BELIEVING GOD’S PROMISES
GENESIS 15
Change
points. Life is full of them. You go through one stage of your life and,
while you are in that stage, it looks as though that is the way your life is
going to be. Then something happens to
give you a different direction and a different outlook. It might involve a big change or it might
only be a slight deviation, but it affects your entire life. This chapter reflects such a change point in
the life of Abram.
In
Genesis 12-14, we can see Abram and his dealings with others. First we saw him going down to
Now
there is a change. Though the land will
still be mentioned as a part of the promise, our focus will be more upon the
descendants of Abram and the seed that shall flow from him. This seed motif is a familiar one to
Genesis. It was introduced in Genesis 3
where we were given the promise of the seed of the woman. It was traced through the line of Seth to
Noah and then through Noah’s son, Shem, down to Abram. The ongoing promise has been that there will
eventually come a seed of the woman who will destroy the binding work of the
serpent and who will reunite man with God.
With
the promise to Abram, the promise has not been limited to one seed, but an
entire nation that is to be devoted to the Lord. This promise had particular ramifications to
the original readers of the book of Genesis.
This promise concerned the Israelites in the wilderness for whom Moses
was writing this work.
A
PROMISE OF PROTECTION
After
these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do
not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great."
(Genesis 15:1).
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When
Abram is told not to fear, that presupposes a problem. The problem was that Abram was afraid. |
The
promise given to Abram is something that was needed on Abram’s part. This is understood when we consider what took
place in the previous chapter. Genesis
14 tells of a conflict of kingdoms and of kings that saw invaders from the east
coming against the inhabitants of the
Furthermore,
the actions of Abram in refusing the gift of the king of
God
comes to Abram in a vision. We have not
been told up to this point how God communicated to Abram or the other
patriarchs. This is the first specific
mention of a vision in Genesis. There
will be other dreams and visions to follow.
The
significant thing about this vision will be that Abram is not only given verbal
promises, but he will SEE a sign of confirmation so that He can believe the
promises. These promises are twofold:
• God
will be his Shield: Abram, I am a shield to you.
The shields of the second millennia before Christ were
very large, often standing as tall as a man.
When such a shield covered a man, he was completely covered. The image of the Lord as a shield pictured an
all-encompassing work.
The Lord will be Abram’s protection and shield,
whether it is from Chedorlaomer or from the king of
The promise of protection is one that God also gives
to us. He is our shield. Proverbs 30:5 tells us that the Lord is a
shield to those who take refuge in Him.
In the same way, 2 Thessalonians 3:3 promises that He will strengthen
and protect you from the evil one.
• God
will give him a great reward: Your reward shall be very great.
Abram had refused the reward that had been offered to
him by the king of
Jesus made the point in the Sermon on the Mount that
you can seek the reward of men or you can seek the reward of God, but you
cannot do both. They are mutually
exclusive. You can do your good works to
be seen of men or you can do them in such a way that you are doing them before
the Lord (Matthew 6:1-5; 6:16-18).
A
PROMISE OF OFFSPRING
The
Lord had promised to Abram at the very outset that he would be the founder of a
great nation (Genesis 12:2). Since Abram
was without children, he must have wondered whether this promise would be
fulfilled through his nephew,
2 And
Abram said, "O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and
the heir of my house is Eliezer of
This
is the only specific mention of Eliezer of Damascus. We may surmise that he is the chief steward
of Abram’s household and therefore served as his heir. Excavations at Nuzi in the 1920's revealed
adoption customs that shed some light on Abram’s reference to Eliezer as his
heir. [1] Would it be
through this man that the promise given to Abram would be fulfilled? No sooner is this idea presented then it is
dismissed by the promise of God.
4 Then
behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be
your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your
heir." 5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look
toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them."
And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." (Genesis 15:4-5).
This
time the promise is even more specific.
Abram’s heir will be one who shall come forth from Abram’s own
body. He will be a physical son of Abram
and not merely one who has been legally adopted. The resulting offspring shall be virtually
innumerable. The same God who we are
told created the heavens and the earth promises Abram that his descendants will
be as innumerable as the stars of the heavens and as innumerable as the dust of
the earth.
A
PROMISE BELIEVED
Then
he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis
15:6).
This
single verse is quoted on three different occasions in the New Testament
(Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23).
It serves to demonstrate that Abram received salvation through faith in
the same way we believe and receive salvation through faith.
Notice that the result of Abram’s belief was that God reckoned
it to him as righteousness. Was
Abram literally righteous in his own cognizance? No.
But God counted him as righteous.
Abram was considered and accounted as righteous.
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This
idea of a reckoning of righteousness is at the heart of the doctrine we know
as imputation. By this term, we mean
that God reckons or imputes or credits to us the very righteousness of Jesus
Christ when we believe. In the same
way our sins were imputed or reckoned to Jesus when He was upon the cross, so
His righteousness is imputed or credited to us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says God made Him who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. |
What
was it that Abram believed in order to be counted as righteous? The context of the passage makes it clear
that he believed the promises of God. He
believed that God was going to provide a promised son who would ultimately be a
blessing to all the world (Genesis 12:3).
The New Testament gives its own commentary on this passage.
19 And
without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as
dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; 20 yet,
with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew
strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured
that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. 22
Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:19-22).
In
verse 18 we read that “in hope against hope he believed.” This is a bit of an oxymoron. In other words, Abraham continued to believe
even when there was no hope. We can draw
the following conclusions about Abraham's faith:
1. Abraham's faith was grounded upon the promises of God, not
upon his own subjective faith. This was
not a faith in faith. Nor was it a
subjective feeling. It was a faith upon
the objective promises of God.
2. Abraham believed in the promises in the face of evidence to
the contrary. He and Sarah were far past
the age of bearing children. It seemed
impossible that the promise of God could indeed come to pass. There is a lesson here. We need to believe the promises of God, even
when they go against earthly or human wisdom.
3. Abraham's faith was not inert, but rather was active. It produced a corresponding action in the
life of Abraham. Real faith works. It produces a corresponding manner of life in
the one who believes.
A PROMISSORY RITUAL
7 And He
said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of
9 So He
said to him, "Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old
female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young
pigeon." 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two,
and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. 11 And the
birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. (Genesis
15:7-11).
The
question asked by Abram is the same that would have been asked by the
Israelites in the wilderness for whom Moses writes this book: How do they know
they will be able to possess the land?
The answer will be by way of a ritual of promise.
The
instructions to Abram seem rather strange and remote to us. That is because we are not a part of the
culture of the second millennia before Christ.
Were that not the case, Abram’s preparations would ring to us of
familiarity.
These
were the preparations one typically understood in order to enter into a binding
covenant. The making of this sort of
covenant involved several animals being sacrificed. The animals would be cut into two parts and
then placed in parallel with a pathway between the animals. Then when the parties who were entering into
the covenant were ready to go through the covenant ceremony, they would walk
between the pieces of the animals as they verbally stated the terms of the
covenant. The idea behind the ceremony
is that they were binding themselves to the fate of the slain animals as they
took an oath that, if they broke their word, they might suffer the same
fate. They were saying in effect, “If I
break the terms of this covenant, then may I similarly be torn apart and die.”
You
did not sign a covenant in those days.
Instead you “cut” a covenant.
This practice was so widespread that in later times, one could speak of
entering into a covenant merely by speaking of how he “cut” with someone.
Incline your ear and come to
There was nothing in the ark
except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a
covenant (Literally, "cut" -- the word for “covenant” is not
even used here) with the sons of
Other
examples of this same phenomena is seen in the following passages:
• 2
Chronicles 7:18 - the word which NAS translates “covenanted” is the Hebrew karav, to cut).
• Haggai
2:5 says literally, “as for the word which I cut with you...”
• Psalm
105:9 (“...that which He cut with Abraham”).
• I
Kings 8:9 is literally, “where the Lord cut with the sons of
The word translated “covenant” is Beriyth. The origin of the word is uncertain. It is thought by some to have come from the
Akkadian birit, which relates to the Hebrew word meaning --
“between.” Another suggestion points to
the Akkadian root baru, “to bind or fetter.” Both ideas are present in the covenant. It is a binding action and its initiatory
rite also mandated an agreement made between the pieces of two animals.
This
practice of “covenant-cutting” involved taking one or more sacrificial animals
and putting them to death and then cutting the animal into two parts and
walking between the pieces of the animals.
And
I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled
the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in
two and passed between its parts -- 19 the officials of Judah, and the officials of
Jerusalem, the court officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land,
who passed between the parts of the calf --
20 and I will give them into the hand of their enemies
and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies shall be
food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. (Jeremiah 34:18-20).
As
the makers of the covenant passed between the divided parts of the dead animal,
they would recite the terms of the covenant.
By so doing, they were pronouncing a curse upon themselves should they
fail to keep the covenant. The implication
was that if they broke the terms of the covenant, then may they also be killed
and divided asunder as had been these animals.
The
act of entering into a covenant involved in itself the symbolic death of the
covenant maker. When the animals were
cut, they represented the covenant-maker himself being cut and put to
death. Hebrews 9:22 says there is no
remission of sins without the shedding of blood. Why is this?
Because the people have taken part into a covenant of death which
demands that all covenant-breakers be put to death.
A
PROMISED HISTORY
12 Now
when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror
and great darkness fell upon him.
13 And God
said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers
in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four
hundred years. 14 But I will also judge the nation whom they will
serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 And as
for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good
old age. 16 Then in the fourth generation they shall return here,
for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." (Genesis 15:12-16).
As
Abram completes the covenant cutting in preparation for the actual ceremony, a
deep sleep falls upon him. The last time
we saw this taking place was when a deep sleep fell upon Adam in the Garden of
Eden so that the first woman could be fashioned from his rib. This time, a deep sleep falls upon Abram so
that he can be given the ratification of the promise of, not just a woman, but
an entire nation that shall come forth from him.
The
promise of God was that before being given a land of their own, the descendants
of Abram would first live in a land that was not their own. It would not be until many hundreds of years
later that the Israelites would return to the
There
were Amorites in the days of Abram who had become believers in the Lord. There was Melchizedeck, the king of
God
promises to withhold His divine judgment against the Canaanite/Amorite until
the iniquity of that people has been filled up to the brim. Until that time, God is seen to be patient, not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
A
PROMISSORY SEAL
And
it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there
appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.
(Genesis 15:17).
When
the time comes for the parties to pass between the pieces of the animals,
Abraham is unable to do so. He has
fallen asleep with a “deep sleep” and we do not read of him passing between the
pieces. Instead, we read of an
apparition described as a smoking oven and a flaming torch. It is this which passes between the pieces.
This
is evidently a manifestation of the presence of the Lord. He is fulfilling the covenant ritual by
having his manifested presence pass between the pieces of the animals. He is binding Himself to the terms of the
covenant. But why is the description
given in such a manner? What is the
significance of a smoking oven and a flaming torch?
To
answer this question, we must remember who is the human author of this account
and who are his recipients. It is Moses
who writes these words and he writes them to the Israelites who are in the
wilderness. They are being led through
the wilderness by the presence of God.
In the daytime this is a cloud.
In the night it is a pillar of fire.
The first thing they see each morning when they look out their tent is a
cloud over the tabernacle. The last
thing they see before they go to bed at night is a pillar of fire. A smoking oven and a flaming torch --
God is describing Himself in the very terms with which they are familiar.
The
Israelites read this description and their eyes widen and they look out of
their tent to see the cloud and the torch and they recognize that this same
presence of God was manifested many hundreds of years earlier when God bound
Himself to the terms of a covenant promise.
A
PROMISED LAND
18 On that
day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I
have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the
river Euphrates: 19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite 20 and the
Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim 21 and the Amorite and the
Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite." (Genesis 15:18-21).
The
“
The
chapter ends with a listing of the various peoples who occupied the land that
was to be given to Abram and to his descendants. This land is identified by the
people who were currently living there.
This is significant to the original readers of this book because those
same people were still living in these lands and they would soon be called to
go in and to take it from them. These
people constituted a serious obstacle to be overcome, but the Israelites could
rest in the assurance that God had not been taken by surprise and that He had
been aware of their presence hundreds of years later.
Are
there any obstacles in your life? They
have not taken God by surprise. He was
aware of them long before you were born.
They are a part of His divine roadmap for your life.
[1] There were
two types of adoption in ancient Nuzi.
The first, “sale-adoption” or “fictive adoption,” was no more than a
formal exchange of property. The second,
“read adoption,” was a childless couple adopting a servant—or any other young
man, for that matter—who would receive their inheritance. (John J. Davis,
[2] Waltke,
Bruce K. & Fredricks, Cathi J. Genesis.