Genesis 15 Our Blood Covenant

   Well, we made it to Wednesday, how is your week going? Our week has started with mixed results as Madeline fell ill with a bad cold yesterday. My new-to-me truck is doing better with the carburetor, but is still not really running at full power; the vacuum secondary is not fully functional at this time. I will study the factory service manual a bit more on the vacuum line system and see if I can determine the problem. I did some work on the nesting boxes on our chicken coop yesterday. This will allow for better hygiene in that area, but the silly chickens were scared of the change, and three of them did not go in before the automatic door closed at dusk. To keep them from becoming the main course for any predators, I went out and rounded them up and put them away for the night. The other nine did fine; there are always a few that are not quite up to the challenges of life! Well, thank you for this little personal indulgence as I share a bit with you about the goings on here on The Little Hundred Acre Wood! 

   Now let’s move on to The Daily Bible Challenge as we dig into Genesis 15 and the blood covenant between God and Abram. First of all, what is a blood covenant? It is an oath that each party swears that if they break their oath to the other that they too will be cut in pieces like the animals involved in this gruesome ritual. God and Abram had such an oath about Abram’s future offspring and descendants. But it was interesting to me that only God sealed this oath by walking through the path between the dead animals. I guess God was making sure that Abram could not try to earn any of the reward coming to him, or satan could not use Abram's pride against him this way. Oh, as you listen/read, the smoking oven and flaming torch symbolize God passing through the path to seal the covenant. Abram was apparently asleep at the time. 

    We too have an oath with God, His son Jesus shed the blood for our blood covenant, but we have to enter into this oath ceremony by accepting God’s gift for us. We do that through a statement of faith that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah and that He died to wash away our sins and then rose from the dead on the third day to symbolise our new life in Christ. This declaration of faith is the beginning of this oath ceremony, but don’t let satan try to use your pride to drive a wedge! We did nothing to deserve or earn any of this grace offered by God for us, just as Abram didn’t do anything to seal his part of the blood covenant with God in Genesis 15. God’s promise to us isn’t dependent on us changing and becoming a “perfect” person. We are only perfected through the actions of Jesus, not our own! Yes, we start to live a life in a process of sanctification, learning how to be God honoring in all we do, but understanding that we cannot be perfected until heaven. We will stumble and fall occasionally (maybe even daily), but Jesus’ blood will wash us clean to someday be before God in a robe white as snow washed by the blood of Jesus! We don’t deserve this, but God’s love for us grants us this grace and forgiveness. If you want to know more about starting a new life in Christ, please don’t hesitate to reach out and talk with us about how to begin this oath ceremony.   

   Talk with you soon!


https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nasb_n&b=1&c=15

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