God is Faithful! God will Come!

He said, “Bring me a three-year-old female calf, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.” He took all of these animals, split them in half, and laid the halves faceing each other, but he didn’t split the birds. When vultures swooped down on the carcasses, Abram waved them off…after the sun had set and darkness had deepened, a smoking vessel with a fiery flame passed between the split animals. That day the Lord cut a covenant with Abram. –Genesis 15:9-17 (Common English Bible)

In the ancient Middle East, long before the writing of contracts, covenants were sometimes sealed by the custom of cutting animals in half and placing the two halves of each animal apart from each other, making a path between them. The two parties making the covenant would then begin walking, from opposite ends of this path, between the animal pieces, passing each other in the middle and ending up where the other person began. They walked between the pieces, declaring that they would be cut in half like these animals if they failed to keep up their end of the covenant. Thus the practice was called “cutting a covenant.”

We usually define covenant as an agreement between two or more persons. That sounds pretty equal, doesn’t it? But we see here that biblical covenants, where God is one of the parties, are totally lopsided. Who is the initiator? God! Who sets the terms? God! Who makes the promises? God! Who decides how the covenant is sealed? God! Who acts out the covenant agreement? God!

Abe did as God commanded and then he waited, keeping guard over the carcasses and keeping away the birds of prey. Abram appears to have to wait all day long. He has to shoo the birds away. Abram becomes weary towards sundown and falls asleep. God comes to him. This suggests, in essence, that we shouldn’t give up when we wonder about something and don’t understand. We should not give up when we’re waiting and the day is long. We shouldn’t give up when we’re weary and can’t go on. Just drive those birds away and God will come. (Satan in the New Testament-Matthew 13- is depicted as a bird trying to steal our faith in God’s Word.) Drive those birds away. God will come. God is faithful to His word.

Waiting is the hardest thing to do. Abram was waiting on a child and he was waiting on God to begin this ceremony. Sometimes we grow weary in waiting. But the Lord will come. God is faithful.

God did come and it is noteworthy that only God passed through the pieces. Again, a covenant with God is divinely one sided. God promises. God gives. God assures. What is our part in the covenant? Simply that of a recipient! God gives; Abram takes. We should show deep gratitude, a response of whole-hearted trust, an expression of thanksgiving, and a life of loyal obedience.

Disclosure: I found these notes in my Bible. I can’t say for sure if I wrote them or if I heard them preached by someone else. I’d like to think that I wrote them, but if you know differently, please let me know.