Saints: Life & Times
Lesson 1: Holiness
Sealed in Blood
It’s not that Abram didn’t trust God, for “Abram believed the Lord, who credited the act to him as justice.” (Gen. 15:6) He needed to know how God was going to accomplish the promise. Abram was in his nineties and Sarai in her late eighties. Either they had arranged or tradition dictated that their steward would be their heir. “But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘He shall not be your heir; your heir shall be one of your own flesh.’ Then God led him outside and said, ‘Look at the heavens and, if you can, count the stars. . . . So shall your posterity be.’” (Gen. 15: 4-5) Abram knew that God could accomplish what He said in regard to the physical posterity, but how could Abram prove to people that he and his children owned the land? For that, God performed the covenant ceremony with Abram.
The covenant ritual was very specific. A large stone was selected as the covenant stone, something almost the size of a boulder. Four smaller stones were placed around it: north, south, east and west. (This positioning goes back to paleolithic times, when a cross of two equal lines or four rocks placed north, south, east and west represented the earth.) Animals would then be slaughtered, cut in half lengthwise and the two sides placed directly across from each other to make an aisle between them, leading to the stone. A bowl of the animals’ blood is carried by each person who is making the covenant, binding himself to grant a benefit or fulfill the benefit’s requirement. They process between the carcasses, turn left, circle around, process again between the carcasses, turn right, circle around, process again between the carcasses and stop at the stone. They are, in fact, acting out a solemn oath, “May thus and such happen to me if I do not fulfill this covenant.” Then the blood of the animals is poured on the covenant stone. Thus the stone partook of the sacrifice and became a permanent witness to the covenant, recognizable to all the ancients as a deed to the land. The account of this ceremony is one of the eeriest in Scripture.
[God] said to [Abram], “I am the Lord, who brought you from Ur in Chaldea, to give you this land to possess.” But [Abram] said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”The altar in a Catholic Church has an altar stone placed within it. The altar stone contains relics of saints who, by their life and by their death, witnessed to Christ, the Saving Victim. In the center of the stone is a large Roman cross, made by two bars of equal length. In the four corners of the stone are four small Roman crosses. And after the consecration of the wine, the chalice containing the precious blood of Christ is placed upon that stone, once again sealing in blood the New Covenant, deeding Paradise to those who accept it. But to accept it, one more step is necessary.He answered him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove and a young pigeon.” He brought Him all these and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut in two. Birds of prey swooped down on the carcases, but Abram drove them off. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep; and terror came upon him, a great darkness. The Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your posterity will be strangers in a land not their own; they shall be subjected to slavery and shall be oppressed four hundred years. But I will judge that nation which they shall serve, and afterward they shall go free with great possessions. And you shall go to your fathers in peace, and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they shall return here; for the wickedness of the Amorrites is not yet complete.”
Now when the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking oven and a fiery torch passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your posterity I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river [the Euphrates].” (Gen. 15:7-19)
An Antimension, used in Orthodox Churches as an altar stone. Note the crosses in the corners and the large cross in the middle. Relics of saints are sewn into the cloth. Photo from Saints Alive! is in the public domain.
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