I know we are discussing many terms that may be foreign to you.  If that is the case the best thing I could recommend for you to do is to go back to the beginning of this topic and read your way to this one.

That leads us to step five.  Here comes the Kiddush, the cup.  Remember our Kiddushin consists of the Ketubah, the Kiddush (the cup), the Mohar, and the seal.  This is the Kiddush.  In I  Corinthians 11:25 it says, “In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.””(NIV)  The blood of the New Covenant; that purchased us without money, this New Covenant is a Covenant of marriage. 

I know we have already gone over it, but at this point we need to cover it again.  Isaiah 54:10 says this, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”(NIV)  Then in Isaiah 55:3b it says, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”(NIV)

I want to talk to you about that Covenant of Peace.  The Hebrew word “shalom” means peace.  It can also be translated wholeness or oneness.  This is a covenant of oneness.  “And a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will be one.”  A covenant of oneness was always God’s plan.  This is a covenant of marriage, a covenant of oneness with Him, which is true peace. 

The Kiddush or cup not only speaks of the Mohar or the sacrifice He made, yes we are to remember His Mohar when we take the cup because that is what purchased us, but it is also the New Covenant or Marriage Covenant, His Covenant of Peace.  Remember it’s the “New Covenant” in His blood.  He says that first, He reminds us of the New Covenant first, of His Marriage Covenant first.  Then He says, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  So remember the price I paid for you.  This is a covenant of marriage and I purchased you.  So when you take that cup remember my purchase, remember my love for you. 

John 17:19 says this, “For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”(NIV)  If He is already holy then He is not making Himself more holy, so what is He saying?  He is setting Himself apart for us.  He is telling His Father, “For them Father I have set myself apart that they too may be truly set apart.  I set myself apart for them so that they can truly be set apart for me.”   And right after this prayer we see Him, that very night, being arrested and giving His life.  Spilling the blood of the Mohar, the blood of the cup. 

In taking the cup we are accepting once again His offer of marriage and declaring ourselves set apart specifically and only for Him.  As we remember the price He purchased us with.  We are once again accepting that offer and continually declaring ourselves set apart for Him.  Maybe that’s one reason why we do this more than once.  We have communion in our churches all the time, don’t we?  After all, we don’t just do communion once and that’s it.  It reminds us that we are set apart for Him because of the price He purchased us with. 

And then of course there is the blessing of the cup.  “Holy One of Blessing your presence fills creation forming the fruit of the vine.”  This is the blood of the covenant.  And then the Birakat Eurasim or the Betrothal Blessing “Praised are you Adonai, Ruler of the Universe, Who have made us holy through your commandments and commanded us (the warning to the men) concerning sexual propriety forbidding us women who are merely betrothed, but permitting to us women who are married to us through Huppah and Kiddushin.  Blessed are you Adonai, who makes your people, Israel, holy through Huppah and Kiddushin. 

This is His marriage ceremony and we live out every day, especially when we partake in communion. Of course, with the drinking of the cup the veil has to come back.  We will talk about this next time.

Remembering His Covenant of Marriage,

Vicky