What Ritual Did God Use to Establish His Covenant With Abram?
Introduction
Genesis 15 describes one of the most solemn and foundational moments in Scripture—the formal establishment of God’s covenant with Abram. After promising Abram countless descendants and the land of Canaan, God uses a specific ancient covenant ritual involving the division of animals. This ritual, though strange to modern readers, carried profound meaning in the ancient Near Eastern world.
Understanding this ceremony reveals the seriousness of God’s commitment to His promise and shows the extraordinary grace that lies at the heart of God’s relationship with Abram.
1. The Background to the Covenant Ceremony
Earlier in Genesis, God had already spoken promises to Abram:
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A great nation (Genesis 12:2)
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A blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:3)
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A land for his descendants (Genesis 12:7)
But in Genesis 15, God does something different:
He confirms His promise with a formal covenant, giving Abram an unbreakable guarantee.
Abram asks God, “How shall I know that I will inherit it?” (Genesis 15:8).
In response, God commands Abram to prepare for a covenant-making ritual.
2. The Ancient Covenant Ritual: Cutting Animals
The ritual God uses is described in Genesis 15:9–10:
“Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram—each three years old—along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
Abram obeys:
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He cuts the larger animals in half
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He lays the halves opposite each other
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The birds are left whole
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A pathway is formed between the pieces
This was a well-known ceremony in the ancient Near East called cutting a covenant.
In fact, the Hebrew phrase “to make a covenant” literally means “to cut a covenant.”
3. What This Ritual Signified
1. A Self-Curse Oath
In this ancient practice, the parties making the covenant would walk between the pieces of the divided animals.
By doing so, they were essentially declaring:
“May I become like these animals if I break this covenant.”
It was a symbolic, legally binding oath of life and death.
2. A Binding, Irrevocable Commitment
The bloody nature of the ritual emphasized:
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The seriousness of the oath
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The costliness of breaking it
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The absolute reliability of the promise
For Abram, this ritual showed that God was formalizing His promise in a dramatic, unforgettable way.
4. God Alone Walked Between the Pieces
The most astonishing moment in Genesis 15 occurs in verse 17:
“A smoking firepot with a blazing torch passed between the pieces.”
These symbols represent God Himself—His presence appearing as fire and smoke, similar to how He later appears in:
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The burning bush (Exodus 3)
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The pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21–22)
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Mount Sinai (Exodus 19)
What makes this unique?
Typically, both parties would walk between the pieces, binding each other to the covenant.
But here:
God alone passes through the pieces.
This means:
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The covenant is one-sided.
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Its fulfillment depends on God alone, not Abram.
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God takes full responsibility for the promise.
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The covenant is unconditional and guaranteed.
In essence, God is saying:
“If this covenant fails, let the curse fall on Me alone.”
This foreshadows the gospel, where God ultimately bears the cost of human failure through Christ.
5. Why Did God Use This Ritual?
1. To Give Abram Absolute Assurance
Abram asked, “How can I know?” (Genesis 15:8)
God responded with the strongest oath possible in Abram’s cultural context.
2. To Communicate in a Way Abram Understood
Covenant-cutting rituals were familiar in the ancient world.
God uses a form Abram instantly recognizes as deeply binding and irrevocable.
3. To Demonstrate His Grace
By walking alone between the pieces, God shows:
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His promise is not based on Abram’s performance
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The covenant rests entirely on God’s faithfulness
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Grace, not human effort, guarantees fulfillment
4. To Establish a Covenant of Blood
Biblical covenants often involve blood to symbolize the seriousness and life-giving nature of the promise.
This ceremony anticipates later covenants:
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The Mosaic covenant with sacrifices
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The sacrificial system in Leviticus
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The New Covenant in Christ’s blood (Luke 22:20)
6. The Specific Covenant Promises Confirmed
Through this ritual, God guarantees:
1. A biological son
Not Eliezer, but Abram’s own offspring (Genesis 15:4).
2. A nation from Abram
His descendants will be countless (Genesis 15:5).
3. The promised land
God defines the land’s boundaries explicitly (Genesis 15:18–21).
4. A timeline for Israel’s future
The prophecy included:
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400 years of affliction in a foreign land
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God’s judgment on that nation
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Israel’s eventual return to Canaan
These events unfold precisely as foretold in the books of Exodus and Joshua.
7. The Lasting Significance of the Ritual
1. It established the Abrahamic Covenant
This covenant becomes the theological foundation for:
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Israel’s identity
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The land promise
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The coming Messiah
2. It anchors the doctrine of salvation by faith
Because Abram believed, God credited him with righteousness (Genesis 15:6)—before the ritual, before the law, before circumcision.
3. It foreshadows the New Covenant
Just as God alone walks through the pieces, Christ alone bears the penalty of the broken covenant on the cross.
The Abrahamic covenant points forward to the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, the true “Seed of Abraham.”
Conclusion
The ritual God used to establish His covenant with Abram was the cutting of animals and God Himself walking between the pieces. This ancient ceremony conveyed a powerful message:
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God binds Himself to His promises.
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God’s covenant does not rely on human strength, but divine faithfulness.
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God guarantees His word with a solemn, self-imposed oath.