Sunday Thoughts: The Torch and the Firepot

If you’re a regular reader of the Bible — and if you’re reading this, that means you probably are — you’re aware that we don’t just see God’s story of redemption in the New Testament. The Bible brings us a remarkably unified narrative that tells the story of how God created and redeemed His people, and the redemption story goes all the way back to the book of Genesis.

God had promised Abram (before changing his name to Abraham) that He would use Abram to build a nation of faithful believers that would number even more than the stars in the heavens. In chapter 15 of Genesis, God made a powerful statement to seal that promise.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:1-6 (ESV)

The Lord had Abram kill a cow, a goat, and a ram, cut them up, and lay the halves of the carcasses side by side in two rows, along with a dove and a pigeon that he had also killed.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.

Genesis 15:12-15 (ESV)

That night, Abram saw a flaming torch and a smoking firepot pass between the two rows of carcasses. It took me a long time to understand the significance of the torch and the firepot; the account from Genesis 15 didn’t register with me until I learned that, at that time, when someone made a deal with someone else, he would butcher animals and walk between the carcasses. 

That was his way of saying, “If I don’t hold up my end of the bargain, may I become like these animals.” In other words, he would die if he failed to fulfill the deal.

Related: Sunday Thoughts: God With Us

The torch and firepot that Abram saw represented the presence of God, so it was His way of telling Abram that if his nation of faithful believers didn’t keep their end of the covenant, God would take the punishment. 

Needless to say, none of us — from Adam and Eve’s first sin to whatever we did, said, or thought today — has fulfilled the covenant that God made with Abram and his descendants, which includes us as His believers. 

And of course, we know that Jesus took the punishment for sin for us by dying on the cross and rising again from the grave three days later.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-26 (ESV)

Knowing that Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled the promise that God made to Abram centuries before should be more than enough to fill us with awe and wonder.