Genesis 15 — Sketch

The Cutting Covenant

Big Idea:

• God appears to Abram.

• Abram asks for an heir.

• God promises to make his descendants as numerous as the stars.

• God instructs Abram to cut a heifer and goat and a ram in half and arrange a path between the halves along with a pigeon and a dove. (All this was part of an ancient covenant ritual.)

• God makes a covenant with Abram by passing through the animal halves as a burning firepot.

Jesus in This Chapter:

• "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Abram wasn't saved by works but by faith. We also are saved, not by works, but by placing our faith in Jesus.

• In this ancient covenant ritual, both parties would walk through the split animal bodies to symbolize that the same thing that happened to the animals would happen to the person who broke the covenant. In this case, only God passes through the animals, showing that God, in Jesus, would bear the brunt of mankind's covenant-breaking.

(Originally drawn July 8, 2010)