pass the halves...

If you read the beginning of Genesis 15 in the Bible, there's this peculiar story of God making a covenant promise to Abraham (Abram at the time). It was a promise that he and his descendants would take possession of what would become known as Israel (i.e. the Promised Land). Abram asks God how he can know for certain that he will gain possession of the land and God does something crazy. He asks for a bunch of young animals to be brought before him, cut in half and lined up down a sort of aisle with each half on the opposite side of the other. Then God, in the form of a blazing torch, passes through the aforementioned aisle. This in turn seals the covenant, or promise, that God just made with Abram. I did a little reading and found out something interesting. It was a widely held practice in the ancient near east (Middle East) to seal covenants in this way. Ancient Hittite (the kingdom that found it's roots in modern day Turkey) and Amorite (semi-nomadic peoples of Mesopotamia) texts indicate of similar practices being held to seal covenants made between different parties or people groups. The thing about it was that by performing this ritual and personally passing through the animal halves, you were calling down a curse on yourself if you were to break the covenant. In a sense, you were witnessing your own fate (through the fate of the dissected animals) if the entirety of the covenant were not kept. This sounds like some other crazy and distanced ritual of the ancient world until we realize that God himself passes through the halves on his own accord. He is calling down a sort of curse on himself if His end of the promise is not kept to Abram and his descendents. Then I thought...God didn't need to do that. He's GOD. His word should be enough for us. Later in the Bible, there's an account through the prophet Jeremiah of Israel not holding their end of the covenant to be faithful to God. He draws on this ritual narrative again of passing through the halves. Essentially he's saying that it is now the people of ancient Israel's fate to end up like those animals. Then I think to Jesus. The lamb (frequently the animals used in the ritual sacrifice were lambs) that was sacrificed for us. The New Testament talks about Christ's body being broken for us. All the images I have in my head of this ancient ritual of passing through broken animal halves come rushing back into my head. They go immediately to the fact that instead of holding us to our end of the bargain and covenant, God took the curse on Himself. I bet an ancient king wouldn't have done that to someone who broke his treaty...