The Covenant Maker | Genesis 15:1-20 | Grace Secured By His Word
Covenant is more than an old-fashioned word—it’s the backbone of God’s plan of redemption. In Genesis 15, God initiates, guarantees, and seals his promise to Abraham in a dramatic covenant ritual. This passage points us beyond Abraham’s story to the gospel of Jesus Christ, who bore the covenant curse and secured salvation for his people. In this sermon, Pastor Mark reminds us that our reward is God himself and that his promises are sure, even when our faith wavers.
You can find five days of devotions based upon this message here.
What is a covenant in the Bible?
Why does God tell Abram to look at the stars?
Why are animals cut in half in Genesis 15?
Who walks between the pieces—and why is that shocking?
How does Genesis 15 point to Jesus?
What does “I am your shield; your reward is very great” mean?
📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon
Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. The word covenant isn't a word that we hear very often anymore. In fact, I'm guessing it isn't a word that you've probably even used in the past week. Maybe Maybe you haven't even used that word in the last month. But in the Bible, covenant is the backbone for how God relates to his people. It's a promise that is binding It's not a contract between two parties who are at the same level. No. In Scripture, the commitment being made is from God himself. This is important for us to understand because it's an essential part of how we understand the story of redemption. Now, during this series on the covenant that God makes with his people, we're going to see this idea on display throughout scripture. But the place where we see this most vividly and made most clear for us is in this passage that we read this morning from Genesis 15. It's there where God shows Abraham us that his faithfulness does not depend on human ability, but instead it depends on God's unbreakable word, his promise.
Our God is not only a covenant maker, he is a covenant keeper. In this passage, we see that God initiates the covenant, he guarantees the covenant, and he seals it. So as we turn to Genesis 15: 1, we see God coming to Abraham. Now, he is a key figure in Genesis. And in his life, we see this great story of God working in his people. Abraham, Abraham as well, as he is called later, we see him referenced back to throughout scripture. Even after his story is done, even after he has died, he is called back upon. And an important part of this character in scripture is his calling. When we are introduced to Abraham in Genesis, we find that he is in the chosen line to the Messiah, the one that would lead to the promised one who is going to save the people of God. But when we find Abraham, he is living in idolatry. He is living apart from the grace of God. He would have continued in that. But God, in his mercy, comes to Abraham and he calls him. Abraham was not wandering around thinking, I need to find greater fulfillment.
I need to find a deeper purpose in my life. And so through that process, he decided to start believing in a higher power. That's not what happened. He wasn't out there wondering about looking for a spirit guide. No, the God who created all things came to Abraham and called him out. Abraham did not initiate a relationship with Almighty God. Abraham was a nomad in every sense of the word. He was not just a nomad with his herds, but he was spiritually a nomad. He was wandering in a land that was not his own. And more importantly, in life, he was apart from the true and living God. And he didn't go looking for God. God came for him. That's how grace works. That's how the covenant begins. God reaches out to humanity. And this is necessary because we are completely incapable of coming to God on our own. Now, this call that Abraham receives came back in chapter 12, and Abraham listened. He heard the call of God, and he followed. He left his family. He left his country. He believed God, and he went where he was sent. But for Abraham, the promise seems slow in coming.
He and his wife, Sarah, are still childless. It's hard for a promise that is dependent upon offspring to be fulfilled without offspring. I'm far from being a genius, but even I can figure that one out. If the promise is fulfilled in your offering, offering, and you are childless, hey, what's going on here, God? But here in chapter 15, God comes to Abraham, and he does something more than just reminding Abraham of this promise. He is going to initiate a covenant with him. In a vision, he tells Abraham that he is his shield and that his reward is great. That's an interesting statement. But when we're reminded of what happened in Genesis 14, it becomes even more significant. Because Abraham, in Genesis 14, turns down a reward from the king of Sodom. He had just saved them, and they offer him all these riches, all this spoils of the battle. But Abraham refuses it. He said that he would not let anyone say that I made Abraham rich. He doesn't want anyone to say that Abraham is rich because he won a battle and all these other kings gave him all these riches. Abraham doesn't want that.
He wants God to be the one who blesses him. And so in chapter 15, after Abraham has rejected these riches of the earth, God now comes to him and says, Abraham, you've rejected these riches. Know that I am your reward. I am your shield. God isn't just giving Abraham something. He's giving him himself. The reward that Abraham receives is better than the spoils of battle and the riches of the earth. His reward is the fact that he is in covenant with Yahweh. And in verse 2, we see that despite the faithfulness of Abraham, despite the fact that he has followed God where he has sent him, he still has doubts. All of this talk of having a reward and a shield sounds good. But remember, the promise is connected to offspring. And Abraham reminds God that he doesn't have any kids, as if God wasn't aware of this fact, right? As if God is unaware that Abram and Sarah are having trouble conceiving Leaving a child. And we need to remember the importance of offspring in this time. In our age, many see children as primarily being about personal fulfillment, companionship, having a family. But in this time, having children was about legacy.
It was about keeping your family line going. It was about survival survival, not only of you having people to help you, but survival of your legacy and your flocks and everything that's involved with that, about what you've worked for lasting beyond your years. And Abraham isn't asking about this lack of offspring because he's missing out on feeling self-actualized because he's never had the experience of being a father. His family, his legacy, and his labors evaporate when he breathes his last if he doesn't have an heir. And so you can understand the doubt that Abraham has here. It's easy to get because God has made this promise, and then he obeyed God. And yet his legacy is going to a servant instead of a son. And we've all had some Someone tell us that something is going to happen, and then it doesn't happen right away, and we become increasingly impatient. We don't remember this, but As you read through Genesis, you get the idea that a lot of time has passed here. God made this promise. Abraham is understandingly becoming impatient because the story is that Abram and his wife are old. On top of it, she has been barren her whole life.
And even if she hadn't been barren in the first place, she was well past the time to bear children. Abram's impatience is actually justified from our human perspective. But God is showing his people something about his self in the long period of time that is taking to fulfill this promise to Abraham. Remember back to when we were in Genesis and we went through this whole story of Abraham and Sariah? My big point was that we like to see this not having a child as Abraham and Sarah having a comeback story. Eventually, they'll have a child. But God postpones the coming of Isaac for so long to help us to understand that this is not a comeback story. The story of Abraham and Sarah is a resurrection story. Her womb is dead. It was barren to begin with. Only God can bring this about. Only God is going to fulfill this promise. We learn from what we see here in this chapter and in the life of Abraham as a whole, that the whole point is that God is the one who makes the promise. God is the one who makes the covenant. He is the one who keeps the covenant.
He is the one who does it all. And we see this idea of the covenant keeping nature of God and how he addresses the concern of Abraham regarding his lack of an heir. And the first thing we see is that God tells him that he's going to keep the promise and to assure him that he is the one who's going to do it. He sends Abraham outside, and he tells him to look at the heavens. We are blessed that we live where there is not much light pollution. There's more than Abraham would have had, obviously. But we've all looked up at the stars where we live and we see an uncountable number. Abraham would have seen more than we saw as he looked. God takes him outside. He doesn't have offspring But now God is telling them that someday he will have offspring as numerous as the stars. What God is doing here is more than just reminding him of the promise. He's also pointing to Abraham's ability to count the stars. And that does more than just humble him. It tells him that God is the one who does this. The stars in the sky are a clear illustration that God is going to do something that Abraham can't.
Abraham can't ensure that he's going to have any offspring, much less as many as numerous as the stars. But by looking at the stars, Abraham is made aware that this promise is going to endure beyond his life. It's going to continue. He isn't just going to see the benefit of this promise in his life, but it shall continue because it's God who keeps it. And then following this vivid illustration of God's faithfulness in the night sky, God also mentions the promise of not just a people, but a land. And Abraham wants some means of knowing that this promise is going to come to pass. He wants to know for sure. And for our modern sensibilities, the proof that Abram has given of this covenant is harsh, to say the least. If you weren't familiar with Genesis 15 when we read this passage this morning, you were likely taken aback by what's described here in verses 9 and 10. It's even more unsettling when we remember that Abraham did not have our modern essentials, things that we would use, our modern methods to accomplish what he does here. Abraham didn't have a saw to cut these animals in half.
He didn't have the ability to go to a cooler and grab a frozen animal that had already been bled out and then separate them like this. What Abraham did here, what he has asked to do, would have been an absolute bloody mess. He would have been completely covered in blood after doing this. And that's actually the point. You see, this was an ancient, near Eastern covenant ritual. When they would cut treaties, This is what they did. When an agreement would be made between two parties, they would cut the animals in half, and then they would separate them, and the weaker of the two parties would walk between the haves of the animals to say that they agreed to the terms of the treaty. And what they were saying was that if I violate the terms of our agreement, what happened to these animals that are a bloody mess, may that happen to me. Aren't you glad that you live in a time where you can just sign a contract? Yeah. Much better now, right? But like I said, the blood was the point. The language is that you would cut a covenant. It was to show that this was serious to the point of death.
Now, you might not have picked up on what I said, so I'm going to reemphasize something before we move on. It was the weaker party that would walk through the haves to confirm the covenant. As we look at the two parties, of this covenant ceremony that we see in Genesis, we know who the weaker party is. Because it wasn't that many chapters ago in Genesis that we read that the Lord God is the creator of heaven and earth. He created by speaking. That's how powerful and mighty he is. We also know that this same God is the one who judged the whole Earth with a flood. Genesis has made it abundantly clear to us as the readers that this one who is initiating the covenant with Abraham is creator. He is judge. And so there is no doubt for us who the weaker party is, right? It's Abraham. So if you were reading this story for the first time, who would we assume carries the burden of this covenant? Abram. God is in the position of power. He's the one who's holy. Abram is but a creature of the dirt. He should be begging that God wouldn't crush him.
But what we have here is a story that makes it very clear that God is not only a covenant maker, he not only puts his people in covenant with himself, he is the one who keeps it. So Abram goes into a deep sleep. And after the sun sets, we see a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between the pieces. The one passing through the haves of the animals, bearing the burden of the covenant, is not Abraham. He is asleep. God passes through the haves to confirm the promise that he has made will come to pass. And this isn't just a promise to Abraham. It's to his offspring. You see, in this covenant that is being made here, there is long term hope. And this passage shows that God makes the covenant. He guarantees the covenant And with this language here, we also see that the covenant unfolds in his timing and not Abram's. Remember how we started out. Abram is confused. He wants a sign. And we get why that is. He's an old man. His wife is barren. A promise that relies on children doesn't sound like a good deal for Abram.
But God shows his covenant faithfulness in the promise made in this covenant ritual, and he shows that this is not a short term thing. The promise isn't about one child that Abraham can pass his wealth along to. It's about so much more. Like anyone else, Abraham gets tunnel vision, and he worries about himself. But the promise that this covenant revolves around includes you and I. It's the long game of long games. It is the continuing of the promise that God is going to send one who will crush the head of the serpent, one who will bring salvation to the people of God through the Messiah. Abram wanted a sign for himself, and he got one. But this passage is for us as well. Our passage today closes up with God passing through the pieces while Abraham is out cold. And that's the gospel story on display for us right there. We were helpless. In fact, we were worse than helpless. We were dead in trespasses and sins. And God came to us. He made the covenant. He kept the covenant. He sealed the covenant. And in the Lord Jesus Christ, he bore the curse of the covenant on himself.
At the cross, Jesus passed through the pieces. He bore the full weight of the broken covenant. His blood wasn't just symbolic. It was real blood from bruised and battered human flesh. And that blood was more than a promise made. It was the fulfillment of the great promise that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. And this is what Jesus did for you and by grace through faith. You are united to him and you receive all the blessings of the covenant promises of God. This is not just good news. It's the greatest news there has ever been. Life will give you plenty of moments where, like Abraham, the promises of God feel distant. When the diagnosis comes back, when the prayers seem unanswered or when sin and shame weigh heavily. In those moments, it is so easy for our hearts to echo what Abraham asked, Lord, how can I know? And when you're tempted to wonder if God really keeps his word, remember this story, that God makes a covenant. He made the covenant. It started in the garden at the fall. It continued and was confirmed to Abraham.
And in the fullness of time, the whole story became clear in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. The idea of covenant not only tells the story of God's love for us, it confirms the love of God for us. And in this passage, God told Abraham that he was his shield and his reward. The Triune God is your shield and your reward as well. And so rest in that today. You don't have to earn the love of God. You don't have to carry the burden of keeping the covenant. Christ has done that for you. The blood has already been shed. The covenant has already been kept. And your reward is God himself. Amen. Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we thank you that your word shows us that you are a covenant making and covenant keeping God. We pray that we would remember this story of Abram and that we would understand that you hold us tightly, that you have brought us to yourself and you will keep us. As we face the difficulties of life, may we know that you are with us because you keep your promises to your people, that you will give us salvation because you have united us to Christ.
We pray all of this in the name of our Lord. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.
