Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”””
(Genesis 15:9)

The sign of God’s promise is His covenant with humanity – individuals and the whole. That is what we can cling to when doubts try to rise. We can look to the covenant and KNOW that what was promised WILL come to pass because God is a god of covenants and NEVER breaks them.

Sacrifices have occurred since the beginning. Cain and Abel offered sacrifices. Noah offered sacrifices. Abram made altars and offered sacrifices. They became part of the Law, but they were existent in our relationship with God long before then. In fact, you could argue that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was supposed to be our tithe/sacrifice in the Garden – it was the one thing we had to deprive ourselves of and give to God (Genesis 2:16-17).

It’s clear from this passage and others that cutting animals in two and passing between them was a way of visibly making covenant in the ancient world. Jeremiah 34:18-20 says “I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts: the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.” It was a participatory action demonstrating the seriousness of the agreement entered into. Also, a key part was that BOTH parties were to pass through so that BOTH were on the hook. What one did, the other had to be willing to do.

Note that both males and female animals were requested. A male was necessary for a sin offering (so the sins of his offspring would not deprive them of the promise). A female or a male was acceptable for a peace offering (there would be peace between his offspring and God). By making sure there was one of each, God was making sure Abram knew that all things were being covered, not just one. God was seeking to firmly establish peace of mind in Abram – which came in handy a few decades later (Genesis 22:8).

The sage Rashi writes: ‘עגלה משלשת means THREE HEIFERS: symbolical of three sacrifices of bullocks, viz., the bullock offered on the Day of Atonement, the bullock offered when the correct interpretation of a precept was unknown (העלם) to leaders of the nation (see Leviticus 4:13), and the heifer whose neck had to be broken (see Deuteronomy 21:4) (Genesis Rabbah 44:14). ועז משולשת THREE GOATS — symbolical of the goat the blood of which was sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, of the goats of the additional sacrifices on Festivals, and of the goat brought as a sin-offering by an individual (Genesis Rabbah 44:14). ואיל משולש AND THREE RAMS—symbolical of the trespass offering brought by a man who knows for certain that he has committed certain offences, the offering brought by a man who is in doubt whether he has committed such offence, and the ewe brought by an individual as a sin-offering.’

The sage Ramban writes: ‘A HEIFER ‘MESHULESHETH’ AND A SHE-GOAT ‘MESHULESHETH.’ Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained the word meshulesheth as meaning three years old. But Onkelos said “three.” This is indeed correct since a three-year old cow is no longer called eglah (heifer), just as we have learned in a Mishnah: “But the Sages say that an eglah (heifer) is two years old; a parah (cow) is three years old.” The allusion here is to the three sacrifices which his seed will bring from them before Him: the Whole-offering, the Sin-offering and the Peace-offering. And as for the Guilt-offering, that is like the Sin-offering, the difference between them being merely in the name. It is possible that the meaning of the word meshulesheth is that he bring the three of them consecutively, each kind remaining separate. A similar use of this word is found in the verse, For they were in ‘meshulashoth’ (three) stories, meaning that there were upper, middle and lower chambers.’

The sage Sforno writes: ‘קחה לי עגלה, take a heifer for Me, in order to enter into a covenant concerning this assurance. Converting G’d’s promise into what is known as a “covenant,” is equivalent to G’d reinforcing His promise by an oath, something which is unconditional and irrevocable. (Rosh Hashanah 18) Moses himself confirmed this interpretation when he said (Deut 9,5) “not due to your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, but due to the wickedness of these nations does G’d dispossess them on your account; and in order to keep His promise which He had sworn to your forefathers Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov’