This is a letter to all the newly-weds out there who have been patiently abstaining and waiting for their spouse. Congratulations!!
Genesis 15 New International Version (NIV)
The Lord’s Covenant With Abram
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,[a]
your very great reward.[b]”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” 8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” 9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
Genesis 15 is a story of how God confirmed His covenant to Abraham who needed reassurance that God would cause him to occupy the land he had promised. God asked Abraham to bring the sacrifices/elements of the covenant, Abraham cut them in halves and God passed through them and confirmed his covenant.
A covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties. The word ‘covenant’ is derived from a Hebrew root which means ‘to cut’, meaning that the covenant is a cutting. This is in reference to the ancient custom where animals would be cut into two and the contracting parties would pass in between them. This passing was also referred to as the ‘walk of death’. In essence, the parties of the covenant are saying that, “May I be torn apart like these animals if I fail to uphold my part of this covenant” as seen in Jer. 34:18-19. This is to signify that both parties are committed to keep the covenant or die trying.
The marriage covenant is sealed during consummation – that is, penetrative sex. And this is what you have been sent to go and do during your honeymoon. Your bed is the alter, and the activity of penetrative sex is very much like a cutting. There is great effort involved by both parties, and there may or may not be the shedding of blood. There is pain and soreness, symbolic of the torn sacrifices/elements that were laid at the altar of covenant. And the husband has to pass through this path between his wife’s thighs and seal the marriage covenant. Congratulations!! We celebrate with you!!
In the ancient Jewish custom, today would have been day 1 of your week-long wedding feast. After the wedding ceremony the guests would continue to party on until consummation took place, after which the couple would hang the ‘evidence’ for all to see and celebrate. This evidence was the bedsheet they used, which would most likely be stained with blood.
I am drawn to another part of the story in Genesis 15. As Abraham was waiting for God to show up, verse 11 says that ‘…birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away’. Birds of prey attempted to defile and steal the elements of the covenant. These can symbolize distractions that may rob you of the fullness of the sanctity/sacredness of the moment that you share together. Allow nothing to distract you and stay focussed in your covenant-cutting session. Continue to wait on God with expectant hearts, in quietness and trust, even as you trust Him to help you to build a strong foundation for your marriage.
May you find more meaning in your covenant-cutting, enjoy every bit of ‘unwrapping each other’ and even more so now with a deeper understanding of its spiritual significance.