Steps of Ancient Covenant Making - thectp.org

1 Session 2 Steps of Ancient Covenant Making Covenant Making in Ancient Cultures 1. In th e anc ient Ne ar East dat ing back to the ti me o f Abr ah am, co ven ant s w ere a commo n a s pect of li fe and w er e m ade o n a r egul a r b as is. Cov enants we r e as c om mon in Ancient times as busi-ness c ontract s, internat ional treaties, and legislative decisions ar e today . Th ey w er e made b etwe en indi-viduals, tribes, and nat ions, and they w e re en ter ed for th e purpo se s o f pr otection, st rength, and pros-perity.

2 Often, the p romise of blessings would be involved, such as abundant harv ests , p ro spe rity, go od health, or many children. Almost ev er y co venant called upon one or m o re of th e m any pagan deities to w itness the c er em ony and to visit the participants with either blessings for obedienc e or cur se s f or disobedience. The Mari Tablets, disco ve red in the 1930s in p re sent day Syria, sh eds light on what life was like during the early y ear s o f history, g oing back ev en to the time o f Thes e tablet s, some twenty thousand in number, de sc ribe a wide v ariety of pra ctices in the This se ss ion cov ers : Cov enant Making in Ancient cultures Eight common Steps o f entering a c ov enant How ea ch st ep of ancie nt cov enant Making applies to us t oday This se ss ion cor re spo nds to.

3 Chapters 3-5 o f Unde rst anding Your Inhe ritance in Christ book Sessions 2 o f Unde rstan ding Your Inhe ritance in Christ CDs 19 20 Understanding Your Inheritance in Christ Ancient Near East. Am ong the many d etails desc ribed, one was the rite of co venant Making during the days o f Ab ra ham. Delbert Hillers gives us insight into this co vena nt- Making rite by docu-menting a cov enant c er emony which involved the king of Ma ri. Hillers tells how a r epr es entative o f th e king of Mari, p re siding ove r the c ove-nant cer emon y, refu se d to ent er into the tr e aty lightly and insisted upon having a donkey s acrificed.

4 2 Hillers example sh ows us th re e important points about c ov enants. First, it reveals how c o mmon co venants w e re during the time that God cut a cov enant with Abraham. S ec ond, it sho w s that animal sacrifices wer e an integral part o f Ancient -cov enant mak ing. And third, it rein-for c es h ow s erious co v enant agr eem ents w er e consider ed in Ancient times. 2. Exampl es f rom h isto ry sh ow th at cove n a nt m aki ng w a s a co mmon pract ice i n b ib lic al ti mes.

5 H. Clay T rumbull share s an ext ra-biblical acco unt of a N ea r Ea ste rn cov enant that illu s t r a t e s m a n y o f t h e c o m m o n s t e p s i n v o l v e d i n m a k -ing an Ancient Covenant : In b ringing this rite of the c ov enant o f blood into new pr omi-nence , it may be well for me to t ell of it as it was d esc ribed to me by an intelligent native Syrian, who saw it consummated in a village at the base of the mountains of L ebanon; and then to add evidence s of its wide-spread existenc e in the East and elsewhe re , in earlier and in later times.

6 It was tw o y oung men, who we re t o ente r into this cove-nant. They had kn own each othe r, and had b e en intimate [as friends], fo r y ea rs; bu t now they w er e to b ec ome b roth er-friends, in the co venant of blood. Th eir r elatives and n eighbors wer e called togethe r, in the open place be fo re t he village foun-tain, to witness the se aling compact. Th e y ou ng men publicly announced their purpos e, and their rea sons fo r it. Their decla-rations we re w ritten down, in duplicate one paper f or ea ch friend and signed by themselve s and by se ve ral witnesses.

7 One of the f riends too k a sharp lancet, and o pened a v ein in the other s a rm. Into t he opening thus made, he inserted a quill, through which he suck ed the living blood. The lancet-blade was ca re fully wiped on one of the dup licate cov enant-paper s, and then it was taken by the othe r frie nd, who made a like incision in its first user s ar m and drank h is blood through the quill, wiping the blade on the duplicate cov enant-rec o rd.

8 The two f riends declar e d togethe r: W e ar e br o thers in a cov e-nant made befo r e G od: who dec eiveth the oth er , him will God dec eive. Each blood-mark ed c ov enant-re co rd was then folded car efully, to be se wed up in a small leathern cas e, o r amulet, about an inch square; to be w o rn thence fo rwa r d by one of the cov enant-brothe rs , sus pended about the n ec k , o r bound upon the arm , in token of th e indissoluble 21 We can also look t o mo re m ode rn times at the lives of the fam ous ex-plorer s Sir H enry Stanley and Da vid Livingstone.

9 John Ost een in his book , Unra veling the M yste ry of th e Blo od C ov enant, shar es an inter-e s t i n g s tory about Sta The following summarizes O ste en s illus-tration. Livingstone, the first gr eat missionary to Africa , was in the Afri-can jungles so long that England, his native c o untry, b egan to wor ry ab out his status. As a re sult, the English governm ent sent Da vid Stanley to find him. Stanley s s ea rc h party enc oun-ter ed gr eat difficulties in their travels. Th ey w er e plagued by disease and sta rvation, and w er e e ven threat ened by canni-bals.

10 At one p oint, the g roup enc ounter ed a st ro ng, hostile Afri-can tribe nea r the equat or. When the t ribe sho w ed n o signs of letting them pass through their land, Stanley s interpr ete r advised Stanley t o cut a co venant with the tribe to av oid sev er e pe r il. Not knowing what else t o d o, Stanley agr e ed. First, neg otiations wer e made betwe en Stanley s pa rty and the African tribe. The te rms we r e agre ed up on and th e c er em ony b egan.