Power of the Blood Covenant: Uncover the Secret Strength of God's Eternal Oath

by Malcolm Smith

  The first morning in the tiny shack, the dam of his pent-up emotions burst. He railed and raged at God for bringing them to such a place, expecting him and his family to serve Him under such impossible conditions. He shook his fist and shouted, “Did you bring us here to starve us to death?” and then wept at his own disappointment in God.

  In the early afternoon, he sensed the presence of God filling the cabin and a great stillness came upon him. He heard God speak clearly and distinctly in his heart:

  Above all, I desire your friendship. If serving Me interrupts and disrupts our friendship, I would rather you go back to your business and continue to be My friend. Your friendship is more important to Me than all your acts of service.

  He dissolved into tears and wept in wonder and joy the remainder of the afternoon. Those few words had turned his whole concept of Christianity on its head. A God who wanted his intimate friendship more than his service was a concept that he had never considered in his craziest dreams. He had been reared to think of God as a kind Master to be served. He now realized that his whole Christian life had been an attempt to work for God rather than live out a relationship of love and friendship. He remembered his denominational leaders had sent him on his way with the words “Go and do a work for God!” and he knew that phrase had encapsulated his whole Christian life. The thrust of his being a Christian was to work for God; even his prayer time was a “to-do list” of things needed in the activity of being a Christian and serving God. To be God’s friend! To be with Him to love and be loved! These were concepts that he had never given a moment’s thought to. Now the concept danced in his head as he wept for joy at the prospect of such a life

  The next day, he ran back to share the new understanding with his wife. They did not leave the little church but set a new priority. It was as though he had heard the Gospel for the first time and with it a revolutionary new calling. He now saw that his priority calling was not to serve God but to revel in His love, pursue His friendship, and enjoy intimacy with Him. He reveled in the God who loved him limitlessly and let the relationship dictate his service. He moved from doing for God to being in Him.

  His preaching changed, reflecting his new understanding of the Gospel as a call to union with the God of unlimited love. The little church began to fill up and flourish, and he was still there when he told me his story.

  The revelation that Brazilian pastor had received was one of the promises of the covenant:

  “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

  Jeremiah 31:34

  This is not speaking of knowing a creed or being intellectually convinced of the existence of God; it describes a firsthand knowing of Him. This term of the covenant is the pouring out of the yearning love of God that reaches out to us to include us into His circle of intimate friends.

  The Ultimate Friendship

  It is the covenant that fulfills the longing of God, granting men and women the gift of His life so that in this present time they live the life of the age to come. This gift makes them His children, giving them the unspeakable privilege of enjoying intimate friendship with Him.

  The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

  Psalm 25:14

  This may be one of the most amazing verses in the Bible, putting into one sentence the incredible plan God has purposed for humankind. The union described by the Hebrew word for “secret” is paralleled in the same verse with “covenant.” The uniting of God and man in the strong bond of friendship is achieved by the covenant God has made with us.

  “The secret of the Lord”1 is a translation of a rich Hebrew word that takes many words and ideas to translate into English. The word portrays persons who have their heads close together in private sharing, a tight-knit group of intimate friends. It speaks of friends with a life-and-death commitment to one another, in an atmosphere of unconditional trust in each other; a place where it is safe to share one’s weaknesses and sorrows as well as strengths and victories, knowing that one is not rejected but loved and given the strength of the group in the day of weakness. It speaks of faithfulness, loyalty, and enduring friendship.

  It is wonderful enough when such a relationship is found among humans, but this verse is speaking of the relationship of men and women to the Lord God! God loves the world, but believers are His circle of intimate friends with whom He shares His heart. Every believer has been called to such a relationship with God in Jesus Christ and in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It is this kind of friendship with Him that is potential in our new birth. We were saved from sin for such a relationship. We have been saved out of the world to become friends of God, part of His inner circle of intimates. The new covenant makes it possible to live on the earth as those whose true center and sphere of life is heaven.

  “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.” This close circle of friendship is for those who fear Him. That sounds strange when we are speaking of friends who delight in each other in a place of safety! We must understand what the Bible means by the phrase “the fear of the Lord,” for it does not mean that we are terrified of Him and tiptoe around Him! It describes those who have entered the circle of His intimate friendship.

  The word “fear”2 means to stand in awe of, respect, expect of, honor, and submit to. It is a phrase that in the Old Testament describes the character of the faith we have in God. We stand in awe of Him, giving Him honor and respect, and in obedience submit to Him. It also carries the idea that we trust Him and expect Him to keep His word to us. The Bible knows nothing of faith being a formula whereby we can extract something from God. Faith is our response of trust to the revelation God has given us of Himself.

  Sinful fear is when we transfer our fear from God to another human, to humans, or to the demonic. We then give to them the respect and awe and submissive expectancy that belong only to God, and we tremble before them. We fear them; that is, we believe in their power to do us harm instead of believing in and submitting to, that is fearing, the love of God that is greater than all designs against us.

  Knowing the Lord

  If the heart of the covenant is to be united as one to Him by the Spirit, the goal of the covenant is to know Him. The word “know”3 is a rich word in both the Hebrew and the Greek. In the Hebrew the word is yada and describes the knowledge that comes by observation, intimate knowing, uniting knowing; it is knowledge gained by experience with the senses, by investigation and proving, by reflection and consideration; it is firsthand knowledge. The opposite of this word is to know about, to know by secondhand information. It is the difference between a student’s relationship to the material he or she studies and the relationship between husband and wife.

  Yada4 is the word of intimacy, of covenant union. It is consistently used to describe marriage, the most sacred covenant among humans. It is the knowing of the whole person. It is also referred to as uncovering the nakedness of another, the ultimate covenant act of having no secrets and nothing held back. Such is the relationship we are called to with God through Jesus Christ. Yada could well sum up Moses’ life in one word.

  So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

  Exodus 33:17

  But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.

  Deuteronomy 34:10

  The Old Testament prophets continually referred to the relationship of Israel to the Lord as marriage, and in the New Testament Christ is described as being married to the church.

  Yada describes experiential knowledge, in which the one knowing has actual involvement with or in the object of the knowing. Potiphar “did not know” what was in his house because he had no contact with
it. (Genesis 39:6.) To know God is to have intimate and experiential, hands-on knowledge of Him.

  Yada is not sentimental but is the expression of the faith that obeys the Lord. The pharaoh of the Exodus refused to let Israel go because he said,

  And Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.”

  Exodus 5:2

  He meant that, although he certainly knew of the Lord intellectually, he did not recognize His authority over him in his personal life or the decisions he made as the pharaoh.

  Solomon was exhorted to know the Lord, which entailed serving Him with loyal heart and willing mind:

  “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind...”

  1 Chronicles 28:9

  There is no greater description of the meaning of yada than that given by Jesus in the Upper Room when He spoke of the most intimate knowing and abiding in the love of the Triune God. But He made it very plain it was not a sentimental feeling of romantic love but a union expressed in keeping His commands.

  “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

  “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

  John 14:21,23,24

  The intimacy with God that the Word speaks of is linked with the revelation of His purposes.

  Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.

  1 Samuel 3:7

  The New Testament word is ginosko,5 meaning to understand completely; to be taking in knowledge; to come to know, recognize, and understand. The word indicates that who or what is known is of great value or importance to the one who knows and, hence, a relationship is established. It is the definition Jesus gave us of eternal life when He said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3).

  Eternal life is not merely going to heaven when we die; it is the beginning of heaven in the here and now in that we share the divine life, everlasting life, and, in that, are caught up into the intimate fellowship of the Trinity.

  Ginosko confronts us with the love God has for us, for we know Him only because He has set His love upon us, known us from before the creation of the universe. Our knowing Him is our response to His first knowing us.

  His intimate knowledge of us is described in Psalm 139. In verses 1-3, the word translated “know” is yada.

  O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

  This is not God knowing us, because God knows everything, but God knowing and delighting over us in love. The psalm goes on to explore this thought. In verses 13-16 He is portrayed caressing the child in the womb, infinitely loving us before we were born.

  The word is used to describe His love knowledge of us in salvation:

  But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

  1 Corinthians 8:3

  But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

  Galatians 4:9

  Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

  2 Timothy 2:19

  I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

  John 10:14,27

  Notice the progression in these verses. He knows us with the knowing of love. We then respond to His love and come to know Him. Dwelling in such knowledge, we hear His voice, love and obey Him, and are thus identified as being known by Him.

  As with yada, this is not a sentimental feeling but love that acts. His knowing of us took Him to the cross, and our love for Him is expressed in the joyful doing of His will. We obey Him not to gain this divine knowledge but because it is ours, and we now delight to do His will as a result of the love relationship.

  Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

  1 John 2:3-6

  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

  1 John 4:7,8,16

  I cannot emphasize strongly enough that He first loved and knew us; it is out from His love initiative that we come to know and love Him and to walk in love. Our first steps of love and obedience will be stumbling and very far from perfect, but the life of God has been born within us and the process of bringing our entire being into the obedience of love has begun. This knowledge of Him knows continual growth.

  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

  2 Peter 3:18

  Taught of God To Know Him

  How do we attain such an intimate knowledge of God? We do not look for this knowledge in Bible study, which can become arid and lifeless. We are seeking to know Him, not merely know about Him; we are not filing Him in neat categories of theology, but growing in a love relationship with Him.

  Nor should we feel that this is for a small, elite group within the body of believers. He delights to give this knowledge to all His children; as we have seen, this is the essence of eternal life. The promise of the covenant clearly states that it is for everyone in the covenant:

  “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

  Jeremiah 31:34

  The “all” begins with the least and moves to the greatest, as if He would encourage the newest believer and the one who still feels unworthy. This knowledge of God is for you!

  Both yada and ginosko speak of the knowing as a lover and friend. It is a shock to many who would settle for a life of serving God that, above all else, He fervently desires our friendship. He desires us infinitely more than we desire Him. The Gospel calls us to the giddy heights of a relationship of love, living in the embrace of God, who calls us His friend. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, many have settled for a withered and shrunken theology that reduces the Gospel to the way to escape an angry God and hell.

  It may help us to think about the cry of a human after God and then hear the same words coming from the heart of His infinite love:

  As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

  Psalm 42:1,2

  So wrote the psalmist of his own heart cry, but what if we hear it as the cry of God? “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so My heart pants for you, My child. My whole Being thirsts for you, My child. When shall the longing of My heart be satisfied?” When God in Christ hung on the cross and cried, “I thirst,” He was longing for more than water: He thirsts for your love and friendship; He would rather die than not have you with Him. This is the wonder
of the message of covenant.

  Each of us has been called to intimate friendship with Him, a union that is lived out in our homes, in our classrooms, on the factory floor, and in the office. We do not have to leave society and become religious to enter into intimate relationship with God. In the middle of the daily grind with all its demands and responsibilities and activities, we are called to walk with God. Our friendship with Him becomes the center from which all of life flows in harmony.