Genesis 15
Dear RTB’ers,
Today, a short reading, not as much action, mostly a conversation between the Lord and Abraham. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram… (v. 18a). This is now the second covenant between God and His people. The first was with Noah (God speaking): “Behold, I establish My covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:9-11) God confirmed this covenant with a rainbow. (Genesis 9:12-13) As I understand it, God’s covenant in today’s reading with Abram was the “Promised Land”, from Egypt to the Euphrates River (v. 18b). He confirmed this covenant by passing between the sacrificial offerings (v. 17).
God had also made a promise to Abram regarding his descendants: “… your very own son shall be your heir … Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them … So shall your offspring be.” (vv. 4b-5) This is the second time that God had made a promise to Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3) The Bible does not refer to God’s promise of offspring to Abram specifically as a covenant. There is a large body of literature on “covenant theology”. A Wikipedia item suggested scholars claiming between one and twelve covenants. Another online source cited seven covenants. I like five as the number: Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the New Covenant in Jesus. https://bibleproject.com/articles/covenants-the-backbone-bible/ Also, it’s easy to break the Abraham covenant into three pieces – his offspring, the land, and circumcision. Again, we leave it to Bible scholars to argue these points.
So, today we see a promise of offspring to Abraham and a Promised Land covenant. We will see the beginning of the fulfillment of the former of these in chapter 21, but we’ll have to wait until we read the book of Joshua to see the settling of the Promised Land.
Blessings!
The Tuesday women’s group has done several studies which explored God’s covenants. Yet I’m still confused by the particulars and ramifications of them all.
But I am astonished by the one in today’s reading, that God would obligate himself to any human, initiating this solemn ritual to strengthen Abram’s (not yet Abraham) faith in what he has been told over the obvious fact that he was childless.
I am awed by Abraham’s story yet again.