A True Friend is a Leech

Anyone who has heard me teach knows how much I love ‘word studies.’ While doing an in-depth study on blood covenant, I came across the following:

In Arabic, the word leech is derived from the Arab word friend. A leech is a parasite that lives from ingesting the blood of its host. We have a negative connotation of leeches today, but in history, a leech was considered a good thing. When someone was ill with a fever, leeches would be applied to the skin for bloodletting—removing bad blood. And doctors were commonly called leeches.

The Arabic word leech expresses the idea that a true friend freely offers his life to the other. In primitive Arabic cultures, a “blood brother” ceremony signified each was willing to give up his life, his very blood, to keep his commitment.

Of course the Jews were forbidden to drink blood, and did not enter into blood covenant with one another. But their covenant with God was of blood—but never their own, always a substitute (a bull, a bird, a lamb!).

The Jews would have been shocked to hear Jesus say “unless you drink the blood of the son of man, you have no life” (John 6:54). By saying this, Jesus foretold He was the substitute who would give His life (His blood) and become the source of eternal life. Later Jesus said: "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood" (Lk. 22:20).

The correlation between friendship and blood covenant is evidenced when Jesus explained "there is no greater love than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13-14). And so, by blood covenant, we enter the deepest experience we could ever have with another—our co-death and co-life with Jesus. Paul knew this: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ [lives] in me…” (Gal. 2:20).

Jesus chose you to be His friend (Jn. 15:14) and wants you to live by His life! Is His life flowing through your veins?