driving force of lustful greed. This is what underlies the Eros kind of love. It boils down to this: “I want the best, finest, most beautiful and highest quality FOR ME… EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU!” This is what is at the heart of whatever drives the engines and systems of this fallen, Sin-corrupted, dying world. Eros is at the center of our dog-eat-dog business, sports, romantic, organizational and entertainment worlds. Eros is at the heart of our understanding and pursuit of what we envision as ‘Love.’ And it’s the best that our fallen, Sin-corrupted mortal nature can come up with in its own strength:
“If you will be for me, and give to me what I desire, then I will love and favor you. But… if you fail to be for me and give to me what I desire, I will reject, dispose of, and replace you!”
Other languages are richer than our English language is, in this regard. Many other languages have several words to express the various kinds and levels of Love. But we are pretty much limited to this one word, ‘Love.’ And so we overuse the word and stretch it, to try to express the entire gamut of whatever we tend to favor, embrace, and prefer:
“I love my dog… I love football… I love desserts… I love my spouse and children… I love my mistress, I love Rock and Roll and Country Western music… and, oh yes… I also love God.”
With such linguistic impoverishment as this, it’s easy to see why so many among us have such blurry fuzzy notions of what we read in our English translations of the Scriptures. It’s hard for us to grasp what real love is, because all we’ve ever seen and known and experienced in this world is the flaky, highly conditional Eros sort of favor and affection. Thus in our culture, marital divorce and the abandonment even of our own children, are rampant. Business contracts are taken lightly. People assume that properly enacted and legislated rules, boundaries and laws can be violated whenever legally possible, and can thus be broken, as long as some esoteric isolated legal loopholes or precedents can be found. We assume that our individual rights and freedoms are higher and of more value than the common good or the good of our individual neighbors. And, all of this is natural and instinctive to us because our fore bearers and our cultures and traditions failed to teach us to develop ‘Covenant Eyes.’
Therefore, we’re left with no other choice but to settle for the best that worldly Sin-corrupted, Self-adoring Eros agendas can offer. And we fail to realize that, in comparison to God’s Authentic Blood Covenant Level Love… what this world offers is nothing more than a cheap demonic substitute counterfeit that will always leave us completely empty and frustrated, and, in the end… totally devastated! Why is that? It’s because the Truth is that God designed and created each one of us to embody Him, as His personal image and likeness. We were made to be and abide as one with Him… drawing always from the Treasury of His Infinite Eternal Self-given Fullness! We were never meant to live like abandoned orphans, condemned to forage for ourselves and do the best we can to care for ourselves!
Don’t Miss the Deep Meaning Found in the Words ‘Chesed’ and ‘Agape’
The Hebrew word ‘Chesed’ and the Greek word ‘Agape’ are terms used to express Blood Covenant Love. They are very precise and definite in the meaning they are meant to convey. They represent the unique and totally awesome level of Covenant Love that flows out of, and is identical to, the very Nature and Heart and Essence of Almighty God! God is Eternal. He never changes. And Perfect Eternally Selfless Covenant Love is what HE IS! So Chesed and Agape describe the Love of Almighty God… the Love that He truly and eternally IS… AND WHAT HE ALWAYS SENDS OUT TO HIS CREATION FROM WITHIN HIMSELF!
Chesed and Agape are not simply traits or habits that show up from time to time in God’s behavior. He never changes or fluctuates. He does not have ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’; nor is He moody. We don’t have to tip-toe around, wondering if He’s going to be ‘grouchy’ or ‘distant’ or safe to approach on any given day. He is always the same… God IS CHESED. HE IS AGAPE… NOW AND FOREVER! (See Psalm 136)
So, how can we begin to fathom the meaning of these unique Blood Covenant words? Well, one way is to contrast and compare them with the way we describe the dynamics of Eros and how it works. Remember what drives Eros:
“I want the best, finest, most beautiful and highest quality FOR ME… EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU!”
Yes, that’s exactly how Eros works within our fallen human flesh, isn’t it? Down deep inside, when push comes to shove… if someone has to lose his home and his family… is it not true that in our heart of hearts, we prefer that it not be our home and family that are lost… but rather those of someone else? If someone’s child has to die… do we not hope and pray in our heart that it not be our child… but rather someone else’s child? If someone has to lose a war or the World Series, or the Super Bowl, wouldn’t we always prefer and favor ‘our side’ over and above the side that is competing against us? We know what our natural instincts and inclinations prompt us to do, don’t we? I’m reminded of a toast I once heard a drunken man blurt out at a social gathering once. It expresses that ‘human’ level of greedy, self-adoring love, very well:
“Here’s to you, and here’s to me… may we never disagree…
But if we do… HERE’S TO ME … AND TO HELL WITH YOU!”
Yes, I know it’s true that there are obvious exceptions to Eros. I acknowledge that many have exerted superhuman courage and selfless devotion on behalf of the people they love and value. The heroes in our military and law enforcement and fire-fighting and medical communities are filled with excellent examples of truly noble self-sacrifice. No one can deny that. But isn’t it also a heartbreaking fact that the reason why we hold such exceptional people in such high regard is precisely because what they do is so outstandingly rare, and so far beyond the reach of the habitual instinctive selfishness out of which most of us habitually and instinctively operate?
So although we find examples of exceptionally noble human behavior that appear once in a great while… that level of rare occasional human nobility pales in comparison to the quality level of the Love that our Infinite, Omnipotent, Perfectly Selfless Almighty God IS… ETERNALLY!
What operates within the Eternal Heart of God, and flows out of Him on behalf of His Creation, is the kind of Love that reveals who and what God’s mind, heart and will invariably and eternally do. Chesed and Agape are what God IS and it is summarized best as follows:
“I want the best, finest, most beautiful and highest quality of everything… FOR YOU… EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!”
“Beloved, let us (agape) love one another, for (agape) love is from God; and everyone who loves (with agape) is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love (from agape) does not know God, for GOD IS LOVE (AGAPE)!” (1 John 4:7-8. Amplification and emphasis added.)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love (agape) has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My (Blood Covenant) friends if you (allow Me to live in you and do in your name,) what I command you.” (John 15:12-14 Emphasis added.)
Beloved, God views us through His Blood Covenant Eyes… the eyes of the Chesed and Agape that HE IS! This level of Love is the basis upon which God makes Blood Covenants with the human race… and this is why He ALWAYS honors and protects and fulfills His Covenants, without exception! When we are dealing with Him, we could not be on safer, more reliable, or more beneficial Ground!
“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, Majestic in Holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them (the pursuing Egyptian military host). In YOUR LOVINGKINDNESS You have led the people whom You have redeemed; in Your (Blood Covenant) Strength You have guided them to Your Holy Habitation! (Exodus 15:11-13. Amplification and emphasis added.)
Dear ones… Scripture tells us that God takes pains to make sure all men know Him and His requirements, at least at basic universal levels that are sufficient for them to take Him and His Word seriously enough to submit to Him and thus enter into His Salvation:
“The (unbelieving rebellious and idolatrous) peoples have heard, they tremble; anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; the leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; until Your (chosen Covenant) people pass over, O Lord, until the people pass over whom You have purchased.” (Exodus 15:14-16. Amplification and emphasis added.)
“For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In unrighteousness they suppress the Truth, because what can be known about God is plain to them—for God has shown it to them. His invisible attributes—His eternal power and His divine nature—have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world, being understood through the things that have been made. So people are without excuse—for even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks.
“Instead, their thinking became futile, and their senseless hearts were made dark. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image in the form of mortal man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Therefore God gave them over in the evil desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies with one another. They traded the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:18-25 TLV.)
So, in the light of all this, ponder this awesome text that was revealed to Israel… and through her… to all of us. Read it with ‘Covenant Eyes’:
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk WITHOUT MONEY AND WITHOUT COST. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and EAT WHAT IS GOOD, and delight yourself IN ABUNDANCE!
“Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT WITH YOU, according to the faithful mercies shown to David. Behold, I have made Him (My Word made flesh who is David’s Descendant) a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and Commander (The Covenant Representative and Champion) for the peoples.
“Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation which knows you not will run to you, because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; for (through His Chesed) He has glorified you.”
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him (your Blood Brother) while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his (Eros) way and the unrighteous man his (Eros) thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
“For My (Chesed/Agape) thoughts are not your (Eros) thoughts, nor are your (Eros) ways My (Chesed/Agape) ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My (Blood Covenant) ways higher than your (Self-adoring) ways and My (Covenant) thoughts than your (radically independent Self-serving) thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down (are freely-given) from Heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the (ever needy) sower and bread to the (always needy) eater; so will (the Eternal Divine Fullness that is in) My (LIVING) WORD be, which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
“For (because of what My Word is and what He has done in your name) you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a (Blood Covenant) memorial to the Lord, for an Everlasting Sign which will not be cut off!” (Isaiah 55:1-13, Amplification and emphasis added.)
Covenant Eyes enable us to see the depth of Covenant Love that permeates this and the other texts we’ve seen. When you see them from this Blood Covenant perspective, they are mind blowing in their Love saturated significance! And there are many other texts like these throughout the Bible. And so ‘Covenant Eyes’ help us to unpack the reason why God’s Love does not have to discriminate against even the most wicked, unlovable and undeserving humans.
His Love and Affection and Lovingkindness do not depend on us or on our always flaky and unreliable performances (which God knew in advance, would prove to be utterly inadequate and unworthy). God’s Perfect Self-less Love is His Nature! This is what He IS! This is the very reason why He deals with us exclusively through His Blood Covenant Pattern! He knows we can’t do anything to save or redeem or improve ourselves in our mortal, Sin-blasted condition. He has to do it all… in our name! And so He has!