Page 14 - The Marriage Covenant

alone. He promised to accomplish all, for man cannot in his own strength raise up a seed
that will be “holy unto Yahweh.”
I have been greatly blessed in my study on the Blood Covenant to come across a book
written in 1885 by H. Clay Trumbull D.D.. The book is titled Blood Covenant: A Primitive
Rite, and its Bearing on Scripture. It is filled with historical examples of the blood covenant
through the ages to the present time. Trumbull gives one particular mention of the blood
covenant from the Egyptian religions that pre-dated Abraham. He writes of a quotation
found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

The Ritual goes on to say: "The blood is that which proceeds from the member of
the Sun, after he goes along cutting himself”; the covenant blood which unites the
soul and the god is drawn from the flesh of Ra, when he has cut himself in the rite
of that covenant. By this covenant-cutting, the deceased becomes one with the
covenanting gods. Again, the departed soul, speaking as Osiris, - or as the Osirian,
which every mummy represents, says: "I am the soul in his two halves." Once
more there follows the explanation: "The soul in his two halves is the soul of the
Sun [of Ra], and the soul of Osiris [of the deceased]." Here is substantially the
proverb of friendship cited by Aristotle, "One soul in two bodies," at least two
thousand years before the days of the Greek philosopher.

As this Egyptian writing pre-dates Abraham, and is from the very region in which he
was living, I believe it is helpful in discerning some of the symbols of the covenant ritual.
I have never heard the elements of the covenant taught upon with any authority, and I have
depended upon the Spirit to direct me in making investigation of this very profound matter.
I had wondered at the meaning of the animals being split in twain, and laid opposite
one another with the blood flowing between them. My attention was caught by the words
of the ancient Egyptians, “I am the soul in two halves.” The two halves thus mentioned
were the Egyptian god, and the deceased man.
Consider that just prior to Yahweh appearing between the pieces as a smoking oven
and a flaming torch, Abraham fell into “a deep sleep.” Sleep is often used as a synonym for
death in Scriptures. Thus we have an image of Abraham in death, and God walking between
the pieces enacting the covenant. It was appropriate for Abraham to be symbolically “dead,”
for he had nothing to contribute to the covenant. He could not promise to perform
anything. God would undertake both Abraham’s part, and His own.
We read of a smoking oven and a flaming torch passing between the pieces, and these
things most assuredly symbolized God, for He was the One enacting the covenant. Yahweh
had to pass between the pieces down the bloody path. The smoking oven, if I have not
missed my guess, represented Yahweh, for He is described elsewhere as “a consuming fire.”
The flaming torch, would then have likely represented Yahshua. He is the light of the world,
and He did truly walk the path of blood as He carried His cross to Golgotha’s hill.
Yahweh was in effect promising that Abraham would have a godly seed, and a holy
nation would arise from this seed. Abraham could not perform his own part in this matter,
so Yahweh undertook for him. Yahweh would have His own Son to be born of the family of
Abraham, and His Son would fulfill the covenant. Christ would insure that a Godly seed,
and a holy nation, would arise in the earth.
Later on, we find Yahweh once again speaking to Abraham of this covenant, and the
promise of a Godly heritage. Yahweh required Abraham, and his offspring to receive a sign