While the selection of the covenant site seems knd of inconsequential, it's actually a critical part of the covenant. These sites were considered holy places and as such were consecrated to God. When a site was used for cutting a covenant, it was never used for anything else. The land itself was sacrificed.

Notice how the animal is killed... "split down the center....". If you've ever buthcered an animal, you know doing this means that the meat is pretty much useless due to the overwhelming amount of contamination from the guts of the animal (feces, urine, bile, etc.). In Biblical times, this was a huge problem, becuase the amount of water needed to thoroughly clean the meat just wasn't that readily available and there was always the chance that you missed something. An animal offered as sacrifice is given up entirely.

When you enter into a covenant, you first have to give up something. Somethign that can't be returned to you, who's giving can't be used to your advantage. It requires that you lay down something precious to you. Jesus said the mark of a true friend is that he lays down his life for you. A covenant relationship requires that we lay down our life for our Lord. He already laid His down for us and now He asks that we be a true friend (in covenant with Him) and lay down our life. The good thing is that a good covenant leads to a far more gained than what was sacrificed. The benefits of laying down your life so vastly exceed the cost of laying your life down that it's almost unreal. It's like being asked to invest a penny for a billion dollar return.

__________________
~
~
~

Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."