Biblical covenants come with blood and death. Everyone of them. But there’s a covenant that many people don’t think about.
It’s the covenant made in marriage.
When a man and a woman come together, there is a breaking of tissue in the woman that causes blood the first time she has intercourse. This is God’s created way for the marriage covenant to be ratified with blood. And then truly both persons have to die to themselves for the two to become one. The union of marriage is rooted in covenant down to the shedding of blood.
It’s why promiscuity is such a violation as that which is given to the woman for the making of the covenant (the blood), it is no longer available. There can be blood in other ways in sexual union that is not holy, righteous and good as when there is violence and aggression. This is not of God.
Yet God has given a way for the covenant be confirmed between a man and a woman and that is experienced when a couple comes together for the first time. It is a celebration of the covenant. And it is why in Central Asian countries and middle-eastern countries even today, the actual sheets after marital union are shown and celebrated to the guests when the sheets have on them the virginal blood.
But what about the woman whose virginity has been taken, unwillingly or not? And there’s no longer the blood of covenant? There is grace.
Otherwise when a woman is made a widow, she has nothing to offer in the form of a blood covenant with a man. But the Scriptures encourage the younger widows to remarry. She isn’t required to give what she does not have.
Does that mean it’s permissible for men and women to be promiscuous if they no longer have the ability to make a covenant in this way? No. Something holy and sacred is compromised. It’s lost. But the very purpose of grace is for when we humans have blown it. When we’ve sinned and need the grace of God to forgive and cover us.
But it is better when we do things God’s way. It is for our good. Not to fulfill a law, but to receive the richest blessings in Christ.
It reminds me of Justin Bieber of all people. He is now married and has been for several years. Yet he states that one of his biggest regrets is that he slept with others prior to his marriage. It’s a regret he carries as it has affected his marriage.
In this sex-crazed world, it’s something to think about.
We were made for more.