Lenten Reflection 2a: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."
15:2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
15:3 And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir."
15:4 But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir."
15:5 He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
15:6 And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
15:7 Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess."
15:8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?"
15:9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
15:10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
15:11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
15:12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
15:18 On that day the LORD made [literally, ”cut”] a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates...."

Comment
Apart from containing the Pauline proof text for the possible inclusion of the Gentiles or goyim into the people of God – the faith of Abram that was “credited to him has righteousness” –this text is about the promise of (1) offspring and (2) land; and it is about the making, the cutting, of a covenant. The first promise takes place in the evening (how else could Abram count the stars?); it involves a dialogue between God and Abram; it concerns the material extension of Abram’s seed and it concludes with a word of promise: the deal is sealed with a word made in good faith. The second promise begins in the evening and concludes in the “terrifying darkness” of a deep sleep; it begins with dialogue and concludes with an opaque, nocturnal manifestation of divine presence; it concerns the material territory which Abram’s offspring should populate and the deal is sealed with a covenant, with a highly symbolic ritual which translates a promise in good faith to an externalized and binding obligation – the cutting of the covenant corresponds to the cutting of the animals; the passing of the divine between the cuts obligates, through threat of being cut in half himself, God to follow through.