Why was the unique sacrificial rite in Genesis 15 required, and what did it signify? Was it simply a self-maledictory oath on the Lord’s behalf, or was there something deeper going on?
The biblical narrative contains so many things which God designed to arrest our attention, but they have become so familiar to us that we are now oblivious to how astonishingly eccentric they are.1For more discussion, see The Art of Why. The intended result of God’s use of riddles is the sort of questioning that comes naturally to children. But perhaps when we teach that the Bible must not be questioned we hope to hide the fact that we ourselves have not figured it all out.
The instructions to Abram in Genesis 15 are a perfect example. God promised to multiply Abram and give him Canaan’s land. Abram asked how he could know that he would possess it. Then God said, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” If I were Abram, I might have repeated my question, assuming God had not heard me. But Abram knew that a call to sacrifice was a call to draw near. He obeyed in anticipation of an answer.
The strangeness of the instructions and the perplexing sequence of events which they initiate, however, remains. They comprise a riddle that can be answered only through meditation upon sacred architecture, a liturgical “promise” that would be subsequently measured out in history.
Most commentators disregard the specifics of the sacrifices and focus instead on the nature of the Abrahamic Covenant, contrasting its grace with the Mosaic Law. But since the prophecy in Genesis 15 includes a prediction of events fulfilled under Moses, glossing over the details robs us of a better understanding of the ways of God.
Like Adam, Israel was given a promise of kingly dominion (Abram) and a temporary prohibition (the Levitical Law). The latter served to qualify Israel for the former. Submission to heaven (priesthood) always precedes dominion over the earth (kingdom).
The Oath
Since there is no mention of covenant curses, some believe (based on Hebrews 6:13-14) that this implies the Lord Himself would bear the curses for disobedience:
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
Peter Golding writes:
This common explanation does highlight the truth that the fulfillment of the promises rested upon God’s faithfulness rather than Israel’s. Every time Israel was slain under the Law, the Lord would raise him from the dead by grace alone until all the promises were fulfilled (Zechariah 4:6). The Lord took the Oath and the Lord Himself would lift its Sanctions, culminating in the burden of the curse being borne by Yahweh Himself in Christ.
However, this does not explain the reason for animal sacrifices at this point or the specific requirements. The curse was always borne by animals, but for whom were these animals serving as blameless substitutes? The answer is that the offerings relate to the circumstances at this stage in covenant history, serving as a bridge between the global priesthood of Noah and the national priesthood of Aaron.
The Ascension
Events recorded earlier in Genesis are far more relevant to Genesis 15 than later covenant oaths. As James Jordan explains, animals were slain here in the Land because animals were slain in the Garden.
When Adam sinned he was sentenced to die. God killed an animal to provide covering for him, but still he had to leave the Garden. A boundary was set around the Garden that he might not cross on pain of death, for cherubim with flaming sword that turned in all directions were set at the eastern gate of the Garden to guard it. For Adam to get back into the Garden, he would have to ascend past the barrier, through sword and fire. Only then could he serve as God’s palace-servant again. In Leviticus 1, the animal will pass through sword and fire, bringing the adam back into a symbolic Garden.
From this every Israelite knew that it was God and not any adam who would kill the “animal” to provide covering. When the Israelite slaughtered his Near-bringing, he knew that he was only acting a role designed to affirm his faith in what God would someday do.
Two events in the life of Abraham must also be remembered. When God made the covenant with Abram in Genesis 15, five animals were divided (the same five that are brought near in Leviticus; contrast Noah’s offering of all “clean” animals), and God’s smoky presence passed between the parts of the animals. God said that this event linked Abram to the land, from which he had been estranged (the famine in Genesis 12, the weakness of the land in Genesis 13, the wars all over the land in Genesis 14), though that linkage would not take hold for several generations to come. Thus, the two parts of the animals represented Abram and the land. Abram and the land were dead to each other, rent asunder. But now God’s presence would knit them together. Thus, when God’s glory passes between the parts of the animals, it signifies putting them back together again in a new way. In Leviticus 1, putting the sectioned parts of the animal into the Communion Site (traditionally “altar”) signifies the same thing: resurrection, reunification with God and the world, and glorification.3James B. Jordan, Introduction to the Ascensions, Biblical Horizons Nº 143.
The Model
While Jordan’s exposition is exceedingly helpful, it still fails to explain the need for the sacrifices. Much more needs to be made of the link between the barrenness of Sarai and the barrenness of Canaan as expressions of the curses in Genesis 3:16-19. Fruitfulness of the land and the womb (Sanctions) are the results of faithfulness to God (Oath). But unlike Adam, Abraham was faithful (Hebrews 11:8). Adam’s sin eventually led to the destruction of “all flesh” in a global flood. What was being established in Abraham and Sarah was a microcosmic model of the world, a social Land surrounded by a social Sea. As Jordan describes above, Abraham’s estrangement from Canaan follows a familiar threefold pattern, and it is expressed in local events rather than global ones. However, the outcomes here are all positive, resulting in blessings upon Abraham rather than in covenant curses. Thus, Abraham himself is not the reason for his estrangement from the Land.
| Adam, Eve and the serpent (Genesis 2-3) |
 TRANSCENDENCEGARDEN Attack on the bride |
Abram, Sarai and Pharaoh (Genesis 12:10-20) |
| Cain and Abel, Lamech’s city (Genesis 4) |
HIERARCHY |
Abram and Lot, cities of the plain (Genesis 13) |
| Mighty men vs. the ark of Noah (Genesis 6-8) |
ETHICS |
United kings vs. Abram’s household (Genesis 14:1-16) |
| Noah blessed and established as a priest-king (Genesis 9:1-19) |
OATH/SANCTIONS |
Priest-king Melchizedek blesses Abram over bread and wine (Genesis 14:17-24) |
| Noah’s deep sleep, Ham sins and Canaan’s seed is cursed (Genesis 9:20-29) | 
SUCCESSION |
Abram’s deep sleep, the seed of Ham (Egypt) sins and Canaan conquered (Genesis 15) |
Through three trials, Abraham is proven as a priest, a king, and a prophet, dealing faithfully and wisely in all three domains.4Abraham’s behavior concerning Sarai in Egypt is misinterpreted as a faithless deception rather than an “outcrafting” of the serpent through wise discernment of his true intentions. For more … Continue reading As a result, he is made a father in God’s image, firstly so that the seed promised to Adam and Eve might be preserved, and secondly that his offspring might serve as mediators for the nations to spare the world from another global annihilation until that seed should arrive. The Abrahamic Covenant was the rainbow of the physical order expressed in a microcosmic social order.5For more discussion, see Cosmic Language. The Land of Canaan would serve and suffer on behalf all dry land. Thus, when the Lord tells Abraham that the sins of the Amorites are not yet ripe for judgment, we might understand this in regard to all the surrounding nations. The first “social flood” which Canaan would suffer was the invasion by the tribes of Jacob four centuries in the future.
Therefore, these animals did not represent a divide between Abraham and the Land but a division between priestly Abraham and the kingly nations dwelling upon it. These sacrifices were a mediation on behalf of those living in Canaan, those to whom Abraham had preached the Gospel, proclaiming the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:8; 13:4; 26:25; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13; cf. Joel 2:32). This is supported by the fact that Genesis 15 recapitulates the history of the world from Adam to Noah:
| ADAM (Covenant Head) |
 COVENANT |
ADAM TO NOAH (Covenant Body) |
| Adam’s sin, barrenness in land and womb |  CreationDay 1 Sabbath |
God promises Abram a son |
| Cain fails to rule over sin and he slays Abel the shepherd |  DivisionDay 2 Passover |
Abram’s offspring would be as stars in the firmament |
| Lamech substitutes vengeance for atonement |  AscensionDay 3 Firstfruits |
The Lord calls for sacrifices to cover Canaan |
| Seth’s priesthood is corrupted through intermarriage with the Cainite kingdom |  TestingDay 4 Pentecost |
Israel worships Egypt’s gods but remains distinct |
| Noah witnesses and musters “all flesh” into a new microcosmic “house’ |  MaturityDay 5 Trumpets |
Under Moses, God sends plagues and Israel plunders Egypt |
| The flood cleanses the land and Noah offers the first ascension offering |  ConquestDay 6 Atonement |
As a blazing torch and a cloud, Israel passes through waters to Canaan |
| Worship is re-established in a “new” earth |  GlorificationDay 7 Booths |
Worship is re-established in the Promised Land |
Now, it must be said here that Israel’s failure to enter the Land required a delay of one generation, ruining the pattern, and requiring a new “washing” in the Jordan. But the correspondences do explain the need for substitutionary sacrifices. Ascension also corresponds to Leviticus, and the Levites were a kind of Firstfruits, a tribe which possessed no “Day 3” Land since they themselves, as legal representatives for Israel, were its holy “fruits.”
The Mediators
The House
This brings us to an explanation of the five clean animals required by God for sacrifice. They prefigure the furnishings of the Tabernacle, which was itself a microcosmic house that served as a substitute for the sins of Israel and the nations. Since the Tabernacle was cruciform, I believe these animals were laid out in a cruciform pattern but with a significant deficiency.
Abram had been in the Land for three years, so the animals were three years old, a kind of Firstfruits, flesh and blood as bread and wine. This represents a divided week, the failure of Adam at the center of the sevenfold process of qualification where he seized kingdom (Sanctions) without prior priestly submission to God (Oath). Thus, these animals represent every fundamental element of the Tabernacle except for the Lampstand, the symbol of God’s domain over Israel, which would serve to enlighten the Gentiles of His kingdom over all nations.
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Abram is “passed over” (veil established: Passover) in Canaan that Israel might later “pass through” (veil opened: Atonement) into Canaan. This event also explains the circumcision of Israel “a second time” just before the conquest of Jericho (Joshua 5:2) as the devoted “firstfruits” city of the Land.
The reason it is missing from this arrangement is that, in Abram, Adam’s race was being divided into priests and kings, Jew from Gentile, bread from wine, that the sin of godless intermarriage might not poison a faithful witness of God’s mercy as it had before the flood, thus preserving the lineage of the promised Messiah.
Thus, this “cutting in half” is not only found in each animal but also in the entire bloody architecture. This “divided man” was the reason the Aaronic priests were bloodied only on their right ear, thumb, and big toe (Leviticus 8:23). And it is the reason that wine was never consumed by men in God’s presence until Christ came to reinstitute a better “order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:13-17).6For more discussion, see The Forbidden Feast. On the cross, Jesus made of the two halves “one new Adam,” bloodied on both sides to tear down the wall of circumcision and reunite the halves in a priesthood of all nations. So, the division of animals does not represent Abraham’s estrangement from the Land but his separation from the nations as a priestly household, a division which remained after the Land was possessed.
A heifer three years old
The heifer represents the earth, in this case, the actual four-cornered Land with its horns presenting the witness of blood, faithful worship which would keep the Gentile “Sea” at bay. In this case, the animal is female, presumably because the word eretz (Land) is feminine, the Creational “womb” so to speak. A heifer is a cow that has not borne a calf, or has borne only one calf. This links the Land of Day 3 (the Bronze Altar) with the fruit bearers of Day 3 (the Golden Table of Showbread).
A female goat three years old
The female goat represents the Altar of Incense. This also had four horns, but they were the prophetic winds of heaven. The blood from the Bronze “Adamic” Altar of death was daubed on this fragrant “Evian” Altar of resurrection, its savor speaking of the burial spices on the raised body in place of the stink of death. We see the bloody Bronze Altar and the fragrant Incense Altar in Esau and Jacob, outside and inside the tent, with a reference to goat skin thrown in for good measure as Jacob presents himself before the “throne” of his father.
A ram three years old
The ram, which corresponds to the Table of Showbread, speaks of the Firstfruits of the Firstfruits. The Levites received a tenth from common Israelites and offered a tenth of that as holy to God. Isaac was the firstfruits of the barren womb of Sarah. Just as the firstfruits of the Land were lifted up to God, so the firstfruits of the womb were lifted up on Mount Moriah by proxy of a ram.
A turtledove and a young pigeon
Black birds and white birds are a multiplication of the two avian witnesses and their ministry of cursing and blessing (the darkness and light of God’s two-edged sword) over the waters of the flood. These would be represented in the Urim and Thummim in the ephod of the High Priest.7See “Return of the Raven” in Michael Bull, Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes. This “murder” of black birds represents the general curse of death, and the two white birds represent God’s blessing upon the faithful, whether “domesticated” Jew or “wild” Gentile (Romans 3). Since they represent the anointed “Head” in this cruciform architecture, the dove and the pigeon were not cut in half, but instead their necks were broken. Like the winged cherubim on the covering of the Ark, the Head cannot be divided, or crushed, only temporarily separated from the Body. This explains the careful division among Jesus’ grave clothes (John 20:7). Since the dove is the wild animal and the pigeon its domesticated cousin, I believe these represent Land and World, the Spirit’s work in both Jew and Gentile, one with the Law and one without (Romans 3:29). The “sign of Jonah” (Jonah means dove) speaks of the ministry of Israel on behalf of the nations (Matthew 12:39-40).
These sacrificial animals are listed in an order which expresses a priestly ascension, working from the earth/ Adam, to Eve, to Eve’s firstborn, to the promise of a global priest-kingdom centered in heaven, a reinstitution of a “Melchizedekian” or Noahic order through the reintegration of Jew and Gentile.
The serpent and the tree
But what of the missing Lampstand? Moses saw it in the wilderness and heard the words of Yahweh. In the structure of Genesis 15, the role is usurped by the serpentine Pharaoh of Egypt. It is no accident that the Lord of the burning bush gave Moses three “serpentine” signs.8For more discussion, see Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes, 147.
In the greater picture, the Lampstand is the Day of Pentecost, the coming of true kingdom, so the animals represent Adam, laid out as a lifeless, empty body awaiting breath from heaven. The five animals form the house, and the fire, in this case a smoking fire pot (the “clouds” or hosts of Israel’s armies) and a blazing torch (the fiery “head” or Captain, Joshua/Jesus) come to fill it. The Head and Body are burnt separately but united by fire in the Ascension offering in Leviticus 1, a sacrificial liturgy which recapitulates the Creation Week.
The fact that this new Israel was circumcised outside Jericho before cutting off “all flesh” in that city as a firstfruits of the Land relates to the flaming sword wielded by the cherubim at the spring of Eden. The sword is positioned at the Laver, not only the location of circumcision on the human body but also the “spring of life,” the womb of Eve. In all cultures except the most degenerate, this is the part of the human body which is covered. The architecture of Eden is represented in our bodies, vessels which God intends to fill as holy Tabernacles.
The Inheritance
This facet of the covenant with Abraham was completely fulfilled:
Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45)
Since the divided animals served as a temporary covering for the Canaanites (Oath), these nations were accountable to God when the children of Abraham “ascended” from Egypt in a pillar of fire and cloud (Sanctions). The war on the peoples of Canaan was not a decree of genocide but a judgment upon nations who had heard and rejected the Word of God. In Abram, blood was offered as a priestly Oath, and if that substitutionary blood was “trampled underfoot,” then blood of those lives which it temporarily covered would be shed in kingly Sanctions. The same process is found in the relationship between the tearing of the veil at the death of Christ and the destruction of the entire Temple in AD70 (Hebrews 10:20-31).
The conquest of Canaan fulfilled the promises made by God and ratified in the rite of Genesis 15. Yet the Lord works in fractals. He keeps moving the goal posts, just as He did with Adam and Abraham, from the Garden, to the Land, to the World. The triune pattern is measured out in every part of the Scriptures. However, there is one facet of Israel inheriting the Land which has been overlooked as far as I know, and once again it must be understood in the context of the Noahic priesthood.
Because Ham attempted to steal the inherited role of priest-king from Noah, his son Canaan would instead serve Shem as a slave.9See Out of His Belly. Yet this is not what occurred during Israel’s sojourn in Egypt after the death of Joseph. The events recorded in Exodus 1 are intended to shock the reader, since they reverse the inspired decrees of Noah.
Shem was in slavery “in the Land of Ham.” (Egypt is referred to as “the land of Ham” in Psalms 78:51; 105:23, 27; 106: 22; 1 Chronicles 4:40.) Not only this, but the division between priests and kings, first expressed in Cain’s hatred for Abel, is present here in the fact that the Egyptians despised shepherds, requiring the Hebrews to dwell on their own (Genesis 46:34). This fulfills the distance between the serpent (Egyptian kingdom) and the ram (Israelite priesthood) in the Abrahamic “Tabernacle.” Passover would divide between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15) and allow the completion of the sequence in Genesis 15.
While the isolated “seed,” the house of Jacob, was “dying” in Egypt that it might be multiplied as a great harvest (John 12:24), the oak trees planted and wells dug in Canaan by the patriarchs were also bearing fruit, along with the houses and vineyards of the Canaanites. The cursed womb had born a nation in the “grave,” while the cursed Land now promised an abundance (Numbers 13:24). Shem would receive the possessions of Ham, but only through a process of death and resurrection. Shem had to die in the Land of Ham (the father) and be resurrected to inherit the Land of Canaan (the son).
Circumcision was tied to the Abrahamic promises concerning the Land and the womb. These ended at the baptism of Christ, the first sign of the dove, a Noahic immersion which reunited Jew and Gentile, and “the days of Noah” which cut off Canaan forever in AD70. The Aaronic veil was torn away, and a heavenly country was revealed, a blessing for all nations.
But then, Abraham understood this all along (Hebrews 11:16). Even the gifts of God are riddles which point to blessings beyond our imagination, for He “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
World History
TRANSCENDENCE
ADAM TO NOAH (Day 1)(Creation – Initiation)
World united as one blood
HIERARCHY
ABRAM TO JOSEPH (Day 2)(Division – Delegation)
World divided by blood
ETHICS
MOSES TO AD30 (Day 3)(Ascension – Presentation)
Priesthood centralized on earth
MINISTRY OF CHRIST (Day 4)(Testing – Purification)
The harvest begins
AD70 TO JUDGMENT (Day 5)(Maturity – Transformation)
Priesthood centralized in heaven
OATH/SANCTIONS
FINAL JUDGMENT (Day 6)(Conquest – Vindication)
World divided by water (Baptism)
SUCCESSION
ETERNAL STATE (Day 7)(Glorification– Representation)
World united by one Spirit
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References
| ↑1 | For more discussion, see The Art of Why. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Peter Golding, Covenant Theology, 72. |
| ↑3 | James B. Jordan, Introduction to the Ascensions, Biblical Horizons Nº 143. |
| ↑4 | Abraham’s behavior concerning Sarai in Egypt is misinterpreted as a faithless deception rather than an “outcrafting” of the serpent through wise discernment of his true intentions. For more discussion see James B. Jordan, Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis. |
| ↑5 | For more discussion, see Cosmic Language. |
| ↑6 | For more discussion, see The Forbidden Feast. |
| ↑7 | See “Return of the Raven” in Michael Bull, Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes. |
| ↑8 | For more discussion, see Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes, 147. |
| ↑9 | See Out of His Belly. |
