The Abrahamic Covenant — A Blood Oath/Covenant
A man takes a heifer, a ram, a goat, a dove, and a pigeon. He then kills them all and splits the heifer, ram, and goat in half—creating a walking path between them. Then at the end of the path, he takes the dove and pigeon and burns them as a smoke offering and a meal offering to God. Why would anyone do this?
When Abraham was called of God and entered into a Covenant with God, this is exactly what God requested of him to do.
The Covenant Ritual
7 And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. 8 And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. 11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
This was in the creation of a blood oath, a blood covenant, and a demonstration of that fact. In ancient Near Eastern royal lands, when treaties and covenants were made, they would use a ritual such as this to “seal” the promises made. Through this covenant of blood, God would confirm primarily three promises that are in the Abrahamic Covenant. Namely:
- The land of Canaan
- Posterity as the sands of the sea
- Through him and his priesthood, all the peoples of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:2–3)
Often, these blood oaths included a self-destructive comment in them, such as: “May this be done to me and more so if I do not do this or that” (Jeremiah 34:18–19).
They even used the slang term “to CUT a covenant,” meaning sacrifice of animals was expected and used in the covenant ritual.
When the evening came and the covenant was to be solemnized, sealed, and ratified, God appeared in the form of a smoking fire and flaming torch that passed between the pieces (Genesis 15:17). But Abraham had fallen into a deep sleep, and a terrible fear had overcome him (Genesis 15:12). Thus, God alone passed through the blood path, and the covenant was sealed by God and not by man.