God’s Eternal Blood Covenant Pattern
Lord, Open Our Covenant Eyes That We May See! – Part 1
So He brought me there; and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway. The man said to me, “Son of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and give attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see.” (Ezekiel 40:3-4. Emphasis added.)
Beloved Family… did you know that a huge percentage of the human population tries to live and ‘get ahead’ and ‘be safe’ and ‘prosper’ while laboring under an enormous, insurmountable handicap? Those who are unaware of this fact, are most likely among their number. The following texts will give us insight into what this handicap is.
“Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” (John 8:42-47)
“Again a division arose among the Judeans because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon. He’s insane! Why listen to Him?” Others said, “These are not the sayings of someone who is plagued by a demon. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can it?” (John 10:19-21)
Notice that throughout the Scriptures, we encounter two different groups of people. Most of them are from among God’s Chosen People Israel. But yet one group from among them sees something totally supernatural and ‘Godly’ in God’s Living and written Word. But the other larger group, despite knowing that the Word became flesh and was in their presence and performing miracles, they still refused to admit that there was something special and Godly about Him. For some reason or another, they really had no clue about what is going on before their unseeing eyes!
So what was the difference between those two groups? I believe the difference was that one group could see and hear the Reality that was before them, and the other group exemplified the very common malady that is called ‘Spiritual Blindness.’ In our series of articles on God’s Blood Covenant Pattern, we use the analogy of ‘Bush Eyes.’ Bush eyes signify the wisdom and skill level and sensitivity that enable African safari guides to lead people who are strangers, and who would quickly perish if left to their own devices, on safari trips throughout the wild African regions. And because of their ‘bush eyes’ the guides are able to bring clueless strangers through many dangers, safely and securely. So the term ‘bush eyes’ can be compared to the enormous assets of spiritual Wisdom and Discernment with which God’s Holy Spirit blesses and endows true disciples of our Messiah. And that is what we might call ‘Covenant Eyes.’
Seeing… Really Seeing… Requires Covenant Eyes
God’s Covenant World is truly a very mysterious realm to those who ‘cannot see.’ It lies beyond their reach because they are simply not equipped to grasp or understand anything pertaining to that dimension. But others can ‘see’ into that world. Their hearts have been pierced, penetrated and impregnated by the Reality and Truth of God’s Living Word. And, as we see in the texts above, those who could not ‘see’ were religious… and, like the Pharisees, some were even very knowledgeable concerning the Scriptures. Nevertheless, because they had not yet been pierced and penetrated by the Reality and Life of God’s Living Word, their knowledge did them no good. So they grumbled and lashed out in disbelief and anger and refused to acknowledge Yeshua for who He really is.
This is what every generation of the Lord’s disciples always have to deal with. They grasp the Reality that He was, in Truth, the Eternal Living Word of God made flesh! But many around them shrug their shoulders, or become angry and turn away whenever His Name is mentioned. It never dawns on them that the Living Word of Almighty God, the long-awaited Messiah of Israel Himself, took on our human nature, and identified with us so deeply, completely and intimately, that He served as our Eternal Blood Covenant Representative! He was right there, standing in front of His contemporaries… and yet, the Truth continued to fly right past them!
But because His disciples knew Him, and He had gained access to their hearts, knowing Him spoiled them for anything else. Never again were they able to return to their former radically independent existence. He was their new Home now! And so wherever He went, they were compelled to go with Him. And so it is with all of their successors.
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”(Matthew 13:16-17)
What the disciples saw and understood was enough to make them willing to ‘drop everything’ when He invited them to follow Him. And nothing could stop them from going wherever He chose to go. Once that illuminating flash of Truth pierced their hearts, there was suddenly nowhere else for them to go! He was now their new permanent Life… and their Home. And they knew they would always abide with Him, from that time forward, and on into Eternity.
But those who have not yet been pierced by His Reality have no clue about His true meaning and significance. They can’t see Him for who and what He really is. He is not their Lord and Master. And they refuse to belong to Him and will not abide with Him. And as long as that condition persists, they remain oblivious to what they’re missing. They can’t grasp the fact that God’s Living Word, through whom God creates and sustains everything in the universe, is here to abide with us. They can’t know that Almighty God became human… ‘one of us’… to such a degree that, although He was Sin-less in Himself, when He acted as our Representative in the New Covenant… He took all of our Sin, Guilt, Condemnation and Curses, and especially, our Death Penalty… upon Himself, so that they could become endowed with His Perfect Righteousness! They can’t realize that He became our guilt, shame, condemnation and Sin and took all of that with Him, into His death, and that He died in our name, ACTING AS US! They never realize that He set those of us whom He represents in God’s Covenant completely and eternally free from all the Sin-guilt, condemnation and curses to which we were justly liable… by His Perfect Atoning Execution. And so ignorance causes them to miss out on the privilege of having Him impart to them, an eternal unlimited share in the Covenant Blessings that are rightfully His, thanks to His Perfect Nature and Fullness, and thanks to the fact that through His Perfect Human nature, He rendered perfect and total obedience to His Eternal Heavenly Father, in our name!
“The Ruach (Holy Spirit) Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, also heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Messiah—if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”(Romans 8:16-17 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.)
So because Yeshua’s disciples did see these things, they had to follow Him! How could they not? Knowing what the New Covenant makes possible, how could they not allow God to graft them into that amazing Covenant? And so God imparts His own Holy Spirit into each of those believing, obedient disciples of His beloved Son. And the Spirit equips them to ‘See’ what those who reject God’s Living Word and refuse to believe and obey Him can never see, or understand and enjoy.
It’s similar to the difference between people with normal healthy human vision, as opposed to those who are born ‘color blind.’ Both groups see and observe the same things… but those who are blind to color, receive impressions that are faulty, incomplete, and misleading. When people around them describe ‘the beauty of a deep blue sky’ or the glory of the brilliant hues of reds, oranges, violet and deep azure blue, those fortunate people are saying they have eyes that enable them to see a breathtakingly marvelous sunset! But those who do not have such eyes, are always mostly ‘in the dark’ and they cannot conceive of or understand what the people around them keep raving about!
Worldly people are incapable of seeing the value, beauty, and power of God’s Blood Covenant ways… which draw us all together IN OUR MESSIAH… and MAKE US TO BE ONE IN HIM and so they choose instead to remain apart from us… and they hive and cluster together for reasons that are much shallower and are only temporary at best. So they feel compelled to discriminate, to sort people out by dividing them into groupings due to judgements based on external temporal considerations such as skin color, ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, gender, sexual preference, lifestyle, and social, financial or political status.
But no religion, philosophy or social experiment will ever have the power and ability to take all of those diverse sources that seethe with deep hatreds and divisions, and vendettas… and manage to coax their selfish, predatory hearts to be kind to each other, or become unified and unselfishly cooperative and ‘loving.’ No matter how hard they try to create their proposed Utopias, all efforts invariably fail. No human ‘Self-improvement’ program or technique or formula will ever transform our fallen self-adoring hearts into something other than the grasping, greedy mass of neediness that humans really are. Nothing man-made will ever redeem, cleanse, improve, or save fallen Mankind. Nothing created can improve itself. Thanks to Sin, we are already riddled with and under the inescapable influence and sentence of… DEATH! And only our Creator Himself has the Authority and Power that are capable of making us into brand new creations, made according to God’s Perfect Specifications for Humanity.
Our only hope lies in the Death-defying Solution that the Creator of all things… the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the God who reveals Himself to us in and through the Bible, can offer to us. The Bible is the written Word that God has provided, by which He reveals and explains the Reality and Significance of His creative Living Word! He is the same Living Word through which God creates and sustains everything. And He sent His Word to become one of us… to take on our human nature and our flesh… so that He could legally represent us in God’s Eternal Blood Covenant REMEDY!
And through this Covenant… God does not merely try to ‘improve’ us. As we said, you can’t improve, or give hope to, something that is already ‘DEAD in trespasses and sins!’ But God deals with all that through the awesome Reality of – RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD! He is the Supreme, Omnipotent, All-Authoritative Creator of all things! And He uses His Authority and Power to ‘create us anew,’ to regenerate and endow us with a brand new, Eternal Life… that only He can impart. And He does this through His Living Word made flesh… through the New and Eternal Blood Covenant Pattern that He revealed to the world in and through His written Word.
And there is a stark contrast between the two Covenants, and what we are by nature, and what we can become by God’s Grace. Redeemed, recreated humans are light years removed from what unredeemed natural humans are made of and destined for. Scripture contrasts the two by using terms like ‘Spirit’ and ‘Flesh’ or Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Salvation and Perdition. And, in Blood Covenant terms, God makes a distinction between those who are only born of the First Adam as opposed to those who are regenerated or ‘born again’ in and by Messiah Yeshua, The Last Adam.
Seeing the Visible AND Invisible Worlds Through Covenant Eyes
In other articles we mentioned the prophet Elisha and his young servant or apprentice. In 2 Kings 6: 8-19, we see that when the town they were in was surrounded by a hostile army that had been sent to hunt Elisha down, his servant panicked. And Elisha prayed and asked God to enable him to see. And suddenly the young man’s spiritual eyes were opened and he saw the mighty hosts of Heaven with their chariots of fire surrounding and protecting Elisha. And Elisha’s ‘Covenant Eyes’ enabled him to deal with the enemies that had been sent to apprehend him in a marvelous way.
And in the following text, we see more of that difference between those who can ‘see into this most awesome and mysterious Heavenly World’ and those who cannot. The difference is obvious. And it’s also obvious which of the two groups has a great advantage over the other:
“On that day after Yeshua left the house, He was sitting by the sea. And large crowds gathered around Him; so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the shore. And He told them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a sower went out to spread some seed. As he was scattering the seed, some seeds fell by the road; and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil. They sprang up immediately, because the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, they were scorched; and because they had no roots, they withered away. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew and choked them out. But others fell on good soil and were producing fruit. They yielded a crop—some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
“Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
“And He replied to them, “To you has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given and he will have plenty. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables,
“Because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing but will never understand; you will keep looking, but will never see. For the heart of this people has become dull, their ears can barely hear, and they have shut their eyes.Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts. Then they would turn back, and I would heal them!’
“But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear! Amen, I tell you, many a prophet and tzaddik (holy person) longed to see what you are seeing and did not see, and to hear what you are hearing and did not hear.” (Matthew 13:1-17. Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, texts like these express the vast ‘difference’ between those who have been regenerated by the Authority of God’s Living Word, and His New Covenant… and those who remain condemned by the penalties that have been accrued by the Covenant violation of the First Adam, our original human father. The regenerated ones have the right and ability to develop Holy Spirit-given ‘Covenant Eyes.’ But not those who do not yet know or believe or trust and obey God’s Living Word made flesh. They remain stuck with the natural, highly damaged and highly limited ‘earthly eyes’ that are natural to those who are not privy to God’s New Covenant privileges and endowments.
To put this in very practical and up-to-date terms, let’s recall the recent world-wide Covid-19 pandemic scare. Remember… the ‘herd mentality’ panic that was aroused in so many people, by the horror stories of what MIGHT happen? Fear and dread were generated endlessly by the world’s media ‘talking heads’ and medical know-it-alls and ‘experts.’ The dire scenarios they injected into people all around the world created a miasma of ‘social paranoia’, ‘germophobia’, and a sense of imminent ‘doom and gloom.’ Panic drove millions upon millions to grocery stores, so that they could ‘snap up’ and hoard enough toilet paper and various foodstuffs to last them for, literally, years!
That was the very same knee-jerk fear reaction that instinctively filled the heart of Elisha’s young servant! It was that ‘fright and flight’ panic instinct that is natural to every fallen Sin-corrupted child of the First Adam. The unredeemed Spirit-less portion of the human race continues to languish under the curses of the broken Covenant brought upon us all by the violation of it caused by our first parents. And they know they’re going to die eventually… and they can’t stand the thought of that disastrous outcome. They know in their hearts that we were all made to live eternally!
“He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP, Emphasis added)
We were never intended to fall into Death and Eternal Desolation! We were meant to be fulfilled and everlastingly Content! But the fall of the First Adam wrenched all of that awesome birthright out of our hands… and destroyed all of our future prospects. Thus those still living under the broken Covenant of the fallen First Adam are like whipped slaves, tossed, to and fro, and helplessly doomed by their earthly circumstances and situations.
“Then to the man He said, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate of the tree which I commanded you, saying, ‘You must not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground because of you— with pain will you eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles will sprout for you. You will eat the plants of the field, by the sweat of your brow will you eat food, until you return to the ground, since from it were you taken. For you are dust, and to dust will you return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)
Beloved friends… these curses promise humans a life of total frustration. And that is what continues to plague the life of each unregenerate child of fallen Adam who has not yet heard, or understood, or believed and obeyed the awesome invitation God gives to everyone, without exception… to make our Exodus from the broken cursed Covenant of the First Adam… over to the Perfect, Eternal, Completely Fulfilled New Covenant of the Last Adam – God’s Living Word. We have the Guarantee, through the Holy Spirit, that we too will share in His Resurrection Glory and Perfection… and we will abide IN HIM… FOREVER!
“So from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Messiah according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know Him this way. Therefore IF ANYONE IS IN MESSIAH, HE IS A NEW CREATION! The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new! Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Messiah and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:16-18 TLV. Emphasis added.)
New Creation Equipping for Last Days Disciples
Part of the New Creation ‘equipment’ that comes from the New Covenant indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit, is the ability to operate out of the obedience of faith. What faith? The faith that God equips us to constantly place upon His Word. If we receive the ability to obey Him, and believe Him, and rely totally upon His Absolute Authority, Veracity, Credibility and Reliability… He becomes the Source of the Fulfillment of all that God originally revealed and promised to us in His written Word. So our Covenantal Holy Spirit connection with our risen Messiah is the Doorway that leads us into all of the Fulfillment that God has always intended to shower upon His beloved human image and likeness… since before time began! God’s Living Word becomes our Spirit-imparted Ability to receive everything we will ever need!
New Covenant disciples are to be taught and trained to live on that Eternal, Heavenly, New Covenant, One-with-God level… and to realize that they died, once and for all, to the original, radically independent ways of seeing, thinking, acting, reacting and interacting that we all inherited from fallen Adam. The nature and ways of Adam are the natural legacy passed onto us at conception, and that causes our blindness and deafness to God, spiritually speaking. And our regeneration and new birth in our Messiah makes new creations of us, equipping us to have access to whatever the New Covenant makes available to God’s regenerated sons. So, if we humbly and wholeheartedly accept the Good News of the Gospel of the Word made flesh… The Truth that God’s Word contains in Himself… pierces, penetrates and impregnates our innermost spiritual being… and brings us to Life… Life that comes to us FROM our risen Messiah… along with a full share in all the Covenant Blessings that He has earned for us!
So, for those of us who are New Covenant disciples of the Last Days… this kind of ‘inside information’ is absolutely necessary! We dare not venture into the Last Days combat against the powers of Darkness in our original spiritually blind state. We must be fully trained and equipped and aware of all of our spiritual and earthly surroundings. We’ll need the equivalent of ‘Night Vision Goggles’ so we can see what the unprepared and ill-equipped will never be able to see. If we have that indispensable spiritual equipment… we will see into the Heavenly realms… and can access all the power, reinforcing resources, and endless supply that is truly at the disposal of those who have the eyes to see it. And when we can access what God has made available to us, we can also see the demonic traps and snares and navigate around and past them. And we’ll be able to persevere and overcome, no matter what the powers of Darkness may try to throw against us.
We must also be fortified with an unshakable inner assurance, before we engage the enemy, with our Spirit-filled spirits continually filled, fueled, surrounded and protected by Almighty God Himself! We must KNOW FOR SURE that we are included and grafted into the New Covenant that God has made with Israel… through His beloved Son. We must be utterly convinced that we are already abiding with and IN our Resurrected Messiah… and that we are also IN God… WITH YESHUA! And we must know that our Messiah will appear once more upon the Earth… AND THAT WE WILL ACCOMPANY THE MESSIAH KING OF ISRAEL… THE CONQUEROR OF SATAN, SIN AND DEATH… INTO HIS ETERNAL EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY TRIUMPH!
It will be up to each one of us to feed this awesome New Covenant Reality and Truth Information to our own brains and nervous systems. In other words, we must feed and ‘download’ this Reality that is in our new Spirit-empowered ‘Operating System’ into our personal mental onboard computers. The marvelous equipment that God put into each one of us will only listen to and heed its human owner and operator. So the repentance process is up to us. Our equipment will not even listen to God! Because if we should dare to contradict what God says, the equipment will listen to us and reject what God has revealed as ‘false.’ So beloved friends, we have a tremendous responsibility to make sure that our attitude and reactions to God and His Word are always in perfect alignment and synchronization with the mind, heart and will of our Heavenly Father!
“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. YOUR Kingdom come. YOUR will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”](Matthew 6:9-13. Emphasis added.)
Before we can engage in spiritual combat with the powers of Darkness, we must be filled and fueled to overflowing with the Heavenly Realities that the New Covenant imparts to us and with which God wants us to be perpetually filled. If we are filled with Yeshua’s Fullness, we’ll constantly overflow with all of the Covenant Blessings that He and the Holy Spirit always make available. And so God will not only be able to bless us, but He will also be able to bless anyone who may happen to be around us! Our Last Days disciple Boot Camp Training regimens MUST transform us into disciples that are able to access what God has for us in Heaven… and through our faith, receive all of that from the Holy Spirit and be able to use it and share it here on Earth.
When we do that, we can serve as the living EXAMPLES AND TRUSTWORTHY GUIDES… THE EMBODIMENT of what God is conveying to us through these inspired words of His Self-Revelation and Covenant Promises. If the world sees that we have it and can use it to overcome the powers of Darkness… they too will begin to want it and feel a desperate need to have it:
“He who dwells in the shelter of Elyon, will abide in the shadow of Shaddai. I will say of Adonai, “He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God, in whom I trust. For He will rescue you from the hunter’s trap and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers (of Eternal Lovingkindness), and under His (Blood Covenant) wings you will find refuge. His (Blood Brother) faithfulness is body armor and shield.
“You will not fear the terror by night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the plague that stalks in darkness, nor the scourge that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
“You will only look on with your eyes and see the wicked paid back. For you have made Elyon your dwelling, even Adonai, who is my refuge, so no evil will befall you nor any plague come near your tent.
“For He will give His angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways. Upon their hands they will lift you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, trample the young lion and serpent.
“Because he has devoted his (Covenant embracing) love to Me, I will deliver him. I will set him securely on high, because he knows My Name. When he calls on Me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, rescue him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My Salvation.” (Psalm 91 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.)
The Importance of Seeing Blood Covenants Through Middle Eastern Eyes
This psalm expresses the Blood Covenant Guarantee God’s Promises make available to us. And, since the Bible comes out of the Middle East and the cultures and mentalities that are common to it, we must consider the blood covenant pattern and mentality as they are universally understood by the peoples of that region. For example, let’s consider the Arab desert nomads that traverse the deserts of that part of the world. This will help us grasp the significance and meaning of what God reveals about His Nature, Character and Disposition, when He tells us in Middle Eastern terms, that He is a Covenant-making and Covenant-keeping God. By becoming acquainted with how covenants are esteemed and honored by the peoples of the Middle East, we will better understand what God intended to reveal about Himself by using the Middle Eastern sentiments that are expressed in the Bible.
“Sing, barren one, who has not given birth. Burst into singing and shout, you who have not travailed. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married one,” says Adonai.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch out your tabernacle curtains. Do not hold back –lengthen your cords,strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right hand and to the left. Your offspring will possess the nations and will resettle the desolate cities.” (Isaiah 54:1-3 TLV. Emphasis added.)
Imagine this scenario:
You are stranded amid a vast expanse of a Middle Eastern desert. You come from a distant land and culture that is alien to the people who are occasionally encountered in this vicinity. You’ve run out of supplies and have lost your means of transportation. So now, you’re on foot, with no food or water… and your survival time appears to be quickly running out.
But one thing you were told remains foremost in your mind. Someone said that if you ever happen to be lost and without resources in this region… if you can manage to find the tent of a Bedouin, and grab hold of one of his tent cords… your troubles will be over.
So, following that advice, you scan the distant horizon for some sign of a Bedouin settlement… and finally, you see some dark specks in the distance… tents… and you stagger in their direction. And when you arrive at one of the tents… you grab hold of one of the cords… just as a man comes out through the opening of that tent. He looks at you and sees that you have hold of his tent cord. And so now, because he’s a Bedouin, and is steeped in the culture and customs of that region, this is how he interprets your action and reacts to your presence:
He sees you as a ‘gift from his god.’ His god has entrusted him, and his family, with the great honor of lavishing the most heartfelt, generous consideration and hospitality of which they are capable! Why is this? It’s because their minds have been formed by the blood covenant pattern. And according to that, whatever they do to you, a stranger asking for their help, they are doing to their god! For their god is visiting and revealing himself to them, through you!
And so, they welcome you into their tent… although you, in yourself, are a stranger and an alien and may naturally be offensive to their sensibilities! And even if you proved to be their enemy in the past… they will still offer you whatever cleansing and refreshment you may need… and they will gladly make you as comfortable as possible… and wait on you hand and foot. They will give you the best food and drink they have… even if your host has to go hungry! And they will offer you the best sleeping accommodation they have, even if someone in the family has to sleep on the bare ground! And you will be able to stay for as long as you want… and they will never ask you about your time of departure. And all the while you are under the folds of their tent… they will protect you and even fight to defend you from any outside attackers… even if it is at the cost of their own lives! Why? Because, to them, you are a gift from god… a test by which they can prove how much they love and care for their deity! And they will always deal with you on that basis as long as you remain as their uninvited guest!
Seeing One Another as Gifts from God
This is how the blood covenant mentality of the Middle East has always taught people to see and think and act since the dawn of human history! Remember that saying we mentioned elsewhere, ‘Blood is thicker than milk!’ That is to say, that blood covenant bonds and obligations go deeper and override and cancel out merely natural bonds and obligations! In other words, if you have natural siblings who were born to the same mother and who all shared her milk as infants, and if you made a blood covenant with a stranger, your ties to that stranger, and your obligations to him, would be far deeper and stronger than your natural ties and obligations to your siblings! That’s what the statement, ‘Blood is thicker than milk,’ means. So, to people with that mentality… when you tell them that the Almighty God that you serve has sent you to announce to them that He invites them to grab hold of the cord of His Tent… you are REALLY announcing something of stupendous importance, that holds unspeakable value, authority, power and opportunity for their everlasting wellbeing! They will know how eager God will be to receive them and cover them and provide for their every need.
This is what the Blood Covenant Pattern God uses is meant to convey to people of all regions, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds all around the world! He loves and wants them all! This is the depth of Blood Covenant Lovingkindness and Loyalty that Almighty God wants to bestow upon each and every one of His prospective Blood Covenant friends! In His Infinite Perfection and Eternal Faithfulness, there is nothing that He is, or has, that He will ever hold back from any of us! So He will always be giving all of Himself to you. And you will always be welcome to all the Fullness that is in Him. All you have to do is ask, on His Blood Covenant basis, and He will be more than pleased and happy to bestow whatever you may need, or ask for, upon you.
And, as a result of how much He intends to give of Himself to you… you can then understand why He wants you to be as He is… and to do as He does with you… in your dealings with your other human brothers and sisters. He wants all of them, without exception, to grab the cords of His Tent! And so He entrusts you, who are now His Blood brother… with the privilege and honor of speaking to them IN HIS NAME, to tell them and invite them to do just as you have already done. And He wants you to tell everyone about what you have already experienced with Him and His ways… and what it means to you to live as one of His ‘Blood brothers’… through His Living Word made flesh. He entrusts His reputation, and that of His beloved Son, His Word, to your example and testimony… because He and His Word and you, are Blood brothers to each other.
Dear ones… do you see it? Do you see how ‘hot blooded’ and ‘passionate’ God’s outreach and invitation is to us? Can you begin to sense the infinite depths of how kind, and warm-hearted and generous and forbearing God will be with anyone who is wise enough to grab hold of the cords of His tent? And can you see how wholeheartedly He wants you to react when someone grabs hold of a cord of your tent… now that you and God are ‘Blood brothers’? He wants you to be and do for them, what you already know He is, and does, for you!
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength! These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Emphasis added.)
Look at the people around you. Notice how much loneliness, distress and stress they are feeling during these Last Days. Your Covenant God wants to take them all in… to be kind and gracious to them… to shower all of His Blessings upon them… THROUGH YOU! And just as He wholeheartedly embraced and welcomes you into His Tent… now, because you and He are ‘Blood brothers’… it is your responsibility and obligation and opportunity to do the same for anyone that His Holy Spirit may lead to your tent, and prompt him or her to grab one of its cords. And you are to see them, through the same ‘Covenant Eyes’ with which Almighty God sees you! That person will be God’s gift to you… and you will be able to prove what your Covenant God means to you, by the way you treat the ‘human test person(s)’ that He entrusts to your care!
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You? Or thirsty and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger and invite You in? Or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
“And answering, the King will say to them, ‘Amen, I tell you, whatever you did to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Go away from Me, you cursed ones, into the everlasting fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they too will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not care for You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Amen, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ These shall go off to everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.” (Matthew 25:34-46. Emphasis added.)
So… hopefully it’s now easier for us to understand what the people that we see all around us are up against. They are not yet equipped to ‘see’ or know our God, nor are they familiar with His Blood Covenant ways. They do not know what happens when a person hears His call and accepts His ‘Marriage Proposal’… and becomes eternally one with Him. And because they do not know or understand, they are currently unable to accept what He offers. And so they abide in the Darkness… bereft of the Holy Spirit… blind, deaf, dumb… and totally ill-equipped to see what you see, know what you know, and to have what you have!
So… who’s going to tell them? Who’s going to be there to demonstrate how the Covenant works and show them the Way… into the Truth… and into the Eternal Life Father yearns to give to them through His Son? Who will be there to demonstrate the Love and the Life that is in our Heavenly Father? Who else could it be, except for those blessed, most fortunate humans who are already endowed and filled with the same Life and Light and Covenant Love that is being poured into them at all times… by the Living Word of God and His Holy Spirit?
In light of this reality, how should we Last Days disciples respond to the people around us? Should we try to take the place of God and personally strive to cram put some of what God has given to us into their intellectual soulish throats? Do you think that will ‘work’? Or would it be better if we drew and directed them straight to God’s tent so that we can show them how to do what we have already done? Wouldn’t that be better? It certainly won’t do any good if we turn our back on them, or shame and blame them for being so terribly blind, dense and clueless! Or maybe we could ignore them altogether… and hive and cluster among our own… preaching and teaching in the hearing of those who already believe and think in ways similar to the way we think and believe? Wouldn’t that be easier on us? It won’t be easier if we remember God’s Blood Covenant Pattern.
Remember: whatever we do to our own brethren in the faith… WE DO TO HIM! Therefore, our relationships and ongoing interactions with each other are meant to serve as our testimony to the rest of the world. We are not sent out to ‘mouth’ human words to people that are not yet equipped to understand and process them! We are equipped and commissioned to reveal and radiate God’s Living Word… as the Holy Spirit renders Him present in the flesh… IN OUR FLESH… before the eyes of the unbelieving world. Instead of blabbing messages at them… God requires us to BE transmitters of GOD’S MESSAGE… HIS LIVING WORD… WHO IS PRESENT ON EARTH ONCE MORE… IN AND THROUGH OUR FLESH!
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt should lose its flavor (is not actually being applied in real life), how shall it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
“You are the Light of the world! A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on a lampstand (their own personal example) so it gives Light to all in the house! In the same way, let your Light shine before men so they may see your good (Spirit-imparted) works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.