Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:4–6)
Genesis 15:6 is a well-known verse. It’s quoted by Paul in Romans 4:3 and Galatians 3:6. But when we read the verse in context, we see that the focus of the chapter is not Abraham’s faith—inspiring though it may be. The focus is the covenant that God “cuts” with Abraham. This is the actual cutting of the covenant alluded to in God’s call of Abram in Genesis 12. The climax of the chapter is not verse 6, but what happens next in verses 9 to 21.
Here, in response to Abram’s request for a sign that he will indeed gain possession of the land God promised him (whether Abram truly believed God wholeheartedly is a question for another day), God tells Abram to bring five animals before Him: a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a young pigeon. In a bloody scene that should jar our senses, Abram cuts the three larger animals in half, laying their bloody carcasses opposite each other.
This was done in preparation for a well-known covenant-cutting ritual of the Ancient Near East. Abram must have known somehow that this was what God had planned to do. In this ritual, the two covenanting parties walk between the halves of the animals, swearing to keep their part of the covenant, lest they become like the animals they cut in two (see Jeremiah 34:18–19). As my colleague quipped, it’s like in Chinese wuxia movies, where they’d invoke a curse upon themselves (天打雷劈) if they failed to keep their word. Except much bloodier.
This may be shocking to our modern senses, but it wasn’t in Abram’s time. What was shocking, however, is what happens next, before God and Abram could even walk through the animals: “As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep” (Genesis 15:12).
Abram fell asleep! So … who walked between the animals?
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 … (Genesis 15:17–18)
In a ritual that should have been undertaken by two parties, each binding himself to uphold his part of the covenant, God walked through the pieces alone. If we missed it in Genesis 12, God reminds us again: It was all God. God’s prerogative, God’s grace.
Yes, Abram’s faith is inspiring—after all, it receives divine affirmation: God credited it to him as righteousness. Paul uses this to remind believers that salvation comes by faith and not by works, urging us to continue to walk in faith. Just as with Abram, so too will God credit it to us as righteousness (Romans 4:23–24).
But the author turns our attention from Abram’s faith to the object of his faith: the covenant-cutting, covenant-keeping God. The God who walks in between the pieces on our behalf, effectually declaring: “I will take upon Myself the consequences of breaking this covenant.” And so He did, by sending His Son Jesus to die—not because He failed to uphold His side of the covenant, but because we did.
This is the God we are called to put our faith in.