God Knows Our Form
I think the Apostle Paul said it best in Romans 7:15… “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (NLT) But, at the same time, Psalm 103:14 reminds us, “For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.”(NLT)
So God made us to be like Him, but He also knows that sin is a very real part of us that will keep trying to lead us away from the paths of righteousness. He made a way for us to have our sinful behaviors go to judgment without us, and He had a plan for it years before Calvary. We find that plan in Genesis 15 where God and Abraham carry out the ritual of the blood covenant.
In verse 17, Abraham is still kinda knocked out, and he sees two flames in front of him that walk through the pieces. They are a smoking furnace (or fire pot) and a flaming torch. I don’t know which one represented God, and which one represented mankind, but since the flames walked both directions through the sacrifices, and since God kept Abraham in a temporary sleep, the covenant was completed solely by God. I added the doves, white hearts, and crosses to the images to represent God’s Spirit in both lamps.
God walked through the pieces to represent His promise, and then He walked through the pieces to represent Abraham’s promise. Because He knew man would fail, He prepared to pay for that failure with His own blood. (In Acts 20:28, Paul exhorts the teachers to feed the church of The Lord, which He purchased with His own blood.)
In the covenant (see Jeremiah 34:18), people make promises to each other and walk through the sacrificial pieces to confirm their promises. Whoever breaks that promise must pay with their own blood. You can read the steps Abraham took to prepare the sacrifices for the ritual in verses 9-11. In verse 12, a deep sleep falls on Abraham as God recites His promises to Abraham about His blessings on future generations that would come from him. Abraham’s part is to remain faithful and upright before The Lord and to teach his family to do the same.
There are other teachings suggesting what the events between Abraham and God could have meant, but when I was taught what the blood covenant was, it made perfect sense to see the future act of Christ at Calvary as being planned by a loving and merciful God who knows our form. He has been so good to me (and to many others I know), and I’ve seen His mercy deliver me from failures more times than I can count. To think He was planning it so far in advance just deepens my awe for His grace and mercy. What does it say to you?
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