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And yet still... there were ritual animal sacrifices.
Sacrificial offerings were practiced by Abraham. Abraham built altars
as he arrived in Canaan. And yet, it is only with Abraham...
years after his arrival in Canaan... that we read of God
specifically giving the instruction to sacrifice animals on an altar.
This had never occurred before.
The circumstances in which this occurred are interesting for
us to examine.
God had promised a portion of Canaan to Abraham to "inherit it."
However, there was a little confusion... Abraham had had no children
to inherit it to. Sarah was barren. And so, Abraham talks to
God and asks... did you mean... to inherit to a son of my own... or to
my houseman? In those days, if a man died without an heir, the estate
was put into the hands of the master servant... the houseman.
15:5 -- "And God brought him forth abroad, and said,
'Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number
them': and he said unto him, 'So shall thy seed be.'
And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
And he said unto him, 'I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of
the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
And he said, 'Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall
inherit it?'
And he 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. And he took unto him all these,
and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against
another: but the birds divided he not.
And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove
them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell
upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
And he said unto Abram, 'Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they
shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom
they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out
with great substance.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a
good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither
again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
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. In the 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;"
Perhaps Abraham was cautious of the exact words that are given...
when a person makes a promise to another. And, he seems to be
playing the lawyer... parsing words to ensure what exactly it was that
had been promised to him... even after God had expressed so beautifully... numbering the stars... that it would be a line of Abraham's own sons
who would inherit the land given to him.
In point of fact, Abraham asked God to make a contract with him...
to confirm or to seal this promise that had been made. He had asked
for a guarantee of this promise. This laying out of animals that have
been split in half... is said to be the procedure that men of that time
followed when making contracts with each other.
However... this sacrifice... this contract... did not unfold very well.
It became a nightmare. Abraham was told that his descendents
would be enslaved in a land that was not their own. He was told
that his descendents would inherit Canaan, but it would be a long,
long, time before that would happen.
This parsing of words that Abraham had displayed with God...
had resulted in the reality of that parsing. In truth... God had not said when Abraham's descendents would inherit Canaan.
In truth... God had not said that other things would not happen
to his descendents, besides this inheriting of Canaan.
God made a contract with Abram... to seal the words that he had
already spoken to him... but it was not exactly the kind Abram
might have desired. One might also wonder... if this "contract
or covenant making" exercise itself wasn't, in fact, an insult to
God and God's word. Would the force of contract be any stronger
than the spoken promise of God? Does God need the force of
contract to fulfill what he says?
It seems clear that Abraham is caught between one directive...
(such as the rule that a king would have but one wife... or that the
heir must be a child of love)... and the desperate need to produce
an heir. It surely must have been desperation that caused Abraham
to question God in such a way. If there was not a conflict... Abraham
would have set about having children the same as Jacob had...
begetting twelve by multiple wives.
The way that Abraham responded to God's spoken words... were
markedly different when God told Abraham to take his son Isaac
and sacrifice him on an altar. That outrageous request... was followed
without doubt or comment. Abraham had learned... never again to
question God.
This "laying out of animals" in the making of contracts... was not,
however, the kind of sacrifice to God that we are looking for as an
origin of the seeking of forgiveness of sin... or the appeasing of God's
vengeance... or the worshipping of God. Different thing altogether.
God was not saying...
"When you worship me, kill a lamb on an altar."
Isaac is never said to perform animal sacrifices.
Jacob is never said to perform animal sacrifices.
Joseph is never said to perform animal sacrifices.
Ritual animal sacrifices... ended with Abraham.
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