I was in my Old Testament class last semester and we talked about Genesis 15. This passage describes the promises God made to Abraham (a that time Abram). This passage starts out much like many Ancient Near Eastern Treaties. Suzerain Countries (large powerful countries such as Egypt) would take on a new vassal country (lesser country) and promise them protection if they would pay homage. The exact terms would differ, but we see transactions such as these between Solomon and lesser countries such as edom later on.

When the two countries would make the treaty the vassal would cut animals in half and lay the pieces opposite of each other, sometimes on flat land and sometimes in trench for the blood to pool. The Vassal would then walk between the two slaughtered halves and promise that if they broke the treaty they made they would have to pay the penalty with blood, they would have to be cut in two.

A strange twist occurs in the biblical account. Abram sets out the animals and then falls into a great sleep. Then he hears the words of God and sees a smoking pot and flaming torch pass through the halves of the carcasses.

I think this story emphasize how great God's character is. If Abram had walked through the carcasses and later broken his promises or the faith he had put in God he or his sons would have to pay the penalty. Instead this fire (representing God's presence) passes through. Instead of the vassal/Abram taking the burden of the penalty the suzerain/God takes the burden of the promise.

Since we know that Abrahams descendants didn't stay faithful to God it makes me wonder if God or his son ever paid up? Isn't Grace Beautiful!

Text below (staring in verse 9)

9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and
a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and
arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in
half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them
away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep
sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to
him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not
their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I
will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out
with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be
buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come
back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a
smoking firepot with
a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD
made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from
the river [d] of Egypt to the great
river, the Euphrates- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites." (NIV)