Abraham, Part 5: Covenant

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Journey to Canaan | Part 3: Settlement | Part 4: Establishment

We are now in the central stage of Abraham’s life: the formal presentation and confirmation of the Covenant. This is the first of three major covenants executed in the Old Testament: the Abrahamic, the Mosaic (Ex 19.17ff), and the Davidic (2S 7.12ff). (A fourth, the New Covenant, is predicted in Jeremiah 31.31ff, but not executed until the Last Supper [Mt 26.28].)

As we’ve seen, the Abrahamic Covenant has been initially announced earlier, in Genesis 12, but we find the full statement and ratification here in Genesis 15. Commentator Kenneth Mathews (the New American Commentary) writes, “In its immediate context, the chapter depicts the patriarch as the recipient of a divine bequest, modeled on a royal gift, which follows on his encounter with the kings (chap. 14).”

The chapter introduces the Covenant topic with a conversation between Abram and God in which Abram reminds God that he still doesn’t have any offspring (Ge 15.1-6). In the first announcement of the Covenant, God told Abram that he would become a “great nation” (Ge 12.2), which certainly implies a large number of descendants, and the second announcement makes the idea more explicit with the “dust of the earth” analogy (Ge 13.16).

Now Abram observes that he still has no offspring (Ge 15.2-3). In fact, he has followed the cultural custom of legally adopting an adult male to provide care for the aging childless couple when they need it, in return for inheriting their estate (Ge 15.2-3). (This custom is attested in the Nuzi documents, which are dated in Abram’s time.) https://cojs.org/nuzi_archives/

I don’t see Abram’s question as unreasonable, or evidence of lack of faith; it’s been close to ten years since Genesis 12 (Ge 12.4; 16.3), and at age 85 Abram doesn’t know how much time he has left.

God responds by repeating his earlier promise and clarifying it: first, Abram’s offspring will indeed be biologically his (Ge 15.4), and second, God provides a second metaphor. He had said his seed would be like the dust of the earth (Ge 13.16); now he compares it to the stars (Ge 15.5). Keep in mind that there was no light pollution in those days; even without telescopes, Abram’s view of the heavens would present an astounding number. Any readers living in Death Valley, or North Korea, can confirm that.

What follows is one of the most important verses in the Bible for the doctrine of salvation: “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Ge 15.6). Paul cites this verse as evidence that salvation has always been by faith, since here the Mosaic Law didn’t even exist (Ro 4.3ff; Ga 3.6-14).

Now comes the formal enactment of the Covenant (Ge 15.7-21). (Note the parallel language between Ge 15.7, initiating the Abrahamic Covenant, and Ex 20.2, initiating the Mosaic.) In a ceremony that seems strange to us, following God’s instruction (Ge 15.9), Abram slaughters several animals and cuts them in half (Ge 15.10), and God, in the form of a smoking lamp, walks between the pieces (Ge 15.17). In that culture this was the form of a solemn covenant; the parties would walk between the halves of the animals, with the implication that this kind of death will come to one who breaks the covenant (Jer 34.18-19).

Note that Abram does not walk between the animal pieces; only God does. God places himself under the threatened death penalty if he breaks the covenant. The point is clear: God cannot die; the covenant cannot be broken. We call this a monergistic covenant; only one of the parties is bound by it.

During this ceremony God prophesies the future. “God’s timescale for the fulfilment of his promises was a long one. Abram was losing patience that little had happened in the ten years … that had elapsed since the promise was first made, but God was thinking in terms of 400 years (13)” (Gordon Wenham, The New Bible Commentary, 72). This is a round number; the actual length of Israel’s stay in Egypt was 430 years (Ex 12.40).

God’s prediction of the exile in Egypt shows that it was always his intent, and here he gives the reason: he is giving the pagan Canaanites, who are already under a curse (Ge 9.25), a full four additional centuries to repent, demonstrating that he is “slow to anger” (Ps 103.8) and ameliorating the charge of genocide when the eradication of the Canaanites finally came.

Next time, Abram tries to help God fulfill the covenant.

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash