Made

” So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you”  Exodus 24:8

Made – In our world, we do everything we can to prevent scars.  We hire the best plastic surgeons, we look for the finest techniques and we want perfectly seamless incisions.  We want an unblemished appearance after the cuts have been made.  But some scars are much too important to conceal.

The Hebrew word (karat) translated “made” is really a word that means, “to cut”.  God cut a covenant with His people.  When a covenant agreement was made, both parties cut a line across the arm.  They wanted a reminder of the agreement to be permanently etched into the body.  There were two reasons for this action.  The first was a personal sign of the promise to someone else.  Every time I looked at my arm, I saw the mark of my promise.  When God instructed the men of Israel to be circumcised, He wanted them to have a permanent reminder of the promise. 

But there is another reason.  If an enemy saw the mark of a covenant on my arm, that enemy would know that someone else stood behind me.  If my enemy harmed me, he would also have to deal with the other party in the covenant with me.  The cut of the covenant was a sign of protection.

A covenant in blood was both a promise and a protection.  And the blood spilled on the cross fulfilled both.  The promise that God would provide a way of redemption was completed on the cross.  The protection that God would stand behind His children was sealed on the cross.

Have you let God inscribe His cut on your body?  Are you a living sacrifice, marked by the blood of the Lamb?  Do you live with the confidence that the God of all creation is behind you?  What is there to fear?  Who would dare harm someone protected by His cut?