In the gym today, I heard a man mention “my ex-wife.” The person he was talking with responded by talking about his ex wife also. I started to think… “too many ex-wife references around here”.
While pondering this, my mind began to think about covenants and the power of a covenant. Next I thought about my favorite part of the Old Testament and possibly the best kept secret therein:
Genesis 15
After settling down in Hebron, Abraham looks over all of his estate and becomes concerned that he has no heirs. He wonders if his estate steward Eliezer will be the heir of all that he owns. He ponders this and his concerns catch the attention of heaven.
Abraham ,in prayer, says, “Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.”
The Lord responds, “And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, “[Eliezer] shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
Then the Lord said, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them…So shall thy seed be.”
The chapter continues with: “Abraham believed and the Lord counted it unto him for righteousness.” The Lord also promised Abraham and his heir would inherit all of the land that he could see around him.
Abraham responds “Whereby shall I know… it?”
Here is my favorite part in all of scripture and it gives me goose bumps every time I read it.
The Lord, with either a sigh or a smile—if you are a parent and have tried to answer “are we there yet… how will I know…” types of questions from your children you have smiled/sighed like this before—tells Abraham to go get a cow, goat, ram and some birds.
Without any further explanation (implying, Abraham knew what was going to happen), Abraham cut the animals, but not the birds, in half and laid them on the ground. He then waited and waited and waited—I assume this, because fowls came to these pieces of meat and had to be driven away.
When the sun set, Abraham was tired (I would be too if I had to cut a cow in half) and fell asleep. At the same time, he had the exact experience that Joseph Smith had before being rescued and seeing Christ and the Father in vision—a horror of great darkness fell upon him.
After recovering, the Lord spoke to him taught him a little about the future. Abraham then looked and saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp pass between the middle of each halved animal.
“And in the same day, the Lord made a covenant…” Wow!
Why does this make me say wow?
In that part of the world in those days, when a contact was to be sealed, the two parties would cut an animal in half and lay it on the ground. The size of the animal depended on the size of the contact. The two parties would then lock elbows and walk between the halved animal saying “so be it to be if I violate this agreement.” (I would add a footnote here. But I would rather that the reader do his own research and prove me right or wrong. On a side note, I said recently in church, “children will honor parents who honor the Sabbath.” Later a member asked where I had read that and asked me to pass the quote along. Since being asked, I haven’t yet found the quote, but I have read over 150 articles on the Sabbath and am a better person now for it.)
Abraham, for the rest of his days, never doubted that his son would inherit all that he had. Abraham waited 25 years for this son to be born. Later, when the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice this very son, Abraham could have replied with “but you promised me he would be my heir.” However, because of this day, when the Lord passed through THREE animals and essentially said “so be it unto me if I violate this covenant” or in other words, “I will destroy myself rather than break my promise to you”, Abraham never hesitated, faltered, lost faith, complained or waned in his hope. He willingly went to slay his own heir, because he KNEW a way would be provided.
That is how heaven feels about covenants—including the ones we make at marriage.
I think we should be wary of finding the easy way out of a vow, especially considering the example the Lord set when he made His promise to Abraham.
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