Such blood agreements were very serious in
Abram’s day. That is why God chose to make a
covenant with him. He wanted to convince
Abram that His promises were true. He wanted
him to understand that the great El Shaddai
desired an unbreakable relationship with him and
with his children after him. God wanted Abram to
know (without a doubt) that He loved him and
that He would care for him, not because He had
to, but because He wanted to. By making blood
covenant with him, Almighty God proved that He
wanted to exchange His strength, His weapons
and His authority with Abram. He proved that He
wanted to bless man for a thousand generations.

Romans 4:21 tells us that Abram got the message.
He became fully persuaded that God was
able to perform that which He had promised,
and his life was never the same again. Even his
very name was changed to Abraham, meaning
“father of many nations.” And eventually Isaac,
the long-awaited son of promise, was born to
Abraham and his wife, Sarah.

Years after Isaac’s birth, that covenant was still
strong in Abraham’s mind. And nothing—not
even a request from God Himself—could shake
his confidence. We see this in Genesis 22. There
God asks Abraham to place his only son on the
altar and sacrifice him. How could He do this
after promising Abraham that he would become
the father of many nations through this son?

We would expect Abraham to be distraught
over such a request. We would expect him to
wring his hands and pace the floor all night in
grief and anguish. But we’re not as covenantminded
as Abraham was.

Abraham was confident in his covenant. He
went to sleep that night and rose up early the
next morning ready to go. And when he took
Isaac up on the mountain of sacrifice, he turned
to his servant and said, “Wait here—the boy and
I will be back.” He had a covenant!

Hebrews 11:17-19 says that Abraham, by
faith, had already received Isaac raised from the
dead. God had promised him Isaac would make
him the father of many nations, and he knew
God could not possibly break that promise. Even
though he’d never seen or heard of such a thing,
Abraham reasoned that God would just raise
Isaac back up from the dead if He had to. He
knew that God would do whatever it took to
keep their covenant.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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In Abram’s day, the blood covenant signified an
absolute and unbreakable guarantee of a man’s
word. Nothing short of a blood agreement could
have convinced Abram of God’s desire to bless
him. By cutting the covenant with him, Almighty
God communicated His unfailing love and fidelity
on a level Abram could understand. God was establishing
a love relationship with him that could not
be broken without the penalty of death.

In order to see just how that covenant compares
to the one we have with the Father today,
we need to see what the covenant God cut with
Abram involved. That way we can begin to see
clearly why ours is even better.

In Abram’s society, when two families made
covenant together, they gave to one another
everything they had and all they represented.
They were no longer two, but one. Families
bound themselves together in blood agreements
in order to fill in the gaps created by each other’s
weaknesses and needs. Where the first tribe was
strong, the second was weak. Where the second
tribe was strong, the first was weak. Together,
they were both strong.

These two families drew up the terms of
their agreement and discussed them until each
article was fully and mutually agreeable. Then
they chose representatives and a place to cut
the covenant.

As they prepared for the solemn ceremony, at
least three large animals were sacrificed. Their
carcasses were split down the spine, and the
halves were placed on the ground opposite each
other. The result was a trail of blood between the
halves. This path was called “the way of blood.”

When the covenant ceremony began, the two
representatives exchanged their coats. This signified
the mutual exchange of authority. By this
act the covenant representatives were saying,
“All that I do, all that I have is now yours.”

Next the covenant representatives exchanged
their weapons. Through this they were saying,
“My strength is now your strength. Your enemies
are now my enemies.”

After the coats and weapons were exchanged,
then came the walk of blood. Twice the representatives
walked through “the way of blood,” stopping
in the center. There they pronounced their pledges
of loyalty, making promises to each other that
could never be broken. This pronouncement was
called “the blessing of the covenant.”

A curse was also pronounced. The curse was
the penalty for breaking the terms of the agreement.
They swore by their god, thereby making
him third party to the covenant.

Next came the cut of the covenant. The
representatives cut their hands and wrists and
bound their wrists together so that their blood
would intermingle.

After their loyalty was sworn to each other, the
families joined their names together as a permanent
sign that they had become one. Finally, they
ate a covenant meal of bread and wine together.
The bread signified their flesh, and the wine signified
their blood. The covenant meal represented
their willingness and commitment to lay down
their lives for each other.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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Israel was a nation that lived by and relied on
their covenant with God. Those who knew their
God and the integrity of their covenant with Him
were mighty and did exploits in His Name.

David was a prime example. He credited his
covenant with God as the power behind his
ability to slay the lion, the bear and the giant. In
1 Samuel 17:26-37, we find David assuring King
Saul that he was well able to slay Goliath. “Who
is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should
defy the armies of the living God?… The Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and
out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out
of the hand of this Philistine” (verses 26, 37).

Circumcision was the sign of the covenant. By
calling Goliath uncircumcised, David was making
this very pointed statement: He may be a giant;
he may be strong; but he has no covenant with
God, and that’s why I can kill him. Of course,
you know the rest of the story. David bravely
slew Goliath in the Name of the Lord—because
of his covenant.

The book of Hebrews promises that we have
an even better covenant than David had. Our
covenant has better promises. But to know exactly
how much better they are, we must understand
what the promises of the old covenant were.

The covenant David stood on was made long
before he ever faced the giant. God established it
with a man called Abram. He promised to make
Abram the father of many nations. He promised
to give him a great deal of land as an inheritance
so his descendents could live peacefully on it.
And in Deuteronomy 28, you will find more very
specific promises that God made to Abram’s
descendents—promises of health, well-being,
blessing and victory.

These were very awesome promises. It was
hard for Abram to believe God actually wanted to
do these things for him. In Genesis 15, we read
how God made a blood agreement with Abram in
order to convince Abram once and for all that He
meant what He said. Abram asked, “How shall I
know that I will inherit this land?” The Lord
answered by telling him to prepare for a blood
covenant. He said, “Take me an heifer of three
years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a
ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a
young pigeon. And he took unto him all these,
and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece
one against another: but the birds divided he not”
(Genesis 15:9-10).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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