Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Genesis 15:9-10: “And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid one against another; but the birds (singular in Hebrew) divided he not.”
In the passage God is forming the Abrahamic covenant. This was called a blood covenant. In ancient times when two individuals made a contract, they would take an animal and cut it in half and separate the two halves a few feet from each other. Then they would sprinkle the blood between that separation. The two individuals entering into a contract would join hands, walk the path between the two separated parts of the animal over the blood. At the end of this path priest would stand and listen to the conditions, vows or promises each person would make in the contract. The two entering into the contract would have 10 witnesses standing on either side. It was their job to listen to the terms or conditions of the contract. These were the hitmen. If either party broke a condition of the contract it would be the job of these ten witnesses to “remove” (in CIA sense) the one who broke the condition of the covenant.
God put Abraham into a deep sleep and then God passed through the center of the sacrifices by Himself. God knew his people would not keep their end of the bargain, so He did not make His people a party to the penalty but instead bore the penalty Himself for their breaking the covenant. That penalty was paid for 2000 years ago when He sent His son to die on the cross and shed his blood.
What is curious is that the cow and goat were cut in half but the birds were not. I was told in seminary that it was for practical reasons because the birds were too small to cut in half. I mean come on, you can cut a grasshopper in half, there had to be some other reason. I have no reference for this bit of speculation, I’m flying (pun fully intended) on my own on this one. Anyone having any other insights, I would appreciate you sharing them.
First the word for turtledove is “tavar” This means, of course a turtledove, but it comes from the root word often used to mean to go around to spy, investigation, explore. Birds know no boundaries. They can fly from country to country without a passport. David envied the birds because they could fly right into the temple and the Holy of Holies and rest in the presence of God with no effort. Israel is located at the junction of three continents and is crossed by migrating birds on a scale unparalleled anywhere. Studies show that about 500 million birds cross Israel’s’ narrow airspace twice every year in the course of their migrations. Perhaps the birds sense the presence of God in that sacred land.
Then the word pigeon is used. Some translations translate this as a nesting bird. The reason is that in the next verse it says that Abraham did not separate the bird and this is singular. Hence there was only one bird used not two. So why the word for pigeon? Stretching the that word “gozel” which means pigeon you can get the idea of nesting and then use that to satisfy the singular form of “sipar” (bird) used later. However, a dove and pigeon are the same. There is no scientific difference between a dove and a pigeon. The word gozel can also mean “to pass over.” Then the third time the dove is mentioned the writer uses the word “sipar” which means a bird, but also means to happily chirp, to dance. It also means a humble or soft voice that brings the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The writer is obviously making a play on words here creating a remez. This is my take on it, like I said if you have something different I would like to hear it. But what I see buried in here is that the bird was not divided because it represents the Holy Spirit who spies out our hearts, explores our hearts for sin “tavar”. Through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ this sin is redeemed and God will pass over (gozel) the penalty for that sin so that we may enter into the joy “sipar” of Jehovah. There I go again, finding the Messiah and Trinity in every place I look.
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