Abraham Not Dividing the Birds – a very big deal

Gen15:9-13    Abraham’s symbolic offering.
[Because Abraham did not cut the dove and pigeon in two as he should have, birds of prey came down and defiled the sacrifices. As a result of his mistake, the Israelites were destined to enter Egypt and suffer hardships for four hundred years. Why was it a sin not to cut the birds in half? This question can be understood only with the help of the Principle.

Let us first investigate the reason why Abraham was instructed to cut the sacrifices in half. God’s work of salvation aims to restore the sovereignty of goodness by first dividing good from evil and then destroying evil and uplifting the good. This is the reason Adam had to be divided into Cain and Abel before the sacrifice could be made. This is the reason why in Noah’s day, God struck down evil through the flood judgment and winnowed out Noah’s family as the good. God had Abraham cut the sacrifices in two before offering them, with the intention of doing the symbolic work of dividing good from evil, which was left unaccomplished by Adam and Noah.

The sacrifices were to be divided, first, to restore the situation in Adam’s family in which Abel and Cain were divided into a representative of good and a representative of evil. Second, it was to restore the situation of having divided good from evil during the forty days of Noah’s flood. Third, it was to make the symbolic condition to separate a realm of good sovereignty out of the universe ruled by Satan. Fourth, it was to make the condition to sanctify the offering by draining out the blood of death, which had entered fallen humanity when they were bound in blood-ties to Satan.

Why was it a sin not to divide the offering? First, not dividing the offering has the significance of not dividing Abel from Cain. Without being divided, the offering could not be acceptable to God because it did not provide Him with an Abel-type object partner which He could take. Consequently, the mistakes Cain and Abel had made in their sacrifices were not restored. Second, not dividing the offering was tantamount to repeating the failure of the providence in Noah’s time, when good and evil remained undivided despite the flood. Like the failure of Noah’s family, Abraham’s failure to divide the offering also deprived God of His good object partner. Thus, it repeated the mistake which made the dispensation of the flood a failure. Third, not dividing the offering meant there was no symbolic condition to separate a realm of God’s good sovereignty out of the universe under Satan’s dominion. Fourth, because the blood of death was not drained out of it, not dividing the offering meant it could not be a sanctified offering acceptable to God. In other words, when Abraham offered the birds without first dividing them, it meant that he offered what had not been wrested from Satan’s possession. His mistake had the effect of acknowledging Satan’s claim of possession over them.

​The dove, symbolizing the formation stage, remained in Satan’s possession. Consequently, Satan also claimed the ram, symbolizing the growth stage, and the heifer, symbolizing the completion stage, both of which were to be fulfilled based upon the formation stage. Since it had the effect of handing over the entire symbolic offering to Satan, not dividing the birds constituted a sin.

Next, let us examine what is meant by the verse that birds of prey descended upon the carcasses. Since the Fall of the first human ancestors, Satan has always been stalking those with whom God worked to fulfill His Will. When Cain and Abel were making their sacrifices, Satan was couching at the door. (Gen4:7) In the story of Noah, the raven circling about signifies how Satan was looking for an opportunity to invade Noah’s family right after the flood. (Gen8:7) Similarly, when Abraham was making his symbolic offering, Satan was on the lookout for an opportunity to seize the sacrifice. He profaned it as soon as he saw that the birds were not divided. The Bible describes this by the image of birds of prey descending upon the sacrifice.

Abraham’s mistake in making the symbolic offering caused the offering to be defiled. All the conditions God intended to restore through it were lost. As a consequence, Abraham’s descendants had to suffer oppression and slavery for four hundred years in the land of Egypt. Let us investigate the reason for this.

God called upon Abraham and commanded him to make the symbolic offering at the completion of a four-hundred-year period for the separation of Satan. This period had been set up to restore through indemnity the ten generations from Adam to Noah and the forty-day period of the flood judgment, lost to Satan due to Ham’s sin. It was also the indemnity period necessary to establish Abraham as the father of faith when he completed the symbolic offering. When Abraham’s mistake in the symbolic offering allowed Satan to claim the offering as his, that four-hundred-year period was also lost to Satan. To re-create on the national level the situation before Abraham’s failure in the symbolic offering, which was itself parallel to when Noah was called upon to build the ark, God set up another four-hundred-year period for the separation of Satan. During this period, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. By enduring through this period, the Israelites were to restore — this time on the national level — the situations of Noah and Abraham at the outset of their missions as the fathers of faith, thereupon also laying the foundation for Moses to begin his mission. Hence, this period of slavery was both the time when the Israelites were being punished for Abraham’s mistake and the time when they were laying the foundation to cut off ties to Satan and commence God’s new providence.

As explained earlier, God had hoped to fulfill, all at once, the dispensations in the formation, growth and completion stages by having Abraham successfully make the symbolic offering of three types of sacrifices on one altar. Contrary to this plan, Abraham failed, repeating the mistakes of the past. Consequently, the providence centered on him was prolonged through the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.] Exp. of the Divine Principle P2 C1 S3

There is more to this as you will see. Instead of abandoning Abraham as He had done to Noah when Ham made the crucial misstep, God could still work through Abraham. It is written, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exod3:6) But the neglecting to cut the birds in two was a serious mistake that has had to be completely restored and we, the people, need to understand this to deeply realize that our God truly is good, and all the time.

A lot of Christians currently don’t appreciate the significance of the sacrifice that Abraham made that was described in Genesis 15;9-13 and, until we do, we’ll be ill equipped to deal with aspects of the 2nd Advent of Christ and our proper response toward that.

Looking forward to hearing your views on this. Thank you for reading.

Andrew Derricutt