The LORD’s Covenant With Abram

Genesis 15:1-20

15 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.” 2 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?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 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.” 5 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.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

7 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.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 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. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 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, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.

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In the Ancient Near East, when two parties made an agreement the weaker party would cut animals in half and walk through the halves, in essence saying: “May this be done to me if I don’t uphold my side of the covenant.” Ancient Hebrew reflects this understanding because in Hebrew you don’t “make” a covenant, you “cut” a covenant.

What’s amazing about the covenant the Lord makes with Abraham in Genesis is that only the Lord passes between the animals, not Abraham.

CHRISTIAN READER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!

The Lord says to Abraham, I will uphold both my side and your side of the covenant, even if it takes my life.

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW.

(Jesus was crucified.)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son….”

P.S. Note that 15:16 implies that the Canaanites won’t be kicked out of the land until they deserve it; that time finally comes when Joshua leads the Israelites to conquer Canaan, several hundred years later.

The Danger of Arrogance - Psalm 132

Psalm 132

Psalm 132 is about the Israelites’ confidence in the Lord’s commitment to Jerusalem generally and David’s line specifically. That’s good, and the Lord was committed to Jerusalem and David.

The problem is that the Israelites then behaved as if God’s grace toward them came without any expectations. They thought, “We can behave however we want—worship foreign gods, even practice child sacrifice—and the Lord won’t punish us, because we’re the Chosen People.”

That’s a dangerous way to live. Yes, the grace of the Lord is inexhaustible, but God’s grace doesn’t mean we will be exempt from the consequences of our unrepentant actions.

What do you need to turn away from today?

The Meaning of Circumcision

Let me say it again: the story of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) in Genesis 12-36 is a story of their education and formation into what family life will need to be like if the covenant will need to be passed down generation to generation. An important part of that covenant is circumcision, but what does it really mean?

I found this comment from Leon Kass to be helpful:

“Male circumcision was, of course, a custom already widely practiced in the ancient world. In pagan societies, circumcision, performed at the time of puberty, was part of a male rite of passage (it may also have served symbolically as an act of human sacrifice to the gods). A mark on his maleness, circumcision was a sign not only of the youth’s new sexual potency but also of his initiation into the male role and male society (putting an end to his primary attachment to his mother and the household, to the society of women and children). But in the new way of ancient Israel, the special obligation of the covenant gives the practice of circumcision a new and nearly opposite meaning. An initiation rite of passage of young males into adult masculinity is transformed into a paternal duty regarding the male newborn. Israel’s covenant with God begins by transforming the meaning of male sexuality and manliness altogether.

I find that really interesting: the Lord is teaching Abraham and his descendants that true masculinity is not a conquering masculinity but a masculinity that is dedicated to something greater than itself, namely toward others.

Today’s Scripture

Genesis 17:10-27

You "Cut" A Covenant

In the Ancient Near East, when two parties made an agreement the weaker party would cut animals in half and walk through the halves, in essence saying: “May this be done to me if I don’t uphold my side of the covenant.” Ancient Hebrew reflects this understanding because in Hebrew you don’t “make” a covenant, you “cut” a covenant.

What’s amazing about the covenant the Lord makes with Abraham in Genesis 15 is that only the Lord passes between the animals, not Abraham.

CHRISTIAN READER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!

The Lord says to Abraham, I will uphold both my side and your side of the covenant, even if it takes my life.

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW.

(Jesus was crucified.)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son….”

P.S. Note that 15:16 implies that the Canaanites won’t be kicked out of the land until they deserve it; that time finally comes when Joshua leads the Israelites to conquer Canaan, several hundred years later.

Today’s Scripture

Genesis 15:1-21