Tannûr: God’s Covenantal Oven
“And [Abram] brought him all these [animals], cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other… When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.” (Genesis 15:10, 17)
A sacred ritual had begun.
The Almighty had shared his intentions - to provide a land for occupancy and stewardship and the multiplication of a distinct household of peoples - but Abram remained unsettled, perhaps unconvinced. He questioned the Lord, “How am I to know that I shall possess it?” They were words he would instantly regret.
Adonai answered - not with explanation or reasoning, but through undeniable enactment.
God commenced a holy ceremony, requiring sacrificial animals from Abram. The animals were to be split in two, with each half intentionally aligned, forming a path of blood down the middle between Abram and God.
It was like that of a suzerain-vassal treaty, an ancient Near Eastern tradition in which the suzerain (often a powerful king) would make a pact with a vassal (a lesser king or subject), promising protection and favor in return for loyalty and obedience.
But God wanted more than a transactional treaty. His desire was for a binding oath - an intimate promise - a covenant.
This, however, terrified Abram. He knew that no man could make a covenant with a god - no less, the one true God - and expect to live. Whatever would be asked of him, he could not match with the Maker in perfect fulfillment. He longed for the benefits of God’s presence - His guidance and blessing and security - but the dread of wrath outweighed his longing.
Then the fantastic happened - the unthinkable.
The climax of the ceremony approached, in which both parties were to “pass through” the killed animals in a vivid dramatization, sealing their covenant in blood. It would signify that the fate of the animals would befall the one who broke the covenant. It was the fate that haunted Abram.
Then, all of the sudden, a pot - fiery, boiling, with a cloud of smoke - and a flaming torch - burning all the more brightly - appeared among them. Were they trudging along on the ground? Were they hovering? Were they carried by the hand of God? We may never know, but still they moved through the path of blood alone, without Abram.
It’s a peculiar story to the naked eye, but there is much to be said of these two artifacts.
The pot, burning intensely, is the word tannûr, which not only means the aforementioned cooking instrument, but also translates as the hot wrath of God. It is his fierce hatred towards wickedness and sin.
How fearful would it be to enter a covenant with God having full knowledge of your inadequacy to uphold it while also beholding a theophany of divine wrath before you! One might shutter at the thought!
But joining it was the illumination of the lapîḏ - a lamp or torch overflowing with heavenly lightning and flames. Throughout the Scriptures, from the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt, to the roaring thunder and flashes of lightning atop Mount Sinai when Moses received the great commandments, we know this torch to be the very presence of God.
It would seem then that the beaming presence of God, like a light, was guiding His own boiling pot of wrath unilaterally through the path of blood.
In other words, the Lord not only withheld pouring out the pot of his wrath in that moment, sparing Abram, but He additionally satisfied the entirety of the covenant requirements for both parties in moving by Himself.
It may take some time to comprehend what took place, but this was truly an indescribable act of unconditional love. No matter how obedient or disloyal, Elohim made a promise to Abraham and his posterity to uphold the requirements of both God and man in a covenant of absolute faithfulness. Then and since, the Most High has been unwavering in his fidelity, ever compassionate and merciful from generation to generation.
But perhaps one still might ask: what of the side of the covenant that belonged to man, even with the seal of Adonai? What of the burning wrath and sin and rupture?
Well… there was One.
He was a God-man of the lineage of Abraham, and He would one day appease this boiling pot of wrath once and for all. In due time, He would offer a truly unblemished sacrifice - himself - and establish a new covenant path that flowed through his cleansing blood, while pouring out the fiery torch of his Spirit upon all who found their faith in Him.
Surely there is no greater grace, no warmer affection, no more sacrificial gift, than the devotion of a God who has committed to carrying out the whole of a contract for the sake of ensuring that nothing would come against or between us again. His desire is for us, even when He must uphold what we never could.
