[flesh with the blood in it], shall ye not eat. And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it: and at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."1 Here, the blood of even those animals whose flesh might be eaten by man is forbidden for food; because it is life itself, and therefore sacred to the Author of life. And the blood of man must not be shed by man,—except where man is made God's minister of justice,—because man is formed in the image of God, and only God has a right to take away-directly or by his minister—the life from one bearing God's likeness. And this injunction, together with this covenant, preceded the ceremonial law of Moses; and it survived that law as well. When the question came up in the apostolic conference at Jerusalem, on the occasion of the visit of Paul and Barnabas, concerning the duty of Gentile Christians to the Mosaic ceremonial law, the decision was explicit, that, while nothing which was of that ritual alone should be imposed as obligatory on the new believers, those essential ele 1 Gen. 9: 3-6. 2" A man might not use another's life for the support of his physical life" (Westcott's Epistles of St. John, p. 34). A PERPETUAL OBLIGATION. 215 ments of religious observance which were prior to Moses, and which were not done away with in Christ, should be emphasized in all the extending domain of Christianity. Spirituality in worship, personal purity, and the holding sacred to God all blood—or life—as the gift of God, and as the means of communion with God, must never be ignored in the realm of Christian duty. "Write unto them, that they abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood,"1 said the Apostle James, in announcing the decision of this conference; and the circular letter to the Gentile churches was framed accordingly. Nor does this commandment seem ever to have been abrogated, in letter or in spirit. However poorly observed by Christians, it stands to-day as it stood in the days of Paul, and in the days of Noah, a perpetual obligation, with all its manifold teachings of the blessed benefits of the covenant of blood.2 3. THE BLOOD COVENANT IN CIRCUMCISION. Again the Lord made a new beginning for the race in his start with Abraham as the father of a chosen 1 See Acts 15: 2-29; also 21: 18-25. 2 Those, indeed, who would put the dictum of the Church of Rome above the explicit commands of the Bible, can claim that that Church has affirmed the mere temporary nature of this obligation, which the Bible makes perpetual. But apart from this, there seems to be no show of justification for the abrogation, or the suspension, of the command. and peculiar people in the world. And again the covenant of blood, or the covenant of strong-friendship as it is still called in the East, was the prominent feature in this beginning. The Apostle James says that "Abraham was called the friend of 1 God." God himself, speaking through Isaiah, refers to Abraham, as "Abraham my friend";" and Jehoshaphat, in his extremity, calling upon God for help, speaks of "Abraham, thy friend." And this application of the term "friend" to any human being, in his relations to God, is absolutely unique in the case of Abraham, in all the Old Testament record. Abraham, and only Abraham, was called "the friend of God."4 Yet the immediate narrative of Abraham's relations to God, makes no specific mention of this unique term 'friend," as being then applied to Abraham. It is only as we recognize the primitive rite of bloodfriendship in the incidents of that narrative, that we perceive clearly why and how God's covenant with Abraham was pre-eminently a covenant of friendship. 5 "I will make my covenant between me and thee, 1 James 2: 23. 1 2 Isaiah 41: 8. 3 2 Chron. 20: 7. 4 The only instance in which it might seem that there was an exception to this statement, is Exodus 33: 11, where it is said, "The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." But here the Hebrew word is re'a () with the idea of "a companion," or "a neighbor"; while the word applied to Abraham is ohebh (), "a loving one." 5 See Appendix, infra, p. 322. THE FRIEND OF GOD. 217 and will multiply thee exceedingly," said the Lord to Abraham.1 And again, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee; and to thy seed after thee And as for thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations." And then there came the explanation, how Abraham was to enter into the covenant of bloodfriendship with the Lord; so that he might be called "the friend of God." "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you, and thy seed after thee; every male among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of a covenant betwixt me and you." "3 The blood-covenant of friendship shall be consummated by your giving to me of your personal blood at the very source of paternity-" under your girdle"; thereby pledging yourself to me, and pledging, also, to me, those who shall come after you in the line of natural descent. "And my covenant [this covenant of blood-friendship] shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." 5 So," in the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised," and thenceforward he bore in his flesh the evidence 3 Gen. 17: 10, II. 5 Gen. 17: 13. that he had entered into the blood-covenant of friendship with the Lord. To this day, indeed, Abraham is designated in all the East, as distinctively, “KhaleelAllah, "the Friend of God," or "Ibrâheem el-Khaleel," "Abraham the Friend"2-the one Friend, of God. When a Jewish child is circumcised, it is commonly said of him, that he is caused "to enter into the covenant of Abraham"; and, his god-father, or sponsor, is called Baal-bereeth," Master of the covenant."4 More 1 Bearing in the flesh the marks of one's devotedness to a divinity, is a widely observed custom in the East. Burton tells of the habit, in Mekkeh, of cutting three parallel gashes down the fleshy cheek of every male child; and of the claim by some that these gashes "were signs that the scarred [one] was the servant of Allah's house" (Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medinah, third ed., p. 456). In India, there are various methods of receiving such flesh-marks of devotedness. "One of the most common consists in stamping upon the shoulders, chest, and other parts of the body, with a red-hot iron, certain marks, to represent the armor [or livery] of their gods; the impressions of which are never effaced, but are accounted sacred, and are ostentatiously displayed as marks of distinctions” (Dubois's Des. of Man. and Cust. in India, Part III., chap. 3). "From henceforth let no man trouble me," says Paul: "for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus" (Gal. 6: 17). 2 See Price's Hist. of Arabia, p. 56. 3 It is certainly noteworthy, that the Canaanitish god "Baal-bereeth" (see Judges 8: 33; 9: 4) seems to have had its centre of worship at, or near, Shechem; and there was where the Canaanites were induced to seek, by circumcision, a part with the house of Jacob in the blood-covenant of Abraham (see Gen. 34: 1–31). 'See Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, p. 216 f. |