Covenants, part 6

4.  Blessings and Cursings

In conjunction with a covenant certain blessings were promised for keeping it and certain penalties affixed for breaking it.

We read in Genesis 15 (JST version cited) of a covenant the Lord made with Abram:

7 - And the Lord said unto him, I the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

8 - And Abram said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? Yet he believed God.

Abraham’s question here doesn’t appear to be motivated by doubt.  (In fact, verse 6 points to Abraham’s great faith in the Lord’s promise for a yet unborn heir.  The JST confirms this.)  His question is most likely prompted by the Spirit.   The Lord is using the occasion to teach Abraham something.

9 - And the Lord 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.

At three years old, these animals were considered fully grown and in their prime.  It is interesting that every animal allowed or commanded to be sacrificed under the future Mosaic law can be found on this list.   Hebrew meshullash (“three years old”) may also mean “threefold”, referring to three of each species.  In either case, three seems to be symbolic of the Godhead.

10 - And he took unto him all these, and he divided them in the midst, and he laid each piece one against the other: but the birds divided he not.

Abraham takes the animals, kills them, and cuts them in half along the spine from the head to the rump.  He then arranges the pieces opposite each other in pairs forming a pathway down the center.  As the pieces drained, blood pooled in this path.

The biblical text doesn’t say whether Abraham was specifically commanded to do this by the Lord, or if he was already familiar with it and knew what was coming because of local practice.  In which case, he didn’t need to be told what to do. 

There is evidence in other early texts, that this was a well establish ratification of a covenant at the time.  Once a covenant and its terms were agreed to, the two parties walked through the blood path as a way of agreeing to keep their terms of the covenant and accepting the penalty if they failed.  It essence, they said, “may what was done to these animals be done to me if I fail to keep this covenant”. 

This blood-path rite was also found in arranging marriages in the Middle East desert communities. The father of the groom as the greater of the two parties would walk barefoot between the animal parts promising that his son would be a good husband.  He would be followed by the father of the bride walking the path and promising that his daughter was a virgin and would be a good wife.  The walk through the blood-path represented the penalty if either party proved false to these promises.

Clear biblical example of this is found in Jeremiah 34:18-20 in which the Lord states “And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof…all of the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.”

This imagery also gives added meaning to scriptures mentioning being cut or divided asunder (Hebrews 4:12; Matt. 24:51).

Finally, in the well known story of Ruth and her mother-in-law, in Ruth’s response there is an interesting phrase “the Lord do so to me (presumably Ruth makes a gesture at this point), and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” (Ruth 1:17)

11 - And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

The events of this time are so sparsely recorded in the Bible, it seems safe to assume that this verse has something of significance and isn’t merely a passing comment.  Biblical scholars have surmised that the root Hebrew ‘ayit, here “birds of prey,” is likely the carrion-eating falcon. In Egyptian art this bird represents the god Horus with whom the Pharoah was identified. It may be that these fowls symbolically foreshadow the captivity of the Abram’s future posterity at the hands of the Egyptians and their subsequent return through the merits of the Patriarch and his covenant from the Lord. This interpretation seems to be confirmed by the prophecy in verses 13-16.

12 - And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, a great horror of great darkness fell upon him.

The deep sleep referred to here indicates a visionary experience, not slumber.  (see Daniel 8:18, also 10:9)  The horror of great darkness, I believe, was a vision to Abraham of the torment of the sons of perdition (D&C 76:47). 

13 - And the Lord spake, and he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land which shall not be theirs, and shall serve strangers; and they shall be afflicted and serve them four hundred years;

14 - And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterwards shall they come out with great substance.

15 - And thou shalt die and go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in good old age.

16 - But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again:  for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Abraham’s posterity won’t be given this promised land until the inhabitants thereof are ripe in their wickedness and merit destruction (Lev. 18:20-25).

17 - And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces which Abram had divided.

The smoking furnace and the burning lamp both represent the Lord (Exodus 13:21; 14:24; 19:18; 20:18; Isaiah 6:4; Hebrews 12:29; Rev. 15:8).  Notice that the smoking furnace representing the Lord passes first through the blood path.  Then at the point in which Abram would normally walk the path as the lesser of the two parties, the Lord as a burning lamp again passes through the path.  This is a unilateral covenant.  The Lord is making this covenant to Abram and will hold himself to it.  Abram is not responsible for its fulfillment.  It is solely up to God to implement the promise of descendants and land.  The penalty is also significant.

Obviously God cannot be torn asunder as the beasts that were sacrificed.  However, the horror of great darkness, which the Lord showed Abraham in verse 12, is the Lord’s penalty if He doesn’t fulfill this covenant to Abraham.  God would cease to be God (Alma 42:22-25).  He would become perdition.  God’s word cannot return void (unfulfilled) (Moses 4:30).  He is placing his godhood on the line, if he doesn’t fulfill this oath to Abram.  What greater witness can he give Abram? (vs. 8)

18 – And in that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. (JST Genesis 15: 7 – 18).

From this incident and the Lord’s instruction to Abram, we gain a sense of the gravity of the Lord’s covenants to us and ours with him.  They are not to be taken lightly.  In this sense, I regret that the penalties were removed from our endowment ceremony.  I feel we have lost something of significance.

In this context, the reminder in D&C 109 that the Lord not only keeps his covenants but is merciful unto us is reassuring.  We don’t walk perfectly as He does.  He holds himself to an exacting standard and will fulfill every whit.  We fall short.  But our efforts are sufficient if we repent and walk uprightly with all our hearts (D&C 109:1)

I take comfort in this statement by Elder Packer:

“When you come to the temple and receive your endowment, and kneel at the altar and [are] sealed, you can live an ordinary life and be an ordinary soul—struggling against temptation, failing and repenting, and failing again and repenting, but always determined to keep your covenants…Then the day will come when you will receive the benediction: ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few thing, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord; (Matt. 25:21)” (Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled [1991], 257 emphasis added).

Notice that the covenant the Lord makes is not only for Abraham but for the benefit of his posterity as well.  In blood-covenants between two mortal parties, the covenant often extended beyond the original parties to include their posterity as well.

Following the death of Saul and Jonathan and a prolonged war with the house of Saul, David searches for and finds Jonathan’s lame son, Mephibosheth. 

Mephibosheth, born Merib-baal, was five years old when his father Jonathan was killed.  His nurse fearing for his life fled with the young boy.  In their haste, an accident left Merib-baal, whose name was later changed to Mephibosheth (meaning shameful thing), lame in both feet. 

As the war concludes, David laments “Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” (2 Sam. 9:1).  When the King learns of Jonathan’s lame son, Mephibosheth, he causes him to be brought forth.  This must have been terrifying to Mephibosheth who likely esteemed David as an enemy due to the long war with the house of Saul and his being too young to understand the relationship and covenant between David and Jonathan.

When he arrives in Jerusalem, David greets him saying “Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake” (2 Sam. 9:7).  David brings Mephibosheth to his own table to eat as one of his own sons and restores to him all of the lands of Saul.  (2 Sam. 9:9-13)  He does this for Jonathan’s sake, not for any merit on Mephibosheth’s part.

As Jonathan’s love for David was a beautiful type of the Savior’s love.  Now David’s actions become a type of the Father’s love for His Beloved Son and the grace extended towards us (as Mephibosheth) as a result of the Savior’s sacrifice and His covenant with us.

In the temple, not only do we receive an opportunity to bless our ancestors, but through faithfulness to our temple covenants, we bless our posterity as well. 

While extending covenant blessings to our posterity is real and the Jews understood this concept, they missed the point.  Some of them believed that they were chosen and would be saved because they were the blood descendants of Abraham and heirs to God’s covenant with him.  They missed the point that they needed to do the works of Abraham.  John the Baptist admonished them to “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Luke 3:8).