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.