"Abraham Did Pass Through" Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 77,
4 , p. 57.
THAT statement was wrong that I made two weeks ago in connection with
God's covenant with Abraham, in saying that "only God passed through" between
the parts of the sacrifices offered by Abraham. Abraham also passed through.
This fact, however, is not stated in Genesis. It is given in Jer. 34:18: "I will give
the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the
words of the covenant which they had made before me, where they cut the calf in
twain, and passed between the parts of the calf."
This was spoken to the people in the days of Zedekiah; and the only way in
which it was possible for them to have passed "between the parts of the calf" was
in the fact of Abraham's having passed through; just as in Heb. 7:9, 10, it is said
that Levi, "who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham." I have many a time used
Jer. 34:18 to show that the people in the days of Zedekiah were included in God's
covenant with Abraham: I do not know how it slipped my mind in the article of two
weeks ago, unless it was that my mind was just then absorbed in discovering and
describing what God had put into that blessed covenant.
This is the more singular, too, from the fact that many a time I have read,
even in the galley-proofs, the words in "Patriarchs and Prophets," to which a
brother in Illinois has just now called my attention, that, when Abraham had
arranged the sacrifices according to the divine direction, "This being done, he
reverently passed between the parts of the sacrifice, making a solemn vow to
God of perpetual obedience;" and "as a pledge of this covenant of God with men,
a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, symbols of the divine presence, passed
between the severed victims, totally consuming them."–Page 137.
Since writing that article, I have found the following account of an incident in
the journey of General Grant around the world, which more fully, and in great
beauty, illustrates the meaning of the "passing between the pieces." The General
Wassef Khayat, at Assiout, in Egypt; and the account says: "When General Grant
alighted at the consul's house, he was detained from entering until a beef,
beautifully garlanded with flowers, had been brought out. It was killed, and cut
into two pieces, which were laid on either side of the doorway. Then the consul
invited General Grant to enter his home with him. They stepped over the blood
on the threshold, and between the pieces. By this act they entered into the most
solemn covenant known to the Oriental,–the blood covenant,–and thus became
'blood brothers,' a relation which outranks every other relation in life. One blood
brother can not ask anything that the other will refuse."
These things show that Abraham "passed between the pieces;" that when he
did so, all his children also passed between them; and that since we, being
Christ's, are Abraham's seed, WE PASSED BETWEEN THE PIECES, and thus
became "blood brothers" with the Lord; that we can not ask of him anything that
he will refuse, and that he can not ask anything of us that we will refuse. John
14:13, 14; 15:7, 16.
ALONZO T. JONES.
"Studies in Galatians. Gal. 3:16, 17" Advent Review and Sabbath
Herald, 77, 4 , pp. 57, 58.
"NOW to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And
to seeds as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I
say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God, in Christ, the law, which
was four hundred and thirty years after, can not disannul, that it should make the
promise of none effect."
We have seen that Israel made the mistake of putting in the place of God's
covenant the things which the Lord gave to them to aid them in arriving at the full
light and blessing of the covenant. There is another great mistake that Israel
made, and the same mistake is made to-day by thousands of persons
concerning Israel; and that is that the things which God gave to them were for
them alone, not for the people of the world in general.
Israel, thinking thus, naturally shut herself away from the nations, and made
all these things specially her own. Thus she separated herself from all the
nations, and held herself aloof from, and above, the nations, as being holier than
they, and because of this special holiness, as more highly regarded by God than
were the other nations. Yet this whole conception of things was an utter mistake,
and was a perversion of the intent of the things that God had given.
Everything that the Lord gave to Israel was for the benefit of the whole world.
Israel was to be the missionary people who should extend to all nations the light
and blessing given to her, in order that all nations might enjoy the light and
blessing of God, as revealed in the Abrahamic covenant, to the full knowledge of
which all these things that were given were to lead Israel, and all people.
We again set down here, for study, the passage from "Patriarch and
Prophets," which was quoted in last week's article:–
If man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall,
preserved by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there could have
been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the
descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which
circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into
idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of
bondage in Egypt. They would have kept God's law in mind, and
there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from
Sinai, or engraved upon the tables of stone. And had the people
practiced the principles of the ten commandments, there would
have been no need of the additional directions given to Moses.
The sacrificial system, committed to Adam, was also perverted
by his descendants. Superstition, idolatry, cruelty, and
licentiousness corrupted the simple and significant service that God
had appointed. Through long intercourse with idolaters, the people
of Israel had mingled many heathen customs with their worship;
therefore the Lord gave them at Sinai definite instruction
concerning the sacrificial service."–"Patriarchs and Prophets," page
364.
It was the apostasy of mankind in general that was the cause of God's
