COVENANT VISION

By now, you have figured the early OT world was very different from ours. No letup today, even by that ancient standard. In Genesis 15 Abram has a vision – the only vision in Genesis and one of only two in the early part of the OT. Many scholars like to point to this vision as the origin of God's covenant with Abraham. I prefer chapter 12, but you can take your pick.

The ancients sometimes spoke of “cutting a covenant.” Perhaps a ceremony similar to the one in 15 is what they meant. In his vision Abram was instructed to cut three animals in half and leave a path between the halves. When Abram did this (It's not clear when the vision stops and starts again), at sundown he fell into a deep sleep that invoked a terror on him in great darkness. Out of the darkness, God reassured Abram that the covenant was that his biological son (as yet unborn or even conceived) would be his heir. Then out of the darkness, he could see a furnace and a flaming torch that moved between the split animals. Apparently these fires represented the Lord's binding covenant with Abraham and his descendants.

Now let's back up and take it from the top, beginning with verse 1.

The word of the Lord came... Later, we'd expect this phrase in the prophets. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. But it is otherwise rare indeed in the Torah, the Law of Moses. Remember this is the root of the story, the origin of the People of God. Yahweh Himself spoke. He had spoken worlds into existence and now He speaks Israel into being!

The Word came in a vision. Visions too are rare throughout the Bible, but even fewer in the Law. Dreams, not so much, but visions – rare. No, I don't know the difference.”Fear not...” He begins. Remember how the first words of angels always seem to be “fear not”? Medieval art portrays angels as looking rather like females with bird wings or little naked babies. In the Bible, the word seraphim relates to a serpent, perhaps fiery snakes, and cherub is a composite human/animal mixture like those Ezekel saw. The sphinx is a kind of cherub. Whether the angel of the Lord or Yahweh Himself, a theophany, a God-appearance should scare the daylights out of you. Remember Isaiah 6: Woe is me for I am  undone, for my eyes have seen the King! We can indeed sing What a Friend We Have in Jesus, but only if we also sing Holy, Holy, Holy.

The Lord then declares He will be Abram's protector and He will make a great nation out of his seed. But the not-quite-yet patriarch replied he had no seed. The present heir was one of his slaves. The Lord then reassures him that his heir would come from his loins, have his DNA. (Perhaps He should have mentioned Sara at that point and saved a lot of grief?) Then the Lord showed him the night sky with all the stars to illustrate how many descendants he will one day have.

Verse 6 – Abram believed in Yahweh, and He counted it to him as righteousness. The Hebrew has the preposition “in” before the Lord, which some translations don't. The “in” means commitment. Abram entered the covenant God offered. A life changing moment. “Counted is an accounting term.” His commitment to the Lord made him as if he were righteous. Paul magnified this verse, underlined it, and may well have screamed it when he preached. Our righteousness comes by commitment to the Lord, now as revealed in Christ.

Although Abram was committed to Yahweh, he still had problems understanding how God would carry out this promise. “How shall I know?” and the Lord created the ceremony I described at the top of this essay. Throughout the Bible, the heroes of the faith question God, argue with God, even complain to God. If He is the way, the TRUTH, and the life, we can feel free to seek the truth without fear of where it will take us. I note that God always satisfies their search, and He leads them successfully in completing His will.