Genesis 15:1-21 (HCSB)
1 After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.
2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
4 Now the word of the LORD came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that ⌊numerous⌋.”
6 Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
8 But he said, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?”
9 He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 So he brought all these to Him, split them down the middle, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut up the birds.
11 Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.
13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years.
14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.
15 But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided ⌊animals⌋.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River:
19 ⌊the land of⌋ the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim,
21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

EL-BERITH- God the covenanter.
Does God still make covenants? Yes!
Does He keep them? He certainly does according to Luke 1:72.
Do you have a covenant with the Lord?
Do you fear and believe in the Lord?
He says those who do in Psalm 25:14 He will befriend as well.
When the Lord made a covenant with Noah in Genesis 8:20-22, God said He will never again curse the ground which meant that He will not send another flood to destroy the land, He kept this covenant even in Isaiah 54:9, one that was made a long time ago.
In addition to this, over in Philippians 4:19, God promises to supply all our needs giving us the confident assurance that even when we plant, the abundant growth we have comes only because of His grace and covenant.
And Abram believed God! Verse 6 says Abram believed God and trusted in Him. Why? How?
How can he believe or trust in God when there’s nothing to look back to, no precedence or history to form his trust or believe in God, so how could he know that God can be trusted?
He or Sarai could at any time have looked back to say, God hasn’t been trustworthy to them from all their previous dealings with Him. After all, God turned Abram and his family into nomads, roaming from place to place and He hasn’t yet kept His word about the promised offspring He made in 13:15-16.
But Abram believed and trusted in God!
There was no previous evidence, not enough anyway to induce such belief and trust which is why Abram asked the question in verse 8. Abram needed God to confirm who He was and why He should be trusted.
The Lord would probably have assured Abram, as He does us that he was chosen according to Matthew 22:14, out of the number of people on the earth, the Lord chose Abram to cut a covenant with.
As El-Berith, the covenanter God establishes His covenant with whomever He chooses, meaning He will make a covenant with you too.
After Abram’s question, God asked him to bring some things; verse 9 tells us what Abram brought as per God’s instructions, a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. These animals were the usual requirement set up for a sacrifice and both he and the Lord should pass through the cut animals as an agreement but God put Abram to sleep, so, he wasn’t awake when the covenant was made, God passed through for both of them which promises that He will bear the burden of the covenant, as seen in Psalm 68:19 making every covenant with God an unconditional covenant dependent only on God for its fulfilment.
Covenants are God’s speciality, when He cuts a covenant with you, He keeps it for all generations according to Genesis 17:7 but His covenant only works when you step into it. Abram asked for a sign and God gave him one; God bound Himself to and in His word, as He still does with us and to our generations.
Has the Lord cut a covenant you? Hold on to it, according to Ezekiel 16:60 He will remember the covenant and establish it in time. He is the covenanter.
Shalom