Marriage: Contract or Covenant?

Is Your marriage a contract or a covenant?

We recently attended a marriage enrichment gathering called Weekend to Remember (which we highly recommend). As the speakers shared, I was again struck by the need for us to know the difference between a contract and a covenant.

A contract is a legal agreement between two parties, with specific conditions outlined for each party. They are legally bound to the pact, but if one party decides they no longer want the contract, they can break it.

God considers marriage to be not just a covenant, but a blood covenant, It involves the sharing of life to seal the agreement. It’s a life-long commitmen and is the strongest legal pact between two parties, which is binding for the lives of those involved. It includes a promise of loyalty, and the sharing of life, protection, and possessions. The two become one with two expressions.

Our marriage ceremony includes many traditions that evolved from the ancient ceremony of cutting a covenant, but the understanding and the commitments made by the wedding couple today more closely resemble making a contract. If they become dissatisfied with the arrangement because it isn’t meeting personal felt needs, it’s easy to break the contract and move on.

A covenant marriage is a legal commitment of love, loyalty, and sharing life together “as long as we both shall live,” or “until death do us part.” There is no separation clause as long as the two are faithful. Marriage is not just a contract. It was intended by God to be a blood covenant.

In Ephesians 5:31-32, Paul describes marriage as the two becoming one flesh, calls it a great mystery, and compares it to Christ and the church.

Therefore, we need to understand that while a covenant marriage has many benefits for us, it has a greater, much more eternal purpose. It is to glorify God by modeling the relationship between Christ and the church. It is to be a visible testimony of God’s relationship to His earthly family.

If you’d like to know more about Blood Covenant, check out The Great Exchange: Bound by Blood, which explores the ancient ritual of cutting a blood covenant. It explores the seven commitments, or exchanges, that comprise the ancient ritual and the significance of each one. In addition, it explains how these ancient rituals are still part of the marriage ceremony today.

In addition it studies the beginning of the covenant between God and mankind and reveals how that covenant was passed down and remained strong through the generations as God remained faithful to His covenant promises.

(If you struggle with reading, contact us about having a seminar or private tutoring. We believe this truth will enhance your understanding of how much God loves and cares for you.)

Walking in Covenant with the Living God

As Jesus a Image result for images of the lord's supper nd His disciples sat around their final Passover meal together, Jesus took
bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to His disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is My body” (Mt. 26:26).

Eat my body? What did Jesus mean when He told His disciples to eat His body?

As if that is not strange enough, He then took a cup of wine, gave thanks and said, “Drink from it all of you, for this is My blood . . .” (Mt. 26:27-28a).

When telling parables, Jesus frequently explained what they meant. If He didn’t, the disciples often asked. However, Jesus didn’t explain what He meant in this scene. And nobody asked.

Nobody questioned because they knew exactly what Jesus intended. No further explanation was needed. Jesus was inviting His disciples to join Him in a blood covenant.

The ancient rite of cutting a blood covenant was familiar in their society. His followers knew the ritual and understood the significance of eating flesh and drinking blood as an important step of a covenant ritual.

A blood covenant is the most binding of agreements. In the East, a friend by covenant is closer than a brother by birth. In some cultures, a marriage between those whose parents were linked by a blood covenant was deemed incestuous. (H. Clay Trumbull, The Blood Covenant: A Primitive Rite and It’s Bearing on Scripture, 1893).

In history, literature, and in scripture, there are many records of making covenants. However, over the centuries, crucial elements have been omitted or changed, leaving only semblances of the ancient ritual today. Although the concept of covenant is almost unknown in the Western world today, during biblical time, it was a common practice all over the world. Everyone understood the exchanges of covenant and the significance of each exchange.

In Greek, a single word is translated as “covenant” or “testament.” The very names “Old Testament/Covenant” and “New Testament/Covenant” tell us that covenant is the central theme of God’s Word to us, and yet many of God’s people have been oblivious to the significance of the covenant for centuries.

A blood covenant forms the closest relationship possible. In the Old Covenant, the almighty God committed Himself to be Abraham’s God, walking in close fellowship with Him, sharing His all with him.

Over and over, God has proved Himself faithful to the covenant, because of His great desire to walk in intimate fellowship with mankind. When Abraham’s descendants were not able to keep up their end of the covenant, God proved His faithfulness by establishing a better covenant through His only Son, Jesus.

Through Jesus Christ, the holy, almighty, living God has done everything to make it possible for us to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him.

And yet, while we long for close relationships, for someone to really love and care for us, instead of responding to God’s love, we tend to look around us to fill that longing. We chase a tainted shadow rather than embracing the only One who has covenanted Himself to meet our every need.

Learning the exchanges of the ancient ritual and what each one symbolizes and then seeing them in Scripture and God’s faithfulness to keep His promises (in spite of our unfaithfulness) exploded my knowledge of who God is and anchored me in the knowledge of His love.

When I try to express the greatness of His love, I don’t have words to begin because it’s too big. When I focus on it, I become overwhelmed with His goodness, mercy, and compassion. His love and goodness is too big to express.

And yet, instead of seeking God, even those of us who know Jesus often look to each other, to entertainment, sports, things, popularity, power, and . . .—to empty, temporal sources that will never satisfy. We are so distracted by our wants that we miss the One who can satisfy those desires.

The great and powerful God not only desires an intimate relationship with you and me, He has committed Himself to make it happen. With the most binding agreement possible, He has promised (covenanted) His all to us, if we will give our all to Him in return.

That’s what covenant is—except there’s so much more when we give our limited, sinful self in exchange for His awesome greatness. It is truly the greatest exchange of all times, and Jesus continues to say, “Take, eat, this is my body.” He wants to be one with us.

The question is whether or not we are willing to make that exchange, and to live in it daily.

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Learn more about the exchanges of the ancient ritual what it means to walk in covenant with the living God.

Are You Looking for a Mountain Top Transformation?

In 1975 Robert and I visited Reichardt and Elizabeth Taylor, who were missionaries in Uruaçu, Brazil. Robert was overseeing five churches in central Brazil at the time, and conversation turned to his concern about the lack of enthusiasm and spiritual hunger of so many long-time Christians. He also shared his frustration and discouragement concerning how to encourage on-going vital faith in the church.

In response, Reighardt said, “Maybe this will help,” and gave him a set of cassette tapes by Malcolm Smith. He wondered how a series on the blood covenant could minister to him, but he expressed gratitude and looked forward to listening to them.

Image result for image of morro agudo, brazil He took the tapes with him on a trip to a little church at Morro Agudo (Pointed Hill) in rural Brazil. He arrived a couple of hours early, so he trudged up the hill, climbed a tree at the top, and settled into the crook of a limb overlooking the countryside below.

As he listened to the first cassette on his portable recorder, his heart erupted in praise. He nearly fell out of the tree with excitement over the new insights he gained into once-obscure Scripture verses from Jesus’ last days and the Lord’s Supper.

Perched on that hilltop, Robert’s view expanded, and his walk with the Lord was transformed. He saw more clearly who he was/is in Christ and the nature of the relationship with Him. His new understanding of the ancient ritual of blood covenanting helped him understand what it means to be one with the living God.

Studying the ancient rite of cutting a blood covenant, biblical heroes that learned to walk in covenant—as well as those who didn’t, and numerous hidden references to the covenant throughout the Scriptures continued to quicken our lives. It also led to a deep desire that all who desire to grow in the Lord could learn about the ancient ritual and its significance for us today.

Robert was seeking help for the church, but God began with him–and me. Together, we have researched, studied, and been transformed by the amazing truths about God illustrated through covenant. We’ve also been challenged by seeing in the Word the victorious lives of those who were faithful to covenant and the pitfalls we face when we turn our backs on our covenant God. The almighty, holy God loves us and wants to have an intimate relationship with us.

We are facing uncertain times. Christians need something concrete to stand on, and we believe a deeper understanding of our relationship with a covenant God will provide that foundation. We believe your life can be transformed, even as ours was.

Our hope and prayer is that you will read The Great Exchange: Bound by Blood, our book on the blood covenant, and that the insights you gain will impact your faith and transform your lives, as it has ours.

You can learn more on our website, and can buy the book wherever books are sold.

(Picture credits: www.panoramio.com)

A Mountain or a Mole Hill?

How many times have you heard the expression, “You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill”? Some of us tend to do that more than others. Those who do are probably more familiar with the charge.

We’re probably all occasionally guilty of over-reacting and blowing something out of proportion. It might be about what to fix for supper, what to wear, or a reaction to what somebody said or did. Issues change, but it’s easy to get overly concerned about things that don’t matter in the big scheme of things.

Robert tends to focus on minutia in how things are worded, at least from my perspective. It seems that insignificant questions become huge hurdles. But I’ve learned to listen before reacting. He usually has a valid concern.

This week’s discussion kept replaying in my mind until God made it personal.

It was about a question concerning the translation into Portuguese of our book The Great Exchange: Bound by Blood. It dealt with whether to use con (with) or de (of) when speaking of a blood covenant—the theme of the book. The difficulty is, did God cut a covenant with blood or a covenant of blood when He initiated a covenant with man?

Suddenly, the use of a little insignificant preposition became very significant. Generally, in Portuguese either is correct. However, theologically, to Robert the choice was critical. (After all, if it’s the theme of the book, it needs to be accurate, right?)

Either way infers that blood is part of the ceremony of making the covenant. However, in a blood covenant, the blood is at the very core of the joining together as one. It is the essence and the identity of the covenant. Consequently, it seems it must be a Covenant OF (de) Blood, but one Portuguese translator used with and the other thought that was fine.

It is named a blood covenant because the blood distinguishes that covenant from others. Records of blood covenants from ancient and recent history are similar in their use of blood, but the ritual has been altered and adulterated over time.

However, the biggest question was what does the Bible say that sheds light on it.

Many people don’t like talking about blood, but three major scenes in the Word convince me that it is a covenant of blood, not just with blood.

When God cut a covenant with Abraham, instead of the normal ceremony involving a few drops of blood, He told Abraham, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram.” (Gen. 15:9a). God asked for three large animals to cut covenant with Abraham. Spilling a lot of blood to seal a covenant created a defining occasion.
After stating that He was the bread of life, Jesus said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” He added, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (Jn. 6:54, 56). Once again, blood is central. It is necessary for us to be part of our Lord. We drink wine (symbolic of blood) for communion to celebrate the covenant that allows us to abide in Him.
For the cutting of the New Covenant, Jesus shed His own blood, giving His life to make the New Covenant official, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:25).

There have always been agreements, pacts, and covenants, but of them all, the most binding is the blood covenant. Only through a blood covenant do two become one. Through the blood, life is exchanged, making an unbreakable covenant.

Prepositions are often insignificant. Choosing between with and of seems like making a mountain out of a molehill. And yet, it could be that we sometimes make molehills out of mountains.

For instance, considering the issue of translation usage has raised a second question about with and of.

Does my life show that I live with Jesus—as if He is walking beside me? Or do I live as if we are one, as if I am of Him—as if He purchased me with His blood, and I am abiding in Him? I’ve never even thought of it like that. But I suspect it is a mountain issue.

I wonder how often in the past months our loving, long-suffering, heavenly Father has wanted to take me by the shoulders, shake me, and say, “Wake up and listen to Me. This is a mountain, and you’re acting as if it’s a molehill.

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Learn more about the ancient ritual of blood covenanting and what it means for us today, or buy the book The Great Exchange: Bound by Blood.

Our New Arrival

Months, or even years, of dreams, hopes, plans, and preparations precede the birth of a new arrival in a family.

I’m a grandma now, but I’ve recently experienced the dreams, hopes, plans, and preparation process. I’ve also waited expectantly for what sometimes seemed like an eternity, and it feels like I’ve been through labor.

But, the picture is misleading. Our new arrival is a book, not a baby. It was conceived forty years ago and is finally a reality.

In 1975 Robert and I learned about the ancient ritual of making a blood covenant. It deepened our faith and awakened our love for the Lord so much that Robert began studying to learn more.

Meanwhile, I encouraged him to write a book on the topic and prayed for years that it would happen. I even taped and transcribed five different seminars to help him get started. Then I realized that God wanted me to do the writing under Robert’s guidance.

We still get excited every time we read or share our findings. We’re thrilled that the book is finally available. We hope it will impact your life like it has ours.

The premise of the The Great Exchange: Bound by Blood is simple. When Abram asked God, “How can I know that I can believe you?” (Gen. 15:8), God cut a covenant with him to build his faith and to help him understand who God was/is.

The Great Exchange unlocks the mystery of the ancient covenant and its centrality to the Bible, revealing God’s commitment to love and care for His children.

After attending a seminar from which the book sprang, Kathryn said, “I have grown in my love for the Lord, my appreciation for what He’s done for me, and in my faith in a steadfast & Sovereign God!”

Our blessed new arrival can be a blessing for you as well. Just like Kathryn, us, and many more people, understanding the ancient ritual of covenanting can help you grow in your faith and love for the Lord.

Now is the time to buy. The price is reduced this week only. Learn more.

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“The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” —Ps. 25:14

Robert & Kay Camenisch encouraging and equipping relationships