Father Abraham Series

BELIEVE AND BE SURE.

Trust in the Lord and receive His assurance that He will keep his promises to you no matter what happens. Put your faith in Him and He will confirm that faith even in times of suffering and pain. That’s what God did for Abram.

Genesis 15:7-8 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?” (ESV)

You see, Abram didn’t own any land at this point. He was trespassing on somebody else’s property, property owned by the Canaanites, and he needed their permission just to put up his tents there.

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.” 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. (ESV)

God is getting ready to make a blood covenant with Abram. In our day, when we want to make certain guarantees, we draw up a contract and sign on the dotted line. But in Bible days, they exchanged sandals or pieces of salt to endorse their contracts. It was as good as signing on the dotted line, except those contracts were more easily broken. All you had to do was return the sandal or piece of salt and you could back out of the contract.

On the other hand, if you wanted to make a binding contract, from which there was no backing out, you would do what Abram did here. You would cut some animals in half, lay each half opposite the other, and then the two parties would walk between the pieces. In essence, they were saying to each other, “May the same thing happen to us, as happened to these animals, if either of us breaks our word.” There was no backing out of this contract, because there was no way to put the animals back together, give them their life again, and return them to their owners.

This was called “a blood covenant” in Bible days, and God is getting ready to make that kind of covenant with Abram – a binding covenant from which no one can back out.

Genesis 15:12-16 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 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. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, 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.” (ESV)

God tells Abram there is 400 years of trouble ahead for his descendants. But after that time of trouble, they will return to this land and possess it. Then God does something unusual for a blood covenant – He alone passes between the animal pieces, obligating only Himself to the covenant.