[TruthTalk] Tearing Down?

[Judy Taylor]

Bill wrote:  "And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces" (v. 17). Two parties passed through the pieces, but neither of them was Abraham. It is my contention (i believe that it is our contention) that these were two of the members of the Trinity: the Father and the Son. The Father representing his end of the covenant and the Son representing Abraham's. This is the Father saying to Abraham through the Son that God would honor his promise. And this is the Son saying to the Father on behalf of Abraham, I will honor Abraham's responsibilities. Of course Abraham, and his descendants, would fail to keep the covenant -- his descendants, that is, excepting one: Jesus the Christ, the one with whom the covenant was cut. And so we see that the covenant with Abraham was fulfilled not by Abraham but by his Representative, Jesus Christ, and in this the covenant is unilateral in that God's promise was contingent upon God's fulfillment of the covenant -- enter Emanuel.  Bill jt: So Bill are you saying that God made a Covenant with Himself?  This reminds me of the time the Mormon fellow who ran a Used Bookstore in town and who liked to converse with customers brought to my attention the fact that if Jesus was God when he hung on the cross, then he was talking to Himself when He cried out to the Father from the cross - and he had a valid point.  We need to take care how we handle God's Word. I am aware that it was God who passed through the pieces, probably God the Holy Spirit.  What persuades you to believe that two people passed through the pieces and the Covenant was basically between Jesus and God the Father?  Weren't there conditions that Abraham had to meet?  Didn't God say that He chose Abraham because he knew that he would instruct his children in His (God's) ways?  judyt