The Bloody Path of a Gracious God Text: Genesis 15:7-11
Introduction: The God Who Swears an Oath
We come now to one of the most solemn, mysterious, and foundational passages in all of Scripture. If you want to understand the gospel, if you want to understand the cross of Jesus Christ, if you want to understand the bedrock of your own salvation, you must pay close attention to what happens here. Our modern sensibilities are often offended by blood, by animal sacrifice, by what seems to be a primitive and barbaric ritual. But this is because we have been catechized by a sentimental, bloodless, and therefore powerless version of Christianity. We want a God who makes suggestions, not a God who cuts covenants. We want a God who signs greeting cards, not a God who swears a bloody oath with His own life as the collateral.
In the previous verses, Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was justified by faith alone. But God is not content to simply give a bare promise. Our God is a God of glorious redundancy. He condescends to our weakness. He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust, and so He provides tangible, objective, external signs and seals to confirm His word to us. He gives us baptism. He gives us the Lord's Supper. And here, He gives Abram a covenant ceremony that is as graphic as it is gracious. This is not God needing to be persuaded. This is God binding Himself, in the most dramatic way imaginable, to make good on His promises to a man who, just a moment before, was wavering in his faith.
This chapter is the constitutional convention for the people of God. What God does here establishes the framework for everything that follows, from the exodus out of Egypt to the final exodus from sin and death in the resurrection. This is not just a historical curiosity; it is the legal basis for our redemption. The smoking fire pot and flaming torch that will pass between these pieces are a direct manifestation of the God who would later descend on Sinai in smoke and fire. And the path between those bloody pieces is the path that Jesus Christ would walk to Calvary. Let us therefore approach this text with the gravity it deserves.
The Text
And He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” And he said, “O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and split them into parts down the middle and laid each part opposite the other; but he did not split apart the birds. Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
(Genesis 15:7-11 LSB)
The Ground of the Promise (v. 7)
We begin with God's self-identification, which is the foundation of everything He promises.
"And He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”" (Genesis 15:7)
Notice how God introduces Himself. "I am Yahweh." This is the covenant name of God. This is not a generic deity. This is the great I AM, the self-existent one who is faithful to His promises. And He immediately grounds His future promise in a past action. "I am the one who brought you out of Ur." This is the logic of grace. God does not say, "If you do X, Y, and Z, then I will be your God." He says, "Because I have already acted graciously on your behalf, sovereignly calling you out of idolatry, you can be certain that I will complete what I have started."
This is the same pattern we see at the Exodus. God says to Israel, "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt," and on that basis, He gives them the law. His past redemption is the foundation for their future obedience and hope. The same is true for us. How do we know God will bring us to glory? Because He has already brought us out of the kingdom of darkness. His past grace is the guarantee of His future faithfulness. The promise here is specific: "to give you this land to possess it." This is a real, physical, dirt-and-rocks inheritance. God is not a Gnostic; He cares about geography. And this earthly promise is a type, a down payment, on the ultimate promise of inheriting a new heaven and a new earth.
A Faithful Request for Assurance (v. 8)
Abram's response is not one of defiant unbelief, but of honest, human frailty seeking a tangible anchor for his faith.
"And he said, “O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?”" (Genesis 15:8 LSB)
We must be careful how we read this. This is not the same as the doubting of Zechariah in the New Testament, who was struck mute for his unbelief. Abram has already been declared righteous by faith. This question, "How may I know," is not a challenge to God's veracity but a plea for confirmation. It is the cry of a man who believes, but who also knows the weakness of his own heart. It is like the man who said to Jesus, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" Abram is not asking for a reason to believe, but for a tangible sign to help him keep believing when circumstances scream the contrary.
And God's response shows that He receives it as a legitimate request. He does not rebuke Abram. Instead, He condescends to give him exactly what he needs: a covenant ceremony. God is not offended when we come to Him in our weakness and ask for assurance, so long as we are asking Him to confirm His word, not to change it. This is why He gives us the sacraments. They are visible words, tangible assurances that His promises are for us.
The Covenant of Death (v. 9-10)
God's answer to Abram's request is a command to prepare for a solemn, ancient, and bloody rite.
"So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and split them into parts down the middle and laid each part opposite the other; but he did not split apart the birds." (Genesis 15:9-10 LSB)
This would have been instantly recognizable to Abram. This is the formal procedure for "cutting a covenant." In the ancient world, when two parties made a solemn treaty, they would slaughter animals, cut them in half, and arrange the pieces on the ground, creating a bloody path between them. The two parties would then walk down that path together, signifying a self-maledictory oath. They were essentially saying, "May I become like these dead animals, torn in two, if I fail to keep my end of this agreement." It was the most serious oath one could take. The very Hebrew phrase for making a covenant is "to cut" a covenant (karat berit).
The animals chosen are significant. These are the same animals that will later be specified in the Levitical sacrificial system. God is already laying the groundwork for the worship of Israel. The heifer, goat, and ram are all split, representing the gravity of the oath. But the birds, the turtledove and the young pigeon, are not. Why? Because in the sacrificial system, the birds were the offering of the poor. They represent the humble, the weak. But more than that, they likely represent that which is heavenly, that which cannot be divided. They point to the indivisible, spiritual reality that undergirds this physical ceremony. While the earthly consequences of breaking covenant are division and death, the heavenly promise is indivisible and eternal.
Guarding the Promise (v. 11)
Before the covenant is formally ratified by God, Abram has a role to play. He must guard the elements of the covenant.
"Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away." (Genesis 15:11 LSB)
This is not just a random detail about shooing away some vultures. This is a profound spiritual picture. The carcasses represent the body of the covenant, the promises of God laid out for Abram. The birds of prey, unclean and ravenous, represent all the demonic and worldly forces that seek to devour and desecrate God's promises. They are the enemies of the covenant. They are the Egyptians who will enslave Abram's descendants. They are the temptations, the doubts, the fears, and the enemies that will constantly try to nullify the word of God.
And what is Abram's job? He is the guardian of the covenant. He must be vigilant. He must drive them away. This is a picture of faith in action. Faith is not passive. We are called to guard the deposit of the gospel. We are called to fight the good fight of faith, to stand against the schemes of the devil. Abram's act of driving away the birds is a picture of his priestly duty to protect what is holy. He is keeping the covenant way clear for God Himself to walk it. This demonstrates that while the covenant is a gift of pure grace from God, it is not received into a vacuum. It calls for a response of faithful vigilance from us.
The Unilateral Gospel
Now, we must look ahead just a few verses to see the staggering climax of this ceremony. When the time comes for the oath to be sworn, when the parties are to walk the bloody path, something extraordinary happens. A deep sleep falls upon Abram. He is rendered completely passive. He does not walk between the pieces.
Instead, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, representing the glorious and holy presence of God Himself, pass between the pieces alone. What does this mean? It means that God is taking the entire oath upon Himself. He is saying, "I will keep My side of the promise, and I will keep your side of the promise too. If this covenant is ever broken, let the curse fall on Me."
This is the gospel in its most raw and powerful form. This is a unilateral covenant of grace. God knows that Abram, and his descendants after him, will fail. He knows they will be covenant-breakers. So God, in His infinite mercy, swears an oath that He Himself will bear the curse for their failure. The path between those animal pieces is the path to the cross. Jesus Christ, the flaming torch of God's presence made flesh, walked that path for us. On the cross, He became like those divided animals. He was torn apart, bearing the full curse of the broken covenant in our place, so that we, who like Abram were put into a deep sleep of spiritual death, might receive all the blessings.
When the birds of prey come to devour your hope, when doubts and fears descend, you must do what Abram did. You must drive them away by pointing them back to this bloody path. Point them to the cross where God swore an oath in His own blood that He would be faithful, even when we are not. Our salvation does not depend on the strength of our grip on Him, but on the strength of His unbreakable, covenant-keeping grip on us.