Day 7 - Genesis 15:1-21 - God's Covenant with Abram

The Promise Expanded

We discussed God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 12 in the last study. Here in the first 5 verses of Genesis 15, we see a little more detail into the promise. In Genesis 15:4, God told Abram that He would give him a son of his own to be his heir. And as we referenced in the last study, God told Abram that his offspring would be so many that they would not be able to be numbered (15:5).

Justified by Faith

Genesis 15:6 says, “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” This is incredible. We know that Abram was at least 75 and that Sarai was at least 65 years old. They were past the standard reproductive age. Yet God tells Abram that he will become a great nation and that it will be through his own son. I don’t know about you, but I might be double-checking that I heard the Lord correctly. Yet, this verse tells us that he believed God. Furthermore, that faith was counted to him as righteousness. In fact, while proving that we are justified by faith and not by our works, Paul references this verse as an example (Romans 4:3). We need to be people that believe God when He tells us something.

Covenant Preparations

In Genesis 15:8, Abram asks God how he will know that he will possess the land God had promised him. God replied by telling Abram to prepare a covenant (Genesis 15:9-11). During this time, people would cut animals in half and place them on either side of an area. The parties making the covenant would each then walk between the pieces. By walking between the pieces, they were essentially saying, “If I break my end of the deal, let me become like these animals.” In other words, they were saying, “If I don’t follow through on my part of the covenant, I die.” This same process is referenced in Jeremiah 34:18-20.

Slavery Foretold

We read in Genesis 15:12 that a deep sleep fell on Abram. During this sleep, God told Abram that his offspring would be slaves for 400 years. Of course, we know that this did in fact happen and can be read about in the beginning of Exodus. We also know that Abraham did not keep this to himself. In Genesis 50:24, 25 Joseph tells his brothers that God will bring them up out of Egypt. In fact he was so certain that he made them promise that they would take his bones with them when he went. James confirms that this is what Joseph was referring to in James 11:22 which says, “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

One-sided Covenant

Genesis 15:17 says, “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.” Genesis 15:18-21 continues to say that God made a covenant with Abram that He would give him the land He promised. As we discussed above, during this time a covenant was made by cutting animals in half and with each party passing through the pieces. What makes this covenant unique is that only one party passed between the pieces: God! God did not require Abram to seal the covenant with Him in return. So, basically what God was saying (if we use my interpretation of how the covenant might be worded above) was, “If I don’t fulfill my end of the deal, I die. If you don’t fulfill your end of the deal, I die.” God was the only one taking the responsibility of consequences of the covenant if it were broken. And we know that God fulfilled the promise He made here to Abram. The Israelites did not hold up their end of the covenant which was to honor God. So, the moment that Jesus died upon the cross, God fulfilled the covenant that He made to Abram. God already knew that Jesus would have to come and die. That’s why God made the one-sided covenant. What an awesome, loving, compassionate, just, holy God that we serve!