Gen 15:1-21 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Abram left Haran as the LORD had told him and came to the land of Canaan. Later there was a famine, and “Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there” (Gen 12:10). He came back to the place between Bethel and Ai, “to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first” (Gen 13:4). His herdsmen and those of his nephew Lot quarreled, and he said to Lot, “If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left” (Gen 13:9); so they parted. Later Lot was taken captive, and Abram went after him with the men of his household; he “also brought back his relative Lot and his goods” (Gen 14:16).
This lesson begins with “After these things” (Gen 15:1). He had been seventy-five when he left Haran (Gen 12:4), and he still had no child.
1After these things the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
2Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”
4Behold, the LORD’s word came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.”
5The LORD brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.”
6He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness.
7He said to Abram, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”
8He said, “Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?”
9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds.
11The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.
13He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.
14I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth;
15but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age.
16In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
17It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
After these things. “After these things the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward’” (v. 1). The LORD speaks first, and the first thing he says is “Don’t be afraid, Abram” (v. 1).
Since I go childless. Abram answers plainly: “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless” (v. 2). And: “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir” (v. 3). The passage records these words just as he said them.
From your own body. The LORD answers: “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir” (v. 4).
Count the stars. “The LORD brought him outside,” and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them” (v. 5). Then: “So your offspring will be” (v. 5). After Abram and Lot parted, the LORD had said his offspring would be “as the dust of the earth” (Gen 13:16); this time, it is the stars in the sky.
He believed. Then the passage says: “He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness” (v. 6). This line is not something Abram says, nor something the LORD says to him; it is the passage’s own word. At that point, he still had no child.
How will I know? The LORD speaks again of “this land to inherit it” (v. 7). Abram asks, “Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?” (v. 8). The LORD does not rebuke him, but tells him to bring several animals and birds; he “divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other” (v. 10).
Four hundred years. “When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him” (v. 12). The LORD says his offspring “will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years” (v. 13), and that afterward “they will come out with great wealth” (v. 14); as for Abram himself, “you will go to your fathers in peace” (v. 15).
In that day, a covenant. “When the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (v. 17). The passage does not explain these things. It says only: “In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram” (v. 18).
The LORD told Abram that his offspring would be afflicted: “They will afflict them four hundred years” (v. 13). Later, the people of Israel really did become slaves in Egypt. Exodus says: “the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage” (Exod 2:23), and “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exod 2:24).
Readers can see this: the Israelites suffering in Egypt were the offspring of the covenant made that night. The covenant God remembered was this one.
Perhaps you, too, are waiting for something, and have waited for many years. People tell you, ‘God will surely reward you,’ while in your heart you are thinking: but I still don’t have it.
This lesson does not promise that what you are waiting for will come. What it shows you is this: Abram said plainly, “what will you give me, since I go childless” (v. 2), and the LORD did not rebuke him, but brought him outside to look at the stars. A psalm speaks to God the same way: “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?” (Ps 13:1).
This week: One evening, go outside as Abram did, and look up at the sky for a while. Then tell God plainly about the thing you have waited for so long.
“He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6).
In the New Testament, Paul quotes this line: “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness’” (Rom 4:3). He goes on: “Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom 4:23–24).
These two are read side by side: a man with no child looking at a sky full of stars, and Paul’s words, ‘for our sake also.’
Scripture: World English Bible.