What Genesis 15:7-11 really means: God's Covenant With Abram

Setting the Stage for God's Covenant with Abram

This moment in Genesis 15:7-11 comes right after Abram believed God’s promise about having a son, and God counted that faith as righteousness.

Abram has already left his homeland at God’s call, and in the previous verses, God reaffirmed that his own biological child would inherit the promise - not a servant in his household. Now, God shifts from the promise of descendants to the promise of land, saying, 'I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.' Abram’s response - 'O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?' - is not unbelief but a humble request for confirmation, something God graciously honors.

God then instructs Abram to prepare specific animals for a covenant ritual common in the ancient Near East, where cutting animals in half symbolized the seriousness of the agreement - essentially saying, 'May what happened to these animals happen to me if I break my word.' Abram follows the instructions exactly, even protecting the sacrifice from scavenger birds, showing his reverence and attentiveness to God’s direction.

The Covenant Ceremony and God's Unilateral Promise

This covenant ritual in Genesis 15 is far more than an ancient custom - it’s a divine pledge where God alone commits to fulfilling His promise, even at the cost of His own life symbolized in the sacrifice.

In the ancient Near East, when two parties made a covenant, they would cut animals in half and walk between them, declaring that if either broke the agreement, they would suffer the same fate. But here, God instructs Abram to prepare the sacrifice and then, in a stunning twist, only *God* - represented by the smoking fire pot and flaming torch - passes between the pieces (Genesis 15:17). God places the entire obligation on Himself. Abram doesn’t walk through because he isn’t required to. The promise of land doesn’t depend on Abram’s obedience - it rests entirely on God’s faithfulness.

This act foreshadows how seriously God takes broken covenants. In Jeremiah 34:18, God judges those who break a covenant by saying they will become like the calf cut in two - showing that covenant-breaking brings death. Yet in Genesis 15, God Himself accepts that curse in advance, pointing forward to the cross where Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, would die to secure the new covenant 'in His blood' (Luke 22:20). God’s way of guaranteeing His promise is not by demanding perfection from us, but by absorbing the penalty Himself.

The fact that Abram cuts the animals but doesn’t cut the birds may reflect their value - birds were often used by the poor in sacrifices (Leviticus 1:14-17) - suggesting that God accepts offerings according to what we can give. Abram’s role - preparing the sacrifice and guarding it from scavengers - shows his reverence and active trust, even while the covenant’s fulfillment remains God’s responsibility.

God doesn’t just make promises - He swears by His own life to keep them.

This moment reveals God’s promises aren’t earned. They’re given and sealed by grace. The next section will explore the vision of darkness and the startling prophecy about Abram’s descendants’ suffering, which adds depth to the cost of this covenant.

Trusting God's Promises When the Future Is Unclear

This moment with Abram speaks directly to anyone who has believed God’s promise but still wonders, 'How will this actually happen?' - especially when years pass and nothing changes.

Abram already believed God about having a son, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), yet he still asks for confirmation about the land. His question isn’t punished. It’s met with guidance and a sacred ritual. This shows that honest doubt, when brought to God, isn’t faithlessness - it’s the beginning of deeper trust.

Our doubts don’t disqualify us from God’s promises - they open the door for His reassurance.

God’s promises often come with delays that test our faith, but those delays aren’t denials. Abram waited years before seeing any of these promises fulfilled, and we also live between 'yes' and 'not yet.' The Bible doesn’t hide this tension - Paul describes believers as 'looking not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen' (2 Corinthians 4:18), and Hebrews commends those who 'did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance' (Hebrews 11:13). The key isn’t perfect understanding, but persistent trust. This leads into the next part of the vision - where God reveals that the path to promise fulfillment includes suffering, preparation, and divine timing that often defies our expectations.

How Abram's Covenant Points to Jesus and the New Covenant

This ancient covenant with Abram not only reveals God’s faithfulness but also foreshadows the unbreakable promise secured by Jesus in the New Covenant.

The apostle Paul highlights Genesis 15:6 - 'he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness' - as the foundation of salvation by faith, not by works (Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6). This means Abram wasn’t made right with God because he earned it, but because he trusted God’s word - a pattern that points directly to how we are saved today through faith in Christ, not by perfect behavior.

Hebrews 6:13-18 explains that when God made a promise to Abram, He swore by Himself - 'since He could swear by no one greater' - making His promise absolutely certain. The two unchangeable things - God’s promise and His oath - form the basis of our hope in Christ. This divine oath, confirmed through the covenant ritual, prefigures the New Covenant where Jesus, as both the promised descendant and the final sacrifice, guarantees our inheritance. Like the smoking fire pot and flaming torch passing through the pieces, symbolizing God’s self-binding commitment, Jesus enters death itself to fulfill the covenant and rise again, securing our future.

The animals cut in half represent the cost of broken promises, yet God alone walks through - taking the curse we deserve. In the same way, Jesus dies on the cross, the ultimate covenant sacrifice, so that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness and eternal life. The birds not being cut may reflect God’s acceptance of all people, rich and poor. Birds were offered by those who couldn’t afford larger animals (Leviticus 1:14-17), demonstrating that God’s grace is accessible to everyone, including the less powerful or imperfect.

God didn’t just promise salvation - He swore by Himself to guarantee it.

This covenant with Abram is more than ancient history. It begins a story that reaches its climax in Jesus. The next part of the vision, where God foretells suffering and exile, reminds us that even God’s promises come through hardship, preparing the way for the ultimate deliverance Christ brings.

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