The Call of Abraham

Three hundred and sixty-seven years after the flood, Abraham appears. Noah was alive for fifty years after the birth of Abraham. The world had lapsed into idolatry. Abraham lived among pagans and idolators until he was seventy-five years of age. He had been born and had lived in Ur of the Chaldees, one of the most splendid ancient cities, until he received his call from God. We can understand why God revealed Himself to Abraham. The Revelation of God was practically lost. If a righteous line were to be preserved through which God could send His Incarnate Son, He must choose one man who knew Him, and make of him a nation that would preserve the knowledge of Himself upon the earth.

Abraham’s countrymen and his father were idolators. If in him a nation was to be founded that would preserve God’s Revelation to man, and a knowledge of man’s Redeemer so that He would be recognized when He came, it was necessary for Abraham to be removed from these influences. There are many legends that tell of Abraham’s being persecuted for his refusal to worship idols. So, under a call of God, he set out in search of a land where a nation could be founded, free from idolatry (Genesis 12).

Twenty-five years after Abraham had received his call from God, the greatest event in human history until the birth of Christ, took place. It was the Blood Covenant into which Jehovah and Abraham entered. Before we can understand the significance of this Covenant which God cut with Abraham, we must know the meaning of the Blood Covenant. The Blood Covenant existed before Abraham. Proofs of the existence of this rite of Blood Covenanting have been found among primitive peoples of every quarter of the globe, and its antiquity is carried back to a date long prior to the days of Abraham.

The Blood Covenant

It is evident that God cut the covenant or entered into a covenant with Adam at the very beginning. A common revelation of the Blood Covenant from God must have been given to primitive man. We saw the scattering of man at the tower of Babel. Noah evidently must have possessed a knowledge of the significance of the Blood Covenant which he handed to his children, so that as the nations were formed, from the dispersion at the tower of Babel, each one possessed a knowledge of the Blood Covenant.

We believe this because of the following facts that are revealed in Dr. Trumbull’s book which is entitled, “The Blood Covenant.” “From the very beginning in every nation, Blood… seems to have been looked upon as preeminently the representative of Life; as indeed, in a peculiar sense life itself. The transference of blood from one organism to another has been counted as the transference of life with all that that life includes. The inter-commingling of blood has been understood as equivalent to the inter-commingling of natures. Two natures, thus inter-commingled by the inter-commingling of blood, have been considered as forming thenceforth one nature, one life, one soul. The union of
natures by the mingling of blood has been deemed possible between man and man, and Deity and man.”

A covenant of blood, a covenant made by the inter-commingling of blood, has been recognized as the closest, the holiest, and most indissoluble compact conceivable.
There are three reasons for men cutting the Covenant with each other. If a strong tribe lives by the side of a weaker tribe, and there is danger of the weaker tribe being destroyed, the weaker will seek to cut the covenant with the stronger tribe that they may be preserved. Or if two businessmen want to go into business, and one is going to leave the country and travel as a foreign representative, he will cut the covenant with his partner. Or, if two men love each other as devotedly as David and Jonathan, they will cut the covenant.

The moment the blood covenant is solemnized, everything that a Blood Covenant man owns is at the disposal of this blood-brother; yet this brother would never ask for anything unless he were absolutely driven by want to do it. Another feature is that as soon as this covenant is cut, they are called by others “the blood brothers.” That blood covenant goes down through the generations; it is an indissoluble covenant that generations cannot erase. If a man cuts the covenant with his friend, the children of the two families are bound to observe it.

If two men in Africa cut the Covenant, Mr. Stanley tells us and Livingstone bears witness – and one man should break the Covenant, his nearest relatives would seek his death, for no man can live in Africa who breaks the Covenant; he curses the ground. There is nothing that is absolutely sacred with us, but in Africa, the Covenant is sacred. Mr. Stanley and Dr. Livingstone both testify to the fact that they never knew the covenant to be broken.

The method of cutting the covenant is practically the same the world over. In some places, it has degenerated into a very grotesque rite, but it is the same blood covenant. The method which is practiced by the Africans, Arabians, Syrians and Balkans is this
Two men who wish to cut the covenant come together with friends and a priest. First, they exchange gifts. Then they bring a cup of wine. The priest makes an incision in the arm of each man, allowing the blood to drip into the wine. Then they mingle the wine and drink it. Now they are blood brothers. (Read our book, The Blood Covenant.)