Genesis 15:17

The smoking oven and flaming torch were one. This was an intensely bright, hot flame symbolic of God in His holiness. The flame is a good symbol of God in that it is pure, purges in judgment, and provides light and warmth.

"This act is . . . a promise that God will be with Abraham’s descendants (e.g. Genesis 26:3; Genesis 26:24; Genesis 28:15; Genesis 31:3; Genesis 46:4, etc.). Indeed the description of the theophany as a furnace of smoke and ’a torch of fire’ invites comparison with the pillar of cloud and fire that was a feature of the wilderness wanderings, and especially with the smoke, fire and torches (Exodus 19:18; Exodus 20:18) that marked the law-giving at Sinai. These were visible tokens of God’s presence with his people, that he was walking among them and that they were his people (Leviticus 26:12).

"In this episode then Abram’s experience in a sense foreshadows that of his descendants. He sees them under attack from foreign powers but protected and enjoying the immediate presence of God. Elsewhere in the Abraham cycle, his life prefigures episodes in the history of Israel. Famine drove him to settle in Egypt (Genesis 12:10; cf. chs. 42-46). He escaped after God had plagued Pharaoh (Genesis 12:17; cf. Exodus 7-12), enriched by his stay in Egypt (Genesis 13:2; cf. Exodus 12:35-38) and journeyed by stages (Genesis 13:3; cf. Exodus 17:1; etc.) back to Canaan. In Genesis 22 Abraham goes on a three-day journey to a mountain, offers a sacrifice in place of his only son, God appears to him and reaffirms his promises. Sinai is of course a three-day journey from Egypt (Exodus 8:27), where Israel’s first-born sons had been passed over (Exodus 12). There too sacrifice was offered, God appeared and reaffirmed his promises (Exodus 19-24).

"Finally, it may be observed, the interpretation of Genesis 15:9-11; Genesis 15:17, that I am proposing on the basis of other ritual texts in the Pentateuch is congruent with Genesis 15:13-16, which explain that Abraham’s descendants would be oppressed for 400 years in Egypt before they come out with great possessions. Whether these verses are a later addition to the narrative as is generally held, or integral to it as van Seters asserts . . ., they do confirm that at a very early stage in the history of the tradition this rite was interpreted as a dramatic representation of the divine promises to Abraham. It is not a dramatized curse that would come into play should the covenant be broken, but a solemn and visual reaffirmation of the covenant that is essentially a promise . . . ." [Note: Wenham, "The Symbolism . . .," p. 136.]

Another writer argued that this verse does not picture a covenant-making ritual for a unilateral, wholly unconditional covenant (cf. Genesis 17:1-2; Genesis 17:9-14; Genesis 18:18-19; Genesis 22:16; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:5). He believed the covenant is unconditional, but it did not become unconditional until chapter 22. [Note: Gordon H. Johnston, "Torch and Brazier Passing between the Pieces (Genesis 15:17): Does It Really Symbolize an Unconditional Covenant?" and "God’s Covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 : A Contingently-Unconditional Royal Grant?" papers presented at the 56th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, San Antonio, Tex., 18 November 2004.]