Genesis 15

ere we have what all would agree is a theophany, a physical manifestation of God short of the Incarnation of Christ. God represents himself as a "flaming pot". This chapter also reveals an important aspect of God's nature. This is the contapositive of the principle, "To whom much is given, much is expected." God does not expect so much of those to whom little has been given, and He is typically willing to put up with more of what would seem to us to be stupidity.

When Abram asks the almighty God how Abram will know that God will keep his promise, God does not (as he will do much later to the father of John the Baptist, Zechariah, when he questions God's plan) strike him with an affliction. Instead, God accommodates Abram, and obeys the customs of Abram's time so that Abram can understand.

Notice that when God tells Abram to go get cattle and birds, he doesn't have to tell Abram what to do with them. Abram already knows what's coming. This is the form of a suzerain-vassal covenant, or sovereign-vassal covenant, a common legal form in the Ancient Near Eastern cultures establishing a formal (even a family) relationship between a greater king and a lesser king. By passing through the eviscerated animals, God is symbolizing "may what has been done to these animals happen to me if I fail to abide by the promises I am making to you."

Usually, the two kings making a treaty would pass side by side through the animals. But God does not do this to Abram, because God knows that this would mean Abram's destruction. God knows that Abram and his descendants will fail to meet their obligations under the covenant, but he is signaling here his desire to be merciful, and to be slow to punish Abram's descendants for violations of the covenant.

Blood is involved, just as it was in Genesis 3 when God slaughtered an animal to provide the skins for Adam and Eve, just as an animal had to die when Abel made a pleasing sacrifice to God, and as Abel himself died as a result, just as Noah sacrificed to God from the very limited livestock remaining on the planet after the flood. Something precious has to die when humanity deals with God, because humanity instinctively has a desire for justice, and they also know that in justice they deserve death for their failure to abide by the moral law that has been imprinted on their hearts being moral creatures capable of reasoning. God requires no such sacrifice, but rather the sacrifice that he desires is man's repentance and turning toward righteousness. The animal sacrifices are symbolic.

Finally, this is only the second of many covenants that God will make with Abram. Whereas modern Evangelicals often center their religion around the "defining moment" when someone "gave their life to Christ" and after that they were "once saved, always saved" and no matter how depraved or evil they became after that, they would still be guaranteed their spot in heaven, Abram's story, and the Bible in general paint a more nuanced and complicated picture. One's spiritual life is a series of hills and valleys, hopefully increasing in elevation overall, but the Christian spiritual life is a process. Like the life of Abram, there are high points of communion with God and low points of moral failure. Sanctification and growing in righteousness are a process, requiring someone's whole life to work out. God will indeed take labourers who come at the end of the day and give them the same coin (Matthew 20:1-16), but those who labour throughout the day profit from the experience all the same. The spiritual life is the life of self-actualization, the life free from ultimate regret, the journey towards blessedness that is its own reward.


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