Genesis 15: 1 - 17

¹After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
 ²And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
 ³And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
 ⁴And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
 ⁵And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
 ⁶And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
 ⁷And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
 ⁸And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
 ⁹And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
 ¹⁰And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
 ¹¹And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
 ¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
 ¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
 ¹⁴And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
 ¹⁵And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
 ¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
 ¹⁷And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

As we travel through the bible the stories get more and more complex and we find out more and more detail about the people who are discussed. When you tell a lie, the lie starts out the biggest and then nature causes it to be less and less sustainable as the truth becomes self-evident.

God comes to Abram in a vision and tells him that he (God) is his protection and reward. It does not say what he is Abram's reward for or why rewards are given. Abram had not done what he did in exchange for a reward up till this point. Let us consider rewards and punishments, those are very human ideas. We expect things to be rewarded or punished because we live in a world where we chase cookies, where we chase rewards and seek to avoid punishments. That is being urge driven rather than being driven by what is right. We need to eliminate such thinking from our minds and focus on love and service rather than viewing the world as a negotiation over what we can get, that is what leads to slavery.

When you read the bible you should ask yourself what it means and how you would have responded, finally you must ask yourself if your response would be what is best. People will talk about how God told the Israelites to kill people and ignore the fact that the Israelites never said no completely, they failed completely; but, they never refused to kill people because it was wrong. The morality of man is the choice of man.

Abram asks God what he will give him; but, this question can be taken in many ways. It is possible that Abram was asking God for something; but, that is not what it says. It says that Abram asks God what he can possibly have because he is not going to have any heirs, there will be nobody to receive from Abram. Abram asked how any of this was good for him when he would have no heirs and God said that he would have an heir of his body (children).

Societies did not stop just because the king had no children or relatives, it just went to someone who was not an heir. This usually happened through violence and competition. Abram was sad by this and God assured him that he would have an heir, children and decendents. God takes Abram outdoors and tells him of the future of his children and their decendents and Abram asks how he will know that these things will occur. God tells him to take some animals, cut them in half and that God shall give him evidence of his word.

It was traditional that contracts were finalized by a ritualistic act, mainly because most people could not read or write. The tradition in Abrams time was to split an animal in two and have both parties walk between the pieces. That was a contract. God does such a thing with Abram thereby making a contract, a promise that must be kept unless one is to have consequences for there are always consequences for breaking a contract where there are all the needed elements. A contract requires a promise, something exchanged which has value and consequences for failure to meet your agreement.

Abram knew all of the above and tried to keep vultures from eating at the carcasses of his sacrifice. God waited till he slept to talk to him. While he slept, he was disturbed and worried and God told him how things would go for his descendants. He said that they would be servants in a strange land, he told Abram that he would judge the nations that subjugated his descendants and that his descendants would leave that nation with more than they came with. This is a reference to Egypt once again. It is a reference to Moses.

These verses end with God moving between the split pieces of animals, of God talking to Abram in a way that he would understand, of God making a statement and an agreement, a contract. We will see this again; but, it happens less and less times.