GENESIS 15

This chapter describes the covenant God made with Abram, sealing it with a rather eerie and almost ominous ritual. Wenham points out that this chapter is actually structured into two parallel movements, which can be diagrammed as follows:

    God speaks v. 1                      v. 7

    Abram speaks vv. 2-3            v. 8

    God's reaction v. 4                 v. 9

    A public act v. 5a                 vv. 16-17

    God speaks v. 5b                 vv. 13-16

    Conclusion v. 6                   vv. 18-21

Note that the parallelism above is not quite perfect. I would prefer to discuss this chapter chronologically as divided below:

Genesis 15:1-7 God appears to Abram in a vision and reassures him that he will have numerous descendants. This event comes on the wake of Abram's victory over a coalition of kings. Carr explains that the “promise to be a shield (Heb 'magen') for Abraham echoes Melchizedek's praise of the god who 'delivered' ('miggen') Abraham (14:20), and the reward replaces the goods he had refused from the king of Sodom (14:21-24).”

Genesis 15:8 Abram wants to get a sign from God that this will indeed happen. Interestingly, this is almost word-for-word what the priest Zechariah said to Gabriel after hearing that his request for a child would be granted (Luke 1:18). The condition of childlessness also forms the same background to this passage. But whereas the angel rebuked Zechariah for his lack of faith, God grants the sign that Abram requested and he is held up as the ultimate example of faith in the Bible. It would be a good discussion topic to see what caused the different divine responses between these two situations. It goes to show that we mortals can't always trust external behavior to be a foolproof tip-off to someone's spiritual state; only God can do that.

Genesis 15:9 God tells Abram to fetch a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon.

Observe that these are representative examples of all the ritually clean animals acceptable for sacrifice to God. There is possibly some deep symbolism in the fact that the first three animals are specified to be three years old. If so, this would be parallel to other passages such as Genesis 41:25-30 and Judges 6:1,25.

Genesis 15:10-11 Abram does as God commanded and cuts all but the birds in two. He then keeps the birds of prey from feasting on the carcasses. The cutting of the animals in two is usually explained as the origin of the Hebrew phrase “to make (literally, “cut”) a covenant. And the meaning of the ritual is said to invoke a curse on the one or ones making the covenant, expressing the thought: “May I be treated like these animals if I break this covenant.” See Jeremiah 34:18 for this usage. Wenham feels that it may also be behind the rituals in Judges 19-20; I Samuel 11 and Amos 5:17. However, Wenham rightly points out that in this present case it is God who makes the covenant and passes through the animals. And it is unlikely that He would be pronouncing such a curse upon Himself.

Next is the question of the underlying meaning, if any, behind the birds attempting to feast on the carcasses. Several evangelical commentators express the opinion that the animal carcasses represent the descendants of Abraham while the birds of prey are the pagan nations. Thus, by Abraham's actions he is protecting his future offspring from attack by others who would destroy them.

Genesis 15:12 At sundown, Abram falls into a deep sleep with a fearful darkness descending on him. We see here the sometimes ambiguous relationship between divine dreams and visions.

Genesis 15:13-16 God predicts that Abram's descendants will be in captivity for 400 years before they are released to return to their own land. J.B. Payne and others explain that this prophecy corresponds very closely to what actually happened. Thus, Exodus 12:40 says that the Jews will live 430 years in Egypt and Canaan. But the latter time period can be calculated as 33 years by piecing together the date notices in Genesis 30:25; 31:41; 41:46-47; and 45:6. That leaves 397 years of Egyptian captivity.

Genesis 15:17 When the sun goes down and it is completely dark, a pot full of smoke and a flaming torch pass between the pieces of the dead animals. This only adds to the eerie atmosphere surrounding the whole episode. And it is certainly the most unusual theophany found in the Bible, although God does appear elsewhere as or in a fire or flame (i.e. Moses seeing the burning bush, the pillar of fire at night to guide the Israelites in the wilderness, the fire in the middle of Ezekiel's vision of the divine throne, tongues of fire at the Day of Pentacost, etc.).

Genesis 15:18-21 In such a manner, God gives Abraham the land of Canaan as his descendants' possession. This is probably an appropriate place to comment regarding the various covenants which God appears to make with Abraham. P.R. Williamson does a good job of sorting them out:

    Genesis 12:1-3 lays out briefly two promises: (1) that the Patriarch will be the founder of a great nation with many descendants and attendant land to possess, and (2) he will bring future blessings on all the other nations.

    Genesis 15 confirms Promise #1.

    Genesis 17 anticipates Promise #2.

    Genesis 22 confirms Promise #2.

Several commentators note that the promise of land in Genesis 15 is not said to be an everlasting covenant as is the universal promise brought about through Abraham's seed, Jesus Christ. However, many premillennialists dispute that claim and support the modern state of Israel in any attempt they may make to reclaim all the land promised in Genesis 15.

A.P. Ross concludes: “The principles in this chapter are essentially the same for any age. Today people become the people of God by faith as well, and their faith brings righteousness before God (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6)...By his covenant which he made by his own blood, however, our Lord has guaranteed that his Word is sure and that neither death nor oppression can destroy his promises (Heb. 7:20-25; Rom. 8:31-39).”