Genesis 15

30 Dec 2025 - Theology

Genesis 15 - The Blood Path Covenant

Genesis 15:2 - “And Abram said…”
Genesis 15:3 - “And Abram said…”

We saw this in the Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11a). This means that there was a break in the conversation, with nothing in the middle. Abram asked a question in verse 2 and the Lord God did not respond. How much time passes before Abram speaks again?

Sometimes we want answers, but God does not want to give them to us, because He knows that we would mess our own story up if we had the answers. Later in the story in Genesis 16, Abram and Sarai will take the Lord’s response in verse 4 and again make plans to try to make the promises of God happen.

Genesis 15:6 - “And he [Abram] believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.”

Abram’s faith was counted to him for righteousness before he was circumcised, without being baptized, and more than 400 years before the law was given to his descendants.

Abram again asks the Lord God how he should know that he shall inherit the land (8). The Lord God tells Abram to find animals and bring them to him (9).

Why does Abram automatically start cutting the animals in half?

The Blood Path Covenant

A blood path covenant was an ancient agreement where two parties (a greater and a lesser) symbolically sealed their promises by cutting animals in half, laying the pieces apart on two hills so that the blood drains and fills the natural crevice, flowing to form a blood path between the animals. Each party would then walk through the blood, signifying that they would suffer the same fate as the animals if they broke the covenant’s terms.

This was a common covenant for betrothals where a groom was the lesser party and the bride (and the bride’s father) were the greater party. In this covenant, the lesser party (groom) would walk the blood path first, and then the greater party (bride’s father) would walk the blood path.

When the Lord God tells Abram what animals to bring, Abram understands what covenant He is talking about.

Smoking furnace and Burning lamp = The presence of God. God walks through the blood path twice! God takes Abram’s place and walks the path for him because He understands that Abram can’t do anything to fulfill the covenant.

References

1. The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
2. The BEMA Podcast, Episode 10: Walking the Blood Path
3. The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)