Do you remember these? I doubt they had the legalese on them... at least I hope they didn't have the fine print on them (unless your dad was a lawyer and had all of your incoming and outgoing written material examined, but that would be a great topic all by itself for a blog, even a book, possibly a book series, a TV series, or even a movie, but I digress)...
The questions varied from "Will you be my friend?" to "I like you. Do you like me?" and "Will you be my girl/boyfriend?" While sometimes there was a third option available (such as "i don't know" or "maybe"), the feature in this genre of literature was the multiple-choice answers already provided for you.
In the "Skip the First Chapter?" post, I mention that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. I thought it might be a good idea to discuss exactly what a covenant is. Take a few moments to think about it. What is a covenant (cue the theme music from Jeopardy – I know, it'll be stuck in your head for the next several hours. Sorry.)? What is the difference between a covenant and a promise or a vow or giving someone your word or being in contract with someone?
A covenant is first mentioned in Scripture between God and Noah and his family, but the Noahic Covenant is mentioned once (Gn 6:18), then is detailed in Gn 9:1-17, but then is rarely mentioned throughout the rest of Scripture. The next use of the word covenant is with the Abrahamic Covenant (Gn chs 12, 15, and 17). It is this covenant that the rest of Scripture refers to. The ark of the covenant is the ark of the Abrahamic Covenant. Before they were called the OT and the NT, they were the Old Covenant and the New Covenant (it is not "old" as in "out of date," but rather "old" as in "first"); and before there was a New Covenant, the Old Covenant was simply The Covenant. All of Scripture points back to this – it's important we get this. So we ask ourselves again. What is a covenant?
In the Fall of 2007, my wife and I travelled to San Antonio to hear Ray Vander Laan (further, RVL) speak. One of the thing he spoke about was the Abrahamic Covenant. He addressed how fascinating it was that:
– in Gn 15:8, Abram asked God, "'...[H]ow can I know that I will gain possession of [the Promised Land]'" (NIV);
– in v 9, God answers Abram by saying, "'Bring Me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon'" (NIV);
– and in v 10, Abram doesn't need instructions from God on what to do next, he got to work because he knew what to do.
It's the same as if we were trying to entertain the neighborhood kids for an afternoon when one of the dads says, "I think there's a baseball bat, a catcher's mitt, a few fielder's mitts, and some baseballs in the back of my garage." No one would need tell them what to do. It's built in to every American kid how to play baseball. When God mentioned those animals, Abram knew what God wanted. He didn't need to say anything more. God was going to cut a covenant.
Did you see that? We make promises and we take vows, but covenants we cut. The reason a covenant is cut is because that is what happens to the livestock involved with the ceremony. In this instance, the cow, goat, and sheep were cut down the middle of their bodies and placed on either side of where their blood pooled into a temporary crimson creek. The dove and pigeon weren't cut in half, but they were cut enough so that their blood contributed to the bloodpath. This bloody pathway was where the two parties who were cutting the covenant were to walk. As each party walked through the blood, they would state their responsibilities to the other party. By doing this, they were symbolically saying, if I don't fulfill my responsibilities to you, may I become like this heifer, this goat, this ram, this dove, and this pigeon.
Read through vv 12-21 of Gn 15. Note the feeling with which Abram declares his devotion to God, how he says he will always be faithful to Him, as a ... what? It's not there? Maybe it's just the translation we're using. Go to BibleGateway.com (or a hard copy of the Word, if you prefer) and look it up in the New American Standard Bible, or The Message, or better yet – the King James Version. That will have it! It doesn't? How odd.
[We'll take a writer's/readers' break here. More to come later...]
good stuff. keep it coming.
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