After
Abram was blessed in the valley by Melchizedek, whom Abram also broke bread
with and drank wine from and gave one tenth of his possessions to as a tithe;
God spoke to Abram again.
It is
important to notice that this High Priest of God, The King of Peace, The ruler
over Jerusalem named Melchizedek laid the ground work and prepared Abram’s
heart to hear from God. He fed Abram wine and bread from Heaven. He blessed Abram and reminded him that it was
God who had won the battle for him. He
received Abram’s offerings in The Name of The Most High God. Are you getting a glimpse of who Melchizedek
really is? The offerings were received
and taken because Abram had not given of the spoils of war, but he had given of
the best that he possessed. This has
been the pattern with every man that God has called righteous, all the way back
to Abel.
Now we
notice the progression and emphasis of this worship of Abram when we hear of a
new character in the story named Melchizedek.
Who was this High Priest of God Most High? We shall see more and more of His truth as
our stories of Abraham unfold. This very
necessary High Priest took care of the things that were required for Abram to
meet with God. At that time no other
way was available. At that time certain
conditions must be met for a man to actually be in the presence of God. These conditions were strict and must be
carried out with caution and detail. Melchizedek paved the way for Abram to meet
with God. He laid the groundwork and
made the preparations for all things to be done properly and in order.
This
was a very special time and Abram needed to be ready. Abram had asked a question of a God who
loved him very much. God had spoken with
Abram before, but this time was different.
God was going to give Abram the sign that he had requested to know for
sure that God was going to keep His promises of giving him a son from his own
flesh and blood of which nations of descendants (as many as the stars of the
heavens) would descend from. God was also
promising to make the land where Abram was living come into his possession and
the possession of his children. God’s
words were: “I
am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take
possession of it.”
Once
again Abram was puzzled but believed. He
did not know how it would happen and he asked God how he would know that he
would gain possession of the land. The
act of covenant that followed was God’s answer to that question. The Hebrew word for covenant is” karath berith.” It means “to cut.”
In those days a covenant was the most significant
legal document you could have. It was
“to cut” an agreement out with someone.
There were different types of covenants, but the most significant and
binding covenant was a blood covenant.
That is what God was making with Abram in this portion of the
story. They were cutting an agreement in
blood. A blood covenant was the highest,
most significant covenant that could be made.
It was a visual symbolic enactment of a promise and an oath. The animals were slaughtered and cut in half
and laid out with a pathway between each half.
The parties involved would usually walk through the path between the two
parts of the cut or divided slaughtered animals to say: “May this be done to me if I do not keep my
oath.” A blood covenant was a very
serious oath between two parties. In
this case, as we will see later, the agreement was all from God. Abram did not have to do a thing. God was saying “I will keep my word to you
unconditionally – no strings attached.”
The
Lord told Abram to bring Him a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old
along with a dove and a young pigeon. Does
that sound like an odd request? What if
God spoke to you today and told you to bring such things; would you?
What
were these offerings about and why were they required?
First
of all notice that three offerings were required as the offerings for the cutting;
the heifer, the goat and the ram. God
would have Abram to cut the heifer, the goat and the ram into halves and then
God would come and walk through them. Usually
both parties walk through the cutting, but in this agreement Abram did not
walk, only God.
Not
only were there three animals to be cut but each of them were to be three years
old. Two threes here remind us of the
age of Christ when He died on the cross and became our resurrected Messiah. The sacred number of three is also the number
of the Holy Trinity. There were also two
other offerings – a turtledove and a pigeon.
These were not cut. The 3 cut
offerings and the 2 uncut offerings totaled five animals. In Hebraic thought five is the number that
represents the grace and goodness of God poured out in His works. It is the number that stands for redemption
and is almost always associated with the coming of the Messiah.
In case
you were not raised on a farm, a heifer is a female cow. If you want to get technical many do not
understand that once a heifer has a calf they are no longer called a heifer,
but they are then called a female cow.
It is not good to breed a heifer early, so three years old is a pretty
safe time to know that a heifer is ready and fit to deliver a calf without any
problems. If you breed too young, there
may be problems. Heifers were never used for plowing. They were used for calving until they passed
that stage then they were used to tread out the grain. The male oxen were used for plowing, but these
female cows, once they had given birth to calves and passed the time of birthing
calves and raising them, were used for treading out the grain of the harvest. Much like human beings, even a cow has
different seasons of life for different functions. At three years old the heifer would be at the
most physically fit stage of their life; strong and healthy and ready to become
most useful to their owners. This would
be the stage where the heifer is the most fertile. They raised their calves,
then they were yoked to a board attached to a tread wheel and walked around in
circles grinding the grain of the harvest with their constant motion of pushing
the wheel. A feeding trough was set in
front of them on the part of the wheel they were harnessed to and they ate from
it as they did their work of turning the wheel.
This latter part of being a female cow wasn’t hard. A three year old heifer, however would have
been untrained and not have had a yoke applied to her neck yet. A three year old would not have given new
life yet, but would be ripe for this time to happen.
Heifers
eventually became known as the symbolic animal sacrifice offered for the
national sins. This was a foreshadowing of the red heifer that would be used in
temple times to show God’s love and mercy and forgiveness for the people of the
congregation as a whole. The heifer in Abram’s covenant was provided
for the purification of Abram and of the people who would become his
descendants. Remember that Israel was
not yet a nation. God had told Abram
that nations would come from his flesh.
Because of the fact that there was not even one son, let alone one
nation yet, one could go out on a limb here and say that the heifer was offered
for the purification of all the nations that would come from Abram. If you wish to read more of the meaning of
the red heifer that came to be symbolic of this at a future time in the temple
click here: http://dancinginseason.blogspot.com/2014/10/pieces-of-puzzle-mysterious-story-of.html
In this
time of this covenant the law had not yet been given. Men knew what was righteous and good before
God in a natural way, but it had not been spelled out in writing and written
down in stone. This covenant sacrifice
was based on faith alone and always pointed toward the pure obedience of men’s
hearts toward God. This was an offering
that began in a time before mankind knew the grace of perfect atonement. It was a foreshadow of the coming of the law
and eventually an even better way. This
was the first glimpse of how the ashes of the red heifer would be used later.
The
second animal G0d told Abram to bring was a three year old goat. Leviticus 9:15 tells us that a goat was used
as a sin offering. The heifer was for
cleansing and the goat was for bearing the sin that was removed and cleansed. There cannot be any cleansing unless the sin
is removed. The goat was used to bear
the sins of the people of Abram and to carry them away. This is a first glimpse of the Azazel goat we
know about that came to be sacrificed during the Day of Atonement.
The
third and greatest covenant was represented by a three year old ram. The great significance of the ram will be
revealed to Abraham later in the story of his life a very graphic way. He will see this because he was an obedient
servant of God. The Ram is symbolic of
The Messiah, The Christ, The Son of God, The Savior of The World. The heifer was for cleansing, the goat was
for bearing away sin and the ram was for atonement of sin.
Now we
see that God told Abram to take all three of these sacrifices and cut them
into. The word covenant means “to cut an
agreement.” So the three covenants were
“cut” or “made.”
The
dove and the pigeon are not cut. The
other offerings happened in time periods of history where if they did not
happen men would be cut off from God.
After Christ came men were no longer cut off from God by their
sins. The perfect atonement had been
made and freely given. These two animals
represent what came after the perfect atonement of Christ. They
represent the future prophetic progression of this covenant which God will keep
with Abram and all nations. The dove
represents the giving of The Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The pigeon represents The Word of God and the
spreading of the gospel throughout the earth before end times come.
Abram
laid out all of these sacrifices and birds of prey came to try to take them
away. They were open laying opposite
each other with the insides visible to the eye, except for the two birds. The insides of the two birds could not be
seen with the eye. This is a picture of
how all sin will one day be laid out and revealed before God. There will be no hiding it. This is the picture of the three cut
animals. The two birds represent the
divine attributes that cannot be seen with the eye when The Holy Spirit and The
Word of God come to live inside of God’s people. Faith, love, hope – these things are very
necessary and important but are not visible to the eye. These were all laid out and the vultures
passing by wanted to take them and consume them. Abram had to stand guard and chase them
away. The same is true for all
practicing the faith today. If you do
not stand guard over the things that God puts on your heart to do and if you
are not careful to guard your heart the devil and his demons will come and try
to steal, kill and destroy the sacred things of your life. Abram gives the perfect example of standing
guard.
Then a
great darkness came and Abram fell into a trance in which God came and walked
through the cut pieces of the covenant.
Abram falling into a deep sleep or a trance is a picture of how
Christians must all die to their selves in order to receive the higher promises
of God.
God
ratified the covenant by walking through the blood as a burning torch and a
smoking oven. The torch represents the
flame of The Holy Spirit that God’s covenants with man would bring about. The Smoking Oven represents the glory of God
that would fall on His people in that day.
The burning torch and the smoking pot are a picture of how incense is
used at the altar of the temple. This is
a picture of the prayers of the people, a sweet aroma going up to heaven as the
smoke of God’s peoples prayers are presented at His altar throughout
eternity.
The fulfilling of each piece and part of the covenant
is all very progressive. Significant
things evolve and unfold slowly and in perfect step with God’s timing and His
plan to bless mankind through Abram.
God laid it all out for us all the way back in
the days of Abraham, knowing how fickle and hard-hearted men can be. God knew how long it would take us to
turn. He wanted each man to have all the
time he needed to make his heart ready for life in The Kingdom of God.
This steady progression of the fulfilling of
God’s covenant reveals all things in their own glorious light in such a perfect
way. Men’s hearts are not strong enough
to absorb all of God’s majesty at once, so He broke it down for us into little
doses, a miracle here, a miracle there, a revelation now, a revelation
later. Our Creator knows how we respond
to things. He deals with us like a lover
would deal with someone they were lovesick over. He is blind to our faults and patient with
our short comings. He waits for us to
see the surprises and treasures He has hidden for only us.
Here is another example of how the number three
in this passage plays out. It will also
be in the symbolic “third day” or a day when we should be living out the truth
of resurrection, that the covenant opens up to act out its five-fold ministry
that we read about in Ephesians 4:11.
God’s word and the ministry of His saints will be raised up under the
power of the covenant promises. We read
about this in Ephesians 4:12-13, "For the equipping of the saints for the
work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect
man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
Because God was careful and thoughtful to lay out
the pattern way back in the days of Abraham, we have the opportunity NOW to
live this out. All of the animals
together, the total of five of a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove and a pigeon,
represent a five-fold ministry that God has destined for mankind to participate
in that will usher in the fullness of The Kingdom of God.
And you thought the passage about the covenant
sacrifices was dull and confusing and antiquated? Well, so did I until I prayed and asked God
to reveal His word and make some things clear.
He came through in a million little ways to help me see this. There is SO MUCH here that it could go on for
days and it would be impossible to write it all down. Remember this passage of the story because
thoughts of it will come back to you as we continue to study more of the life
of Abraham. More of the truth of this
covenant will be revealed throughout the whole of the scriptures. It is noticed over and over in story after
story. The longer you let your heart
dwell here the more you will see.
The point
is that we all must realize how important covenants are to God. He started with Adam. He kept it up with Noah. Now we see Abraham is also receiving a
covenant. We will go on to look at Moses
and David and eventually the very best – Christ. God loves and keeps covenant with His people. Never, ever forget this.
In the story of Abram we are reminded again and
again of the fact that as he faithfully brought the elements of the covenant as God had directed and laid it
all out exactly as requested, vultures came down and tried to steal it
away. This will happen every time God is
doing something important and significant.
As previously emphasized, the vultures
are symbolic of the demons of Satan that come to kill, steal and
destroy. The scriptures tell us that
Abram ran off the vultures. He guarded
the things of God and chased off anything that wasn’t supposed to be in his
life. That is what we must do also. Guard your covenant with God. Guard it with all your might. Chase away any person, place of thing that
the devil sends to destroy your promises to God. Don’t let the vultures steal your joy. Abram knew this and did not let them near.
How important was this ancient covenant that God
made with Abraham? It is amazingly
important. Everything that happened
afterward in the history of mankind and God reflected it in some way. When the people of Israel were in the
wilderness and sinned by making a golden calf God almost decided to rid the
world of the descendants of Abraham and start over with the descendents of
Moses, but Moses quickly reminded God of this covenant and God changed his mind
and had mercy on the people.
Covenant is one of the ways of God. We live in mercy and forgiveness because we
serve a God who keeps covenant with His people.
