God is speaking to me personally through my study on the life of Abraham in Genesis 12-25. This past Sunday we looked at chapter 15. It is a fascinating text as it describes God cutting a covenant with Abraham. We looked at ten steps to covenant making in that culture and time. God used something within Abraham's culture to teach him and us profound truths about his relationship with man.

Step five was the walk of death. This was particularly intriguing. Abraham was told to collect 3 large animals and 2 birds. Next was a ritual in which the animals would be cut in half with each half on the opposite side of a ditch. The animal's blood would drain to the bottom of the ditch. Both parties of the covenant would walk through the blood seeing it splash up on his robe a vivid reminder to the truth that if he broke the covenant he would be dead like that animal.

Abraham would have been terrified. Once he stuck his big toe in the blood he was obligated to keep it perfectly. But Abraham never took the walk of death. Only God did. Genesis 15:17 describes a mysterious torch that passes between the pieces. That is God. By that, God is taking the sole responsibility for the covenant upon Himself. Should God or man break it He dies. 

Jesus took the walk of death down the Via Delarosa to the cross where He died for our sins. The covenant doesn't depend upon us keeping it perfectly. We only believe and God credits it to us as righteousness, Genesis 15:6. By faith we climb into the wheelbarrow that God pushes across Niagra Falls. Have you gotten into the wheelbarrow?