Genesis 15:17

The chapter opens, after Abram’s victory over the kings in Genesis 14, with the LORD speaking to Abram in a vision. Abram grieves that he has no heir, and God promises him a son of his own and descendants as many as the stars (Genesis 15:1–5). Abram believed the LORD, “and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). God then repeats the promise of the land, and at his word Abram brings animals, divides them, lays out the pieces and drives away the birds of prey that come down on them (Genesis 15:7–11).

Covenants in Abram’s world could be made by cutting animals in two and having the parties walk between the halves. Scripture records the same practice centuries later, when the princes of Judah passed between the parts of a calf (Jeremiah 34). Whoever walked between the pieces called down on himself the fate of the animals if he broke his word, and the Hebrew way of saying “make a covenant” is literally “cut a covenant”, karat berit. These verses complete that scene, and what makes them astonishing is who walks between the pieces.

“When the sun was going down”, with the day’s light fading, God takes the matter into his own hands. The deep sleep, tardêmâh, is a heavy sleep that God sends, the same deep sleep that fell on Adam before Eve was made (Genesis 2:21). Daniel too lay in a deep sleep during a vision (Daniel 10:9). In this state Abram receives what God gives and adds nothing to what God does. The verse says “fell” twice, and the verb nâphal is the ordinary word for falling. Both the sleep and the dread come upon Abram from outside him, and neither is something he sought or could control.

The little word “lo”, hinneh, makes us stop and look. The horror, ʼêymâh, is fright, dread or terror. The darkness, chăshêkâh, is the darkness of night, and elsewhere the word can picture misery or gloom. It is called “great”, gâdôwl, the common adjective for what is great in size, age, status or intensity. This is a heavy, oppressive darkness, and it falls on Abram just before God speaks.

Two things meet in this dread. The first is the fear that belongs to meeting the holy God, the same awe that later filled Israel when the LORD came down on Mount Sinai in thunder, lightning, thick cloud and smoke (Exodus 19:16–18). The second is the shadow of what Abram is about to hear. The next verses speak of affliction, bondage and judgment for his descendants, and the darkness that falls on him before the words fits the hard years they describe. Both belong to the moment, and both show that the covenant God is about to make is a solemn and binding thing.

“And he said unto Abram” uses ʼâmar, the everyday word for saying, and the weight lies in what God says. “Know of a surety” doubles the verb yâdaʻ, “to know”: the Hebrew reads yāḏōaʿ tēḏaʿ, “knowing, thou shalt know”. Hebrew uses that doubling for emphasis, so God is telling Abram that what follows will certainly happen.

What follows is hard. Abram’s seed will be a stranger, gêr, a sojourner or resident alien living in a place that is not his origin, which Israel’s law counts among the weaker classes of people. They “shall serve them”, and the verb ʻâbad means to work, labour or serve (it is also used of tilling the ground and of worship). Here it is forced labour. “They shall afflict them” uses ʻânâh, to press down, humble or afflict.

All of this came to pass in Egypt. Israel went down as a small family, was welcomed, and multiplied. Then a new king arose “which knew not Joseph”, and the Egyptians set taskmasters over them and made them serve with hard labour (Exodus 1:8–14). Pharaoh went on to order the death of their baby boys. A psalm remembers that Israel came into Egypt, that God increased his people greatly, and that he turned the Egyptians’ heart to hate them (Psalm 105:23–25). Every Israelite who brought his firstfruits to the LORD confessed the same history, that his father went down into Egypt, became a great nation there, and was evil entreated and afflicted (Deuteronomy 26:5). When the people cried out, God heard them and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 2:24), the covenant of this chapter.

“And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge.” The word for nation, gôwy, is often used of a foreign nation, and here it is Egypt. To judge, dîyn, is to rule, to judge and to set things right. God would hold Egypt to account for what it did to his people, and he did so in the plagues. The God who allowed the affliction is the same God who promised to judge it.

“And afterward shall they come out with great substance.” The word rᵉkûwsh means property or goods, the things of value a person has acquired, such as livestock and possessions, and gâdôwl makes it great. A people leaving slavery would expect to leave with nothing. God told Moses beforehand that Israel would ask the Egyptians for jewels and clothing (Exodus 3:21–22), and on the night they left it happened: “And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians” (Exodus 12:35–36). A psalm remembers that God brought them out with silver and gold (Psalm 105:37). It was a kind of wages for their years of forced labour, a principle the law of Moses later wrote into its rules, which forbade sending a freed servant away empty.

Stephen retold this promise in his speech before he died, beginning with the fact that Abraham himself received no inheritance in the land (Acts 7:5–7). The judgment of verse 14 shows that God sees what is done to his people, and the substance shows that he delivers them richly.

In the middle of a word about centuries, God speaks to Abram about Abram. He will “go to thy fathers in peace”. The word for fathers, ʼâb, is used of a man’s father and also of his forebears further back. The word for peace, shâlôwm, names completeness, soundness, welfare and safety. Abram will die whole and secure, with a life brought to its full course, away from violence and sudden ruin.

“Thou shalt be buried in a good old age.” The word for good, ṭôwb, is a broad word for what is pleasant, fine, favourable and right. Among the patriarchs a long life ended by an honourable burial was counted a blessing from God, and Scripture goes on to speak of long life as a gift from him (Exodus 20:12, Proverbs 3:1–2). God kept this promise to the letter. Abraham “died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people” (Genesis 25:8). The psalm says of every upright man, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psalm 37:37).

This promise shows that God’s care for the nations and the centuries includes the end of one man’s life. Abram would see none of the bondage or the exodus, and God told him so plainly and gently.

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again.” The word dôwr means a generation, and also a period or age. Strong’s describes it as “a revolution of time”. A generation here is commonly reckoned at about a hundred years, which matches the four hundred years of verse 13. “Hither again” means back to Canaan, the land where Abram now lies.

Then God gives the reason for the delay: “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” The word for iniquity, ʻâvôn, comes from a root meaning to twist or bend. It covers perversity and moral evil, the guilt that comes with it, and the punishment it deserves. The word for full, shâlêm, means complete or whole. The picture is of a measure that is slowly being filled, until the sin of a people reaches the point God has set.

The Amorites here stand for the peoples of Canaan as a whole, and the law of Moses names their sins. Their worship of other gods brought sexual sins of every kind and the sacrifice of children to Molech, and the land itself was defiled and vomited out its inhabitants (Leviticus 18:24–28). Scripture uses the same language of a full measure elsewhere. Daniel speaks of a time “when the transgressors are come to the full” (Daniel 8:23), and Israel itself was warned that persistent sin would bring the same judgment on them (Deuteronomy 28).

So Abram’s seed must wait, and they wait partly for the sake of justice to others. God’s promise to Abram and his dealings with the Amorites are woven together, and he keeps both his promise and his righteousness.

“When the sun went down, and it was dark”, the moment comes. The furnace, tannûwr, is a fire-pot or oven, and here it smokes. The lamp, lappîyd, is a torch or flame. Both “passed between those pieces”, and the verb ʻâbar means to cross over, a word used widely of any passing from one place to another. These are signs of God’s own presence. God himself walks the path between the divided animals, while Abram lies in the deep sleep God has sent on him.

The two signs show two sides of the God who makes this covenant. The smoking furnace speaks of his holiness and his power to judge, and many have seen in it also the furnace of affliction his people would pass through in Egypt. Its smoke recalls the smoke and fire on Sinai. The burning lamp speaks of light and guidance in the dark, the faithful presence that later went before Israel in a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). God is awesome in holiness and a sure light to his people, and both of these are seen here.

People ask whether God was himself a furnace and a lamp. These were visible signs that let Abram see God’s part in the covenant, in the same way Scripture calls God a rock or a shield. They show what his presence does and leave his own being beyond our sight.

“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram.” The verb is kârath, to cut off, cut down or cut in two, and with bᵉrîyth, a covenant, alliance, treaty or league, it makes the phrase “cut a covenant” that the ceremony has just acted out. The same verb stands in the command “thou shalt make no covenant with them”. The covenant is God’s solemn and binding word, made on the very day of the ceremony.

“Unto thy seed have I given this land.” The word zeraʻ means seed and, by extension, offspring. The promise looks past Abram to his descendants. God says “have I given”, in the Hebrew tense used for a completed act. Possession lay four centuries ahead, and yet the gift was already settled because God had spoken it. This repeats and enlarges the promise first made when Abram arrived in Canaan, “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Genesis 12:7).

The borders run “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates”. The river of Egypt marks the south-west, probably the seasonal stream now called the Wadi el-Arish on the edge of Sinai, though some take it to be a branch of the Nile. The Euphrates, called the great river with gâdôwl again, marks the north-east. The same wide borders return in God’s later words to Israel (Exodus 23:31) and in the command to go up and possess the land he swore to their fathers (Deuteronomy 1:7–8). A psalm sings of it: “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance” (Psalm 105:8–11).

This covenant is unconditional. God alone passed between the pieces, and its promises of descendants, land and blessing rest on his grace and his word. The covenant of Sinai later set conditions for Israel’s blessing within the land, and the promise to Abraham stood underneath it all the while.

The covenant ends with a list of ten peoples whose land God gives to Abram’s seed. A list like this turns a promise into something concrete. God names who lives there, and he takes responsibility for every one of them. Similar lists come back when God calls Moses to bring Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8), when he promises at the Jordan to drive the nations out (Joshua 3:10), and when he gives Israel the seven nations greater and mightier than they (Deuteronomy 7:1–2). In the end “Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses” (Joshua 11:23). Balaam said it well: “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19).

The Kenites, Qêynî, were a tribe whose name is often linked with smiths or metalworkers. Some of them lived at peace with Israel, for the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with Judah (Judges 1:16). The Kenizzites, Qᵉnizzî, were descendants of Kenaz. They may have been related to Edom or have become a clan within Judah, since Caleb, son of Jephunneh, is called the Kenezite (Numbers 32:12). The Kadmonites, Qadmônî, have a name meaning “easterners” or “ancients”, and they likely lived to the east of the land’s heartland.

The Hittites, Chittîy, were the descendants of Heth. They were a great power to the north, and their people also lived in Syria and in parts of Canaan. The Perizzites, Pᵉrizzîy, were “inhabitants of the open country”, a people of the countryside named alongside the other tribes of Canaan. The Rephaims, râphâʼ, were an ancient people remembered as giants, and Moses compares the Emims to them, a people “great, and many, and tall” (Deuteronomy 2:10–11). God names even them in his gift.

The Amorites, ʼĔmôrîy, have a name thought to mean “mountaineers”. They were a strong people widespread in Canaan, and Israel later defeated the Amorite kings Sihon and Og (Numbers 21:21–35). The Canaanites, Kᵉnaʻanîy, take their name from Canaan. The name can cover all the land’s peoples, and in this list it names one group among them. The same word also came to mean “merchant”. The Girgashites, Girgâshîy, are seldom mentioned outside these lists, though they appear in them faithfully. The Jebusites, Yᵉbûwçîy, were the people of Jebus, the old name of Jerusalem, which David took from them centuries later (2 Samuel 5:6–9) and made the city of Israel’s king and of God’s house.

God’s dealings with these peoples were varied. The Kenites lived alongside Israel, the Kenizzites became part of Judah, and the Kadmonites lay mostly to the east of the land Israel conquered. God keeps his promises in his own time and way, and the way can include mercy to some who stood within the promised borders.

God alone passed between the pieces and took the covenant’s curse on himself. At the cross God did in full what he showed Abram in a sign. Christ bore the curse of the covenant his people had broken, and he became the one guarantee of a better covenant established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6–13). Abram slept while God worked, and we are saved the same way: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). The horror of great darkness that fell on Abram finds an echo in the darkness over all the land from the sixth hour to the ninth while Jesus hung on the cross (Matthew 27:45), when he bore the judgment of sin.

Paul draws the line from this chapter straight to Christ. The law that came four hundred and thirty years later cannot cancel a covenant God had already confirmed, and the seed to whom the promises were made is Christ (Galatians 3:15–18). Through him the first promise to Abram comes true, that in him all families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3). Abraham is the father of all who believe, circumcised or not (Romans 4:9–12), and Christ, who keeps every promise, is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14).

The pattern of these verses, affliction and then deliverance with riches, runs through the gospel as well. Christ came unto his own, and his own received him not (John 1:11). “He was wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5), and by his death our old man is crucified with him, so that we should no longer serve sin (Romans 6:6), a slavery deeper than Egypt’s. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Galatians 5:1). His people still live as strangers and pilgrims in this world (1 Peter 2:11), and the great substance they carry out is every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, with an inheritance sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3–14). They are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), kept for an inheritance “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 1:3–5). The land of promise looks ahead to the new heaven and the new earth, where God dwells with his people and wipes away every tear (Revelation 21:1–4), and to a great multitude of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues standing before the throne (Revelation 7:9–10).

These verses show a God who tells his people the hard road before they walk it. He named the bondage, its length, its end and its reward four centuries ahead, so that Israel in Egypt could know that none of it had taken him by surprise. He cared for Abram’s own last days in the same breath as the destiny of a nation. He waits with patience on the wicked, and his justice comes in its time.

Above all, these verses show a God who binds himself. Abram did nothing in this covenant but believe and then sleep, and God walked between the pieces alone. The same God has made his promises to us in Christ, and their keeping rests on him. When the night is dark and the waiting long, the smoking furnace and the burning lamp still say what they said to Abram: the LORD has given his word, and he will keep it.