God instructed Abram to bring animals for a covenant ceremony to affirm his promise of the land. Abram brought the animals and cut them in half, then waited as birds of prey came. As the sun went down, a deep sleep and darkness came over Abram. God then revealed to Abram that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, a future fact they could later verify. This ceremony made the covenant between God and Abram unquestionable for generations to come.

1. Genesis 15:7-20
Covenant with Abram

2. Context
The lesson reviews the Promise of Land to Abraham and his
descendants.
The study's aim is to student the timeless truths that appear in
God's dealings with Abram and his descendants.
The study's application is to align ourselves as best we can with
God's ways and to trust in His plan for our lives.

3. Context
After the Tower of Babel event (last week's lesson), the people
clustered by language groups and migrated to different areas of
the earth (see Genesis 10:5, 20, 31). Cities and civilizations
developed.
Groups such as the Sumerians and Akkadians became powerful.
Their artifacts and clay tablets reveal much about them.

4. Context
God's redemptive plan, for its part, was moving forward
according to his schedule. That plan involved relocating a man
named Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans (or Kasdim) to the land
of Canaan.
Several sites are mentioned as possibilities for the location of
Ur, but the one that is about 170 miles south of Babylon seems
to have the best evidence. Ur was a progressive city that some
consider as one of the largest cities of antiquity. Estimates of its
population are as high as 65,000.

5. Context
Abram and his family left this thriving commercial area and
moved to Harran in northern Mesopotamia. Genesis 11:31
states that Terah (Abram's father) is the one who led in the
relocation.
Abram was called to leave Harran after his father died (Genesis
12:1; Acts 7:4),

6. Context
Today our focus centers on Abraham as we see God’s plan for
man’s redemption begin to unfold. His initial call from God
came while he was still in Mesopotamia (Genesis 12:1-3; see
Acts 7:2). After moving to Canaan he and his family then had a
sojourn in Egypt, and later separated from Lot.

7. Context
In Genesis 15 Abram (as he was then known) asked God if his
servant Eliezer would inherit his estate, since he remained
childless (15:1-4).
The Lord told him Eliezer would not, but instead “a son coming
from your own body will be your heir” (v. 4)

8. Context
God took Abram outside and told him, “Look up at the sky and
count the stars—if indeed you can count them
. . . So shall your offspring be.” Imagine looking into the sky on a
clear night. How many stars can you count? Abram got the
message! Abraham’s seed includes all who belong to Christ
(Galatians 3:29). One day that group will compose a multitude
so great no one can count it (Revelation 7:9).

9. Context
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as
righteousness. Here for the first time in Scripture the principle
of justification by faith is clearly set forth. Abraham is the father
of all who believe (Romans 4:1; Galatians 3:6, 7). Salvation
comes only through faith in Christ (see Acts 4:10-12).
Abraham had unconditional faith in the Lord and his Word even
when, humanly speaking, there was no reason to expect what
God promised. Abraham demonstrated what he believed by
what he did (James 2:21-24).

10. Genesis 15:7
Then God said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from
Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”

11. Genesis 15:7
Abram expressed his belief in God when he moved from Ur (an
area in Mesopotamia, an area in what is now known as Iraq) to
the Promised Land.
After he arrived, the LORD came to Abram again and identified
himself as the God who had called Abram to move to the land
of Canaan; the God that Abram had believed and obeyed when
he had moved according to God’s command.

12. Genesis 15:7
In the Promised Land, the LORD came again to Abram in order
to reaffirm His promise that Abram and his descendants would
possess the land He promised him.
Reference is made to this in Genesis 12 as well. Hundreds of
years later when Moses proclaimed God’s message, a similar
statement is included at the giving of the Ten Commandments
(Exodus 20:2; see also 13:3-5).

13. Genesis 15:7
Lesson: God clearly reveals Himself and His plan to those
who trust in Him (Gen. 15:7)
Reflection: We hesitate at this promise because we have
sought the will of God before and found ourselves still
wandering. Our struggle lies not with God’s provision but
our inability to see or accept the answers that are being
given.

14. Genesis 15:8
But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess
it?”

15. Genesis 15:8
Abram believed the LORD, and Abram wanted God to make a
contract with him, called a covenant in the Bible, because the
long-term possession of the land would include his
descendants. They would need to know with contractual
certainty that God had promised the land to them.

16. Genesis 15:8
Abram knew that if the LORD made a contract or covenant with
him that God would not break His covenant, and Abram’s
descendants would know that they would possess the land no
matter what difficulties they faced in the future.

17. Genesis 15:8
Abram replied, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain
possession of it?”
Keil writes, “(His question) was not an expression of doubt, but
of desire for the confirmation or sealing of a promise, which
transcended human thought and conception. To gratify this
desire, God commanded him to make preparation for the
conclusion of a covenant.”
Abram wanted to know in greater detail how the promise
would be fulfilled. The Lord prepared to show him!

18. Genesis 15:9
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.”

19. Genesis 15:9
To make His covenant the most firm or unbreakable covenant
possible, God told Abram to bring Him several animals. The
valuable domestic animals would have been used because of
the importance and value of the contract.
God also included a turtledove and a young pigeon. Later,
doves and pigeons were used by the poor to fulfill God’s law
when making sacrifices to God. God was making His covenant
with all of Abram’s descendants, both rich and poor. Rich and
poor alike among Abram’s descendants would possess the
Promised Land.

20. Genesis 15:9
Later, God gave His law through Moses to protect the rights and
property ownership of the poor among Abram’s children, the
Israelites.
When Joseph and Mary presented Jesus at the temple on the
eighth day, we know they were among the poor because Luke
wrote, “And they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated
in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young
pigeons’” (Luke 2:24).

21. Genesis 15:9
Lesson: In His goodness, God often affirms His promises to
His faithful children (vss. 8-9)
Reflection: God does not need to repeat Himself but
often does for the sake of us. Through His Word and the
providence of life, He reminds us that He is in charge but
more is committed to our redemption. Patience is the
spiritual discipline of waiting for His affirmation.

22. Genesis 15:10
He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half
over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.

23. Genesis 15:10
God instructed Abraham to bring certain animals and birds that
would be appropriate for this occasion. The ceremony
described is also seen in Jeremiah 34:18, 19. God specified how
the animals were to be cut in half and arranged. The heifer,
goat, and ram were to be cut in two with a path between their
carcasses.

24. Genesis 15:10
The covenant required sacrifice, and Abram offered three of
these animals in sacrifice by cutting them into two pieces.
He may have sacrificed the birds as the priests would do in a
later time according to the Law of Moses (the Bible does not
say that he sacrificed them, but we may assume that he did).

25. Genesis 15:11
And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram
drove them away.

26. Genesis 15:11
God gave His promise of descendants as numerous as the stars
in the evening when Abram could see the stars (Genesis 15:1-
5). God began to make His contractual promise or covenant
with Abraham during the day (perhaps the next day, we are not
told in the Bible).
James E. Smith notes, “To walk that path was to pronounce a
self-curse as if to say, May this terrible fate befall me if I fail to
keep the promise I have given (see Jeremiah 34:18).
Abram then waited for what he knew would be the most
dramatic manifestation of God’s presence that he had yet
experienced.”

27. Genesis 15:11
Abram no doubt exhausted himself keeping the birds of prey
away from the dead animals in the heat of the day. Abram
fulfilled God’s will and command; Abram provided the best
animals he could for God to make the contract; Abram
protected the animals from being eaten before the contract or
covenant could be made with God.

28. Genesis 15:12
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and
a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

29. Genesis 15:12
As the day turned to early evening, a deep sleep came upon
Abram, and he was terrified because the darkness was more
than the natural setting of the sun in the evening. God was
making with Abram the most solemn covenant possible, a
covenant that would last for generations, a covenant that
Abram would never forget and would never ask for again, a
covenant that Abram would tell to His descendants.
Abram needed to know, and God determined that Abram
would know without question or room for doubt.

30. Genesis 15:12
Some suggest that the darkness was sent to make Abram aware
of what his descendants would experience one day (Genesis
15:13).
Abram’s descendants would also need to know, and perhaps
think twice before asking God to make a similar terrifying
covenant with them. They would need to believe God based on
the testimony of Abram, and God would account their belief as
righteousness (Genesis 15:6).

31. Genesis 15:13
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your
offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be
slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred
years;

32. Genesis 15:13
God told Abram this future fact, and Abram’s later descendants
could verify this fact through their own experience.
When this future fact eventually became true, a fact they could
not deny from their own experience because of the suffering
they would endure and the miraculous rescue by God from
slavery in Egypt, they would know with certainty that the
contract or covenant God made with Abram included them as
well.

33. Genesis 15:13
They would know with the fulfillment of Abram’s prophecy that
indeed God had given Abram and Abram’s descendants the
land to possess. 400 years is a rounded number for a period of
time that Abram’s descendants would be slaves in Egypt.
One hundred years was a rounded number for an average
generation in Abram’s lifetime; however, blessed by God,
Abram lived to be 175 (Genesis 25:7) and Moses lived to be 120
(Deuteronomy 34:7).

34. Genesis 15:13
Lesson: God alone can foretell the future with complete
accuracy and astonishing detail (vss. 12-15)
Reflection: Why do we seek that which we cannot have?
What God offers to our limited minds is the affirmation of
the present and the promise of the future. Yet we seem
to hound God to give us more insight to that which we
would not fully understand since we struggle with what is
already revealed.

35. Genesis 15:14
but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and
afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

36. Genesis 15:14
Because God is both merciful and just, God would punish
Pharaoh and the Egyptians for enslaving Abram’s descendants.
God was merciful to free Abram’s people from slavery after
they had become a numerous people in the land. God was just
to pay the Israelites for their labors during their slavery by
having them leave Egypt with great wealth given to them by the
Egyptian people as God influenced them.

37. Genesis 15:14
The Israelites would know of this prophecy and see it fulfilled;
thus, they would have confidence that God had given them the
Promised Land, and God would be just and merciful to meet
their needs.

38. Genesis 15:15
As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you
shall be buried in a good old age.

39. Genesis 15:15
God told Abram that Abram would not see all that God had
promised him in his lifetime, but his descendants would see all
that God promised him. Abram believe God’s promise and
covenant, and Abram went to his ancestors in peace.

40. Genesis 15:15
Though he would be buried physically because his body would
die, he would continue to live spiritually, because Jesus said
that God was the God of the living; Jesus said: “And as for the
resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to
you by God, ‛I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living”
(Matthew 22:31, 32).
Abram’s “good old age” was 175 years of life on the earth when
his body was buried.

41. Genesis 15:16
And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

42. Genesis 15:16
Four generations was approximately 400 years. God’s great
mercy influences God to postpone punishments for sins by
individuals, people groups, and nations for as long as He wisely
can postpone them.
God postponed the great flood in Noah’s lifetime until the
thoughts and actions of everyone but Noah (and perhaps
Noah’s family, we are not told) were evil only continually.

43. Genesis 15:16
God told Abram that his descendants would not possess the
Promised Land until the evil of the Amorites was so complete
and they were so evil that He must justly punish them, and do
so for the benefit of others and them. God waited 400 years
from Abram’s time before he gave the land of the Amorites to
the Israelites.
The Bible teaches, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as
some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting
any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

44. Genesis 15:16
Lesson: God has a perfect time for every purpose
and plan (Gen. 15:16; Gal. 4:4)
Reflection: Too often, we confuse our desires with His
plan. We let our frustrations cloud our perceptions of
His revelation. Faith like that Abram’s requires that
we trust Him and His plan when we cannot see it in
our current day.

45. Genesis 15:17
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire
pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

46. Genesis 15:17
The fire pot and the flaming torch represented to God in His
holiness. Later, God would appear to Moses as a fire in a
burning bush and the Holy Spirit would descend on Jesus’
disciples as flames of fire on the Day of Pentecost.
The symbolism represents the one making the covenant as
though he were saying, “May I be cut in half (or killed) like
these animals if I do not keep my promise, or contract and
covenant” (Jeremiah 34:18). Perhaps the Father and the Son
are making this promise and covenant with Abram as
symbolized by the flaming torch and the smoking fire pot.

47. Genesis 15:17
This has been called a “grant covenant.” It is God’s to grant, and
man need not respond. Rather than personally walking
between the animals, God sent a smoking firepot and a blazing
torch to go between them, representing the fire of his holy
presence.

48. Genesis 15:18
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To
your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the
great river, the river Euphrates,

49. Genesis 15:18
God gave this promise to Abram and it was an unconditional
covenant or promise; which means Abram and his descendants
did not need to do anything to “earn” their possession of the
Promised Land.
However, because the Israelites God freed from slavery in Egypt
would not believe and obey God, only their children were
allowed to enter and possess the Promised Land.

50. Genesis 15:18
God’s people would need to obey God in order to keep
possession of the Promised Land (because they disobeyed God,
the Kingdom of Israel lost possession of their land and the
Kingdom of Judah spent 70 years in exile).
Abram was counted righteous because he believed God, and he
expressed his belief by trusting and obeying God. The Israelites
entered to possess the land in the time of Joshua, but they did
not acquire control over the entire promised area until the time
of King David. They began to lose control over the entire
Promised Land after King Solomon led them into idolatry.

51. Genesis 15:18
Lesson: What God promises, He will accomplish in His
time and in His way {Gen. 15:17-21)
Reflection: Debate with God has always been futile but
wrestling with Him is understandable. Thankfully, He will
not be dissuaded from what is best by our bickering but
will attend to us with compassion and patience. Our
comfort is to know that He will accomplish His plan even
if for the eyes of our children and not ours.

52. Genesis 15:19
the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

53. Genesis 15:19
The people groups listed in Genesis 15: 19-21 forfeited their
land slowly in the time of Joshua, the Judges, and King David.
Moses saw the land, but he could not enter the Promised Land
because he sinned against God as a leader of His people. Later,
Moses would appear with Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration, so we know Moses repented and lived
spiritually with God after his physical death (Matthew 17:1-8).

54. Genesis 15:19
Joshua’s experiences in conquering the land through various
battles show that their success depended on their obedience,
and people were conquered or evicted from their land as
punishment for their sins.

55. Genesis 15:20
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

56. Genesis 15:20
The Canaanites may have been metalworkers of some kind,
perhaps in copper, since only the Philistines worked iron. There
may have been a close relationship between the Canaanites
and the Midianites.
They were never totally removed from the Promised Land, but
lost control of their land.

57. Genesis 15:20
Caleb’s father was a Kenizzite and they were eventually
absorbed into the tribes of Israel (Numbers 32:12).
We know very little about the Perizzites, but King Solomon
enslaved them. The Rephaim were probably giant people who
lived in the land (Deuteronomy 3:11).

58. Genesis 15:21
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the
Jebusites.”

59. Genesis 15:21
When God gave the Amorites over to Israel, God made the sun
stand still so Joshua’s army could defeat them (Joshua 10:12).
“Canaanites” is a general name for all or most of the people
who lived west of the Jordan River in the land of Canaan.

60. Genesis 15:21
The Girgashites were a tribe of people who lived in the land of
Canaan.
The Jebusites inhabited the City of Jerusalem and they were not
conquered by the Israelites until King David defeated them.

61. Conclusion
The Girgashites were a tribe of people who lived in the land of
Canaan.
The Jebusites inhabited the City of Jerusalem and they were not
conquered by the Israelites until King David defeated them.

62. Conclusion
The bottom line for Abram was that God’s promise was now
much more specific. Abram would have a son of his own
through whom blessings would be poured out. Abram’s
offspring would be very numerous and, in time, would possess
the land. But before this, they would go through a time of delay
and great difficulty.

63. Conclusion
The essence of Abram’s faith was that while he waited for the
promise of future blessings, he was content in the meantime
with the presence of God. Abram did not come out on the short
end of the stick. Abram’s great reward was God Himself: “I am a
shield to you; your very great reward” (Genesis 15:1, NASV).

64. Conclusion
Our theology has been greatly distorted in recent days. We are
invited to come to Christ as Savior because of all that He can
and will do for us. We may have come to Him for His presents,
rather than His presence.
Abram was neither cheated nor short-changed in the delay of
God and in the difficulties he and his offspring faced.
Abram was blessed, for if God is our portion, that is enough.