GENESIS 15: Covenant between the Parts

At the beginning of the study on Genesis 15 (The Promise Confirmed), we saw that God confirmed his promise to Abram that he would give him offspring. And Abram believed.

We may think that the conversation would end there… but it did not. God continued speaking and told Abram that he would not only give him offspring, but he would also give him land.

(Genesis 15:7)  And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."

Abram could not imagine how this would come to be, since during that time a foreigner was not allowed to possess land; it was considered as an invasion. That is why he asked:

(Genesis 15:8)  But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?"

The confirmation to the promise was a covenant…

COVENANT 

In the old days covenants were contracted with a ceremony. Animals were slaughtered, cutting them in half, from the head to the tail. This procedure would leave a puddle of blood between both parts. During the ceremony of the covenant, all participants had to walk between the animal parts, which would stain their clothes with the sacrifice blood. After walking through them, they would say: “Let this be done to me if I do not keep my part of the covenant!” Covenants were very seriously matters, not to be taken lightly. It was a life or death commitment that would last forever.

God wanted to confirm to Abram that his promise was firm and solemn, and that is why he made the following kind of covenant with him.

(Genesis 15:9-11)  He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."  (10)  And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.  (11)  And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Abram was waiting to see what God would do with the sacrifice he asked him to bring. He did not expect to see what happened next.

(Genesis 15:12)  As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

The Hebrew word translated as “a deep sleep” is “Tardemah”. It may also be translated as: trance or lethargy. It is not a word commonly used in the Bible, and the first time it was used was the time when God casted a deep sleep upon Adam to take one of his ribs to form Eve. At this point in time, God put Abram to sleep while he acted upon the sacrifice.

(Genesis 15:17)  When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

Notice that only God passed between the pieces, while Abram was put to sleep. 

There is a great message in this: God committed himself to keep the covenant, but would not condemn Abram to death if he did not keep his part. Only the Lord would shed His Blood, in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we could all be included in the Covenant God made with Abram. That is how he would fulfill the promise that: “IN THEE shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (12:3).

As part of the Covenant, God explained other details Abram had to know about the fulfillment of the Covenant and the promise:

(Genesis 15:13-16)  Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  (14)  But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  (15)  As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.  (16)  And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

God revealed Abram that he would give the Promised Land to his descendants. But before that happened, they would be enslaved. The land would not be taken from the Amorites until their iniquity was complete. 400 year would go by before his descendants would possess the land. And that is how it happened:

(Exodus 12:40-41)  The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.  (41)  At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Abram would not see the fulfillment of the promise in his days, but he would see it with his eyes of faith. However, the Lord pointed out to him with greater detail the extension of the territory that would be given to his descendants.

(Genesis 15:18-21)  On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,  (19)  the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,  (20)  the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,  (21)  the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

Abram was in the Land, but it did not belong to them for a long time after that. However, what Abram would see with his own eyes would be the birth of his son, the first of his descendants.

Abram’s descendants would possess the Land. But he needed children before he could have any descendants. Abram believed God. But after many years he started to doubt “how” this would come to pass, and he tried to “help” God. This will be the subject in the following chapter…