The Covenant

00:00:00 Speaker 1: This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. 00:00:04 Speaker 2: Previously on The Chosen People. 00:00:08 Speaker 1: Tell me more about this visitor at the perimeter. Did you learn his name? He calls himself Melchizedek, King of Salem. King Melchizedek, you honor us with your visit. Tell us, what have you come to say? 00:00:25 Speaker 3: I am a king, yes, but I am also a high priest. 00:00:30 Speaker 4: A priest of what god? 00:00:33 Speaker 2: El Elyon. 00:00:34 Speaker 3: The one and only true god there is. The one who created both the heavens and the earth. He has many names, but he is one god. The god most high is what I call him before you now. This is the god of Abraham. The god who has given him favor in his land. He is the god who blesses his friends... and curses his enemies. This is the God who has granted you your victories and destroyed your enemies before you. 00:01:08 Speaker 2: Melchizedek then stood, gently placing his hands on Abram's shoulders, closed his eyes, and began his blessing. 00:01:17 Speaker 3: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth. In him, you and your great nation will have a protector and provider. 00:01:32 Speaker 2: The king of Sodom wore a dark robe with crimson threads woven into an image of a three-headed serpent. 00:01:39 Speaker 4: Do not fear, Abram. Call off your Amorite guard dogs. I told you I had come to make a generous offer. I see you have all our possessions and people, but I would allow you to keep all the possessions. Call it an act of gratitude, goodwill even. 00:01:59 Speaker 5: For destroying our enemies and avenging our sins. 00:02:03 Speaker 2: Abram smiled. 00:02:04 Speaker 5: There it was. 00:02:06 Speaker 2: This was what the king wanted, giving up the possessions he lost in a raid to gain a friend, to curry favor with Abram and the Amorites. King Bera was looking to own Abram through this gift. 00:02:21 Speaker 1: As my friends know, I have devoted my life to the God Most High. All I have is his, and all I do is in his name. My victories are his and not my own. So it is to him that you should be grateful and not me. My possessions are the same. Everything I own is his. I'm not a self-made man. Therefore, I have little taste for ambitious friendships. And I would not take even a thread or sandal strap or anything that belongs to you. I see the invisible strings attached to I will sever them now and give you what is yours. I will not allow you or anyone to say I made Abram rich. I cannot be owned because I am already under the lordship of another. 00:03:29 Speaker 4: Then you told Bera that you would never be owned by him? 00:03:33 Speaker 1: That's a sight I hope never to forget. 00:03:36 Speaker 4: I will not allow you or anyone to say I made Abram rich. 00:03:43 Speaker 5: Oh, Abram, that was masterful. I should say that King Bera would not soon forget it either. 00:03:50 Speaker 2: Abram and his three Amorite companions had finally returned home to Hebron. They dined together and toasted their recent adventures. Everyone had heard of their exploits and learned of their victories, hailing them as mighty warriors. They soon found themselves something akin to celebrities. The Amorites returned wealthier than ever, while Abram declined his share of the rescued plunder from Sodom. 00:04:20 Speaker 4: I may not understand this god you follow, Abram. I certainly don't understand your strange devotion to him. But I appreciate how rich he's made me. Here, here. 00:04:31 Speaker 1: Perhaps I too shall worship this god of money. If he makes us any richer, one of our sons will be plotting our demise to take control of our fortunes faster. 00:04:43 Speaker 3: If I had known how rich I would become, I never would have had any. 00:04:47 Speaker 1: I do not expect you to understand. But be careful how you speak of such things. I have seen the power of God Most High firsthand. And in direct ways, you have as well. 00:05:01 Speaker 5: Oh, I'm sorry. We mean no disrespect. 00:05:05 Speaker 4: Okay, but... But what of the wealth and influence you have amassed? You may have turned down your share of King Bera's possessions, but you are still a very wealthy man. And you speak often about your legacy and the nation you are building. I do not... overreach, but how do you plan to secure your line of inheritance without a son or any children for that matter? Have you named an heir? 00:05:28 Speaker 5: Or is it to be our man Eliezer? 00:05:31 Speaker 1: Isn't it a custom among you Hebrews that the most senior servant in your household stands to inherit if there is no heir of your own flesh and blood? Yes, that is a tradition among my people. We call them the possessor heir or son of possession. But no, I will not pass on what has been given to me to Eleazar. My God has promised me that Sarai and I will have a son. 00:05:59 Speaker 5: Poor Eleazar. 00:06:02 Speaker 1: I imagine he's become quite accustomed to the idea at this point. 00:06:06 Speaker 5: But how, Abram? 00:06:08 Speaker 2: Forgive me, but you are over 80 years old. 00:06:13 Speaker 3: And Sarai is only 10 years younger. 00:06:16 Speaker 5: She is certainly fair, but... I don't think. 00:06:20 Speaker 1: Even an Egyptian fertility ritual could summon an heir from her. 00:06:23 Speaker 5: Womb at this late stage in her life. 00:06:26 Speaker 1: I hear your concern, Einar Eskol. 00:06:30 Speaker 5: I really do. 00:06:31 Speaker 1: I do not know how it will come to pass, but my God has promised it. And I have yet to see anything he tells me not come to pass. 00:06:40 Speaker 4: Brothers, let's not push Abram on this matter. Let us talk of other things. Here, here. 00:06:48 Speaker 2: The hour was late when Abram at last departed from Mamre's household, and despite the lateness of the hour, he decided to walk around the long way home through the now deserted streets of the city. He did not want to admit it, but the conversation with his friends had shaken him. He knew his friends meant well, and they did not mean to offend him, but it had been almost ten years since his God had promised him a son. And though the God Most High had not specified a time in which this was to happen, and though he did not doubt the words, he still wondered at the mechanics of how. Abram had never expected others to have the same faith as him, but he was surprised to find how alienating it was for his friends to vocalize their doubts. Would he spend the rest of his life defending this promise? His friends had been gentle. He could only imagine what his enemies said of him behind his back, but he could not deny that their lack of belief was a blow. Was he to carry this legacy alone? Just then, as had happened all those other times before, the quiet city went utterly still and silent, and Abram knew that his God was about. 00:08:13 Speaker 5: To speak to him. 00:08:15 Speaker 2: Abram steadied his breath and heartbeat. He turned his face toward the hills. The breeze blew from behind him as if to nudge him forward. 00:08:28 Speaker 5: Abram, do not be anxious and do not worry about the opinions of others, for you are not alone. I am your shield. Your friends seek only temporal rewards, riches of this world. But your reward will be far greater. I have not forgotten about the promise I have made you. 00:08:58 Speaker 1: God Most High, I know what you have promised me, but how? Can you blame my friends for questioning? I have no children. Will I truly need to settle with Eliezer, a mere servant becoming my heir? Is that how what you have said will come to pass? 00:09:19 Speaker 5: No, this man will not be your heir. You will have a son who is your own flesh and blood, and he will be your heir. I want you to listen to me. Go outside the city walls. Meet me in the quiet, under the canopy of stars. There I shall speak to you. 00:09:42 Speaker 2: Abram obeyed, hurrying beyond the city's boundaries. The verdant valleys darkened under the velvet skies. Abram knelt down, bawling the grass in his fists. He was anxious to hear more from his God. He strained to listen. thirsty for an ounce of clarity. He gazed up at the heavens, the stars shining with a cold, distant light. 00:10:10 Speaker 1: What is my destiny? 00:10:12 Speaker 5: What will be my legacy? Do you see the stars spread across the heavens far above your head? Abram nodded. 00:10:21 Speaker 2: His brows creased upward, desperation painted on his starlit face. 00:10:27 Speaker 5: Can you count the stars, Abram? 00:10:30 Speaker 2: Abram shook his head, uncertain. 00:10:32 Speaker 5: You cannot, for there are too many. It is impossible. It is to be the same with your offspring. The great nation I shall make through your heir. would be as innumerable as the stars in the night sky. 00:10:50 Speaker 2: Abram could again sense the certainty, the absolute and unexplainable peace that accompanied his God's words. Abram believed, although he was still uncertain about how these things would come to pass. 00:11:07 Speaker 5: I am the God Most High, the God who brought you out from earth I have laid out my plans for you and have been your advocate since before you even heard my voice. I called you and was with you in Haran, Egypt, and Canaan, everywhere you have ever set foot. And I say I will give you this land to possess. 00:11:36 Speaker 1: El Elyon, God Most High, I believe the words you have said to me. But how am I to know that I will possess it? 00:11:46 Speaker 5: But you also believe I will do as I say. Your faith will be credited to you as righteousness. You ask for more than a contract. You ask for a covenant. In your common tongue, a covenant is between us that would signify a permanent, everlasting agreement between us. This I will gladly do. Come to me here in this place tomorrow, before sunset, and bring the following with you, so we may make our covenant. A three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon Our covenant will be between the God of all creation and you, my creation. I will come down to cut a covenant in the ways of your people, but this will be something else entirely. This covenant between us will be something new, the likes of which humankind has never seen before. 00:13:09 Speaker 2: Abram did exactly as his God said. He acquired the sacrificial animals required to cut the covenant between them and brought them back to the place and time the God Most High had specified. Abram had seen his God do incredible things, but that he would enter into this agreement with him was truly remarkable. As the agreement required, Abram sacrificed the animals and cut them in half from head to tail. The blood dripped down the blade and down his forearm. The blood was warm and unsettling on his skin. The gore was significant. The lives of innocents were given as a symbol of the purity of their covenant. The only animals he did not cut in half were the birds. He then laid the pieces, the bloody side facing upwards, on either side. Abram knew this ritual. Shadows of it were passed down since the ancient days. The crimson stained space between animals was the symbolic walkway for their covenant. The walk unto death. Once the ritual began, the representatives would circle the halved pieces and go through the walkway to signify that if either representative were to break the covenant, something similar would be done to them. Abram had not seen his god take a fall, so he wondered how this portion of the ritual would be achieved as he dragged the animals into place. Would Melchizedek return? Would an angel descend from above? Abram stood back from his work and watched the blood from the carcasses seep into the earth, some of it flowing into the middle of the walkway. As he waited for his God, birds of prey began to circle above. They grew bold in hunger and dove before Abram for the sacrificed animals. Their talons and beaks hungrily picked at the carcasses. 00:15:17 Speaker 1: Away with you! 00:15:19 Speaker 2: Get! 00:15:19 Speaker 1: Get! 00:15:20 Speaker 2: Abram ran at the birds like a fool, flapping his arms and screaming. The birds, relatively unperturbed, retreated to a nearby tree and waited. Abram laughed and shook his head. He stretched and yawned, wondering if God would show himself. He laid back and waited, his eyes sinking with each blink. As the sun slipped beyond the horizon, A terrible and unnatural darkness swirled around him, far darker than it should be at dusk. Abram was then pulled into a deep sleep and fell to the ground. Abram saw nothing but heard the voice of his God from the depths of his dream. 00:16:04 Speaker 5: I will give you a new vision of what is to come. For four hundred years, not unlike you, Your descendants will be strangers in a country that is not their own. But unlike you, they will be slaves, backs bruised by their oppressors. Do not fear, for I am a just God, and I will wield my judgment and punish the nation they served as slaves. After this trial, They will come out with many possessions and be restored. Just as you feared that the birds would alter the workings of our covenant, I tell you, nothing can alter my judgment and restoration. And so, despite oppression and mistreatment, the covenant will be fulfilled. All that I have said will come to pass Do not fear what is to come. You, Abram, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. Do not fret over the sins and wickedness of the people in Canaan. I see it and will judge. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites and the Canaanites alike has not yet reached its full measure. I will wait until the proper time, but rest assured, my judgment will come. 00:17:52 Speaker 2: The God Most High's voice dissolved into nothing. Out of the darkness, a smoking fire pot, an oven, and a flaming torch appeared. The light emitting from the pair of objects cast a warm glow. Abram watched the shadowy outlines of the halved animal carcasses in the walkway between them. The oven and the torch, together as one, passed through the pieces, completing the walk unto death. As they drew near to Abram where he lay, he could feel the heat of their cleansing, purifying flames from within his dream. 00:18:34 Speaker 5: Again I say to you, You are to take this as a blessing to signify the beginning of our formal covenant. To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadamanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Raphonites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites. 00:19:04 Speaker 2: Despite witnessing all of this in a dream, he knew that the items were meant to represent his God to his human mind. His God had completed the ritual alone, releasing Abram from any responsibility beyond his faith. He wondered at a God who would go to such lengths to fulfill the most profound gesture to his Hebrew culture just so that he would feel reassured of the promises made. Abram marveled at what this meant for himself and the generations that would come after him. This Pray.com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Schellewager and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of The Chosen People, narrated by Paul Coltofianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwald, Sylvia Zaradok, Thomas Copeland Jr., Rosanna Pilcher, and Mitch Lashinsky. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith. Written by Aaron Salvato, Brie Rosely, and Chris Baig. You can hear more Prey.com productions on the Prey.com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People, please rate and leave a review. 00:20:32 Speaker 1: This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.