And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” (Gen 15,8-9)

Abram demanded some evidence from God because, having believed the birth of a descendant shortly before, he had apparently exhausted his capacity and simply could not believe the next promise, the promise of the land. My God, how do I know? What's the right answer? "Nowise." Of course, there's no way to know, you just have to take hold of the invisible in faith. God has a different perspective as he sees from eternity. It is obvious to Him that what He promises He will fulfill, but a man doubts. Faith is also always a test of time for a man. Now I do not yet see, yet I believe.

Fortunately, however, God is also lenient to our weaknesses. To Abram, who first proved that he wants to believe but cannot, at least for now, He offers the assurance of a covenant.

At the time of Abram, there existed no states as we have today, the local governments consisted of the men of the tribe that controlled a certain territory. Back then, tribes made agreements - treaties, swore oaths by their gods, and invoked curses on each other if they were to break them. It was logical. There was no superior authority to which the aggrieved party could appeal, non-compliance would probably have resulted in war, and so the tribes bound themselves with promises whose fulfilment should be ensured, first and foremost, with their moral credibility (this was to be underpinned by reference to ancestral traditions: "we will respect each other's borders, as our fathers have done from all time ago..."). Very important factor was a respect before a higher power - the deity.

Sometimes we speak of God as the God of covenants, but as in many other things, it is because this is the way He comes to meet the understanding of a man, i.e. God appears to us in this way, He is hereby the God of covenants for us. It is well to bear in mind that, for instance, this first covenant with Abram would not have come into existence at all if it had not been for Abram's unbelief. God lends a hand to a man in his difficulty to grasp the invisible, and becomes one party of the covenant to confirm that what he promises is utterly valid.