COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 43 - MAKING THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The world we live in today makes a big deal about making special announcements public, such as weddings and anniversaries, and of course; the soon coming arrival of a child.  I have to wonder what this would have been like if you were living in the ancient land of Caanan and you were the SECOND wife that had conceived the child with your Mistress’s husband. 

It must have been a bit strange to our way of thinking today. 

Would there have been a gender reveal?  Of course not, there was no way of knowing the sex of a child back in those days, but there must have been an “I’m going to have a baby and it belongs to Abram” public moment that came to pass in Hagar’s life.  How would this have transpired? 

It must have been the talk of the tents!  

How do you imagine Hagar went about telling Abram and Sarai the news?   Of course they would have been waiting and watching and expecting, but still, it would have been perhaps a bit strange and awkward.   

How do you think she was received when she did let them know the news?  I can’t help but wonder who she told first, Abram or Sarai.  I suspect she went to Abram first.  The scriptures leave much to our imagination.  We can only look at the history of women who became “second wives” back in those days and learn a little of what might have happened.

The technical word for second wife was “concubine.”   The concubine was always of inferior status to the first wife.  If the husband wished to perform a veiling ceremony she could obtain the name of “wife” but she would still be considered the inferior wife, the second choice with the first wife always being over her and in charge of her. The husband was in charge of the first and chosen wife, but he WAS NOT in charge of any wife after her.  Any subsequent wife was totally under the charge of the first and chosen wife.  Hagar's welfare remained in the hands of Sarai even after she bore a child of Abram's.

Much of these concubine relationships materialized when the first wife discovered she was barren.  The concubine was a way of securing an heir for the family name if the first wife simply could not bear a child.  Many ancient marriage agreements had wording stating promises from the wife that should the wife be unable to bear an heir she would secure a concubine to have her husband’s children.   These heirs would hold unless the first wife later and unexpectedly bears a child.  The concubine’s children were always inferior to the chosen first wife’s children.  This was true for everything concerning a child in the family, but especially true when it came to inheritance. 

Because of these situations in the culture, the laws of Israel that came later were very careful to provide rights safeguarding the Hebrew girls who found themselves being sold as handmaidens. 

It seemed that when a concubine was going to be provided as one who would bear the children for her mistress, it was usually done by taking a very strong and healthy young handmaiden (often bought in the market of slaves) that the mistress could train as a child and supervise as she grew into a young girl.  The young girl would be brought up to serve the household.    Usually before the child was born the handmaiden would become wed to the one who had purchased the handmaiden. 

Some people have been very upset thinking that Abram sinned with Hagar by committing adultery.  Well, we have already discovered that Abram was an ordinary man and very capable of sin just as any other man; but in this case he was innocent.  He was simply following the legalities and civil laws that were in place in his days and in the culture where he lived.   At that time in that culture it was perfectly legal for Abram to take a second wife.  Sarai's giving Hagar to him would have signified that she was being chosen as a second wife for the purpose of bearing a child to Abram.  Notice the word "wife."  Even though Hagar was a second, inferior wife, chosen only for the sake of bearing children; she was in fact legally married to Abram.  You cannot commit adultry with someone who you are married to.   Even if they had not been married, the law (the ten commandments) had not yet been given, so it was hard to break a commandment that God had not yet officially commanded.  This argument that Abram sinned doesn’t really stand, and for once Abram is let off the hook.  That is also not to say that Abram did the right thing.  Abram should have consulted God before agreeing with Sarai in this plan.  Does anything about this sound familiar?  What if Adam had consulted with God before agreeing to eat the fruit that Eve offered?  The devil's tactics never change, they are always the same and usually quite predictable when you think about it.  

Also, that isn’t to say that God did not intend for men to have only one wife and for women to have only one husband.  Once again, He set the example for us with Adam and Eve way back in the garden.  He showed us the better way from the start.  It was man who came up with the other less than perfect ways of living, and hence mankind is always dealing with the circumstances of their own mistaken choices.   God later addressed this issue when He wrote down the ten commandments and gave them to Moses. 

The picture of Sarai and Abram making their own decisions here instead of waiting on God to bring about His will for them is a perfect lesson and example of how things are better when you do things the best way; God’s way.  In all life situations there is a choice between the way that SEEMS right to men, and God's way.  It seems that Abram and Sarai rushed God’s plan because they got all caught up in their own importance instead of God’s.   If Abram sinned at all, this would be where it happened.  Now, for the rest of his life, the relationship of Abram and Sarah and their beautiful love story would have a shadow of a handmaiden and another son named Ishmael.  The focus of complete joy would forever be diverted  from the eventual promised child because of the responsibilities brought on by wrong human decisions that were way lower than God's original purposes.  

God allows us to grow in and from our mistakes.  This happens because He doesn't produce a magic wand that instantly corrects everything that we have done wrong.  He lets us live with the circumstances that we bring upon ourselves and He is still kind and merciful and loving to us through it all.  He takes our mistakes and turns them for good eventually, even if the "good" is just to teach us to be more careful and more diligent to seek His guidance.  

If the handmaiden went through the child bearing process and boar a child for her mistress and then sought to place herself on an equal footing, she normally could not be sold to anyone else (this kept the man’s child living within his own household even if the relationship with the woman went sour); although she could be reduced again to the status of a slave.  There were civil laws and provisions spelled out in the Code of Hammurabi stating certain conditions where the slave-concubine and her child could even be expelled, but only on the advice of divine oracle.  This too plays into the story of Abram, Sarai and Hagar as we will discuss later.

All of the above is interesting to note as we look deeper into the story of Hagar, Abram and Sarai.

The scriptures tell us that Hagar bore a male child to Abram and even while she was pregnant with him she began to despise Sarai. 

Hagar had been with Sarai since that dreadful time in Egypt when Abram had almost let Pharaoh marry Sarai without telling him she was his wife.  God had intervened in that time and the truth had been revealed.  When Pharaoh sent them away he gave Hagar to them, but it is said that she had requested to go saying:  “One day in the house of Abram and Sarai is better than many days in the house of Pharaoh”  Perhaps Hagar, even as a young girl had entertained the thoughts of being the wife of Abram and bearing his children.  Perhaps she had looked at the life that Sarai led and said “that is for me – I’ll take it!  I want to be just like her!”  There again is another commandment - "Thou shalt not covet" - that had not yet been written down in stone or spelled out for the world to see.  We don’t really know, but it is quite possible that Hagar coveted the life of Sarai. 

Maybe Hagar was simply a child used in a sneaky political move.  Perhaps Pharaoh, secretly wishing to promote the growth of Egypt beyond its borders thought to himself; “I’ll send one of the daughters of my concubines with them and even though they gain great wealth when this child gives birth to another child we will be able to put an Egyptian claim onto all the lands that they come to possess."  Ancient cultures were known for devious acts such as this.  Every kingdom was about power and greed in those days.  Now, this is only imaginative thinking, no one knows what really went on behind the scenes and why Pharaoh allowed one of his princess/daughters to become the handmaiden to Sarai, but it is a thought worth entertaining. 

Who knows what secret thoughts Hagar held in her heart as she grew up in the tents of Abram?  It is in many ways like the story of Esther in reverse. 

It appears in every segment of Hagar’s story that her greatest characteristic was her ambition.  She held on in very hard circumstances determined to succeed in spite of all obstacles.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  What we really know at this point is Hagar was Sarai’s handmaiden and Sarai gave her to Abram to bear a child and Hagar became pregnant and despised Sarai when she did. 

One cannot help but wonder if this word “despise” is a way to describe that green-eyed monster common among women called jealousy.  Let us consider that a bit as we think of Sarai and Hagar and this situation.  They were probably both equally jealous for very different reasons.  

Hagar probably craved the power and control and possessions of Sarai as Abram’s wife, including the love of Abram.  Can you imagine the pain of knowing that another woman would take the child born of your flesh into her arms immediately after birth and raise the child as its mother?  No matter how Hagar worked at her ambitions to replace Sarai, Sarai was ALWAYS going to be in the picture and always going to have control of the destiny of Hagar's child.   

Sarai, on the other hand,  probably felt pain and sorrow to have another woman bearing the child of the one man she had always loved with all of her heart. No matter what she did from this point forward, Abram's loyalties would always be divided and distracted away from her toward this son of another woman.  It must have been humiliating to Sarai to have to make the choice to allow another to give birth to her husband's child and sit helplessly by and watch as the world around her changed daily with this new development.  

Before Hagar's pregnancy Sarai and Hagar had most likely been very close friends.  They would have by this time spent hours and hours and days and years side by side in the household of Abram.  They would have been a team in all that had happened so far.  We can read in the legends of the sages stories of  Sarai entertaining royalty in her tents and recognizing and addressing Hagar as a royal princess instead of her slave among the guests.  Perhaps there were many, many times that these two shared the everyday moments of womanhood in the family together, laughing, talking as close friends, emphasizing with one another over the things that all women go through.  Hagar had most likely been a close friend, confidant and supporter of Sarai.  Now all of that was destroyed between them.  The whole landscape of their relationship and friendship totally changed when Hagar made her famous announcement.   These were real life-changing times for both of these women.   

By the time that Hagar was pregnant and despised Sarai, Sarai knew that she had acted in haste with her decision to give her to Abram and she most likely regretted it terribly.   It must have come  clear to her like a hammer over the head that she had not sought this out through prayer and had not consulted God at all.  She would have had to see the look of concern on Abram’s face every time Hagar winced when the baby kicked, and she would have not been used to the tender way a man would have treated a woman bearing the child of his loins.  Some of the tender loving care that Abram had always given to Sarai would naturally go now to the mother of his child.  This all must have been an eye-opening experience to Sarai and her grief could have easily turned to a huge mountain of bitterness and hate. 

So what do you do when you have gone against the wishes of God even after He has promised you nothing but great blessings and a perfect destiny and has made your life so fulfilling and abundant up until that point?

Wouldn’t we all love to know what went on in the mind and hearts of Sarai and Abram during this time that Hagar was pregnant?  

It must have been a very strange time indeed.  What should have been a time of sheer joy was  now touched and stained with the human traits of anger, bitterness, jealousy, hate, regret, uncertainty, fear and a million other human emotions.  It was all unnecessary, but God lets us make our own choices.  The thing is – once made – we have to live with them.  

It isn’t completely bad though, this is how we learn grace and how we can learn to love deeper and with more intention.  Ironically, pain often brings gain.  Eventually the fog lifts and God shows us the detour that our decisions have brought to our journey.  Detours are not always smooth paved roads, they can get rocky and hard to travel.  We have to just keep moving until we get back to God’s original destiny.  Sometimes it takes a very long time. 

Both Hagar and Sarai had made some bad decisions.  Hagar in choosing to leave her life as the princess she desired to be in her heart all along, and Sarai in choosing to let another woman into her marriage and giving her the right to bear the child to Abram.  Abram too had allowed things to happen without questioning or correcting the errors.  They all had detours cropping up on the radar.  It was going to be a much different and harder journey from here on out.  Some days the only thing left to do is to just keep on walking.

In spite of Abram and Sarai’s mistakes and humanness, God was with them through it all.   He was still pouring out His blessings on them as well as looking after Hagar and her child.     

God is good - all the time.

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 42 - THE BEST LAID SCHEMES OF MICE AND MEN

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

I cannot think of the next chapter in the life of Abram and Sarai without considering the line of Robert Burn's  Scottish poem called "To A Mouse."   One quote is rendered:  "the best-laid schemes of mice an' men gang aft agley, an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promis'd joy!"  

The author is pondering how the little mouse's winter house is all in ruins because of being hit by a plough.  He thinks of how the mouse carefully planned ahead for winter and worked so hard to make such a nice little nest, which the plough just goes right over and destroys in an instant.  Then he considers the act of men making plans and how often, no matter how well laid-out they are; they are destroyed by the unexpected or get terribly off course and messed up along the way.  He thinks how mice at least live in the present moment where men are always looking forward or backward, trying to fix things they have no control over.  

Often when considering this I've thought Robert Burns might have had the same problem as Abram and Sarai with his outlook on life.  He might not have invited God into all the big, life-changing decisions.  Perhaps if the little mouse had consulted God on where to build his nest the plough would not have happened.  There are also certain places that men would not go - had they consulted God about their future.  It is only human to forget this from time to time, and Abram and Sarai were just that - only human.

You would think after all the trouble that God went to in confirming the

covenant with Abram that he would be completely reassured of God’s promises and just begin to wait patiently to see it all come to pass.

Not so.  Abram was inside of time and God was outside of time and their perspective on the passing of time was completely different.  God was and always is looking at the perfect clock and waiting on the perfect time for everything that evolves in his plan for mankind.  Abram was inside of time worried that things were not happening fast enough. 

 He believed; of course he did!  He believed every word that God spoke to him, but he probably kept wondering if maybe he missed some little instruction or something more.  Nothing was happening and he was getting to be old.  Maybe God had told him something to do that he had forgotten.   Those voices that often pop up in the heads of humans to add to confusing times kept repeating themselves.

Perhaps it was up to him.  Perhaps he needed to think of a way to bring God’s will about in a timely manner.  Abram, like all humans before him and after him, began to rationalize about things that were supernatural in nature and tried to make them happen in man’s way instead of waiting on God’s way.  All the time Abram was pondering this; but still he kept impatiently waiting.

Abram might have waited a lot longer and been a lot more patient if Sarai had not been involved.  He had shared the news of the covenant with her and she had believed it too.  She pondered the timing of things just like Abram.  She, after all, WAS a big part of this picture and she was getting older, much older. 

She had heard Abram tell the stories of the covenant over and over.  It was like a dream that they shared together, but why wasn’t it happening?  Sarai must have kept asking herself what was so wrong in her that she could not conceive a son to grant the greatest wish of her husband.  She was deeply troubled in her waiting.  It seemed that her destiny had been put on hold forever.  Why?  Sarah was always wondering why.  She wasn’t one to sit and mope and she did not like this constant never-ending waiting. 

She probably kept telling herself over and over again that she had so much to be thankful for.  She should just be patient, but everything was just taking way too long. 

Was there a sin within her holding this miracle back; too much ingratitude, too much pride?  Not enough humility?  Was she too selfish?  If it was her, what could she do about it?  Was there a way she could be less selfish and give a son to Abram?  Sometimes we look at ourselves and receive doubt instead of looking at God and finding hope.

She pondered this night and day for a long time.  Question after question haunted her thoughts as she spent her hours of waiting.  She was now well past the age of childbearing.  Maybe God was trying to make her think of another way to accomplish this?  Was He?  Anyway – what else was there to do? 

Sarai looked around and glimpsed her beautiful young handmaiden going about her daily chores.  How she wished to be young and healthy again, like her.  Envy has been the fall of many a great woman.  Hagar had been a good servant so far.  She had actually chosen to come with Sarai and Abram from the house of Pharaoh.  She had been one of Pharaoh’s daughters from a concubine.  She had so admired Sarai that she had said as a very young girl “Better to live as a servant in the house of Sarai and Abram than to be a royal princess in the house of Pharaoh,”  Her father had quickly granted her request and sent her off to be Sarai’s handmaiden.  

Since Hagar had chosen her position in life, and been a good servant to her, Sarai felt she could trust her with anything.  The girl had a simplicity about her and she looked up to Sarai and mimicked her every move.  It was very flattering.  Flattery has also been the downfall of many a great woman.  She would always be loyal, wouldn’t she?  She listened when Sarai spoke and took in all of the wisdom she had gained in her years of living in Abram’s tents.   Hagar had learned a lot from Sarai.

The more Sarai pondered this the more Sarai wondered if the answer to

her troubles was living and breathing right inside her own tent.  Perhaps she could trust Hagar to bear a son for her and Abram.  It displeased Sarai to think of Abram with another woman, but she might be able to bear that just once in order to give him the son of his desire.  Surely he would only respect her more for being so unselfish in fulfilling his desires?  Many women thought nothing of this.  

Of course, it would mean that Hagar would have to be considered a second wife.  Sarai would still be the first and honored wife, but Hagar would be taken as a second wife in order to give the family name to her son.  She would be more honored in the household than she was now, but she would still be under Sarai’s charge and she would still tend to Sarai’s needs.  Maybe it meant not much would change. 

Sarai realized she might have come up with a way to heal the only part of her marriage that suffered – the fact that she was childless.  She began to have visions of her tending to a son that Abram loved and Hagar being humble and kind in letting her do so.  Like Abram, she began to rationalize the plans of God instead of waiting to see what God would bring about.  

The scriptures never mention once that Sarai consulted God in this; and that is because SHE DID NOT.  She had become so comfortable in her blessings from God that she just took for granted that He would approve of her plan.  Isn't that the most human thing you have ever known?  

She made a horrible mistake in thinking that this was a question that she had the right to answer. 

It wasn’t.  

Haven’t we all been guilty of the same?  

We go right on making huge life changing decisions on our own because we think we have come up with a brilliant plan and we never consult God who knows how un-brilliant some of our plans can turn out to be.

Sarai talked to Abram and Abram agreed to the plan.  God was there all the time.  He was waiting too.  As He waited they proceded with the plan they had devised on their own.  God will let this happen if you chose to create your own trap.  Sometimes the only learning tools that work are the tools created by our own mistakes.  God is graceful, loving and kind.  He did not leave them or forsake them when they left Him out of the equation.  He simply kept loving them and let them suffer the consequences of their own mistake.  They just assumed that God would be in agreement.  Isn’t that such a human trait? 

 It wasn’t long before Hagar was with child and the pleasant tents of Abram began to take on a new and altogether different atmosphere.  

SEASONS: THE SOUNDS OF THANKFULNESS

(These are musical selections by various artist selected for the Thanksgiving Season by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Have you ever thought about the sounds of Thanksgiving?  
They are all around us all the time, all we have to do is open our ears and enjoy them.  Of course I can't take credit for any of these old favorite musical selections.  Go to You-Tube to select your own favorite versions. 

Whatever your style of listening, some of these will definitely help to get you into a thankful holiday mood!  You can play them while you cook for Thanksgiving this year.  It will definitely get you into the spirit of the holiday.

 Now I'm off to thaw my turkey......

Enjoy!

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 41 - SERVING A COVENANT KEEPING GOD

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.

COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 40 - HOW AN ORDINARY MAN LOOKS AT THE STARS IN THE SKY

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

After Abram had rescued Lot from his enemies, the Lord spoke to Abram again.  He said “Do not be afraid Abram.  I am your shield, your very great reward.” 

This could be translated as God saying “I am your sovereign and your reward from me is great.”

Abram had seen how God had defended him in battle.  He did not need reassurance of that.  He had been willing to follow God anywhere.    

It was that “I am your very great reward” part of the statement that Abram was perplexed about.  Was his reward from God just going to be winning battles?  God knew Abram wanted a son of his own as an heir to his estate more than anything. 

Had God not promised this? 

What was the problem? 

What was taking so long?

 So Abram brings this up to God in a very respectful way, acknowledging the fact that God is sovereign and reminding him that he had been promised children that had not been born yet.  He asked God if Eliezer of Damascus would inherit his estate in place of a son born to him.  That is usually what happened when a man did not have a son; a servant of his household would be named as heir.

God once again assured Abram that Eliezer would not be his heir but a son from his own flesh and blood would be his heir.   As He spoke with Abram, God told him to look up at the stars in the sky and count them if he could.

As Abram looked up at the stars that filled the sky God said to him that his offspring would be like this.  Abram must have been astounded.  He had already learned they would be as many as the dust of the earth, now he was told his offspring would be as many as the stars of the sky. 

How was this possible?  He was already getting to be an older man.  Time was slipping away so fast, but Abram believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. 

How many men would have believed such a thing at this point in their life?  Abram did.  He was a man of great faith.  He truly lived out the definition of faith:  that is; faith being the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.   

You might view this trait of Abram as being extraordinary, yet it is very ordinary.  Abram lived in the same type of radical world that we are living in today, one of swirling cultural changes.  Everyone wanted to experience the next big thing – hence they went in search of supernatural things that often led them into evil troubles.  Take Sodom and Gomorrah as an example.  These people thought they could change the order of God’s world simply by making all the people around them think and act as they did.  They lived in unreality.  They could not accept the truth of God, that He created the universe and that He created it a certain way and that certain creatures had certain functions for certain reasons.  It was God’s plan.  Men often seek to outthink God and wind up not thinking at all.  This is the worst form of idolatry, worship of self; the same type of worship that sent Lucifer hurling from heaven.  It is the one thing that God detests the most. 

Abram on the other hand had accepted God’s reality and truth.  He lived an ordinary life.  He wasn’t trying to be extraordinary and to seek thrills and adventures from the supernatural.  Time and time again you will hear of his extraordinary faith, but actually Abram had a natural, ordinary faith.  That is all God wishes for any of us; just to believe what He says is true and live before Him what you believe.  It isn’t complicated and it doesn’t require great fanfare.

Abram lived with an uncanny appreciation of God in the commonplace.  He did not seek out great quests from God; he simply acknowledged God’s presence in everything around him and responded when God spoke to him.  It was an every-day kind of faith.  Far from low expectations or passivity; Abram simply found joy in the ordinary.  
                                                                                                                    

 

He went outside on the mountaintop and sat with God and appreciated the splendor of the universe God had created.  He didn’t always do the talking in his prayers – he most often spent time listening.
 

And God spoke to him, just an ordinary man of faith worshipping in an ordinary way, and showed him blessings in all the ordinary things of his days – such as the dust of the earth and the stars in the sky.  

And Abram believed and had a type of faith that God considered righteous and that is very likely one of the reasons why God chose Abram and made a covenant with him to be the father of many nations and the receiver of multiple blessings.    

SEASONS - PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON FEAST PLANNING IF YOU ARE NOT JEWISH BUT WISH TO KEEP THE FEAST

Here we are just past the end of The Feast of Tabernacles 2015!  

I LOVE this feast that God commanded us to keep every year.  It is certainly a time of joy.  My family finally "gets" it and we did our first whole feast together at the beach this year!  Words cannot describe the joy, but it has just now become possible after years and years of praying for God to allow everyone's heart to open up to this truth that He gave us so long ago.  

It was never that I didn't plan and try to celebrate however people would let me work it into their schedules.  I always started planning for next year as soon as the last feast was over for the current year; but having grown kids making all of their own decisions with families of their own and being a Christian family that does not worship in a Messianic congregation, all my  planning gets complicated.   I could plan all year, but it took others wanting to join in and plan too!  That takes a heart open to God's timing that will allow itself to try something new that God has commanded.  The culture of our world is no help at all! 

I've known groups and congregations that have followed the scriptures and set aside money to plan their feast each month like a tithe.  I think that is a wonderful idea, but that hasn't been taught in my circles yet, and I'm not so sure that my family understands yet.  After spending seven days together though, I'm sure they are beginning to see that you MUST plan to get the full and complete effect, and that requires setting aside money earmarked for this celebration.  I think you have to know the joy of an old fashioned feast week before you can even begin to consider this good wisdom.  Once you have experienced that joy though, you look forward to doing it again and again.  The planning suddenly stops being a chore and becomes exciting!  

This year with God's help and a lot of prayer I actually managed to incorporate some of this planning into our lifestyle on a more regular and systematic basis.  It takes time and patience combined with prayer and a good notion of knowing when to chose your battles and when to show grace and not be legalistic.   

Because we all hail from an untrained and clueless Protestant non-denominational background, this process evolving with us had previously resulted in my husband and I having a festive family celebration at our home on the first and last day of the feast and just spending the rest of the time enjoying the week resting at home, enjoying some family activities that we don't usually incorporate into our weekday nights (movies, restaurants, a walk in the park, etc.) or carrying out any special plans and ideas that we can use simply to remember the occasion and keep the time special.  I started out by trying to incorporate such things as building a sukkah and eating inside it,  teaching the grand kids whenever the opportunity presented itself, listening to other groups celebrating together on-line and enjoying special music and prayers and meals each night, and showing some of this to the family whenever it seemed appropriate.   I would also enhance my own personal time with or without others to do more intense bible study and I would allow myself extra rest times to be alone with God.  We would do most of these things at home, but they were the same things we would find ourselves doing even if we went away for a feast.  Finally, this year my dream came true and our family spent the feast together in a vacation setting under one roof!  It was awesome!  God threw in every imaginable blessing!  And you know what?  They GET IT!!!!  

The trick that seemed to turn the key and unlock the hearts of my family was to find a special place we all could afford that would not break the bank for everyone.  Fortunately for us, our daughter married a man with a home near the beach.  I joke that God brought them together so we could all share the feast at the beach!  That one change in the family dynamics brought all the years and years of other small things together under one roof and we were celebrating the feast like old timers!

A lot of families plan a week long camping trip with their whole extended family.  I've often thought this would be fun too with our ever growing family.  We could go somewhere beautiful and secluded out of doors and enjoy the time very much.    

We all grow at a different pace.  God shows some of us sooner than others, or different than others for the time being.  So what is a Mom who desires to keep the feast with a family that hasn't a clue to do?  

A lot of my friends are faithfully trying to celebrate the feast days by joining in with the local Messianic congregations.  I think this is just great if it works for you.  These services are wonderful and very good for teaching.  I love the sincerity of most of the people wanting to carry out the truth in worship, but something keeps holding me back from this.  

One thing that bothers me after attending some of these for awhile is that I usually find these groups evolve from sincere worship to becoming too legalistic.  They start out with the glory of God then somehow end up splitting hairs and pointing the finger at each other.  Some of them seem to be trying to be Jewish instead of trying to be better Christians.  Not all of them mind you, but it does happen a lot.  Those things are not what I care to take my family into. 

Mostly, I think it is simply the fact that my spirit is troubled that the whole church, which I have defined and discerned from the scriptures to be everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Messiah, has turned their life over to Him and has made their body a home for The Holy Spirit to dwell in, can't do any of these simple things that God requested for His people to do together. This seems to be the BIG problem.  Here I see the other side of legalism in action.  They are holding fast to the traditions of men, what they have done year after year after year instead of finding out what God originally commanded.  

Neither group fits the spirit of how I want to worship.  I'm looking for biblical accuracy with love and mercy and grace.  I know that is what God is looking for too.   I simply refuse to become a make-believe Jew, for lack of a better term.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Jewish people and would be honored to have been born a Jew, but that isn't the truth in my case.  I was born a Gentile.  I must bloom where God planted me, but in blooming, I must carry out the truth that God has shown me.  Sounds simple doesn't it?  Nothing is simple when the devil will be defeated by the results.

I AM an adopted daughter, grafted firmly into that old Olive Tree, and I don't see why all the other adopted children (the church full of gentile Christians) can't recognize and celebrate the traditions of our Father together.    After all - didn't He take us in and love us just the same as those born to Him?   The Jews are the chosen people, but through the blood of Christ which covers Christian Gentiles, we too are chosen.  We, just like the Jews are taken, blessed, broken and given to carry out God's will for us in His Kingdom.

So, I just refuse to join in with either side on principal because I feel the Christian church should act Christian, and I think the feast days were observed by Jesus and the early church AFTER they became Christians as well as before when they were simply Jewish.   

If you are going to make something right, someone must start.  I chose to start to carry these things out in my own home with my own family until the church grows up and begins to do the same.  Many, many congregations are now waking up to this.  I've watched and waited for about 30 years now to see such things come to pass.  We have a LONG way to go.  All I have to worry about is my little piece of the puzzle, God will do the rest.  I must stay in tune to The Holy Spirit and what God is saying to me.  I do not wish to argue or debate this with anyone, it is a free country - so far.

My bible tells me that the very first Christians experiences' with their old Hebraic traditions were enhanced after they became Christians; I say enhanced, not changed or done away with.  After the Resurrection, the Christians who started out Jewish and/or Hebrew had a much clearer understanding of why God had them observing certain traditions year after year after year.  Their eyes were opened to the truth.  They suddenly realized it was to teach them about Christ!  They saw the shadows of the present they were living through and they saw the hope of the future in the days that they had not yet seen fulfilled.  So why aren't we in the church teaching our own children these things?

I have Christ living in me, therefore I do not have to apologize for following the scriptures in the old testament, just as He did.  I've learned that the Old Testament makes the New Testament come alive.   The Old Testament was fulfilled - not put aside.  I was not born a Jew genetically, but by being a member of The Church (those who are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit because they have believed in Jesus Christ as Messiah)  I have become an adopted member of the family!  I DO NOT REPLACE the original family, but I DO become a part of it.  We are two shoots of the same tree (one lives from being grafted into the other) and we are meant to compliment each other and to grow together in grace and to give glory to God The Father together.  I have as much right to celebrate the family traditions as a son who was genetically born!   Jesus died to make this possible.  I can't take that for granted. 

I refuse to walk around that and pretend it isn’t true.  I do not have to make excuses or pretend to be someone I am not because of the false reality of organized religious groups that oppose me realizing my own rights as a born again child of God.  There are so many organized religious groups that are dictating what can and cannot be noticed in the holy scriptures.  These groups remind me of the Pharisees.   I believe God will have something to say to them about that one day!  My job as a Christian is to hear the gospel, read it, study it, believe it, receive it and PRACTICE it in my life – all of it – not just the bits and pieces that are presently acceptable to the prevailing cultural movements of society.  

Hence I have evolved to celebrating God's Holy Days with those of my own household who understand my feelings about this.  The rest of the year we are fine with worshiping with any Christian congregation that believes in Holy Communion.  They all seem to get the rest of it, but it is as if a portion of their bibles were just laid aside and forgotten, even though it has been pretty widely discussed among scholars of the bible that their traditions of Christmas and Thanksgiving have their roots in these festivals and probably began with them.  It is almost like a taboo subject with most congregations.  It is only the feast days that make my life as a leader of my family beside my husband so much harder to incorporate into my year, but I am more than ever determined to do so.

I do love John D. Garr's book called "The Family Sanctuary" that teaches how our homes are the first and main sanctuary where we should be worshipping God.    Taking points from this book we have incorporated Sabbath worship in our home.   Everything else should flow from the home first with the father being the head of the home and the mother playing a vital part in teaching the ways of God to the children.  This would apply to whomever is the head of the household in a single family home.  This is a starting place for me with my beliefs being so firm about the Sabbath and about The Holy Days.  Home is a good place to start and to move forward from.  I hope and pray that one day the whole church will BE the whole church and I can go to a public place of worship and worship as I believe all year instead of simply agreeing on the basics and agreeing to disagree on the other scriptures that I can't overlook.     
So, with all of the above in mind, I always ponder the best way to celebrate the feast with my own family.  Each year I long to draw them all together for a whole week in one place and do all the traditional things that the scriptures spell out.  It is not always possible – but I keep planning every year to make it happen.  Some years some of the family is present for the beginning and some of the family is present for the end, and on a REALLY good year we all are feasting together the whole time.  Every year we practice the celebration, a little more of the reason and the heart of the matter sinks in.  I am amazed at how God shows them whatever they are ready to accept.  God's timing is always just right.  Allow it in your family and you will see things slowly fall into place.  The process itself is amazing and gives glory to God.

I truly believe that patience counts here and that you have to eat an elephant one bite at a time.  For years I have plugged away at this plan.  I've come very close to helping my whole family to understand and remember and celebrate the meanings and traditons of Passover, Purim, Pentecost, The Feast of Trumpets,  The Day of Atonement and even Hanukkah.  The whole journey has been a beautiful one full of God's blessings.  I've never regretted a time and have always felt so blessed when we have gathered together in God's name as a family to celebrate His Holy Days.    My last prayer in this journey is to help them all to understand and be able to celebrate The Feast of Tabernacles as a family and eventually with the whole world.  They know I do it.  Sometimes they join in with me on some of the traditions, but I feel it is all still vague to them.  The only way to REALLY understand Sukkot is to go to the feast and to experience it all.  We were blessed to find this come true this year!  It was an awesome answer to prayer.  Not only did we experience Sukkot, we experienced the JOY of the season and bonded as a family.  

So I keep praying about my vision for my own family.  My vision includes meeting together at a campground or a house and living in tents or under one roof together, with a community sukkah which we would build together to take our meals under.  I have ideas for my husband (as priest of our home) to teach our children and grand children all the meanings behind the traditions and I can see me telling bible stories to the little children as we all relax and just enjoy doing fun family things together.  This year for the first time the vision was set in motion.  I spent many other years praying and seeking God's guidance.  When God's time was right - it all came together and it was perfect!

So why not just rent a big house somewhere special and gather?  There is nothing wrong with that at all, and it works gloriously for most people all the time.  Still, I have a vision of camping at some point.  Why does the vision have to include tents and camping?  Good question – you could just rent a vacation cottage I guess - but that isn't what I usually think about when I think of this feast.  

Most of my thoughts go all the way back to Abraham and Sarah.  All of their lives they dwelt in tents.  Did you know that there is deep significance in the fact that they spent their whole life as tent dwellers?  At first glance it would not seem to be such a huge thing, but on second glance we see this is so very significant.  This is something I would love to point out as our family camps together one year in our future celebrations.

I will also be praying for all of you kindred spirits out there who are trying to be Christian and incorporate Hebraic thoughts into your own family worship.  My whole point in this thinking out loud article is simply to encourage you.  We must start somewhere, let's start by praying for each other to be able to bring about God's ways in our own homes over the coming year.

I honestly believe that our whole country could change for the better if each home in America began to celebrate The Feast of Tabernacles together every year.