by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
Ramadan commenced last March 10 but the anticipated hostage-prisoner exchange did not happen. But negotiations have recently resumed in Doha, Qatar. After more than 160 days of the Israel-Hamas War since last October 7, 2023, the 134 kidnapped hostages composed of men, the elderly, 19 women, children and a baby, including 31 corpses of hostages are still somewhere in Gaza. The UN Security Council has taken up the Report submitted by Special Envoy Pramilla Patten on the systematic rape and sexual violence committed on Israeli women by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. during the October 7 attacks. The report says these crimes are still ongoing for the women still held in captivity. Hence, we should redouble our prayers for the immediate release of all hostages and a just end to this war.
So far, it has been a generally quiet Ramadan. Israel aims to finally destroy Hamas in Rafah, its last military stronghold, where an estimated 4 armed battalions are hiding in the tunnel network and among the populace. Israel’s PM Netanyahu has said that the IDF’s plans for Rafah has been approved. This includes “humanitarian islands” for the civilians prior to intense ground combat. But while Israel prepares for Rafah, it has its eye also on the more dangerous Hezbollah in Lebanon. Let us continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6-7).
Last time, we left with Abram asking how he was to know if he will truly possess the land in Genesis 15:8. Abram trusted God’s word, but he needed a confirmation and some reassuring proof or sign. We find in the succeeding passages a narration of a documented practice of suzerain-vassal covenant making in the Ancient Near East (ANE).
In Genesis 15:9-11, the LORD God asked Abram to prepare a 3-yr. old heifer, a 3-yr. old female goat, a 3-yr. old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon. Except for the birds, Abram cut the heifer, goat and ram into 2 pieces and laid each half opposite each other. The IVP Bible Background Commentary – Old Testament states that this ritual of dividing animals is found in ANE texts: “Second-millennium Hittite texts use a similar procedure for purification, while some first-millennium Aramaic treaties use such a ritual for placing a curse on any violation of the treaty.” Other ANE texts also have these ceremonial sacrifices of animals when treaties are made. The parties in an ancient treaty were supposed to walk in between the 2 halves of the sacrificed animals as if saying to themselves that may we be killed and cut in half if we don’t honor the treaty or covenant. This was very serious stuff. It was a self-maledictory, imprecatory or cursing vow of fidelity to the treaty or covenant. Note that later on, the Book of Leviticus features these herd animals and birds as part of the sacrificial system.
Verse 12 narrates that Abram fell into a deep sleep near twilight, and an ominous darkness came over him. In verses 13-16, God lets Abram know in broad strokes, the future of his descendants: they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years as strangers in a different land but afterward they will come out with many possessions. Furthermore, in the 4th generation they will return to the land presently being given to Abram (see the Book of Exodus). Then after this brief interlude, verse 17 continues with the covenant ratification. There appeared a smoking firepot/oven and a flaming torch which passed between the cut pieces Abram prepared. Obviously, the LORD God was represented by the smoking firepot/oven and flaming torch as it is a common theophany in the Old Testament (OT). In Leviticus, the smoking oven was used to bake the grain offering to the LORD.
In this ceremony, it is only the LORD God who passes through the cut pieces. Abram does not. Apparently, other than his belief/faith in the LORD, Abram brings nothing to this covenantal land grant. It was unconditional. Everything was God’s doing and work. Then we find the LORD in Genesis 15:18 making a covenant with Abram which explicitly grants the land:
בַּיֹּ֣ום הַה֗וּא כָּרַ֧ת יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־אַבְרָ֖ם בְּרִ֣ית לֵאמֹ֑ר לְזַרְעֲךָ֗ נָתַ֙תִּי֙ אֶת־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֔את מִנְּהַ֣ר מִצְרַ֔יִם עַד־הַנָּהָ֥ר הַגָּדֹ֖ל נְהַר־פְּרָֽת׃
18On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
“To your descendants I have given this land,
From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: (NASB)
18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, (ESV)
The highlighted Hebrew word translated by almost all English Bibles as “made” or “established” (a covenant/promise) is the verb כָּרַת (“karath”), literally meaning to cut off or cut down. But in the ANE context of making a covenant or treaty, it is translated as to make. From the word and its descriptive context in Genesis 15:9-18, it is easy to see a throwback to the ancient ceremonial custom of literally cutting into halves the sacrificial animals. The Legacy Standard Bible translates it as:
18On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your seed I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
The succeeding verses, Genesis 19-21 further specifies that the land being given is a land with current occupants: the Kenite, and the Kennizzite, and the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite. This is the longest list comprised of 10 different people groups (perhaps signifying completeness). There are nearly 20 of such lists in the OT, according to The NIV Study Bible. At this point, the LORD had already given Abram a portent of his descendants’ future: they would take some 400 hundred years before they get back to this land. Now the LORD is indirectly telling Abram that since there are existing occupants in the land, his descendants/offspring will have to dispossess these people in order to inherit and possess the land promised by God in his covenant with Abram (see the Book of Joshua). It is like the owner of a property who wants to throw out his tenants and have somebody else be its steward. And the owner in this case, is the Sovereign LORD.
We will continue next time.
God bless us all.