Genesis 15 – The LORD’s Covenant
“After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household shall be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” [Genesis 15:1-6]
So after Abram has defeated the kings, with the LORD granting him deliverance, the word of the LORD came to him in a vision. This appears to be the first vision of the LORD granted to Abram, though he appeared in different ways earlier and spoke to Abram. But Abram’s response is not to remember the help that the LORD had previously granted, but only what he has thus far failed to do: give him an heir, a true son. The LORD had already promised that he would make Abram’s “offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” [Genesis 13:16] Abram’s response is fear, because he does not believe and trust yet in the word of the LORD.
His complaint is that someone else is his heir – not his son. LORD, be faithful to your promise! Abram is looking for something that endures, realizing that he is an old man, and that whatever else he might receive, the thing he wants most is to become a father and receive what the LORD had promised through that.
He uses a new name for the LORD here, “Lord GOD”, that is “Adonai Yahweh”, or the “YHWH the Lord”. He recognizes that YHWH is the Lord, and is his Lord, and is in control. And his only recourse is to ask him to fulfill His promise.
The LORD responds, reiterating his promise. Where before he compared the offspring of Abram to the dust of the earth, he now compares them to the stars of heaven. And apparently the LORD is very persuasive, because now Abram has no more excuse; he is satisfied. Then comes the familiar Pauline refrain, “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
Now what what was counted to him as righteousness? It was that he believed the LORD. Not that he believed in the LORD, or in the existence of the LORD, but that he believed the LORD. He believed what the LORD had said; Abram believed in the LORD’s promise that his offspring would be as the stars of heaven. So his belief in the LORD’s promise (or similarly, in God’s faithfulness), was counted to him as righteousness.
But why would this be counted as righteousness? What would righteousness look like under these conditions? Well, if there was a covenant, being declared righteous would mean that you had not broken the covenant. But how could Abram have broken the covenant? The promise was fully up to the LORD, and as we had seen previously with Pharaoh, the LORD is unwilling to allow Abram to mess things up. Righteousness in this covenant is wholly in the LORD’s court. So what is there left for Abram to do? There isn’t anything for him to do – this promise is something given and delivered by the LORD.
So since there isn’t anything for him to do – all he can do is choose whether to believe in God’s promise or to not believe him. And believing his promise is counted as righteousness, because that is the closest you can get to righteousness in a promise not dependent on you. This has nothing to do with God “imputing” righteousness on Abram, that is, covering him with His righteousness or looking at him holistically in terms of everything he has done, but is all in regard to the LORD’s promise. Abram’s faith is counted as righteousness because he is in relationship with God and is depending on God’s fulfillment of the promise.
“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.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 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.” 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. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.” [Genesis 15:7-11]
God starts off with who he is and what he has done, and the purpose that he has called Abram for. But Abram still isn’t convinced – even though he just believed God with respect to his promise about his offspring. He wants further proof of God’s ability to follow through. “How am I to know”? And he uses that name again – Adonai YHWH, declaring both God’s name “I am” as well as the title “Lord” – he recognizes the sovereignty of the LORD in his life. But still he wants assurance. The LORD’s response is odd – his response to Abram is, ‘make a sacrifice’.
Now this might make sense in the sense of the pagan gods. In order to guarantee that you had the rain for the year, or a large number of new births for your flock, you needed to procure the god’s favor, typically by sacrifice. In many of the religions of that time (especially those surrounding where Abram lived) it may have involved child sacrifice (think Abraham and Isaac) or other sorts of rituals and sacrifice. But here, it looks like the LORD is pandering to the viewpoints of Abram, as opposed to Abram appeasing the LORD.
Thus far, the LORD has made several promises, and only the first was conditional (his leaving Ur for Canaan). All the rest were simply God promising, and fulfilling his promises in the face of Abram constantly mucking them up. He didn’t require sacrifice to get them done, he didn’t even require obedience, though he didn’t fulfill his promises until Abram trusted in him. God didn’t require sacrifices at this point either – he just made promises. But this time, at Abram’s behest, he wants to give evidence.
Evidence? What happened to blessing Abram, giving him peace, delivering him miraculously from Pharaoh, and destroying the kings before his eyes? Were these miracles not enough? Was appearing to and speaking to Abram not enough to grant him faith in the promise? Did he so easily forget what he had seen, had the LORD not shown himself to be good?
Perhaps by giving something in sacrifice, Abram will think the LORD obligated to fulfill his word, and that will give more weight to his mind than just the LORD’s simple promise. Abram follows the LORD and prepares the five animals as a sacrifice, driving away the birds of prey. I wonder if there is any symbolism to using livestock three years old. Some might call this foreshadowing of Jesus, who was three years in ministry before he was crucified, but I think it might be difficult to draw to direct a conclusion (and it doesn’t really help our understanding, I don’t think).
A much closer relation to draw is that of the offerings of Levitical priests (See Leviticus 1:1-17), which speak of five animals that can be sacrificed as burnt offerings: cattle, sheep, goats, turtledoves, and pigeons. The livestock are to be cut into pieces, where the birds are not to be torn completely. The difference in animal was to allow people of different economic status to bring offerings to the LORD, with the rich bringing bulls or heifers, and the poor bringing birds. The animals were to be burned on the altar to the LORD in the tabernacle (or temple). From there, it is not a long jump to connect these sacrifices to Jesus. For a fun study (really, quite fascinating), read Leviticus, take notes, and then read one of the gospels (Matthew or Luke, preferably). Pay special attention to the sacrifices and the laws of cleanliness, and note how Jesus fulfills and transforms them.
Back to the story:
“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that our 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. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 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, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” [Genesis 15:12-20]
The LORD caused great darkness to fall upon Abram, as well as sleep (was this another vision?), and He spoke to him. You want proof, Abram, that I am going to do what I said? I gave you my promise, I spoke to you, I gave you miracles and deliverance. Let me give you one more thing: my presence. And even more than that, I’m going to tell you how things are going to play out. You probably would have been happier not knowing, but you’re not going to live to see this land given to your offspring. You will live to see your offspring, but you will not see the fulfillment of the promise. Furthermore, your offspring will have to leave this land to be servants elsewhere.
What must Abram have been thinking then? Not only is he surrounded by darkness and dread, he children, who he hasn’t even gotten to see yet, are going to be servants (slaves, really) and be afflicted, far from home. I am no parent (yet, God willing) so I can only imagine the emotions of a father who learns that his children are going to have to leave home and be afflicted as servants elsewhere. I can’t imagine how I would handle it. I would probably shout back, “no LORD, please let it be different – how about you give the land to me now, and let my children live here in peace”, or maybe, rather cynically, “thanks for the darkness and dread, because that’s exactly what I’m feeling right now. Sorry I asked.” At least I’ll get to live to a good old age and die in peace.
I suppose if the end result is considered, that after 400 years they would return with great possessions and live in the land that was promised, that it’s a comforting thought. (It’s probably also comforting that Abram wouldn’t live to see this affliction.) Go to school and study hard, and after you’ve paid your dues for a good 400 years or so, you’ll get a good job and be able to live where you want. It seems a bit harsh. A little note here – the LORD uses fourth generation an 400 years interchangeably here, indicating that at that time, a generation was a hundred years (which foreshadows the birth of Isaac later on in Abram’s life – when he’s 100).
But what was the reason for this wait of time? Why did the LORD call Abram out of his plush life in Ur now when it would be his descendants 400 years later that would finally get all of the land? There are several good reasons. The first is so that the LORD could show his truthfulness and faithfulness to his promise. Second was for the benefit of Abram and his offspring; yes, it would be a hard time as servants, but when they were finally ready to claim this land, they would have great possessions – far greater than those that they would have gotten in Ur – and would be identified with the LORD through Abram. Thirdly, and extremely important, was that “the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete.”
Now one of his allies was Mamre the Amorite, in whose company Abram just destroyed the kings. No doubt he had been given a window into the relationship between Abram and the LORD, had experienced the glory of the LORD in battle, and had worshipped him by his own Oak trees (Abram settled in and experienced the LORD at the Oaks of Mamre). If anything, it was assumed that the people of the land were familiar with the LORD. The people of Sodom, for starters, were great sinners “against” the LORD – they were acquainted with him and had rebelled against Him, just as they had rebelled against Chedorlaomer.
Several objections are often made about the “God of the Old Testament”, in terms of the Israelite’s conquest of Canaan, many dealing with xenophobia, genocide, and the idea of forcefully attacking a peaceful people and killing and driving them out of their lands.
But here, we have the LORD’s statement: “their iniquity is not complete”. In other words, it would be unjust for me to throw them out of their lands yet, or I wish to have more mercy on them first, or they haven’t violated our relationship irrevocably yet. But in 400 years they will have, even through my pursuit of them, and their knowledge of me and my ways will count agains them. Then I will be just to punish them. It would be unjust not to.
For wrath, in many fundamentalist and reformed circles (as well as some Catholic and evangelical ones), wrath is shown in conjunction with God’s holiness. Since God detests sin, he must have wrath upon all sin that he sees, and his wrath must be satisfied. For those of us in a modern context that see wrath as a emotional response (and often an irrational one), this can be difficult to understand. The question comes up: “what happened to God’s grace and mercy? Why can’t he just forgive them and purify them, as he did to Isaiah with the burning coal?” And then comes a long discussion that involves pitting God’s love against his holiness, or his law against his grace, and finding some dialectic synthesis somewhere in the tension. I prefer to start elsewhere.
Let’s start in God’s covenant. Not this one with Abram – let’s go to the one the LORD makes with the nation of Israel. In short, it is a contract between them – a solemn oath. God promises to fulfill his end: giving them physical blessings if Israel follows the Law, and giving them severe physical distress (famine, plague, slavery, war, death, … see Deuteronomy 28). It is a promise like the one he made with Abram, except that it has a conditional part for the nation of Israel. As history would show, Israel consistently and drastically broke the Law. The only result, then, was for the LORD to fulfill his end of the contract – and bring these curses upon them. To not do so would be dishonest, to show that his promise was not grounded solidly in truth.
Long before the LORD revealed to Abram that he was a God who judges evil (Sodom and Gomorrah), he revealed that he was a God who was faithful and fulfills his promises. Why can we trust that God is never going to leave us? Because he is always faithful, and always keeps his word. We take comfort in God being loving, and indeed God is love, but he first reveals himself to Abram through his name, showing he simply is, and then through his truthfulness in his promises.
So back to the Amorites – could it be that the LORD already has a relationship with them (though not as intimate as the one he has with Abram)? And that by judging the Amorites he was fulfilling his revelation to them? He certainly revealed himself to people other than Israel – look at Balaam, or Melchizedek, for instance. And similar things could be said about the other nations in the land of Canaan.
Now as for the land covered by this promise – from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt, it is certainly much greater in extent than modern day Israel. It is possible that this extent (or most of it) was covered in the time of Solomon, David’s son, but otherwise it has not yet been fulfilled. But that was the promise the LORD made with Abram – and he made it with a covenant.
By accepting the sacrifices with fire (passing between the pieces was a sign of accepting the terms of the covenant), the LORD ratified the covenant with Abram. But what was Abram’s part in the covenant? The only possible part was that of the sacrifice – the rest was up to God. It was his promise to fulfill to him, as it was his promise to bring Abraham offspring. It is up to the LORD.
