The Threshold Covenant

Have you ever been exposed to something your entire life that you gave little to no thought to only to have your mind blown later in life by its significance?  Just recently at torah discussion we were all talking about various things and my friend and teacher made an offhand comment about the Threshold Covenant.  He went on to expound on someone else’s questions while I was left struck with the thought that there was something there.  Something, I tend to believe it was the Spirit of God, was drawing me to look deeper into this covenant. What was it and was it relevant to others today?

In order to study an ancient Middle Eastern Covenant it’s only fitting to use an equally ancient form of interpreting the scriptures, Pardes. This is an acronym.  The ‘P’ is for Peshat, which means the literal interpretation of the subject. The ‘R’ is Remez, which is the spiritual hint. ‘D’ represents Drosh, where various verses or concepts are linked together in order to form a central idea, and ‘S’, Sod, which is the more esoteric, where we find Yeshua in every verse.

In the literal sense, the Threshold Covenant can be explained as such:  the Hebrew word ‘caph’ can mean both a threshold and a basin. In ancient times and still in many places today, the threshold of a home had a basin of sorts built into it.

 
Ancient threshold with basin found in the ancient city of Petra.

When a guest of prominence was coming to one’s home an animal was sacrificed and its blood was collected in the basin.  The blood was then spread over the basin (and sometimes the sides and lentil of the door). When the guest arrived as they stepped over the threshold they were confirming they were now in covenant with the owner of the home. It was the homeowner’s responsibility to protect the guest under any situation even unto death. Even if the guest was formerly a bitter enemy, once they crossed the threshold the homeowner was bound to take care of all their needs.

We see this very thing in Genesis 19 where two ‘visitors’ come to the house of Lot and enter in. Later, men from the town demand that Lot send them out to be assaulted and in the face of death, Lot refuses because they have crossed over the threshold of his home.  Even in today’s society, when a husband brings his wife home for the first time it’s customary to pick her up and carry her over the threshold.  He’s now in covenant with her.  He is bound to care for her needs and to protect her with his life if need be.  In Egypt, if you buy a dahabiyeh, a passenger boat of sorts, you often sacrifice an animal before crossing its threshold.  This is where the custom of breaking a bottle of wine, or christening a boat comes from as the blood of the grape is being spilled before crossing into the threshold of the ocean. 

The threshold is the altar of the house.  This concept is well known and revered by everyone in the Middle East.  The epitome of an insult is to step on the threshold rather than over it. It says that you have no respect for the master of the house and in many cultures it’s thought that you incur the wrath of the deity of the home.  Consider the childhood rhyme we all said in our youth, “step on a crack break your mothers back”. Some years ago in Israel the home of an Israeli family was broken into and its inhabitants killed. During the investigation it was discovered that the intruders broke into a side window rather than entering through the front door because the fear of divine retribution from treading on or entering the threshold with evil intent was so well known. 

In 1st Samuel chapter five we read where the Philistines took the ark of God across the threshold of the house of Dagon, their god.  The next day they found the statue of Dagon on its face. Verse 4 states, “And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord.  The head of Dagon and both of palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it.” (Italics mine)

When we think about the Threshold Covenant the biblical story of the Passover immediately comes to mind.  God instructed the Israelites to apply blood from a sacrificial lamb on the door post and lentil of the door forming the Hebrew letter Hey. The lentil and right side of the door was said to represent the sacrificial lamb and the left side the blood of circumcision showing we all have a part to play in our own exodus.  Those inside the threshold were protected while those outside were not.  The blood of the lamb, shed at the altar of the house to protect those inside. 

So far we’ve seen the literal meaning of the covenant and some spiritual hints alluding to Yeshua.  We’ve seen different verses and circumstances linking together that revolve around the Threshold Covenant. But what of the Sod, where do we see Yeshua in this?

Zechariah 12:2 states “”Behold, I will make Yerushalayim a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and on Yehudah also will it be in the siege against Yerushalayim.” What does this have to do with the threshold?  According to the Vulgate, Jerome explains it as such, “A cup of trembling; a bowl of reeling – a bowl whose contents cause staggering and reeling,  “as tottering porticoes” (Septuagint). This Jerome explains to mean that anyone who crosses the threshold of Jerusalem in hostile guise shall totter and fall.”

Jerusalem is the threshold of Gods house.  In Zephaniah 1:9 we read “In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.”  To further illustrate the point, Yeshua said that He was the door, the threshold and in John 10:1 He states that anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate, the threshold, is a liar and a thief.  

Yeshua is the threshold! Many scholars believe that Yeshua was crucified on the Mount of Olives, nearby to where the red heifer was sacrificed.  When the temple sacrifices were made as well as the sacrifice of the red heifer, on the Mount of Olives, the blood drained down from fissures into the Kidron Valley and into the Dead Sea. Hence the verse where God says our sins will be cast as far as from the East is to the West. The Kidron Valley separates the Mount of Olives from the Temple.  It is in essence the threshold and the blood of Yeshua ran through it and as He is beyond the scope of time and space, His blood continues to run through it.  What does this mean? It alludes to the day when we will be caught up in the cloud, which is Yeshua, and he will deliver us, His bride, across the threshold into His father’s home, Jerusalem. In the time of Yeshua, if a suitor wanted to marry a woman he would come to her house and knock and announce himself. If she was agreeable to the marriage she would open the door to let him in and cook him a meal. The covenant was made as he crossed the threshold. Consider Yeshua’s words, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any hear my voice and open the door I will come in and eat with them and they with me”.  The king of the universe is giving us an open opportunity to cross the threshold into intimacy with him.  God forbid that we would instead step contemptuously on the threshold. As Hebrews 10:29 states, “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”

We’ve used the ancient method of PARDES to delve deep into the ancient Threshold Covenant. We’ve seen the literal meaning of the covenant, how it hints towards Messiah, that we can link various verses to form a better understanding and finally how we can plainly see Yeshua our Messiah in the Threshold Covenant. How great and amazing is the love of Messiah? While we were still enemies with Him, he poured out His blood and became the threshold and entreats us to all cross over.