The LORD promised Abraham (Genesis 15):
"I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."
But Abram said, "O LORD God, how am I to know that I am to possess it?"
How can I know for sure?
Abraham, in spite of what God had already done for him, still harbored some degree of un-faith.
In the verses before this, when God promised him numerous, countless descendants, Abraham, the text says, "believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness."
But now when it comes to the promise of the land, Abraham does not speak with such faith.
"How can I know for sure?" he asks.
This is even more telling when we notice that Abraham addresses God with His Yahweh/Covenant personal title - LORD. The Name above all Names that was synonymous with Faithfulness.
"Even though I know You are faithful and true to Your Covenant, I still need more proof," he seems to be saying.
This display of lack of faith might have made an earthly parent angry.
But God patiently and lovingly gives him a further act to assure him.
"So the LORD said to him, 'Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.'
"Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half....
"As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him....
"When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, 'To your descendants I give this land ...'"
The Oath
God told Abraham to prepare a sacrifice.
When men made a legal contract in Abraham's day,
this is the ceremony they held.
Today we write out the contract, take it to a notary
and get the signatures verified. Or take it to the court house to be filed. Or to an attorney for processing.
In those days they held this ceremony described here in Genesis (and referred to later in Jeremiah 34).
The sacrificial animals would be divided and the two pieces placed opposite each other on the ground.
(The small birds were not divided, but placed whole on opposite sides.)
Suppose one man was buying property, or live stock, from another man.
The one initiating the contract would quote the terms, the men would join hands, and walk between the sacrificial pieces.
When they were finished the deal was done.
Both men participated in the ceremony. Both brought
something to the table - property to sell or funds to buy it.
But this ceremony was different.
Jehovah's contract with Abraham was unconditional.
He was chosen by God for His mission and blessing.
Abraham had nothing to bring to the table.
God was promising, making an oath, to Abraham.
Abraham's role was simply to believe.
So God performed the ceremony with Himself, and Abraham slept in darkness.
Hundreds of years later, there was another ceremony
at Calvary.
God gave us His unconditional oath to save us and bring us into His family, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing we can do to fulfill that oath. It's all in God's hands.
Abraham slept in a "thick and dreadful darkness" as God performed the ceremonial oath.
At the cross as Jesus, the Perfect Passover Sacrifice,
died, "there was darkness over the whole land...while the sun's light failed" (Luke 23:44-45).
Like Abraham, we have nothing to bring to the table.
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