Note: Abram was called out of his father’s family from across the river to the land promised him by God. In obedience Abram went. However, Abram never settled in the land, but wandered through it, not as its owner but as a foreigner on a journey (Genesis 12:4-9). Because of a famine, Abram left the land and went to Egypt. Abram’s journey to Egypt, along with his deception of Pharaoh and questionable treatment of Sarai, show the imperfection of his trust in YHWH (Genesis 12:10-20). However, God continued to be faithful to Abram and protected and bless him (compare Genesis 12:2-3 with verses 16, 17, 20).
In chapters 13 and 14, we see that Lot has been blessed only in his connection with Abram. Lot thus gets himself in trouble when he separates himself from Abram. Abram, in giving Lot first choice of the land and in rescuing Lot and refusing the booty, shows himself a man of faith.
Abram is blessed by King Melchizedek, whose name means ‘The King of Righteousness’. Melchizedek is Priest-King of Jerusalem. God re-affirms his promise to give Abram the land to his many offspring (13:14-18) and promises to be his reward (15:1), because Abram passes up other rewards.
Generally speaking, chapters 12 to 14 deal with the promise of land, and chapters 16-22 deal with the promise of descendants. Both themes are dealt with in chapter 15. In Genesis 15:1-6, YHWH firstly reassures Abram about God’s promise to him that he will have descendants, despite the situation appearing hopeless.
Discussion starter:
You need a car. Suppose a loving relative who has your best interests at heart promises to give you a new car at Christmas so you can get around. His or her concern is that s/he never wants you to be without a car. Which of the following acts would indicate you trust your relative?
Do nothing, ie don’t buy a car
build a new garage
Purchase a second hand car
buy a yearly train, bus and ferry ticket to get around
Suppose your loving relative, who hasn’t changed his or her attitude or purpose towards you, gives you the car as promised. A little while later the loving relative asks for the car back. You don’t know why they want it back. What acts indicate you trust them?
Do nothing, ie don’t give them the car
give them the car, and do nothing about buying a car
give them the car, and build a new garage
give them the car, and purchase a second hand car
give them the car, and buy a yearly train, bus and ferry ticket to get around
Read Genesis 15:1-21.
What is the significance in verse 1 of God’s command to Abram to ‘fear not‘ and his promise to be his ‘shield’ and ‘great reward’? (compare Genesis 14:20-24).
Of all the rewards for service, what is it that Abram wants God to give him? (15:2-3)
What does God promise to give to Abram? (verses 4-5; compare Genesis 12:2,7; 13:15-16)
Why does God consider Abram righteous? (verse 6)
Research in the New Testament
Read Romans 4:1-5:2, which is an extended commentary on Genesis 15:6. Answer the following questions:
Did Abram deserve to be considered righteous? (Romans 4:2-8)
Was it because of the religious ritual of circumcision that Abram was considered righteous? (Romans 4:9-12)
Was it through the Law (such as the 10 Commandments) that Abram was reckoned righteous? (Romans 4:13-15)
Is the wonderful declaration that God made about Abram in Genesis 15:6 for you also? (Romans 4:23-25) How does this make you feel?
How can you receive the same declaration Abram received?
In Genesis 15:7-21, YHWH reassures Abram that his descendants will receive the promised land by unconditionally obligating himself in an unchangeable covenant.
What does Abraham ask for in verse 8? Is such a request wrong in itself?
How does a visible testimony of God’s kindness and promises strengthen our faith? What visible tokens and signs has God given Christians to strengthen faith?
Note: The events described in Genesis 15:9-11, 17 seem strange. God commands Abraham to cut animals in half and set one half opposite the other, with a path in the middle. In the vision, Abram sees a smoking firepot and a blazing torch pass between the pieces. These actions, together with the vision, reflect the way that a covenant was made at that time. Literally, a covenant was said to be ‘cut’. The firepot and torch were symbols of God’s presence. These pass between the pieces of the animals, showing that God is making the covenant. God is in effect saying ‘If I don’t keep my word about my promises of descendants and land, then may I become like these animals.’
Does God promise Abraham that he personally will receive the land? (verses 13-16; compare Hebrews 11:8-10,13-16)
What will happen to Abraham’s descendants and the nation that will oppress them? (verses 13-16; compare Exodus 12:33-41)
Why does God not judge the Ammorites (the people living in the land) straight away? (verse 16)
Note: Genesis 12-14 dealt with land, but Genesis 16-22 deals with the promise of descendants and scarcely mentions the land. It is not until Genesis 21:2 that Sarah bears the promised Son, by which time Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90! But even after the promised son, Isaac, is born, God’s promise still seems to be threatened. This time, God himself is the threat, because God commands Abraham to sacrifice his Son (Genesis 22:1-24). Along the way, God presents Abraham with other tests of faith, some of which he fails, for example:
sleeping with Hagar to have a child by her [Genesis 16:1-6),
his laughter at God’s promise (Genesis 17:17-18),
again falling into his habit of deception by saying that Sarah is his sister (Genesis 20:1-18).
However, Abraham is shown to be the pre-eminent man of faith:
his hospitality (Genesis18:1ff),
his submission to circumcision (Genesis 17:1-27),
his intercession on behalf of Lot once again (Genesis 19),
his ultimate act of faith, in being prepared to sacrifice his Son (Genesis 22; compare Hebrews 11:17-19).
After Genesis 22, we follow the story of Isaac, the child of the promise. From Genesis 25:1-11 we learn that Abraham took another wife and had more children, and was buried at the age of 175 in the field he bought to bury Sarah.
I will spend my day off with you. I will be home for dinner at 6. I will be there. Yes, I will. Yes, I will help. Yes, I will come. I will feed the rats, wash the dishes, pick up the children, go to the bank, cook the dinner, hang the clothes on the line, pick you up, prepare that sermon, help with your piano practice, turn up to that meeting, come over for a cuppa.
Words like these we say every day. When do we say them? When we make promises, when we bind ourselves by our words, or when we commit ourselves to a course of action.
Promises are part of our life. The only way you can escape them is by not relating to people. As I tell my children, you don’t need the word promise to make it a promise. It is just ‘yes, I will’, and it’s a promise.
Promises govern every relationship, from marriage (I Matthew take you Kath, to be my wife, according to God’s holy ordinance, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. And to this I pledge you my word!) to business (Will anyone give me $722K? I see a hand there, yes, $722 thousand. Sold to the bald man with the yellow tie). And Genesis 15 shows us that making promises is part of what God does.
Now the passage that was read for us today was not the first time God had made promises in Genesis. God’s creative act allowed for relationship, not just within God, but between God and that creation. The God that gives good gifts makes promises, because promising is a type of giving. Promising is giving in the future.
So, after humanity’s fall into sin, we read God’s promise, wrapped up in the curse on the snake. The seed of the woman will crush the serpents head and the serpent will strike his heel (Gen 3:15). There is a promise. It is a promise of seed. In other words, God promised offspring, a son who will come, who will destroy the devil’s work. [1]
And last week we saw that of all the descendants of Noah, God chose Abram. And when Abram was 75, God commanded Abram to go from modern day Iraq to modern day Israel. And he made Abram this promise, in Genesis 12 verses 2 to 3:
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I make your name great, and be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. (NIV)
Abram was 75 years old. His wife Sarai (who was also his half-sister) was 65, and was barren. But Abram responded to God’s word, obeyed God’s command, and trusted God’s promise. And when you boil it down, God promised Abram three things: (1) to bless him; (2) to make him into a great nation, with an inheritance of land; and (3) to bless all the peoples on earth through him.
And in fact, God kept reminding Abram of these promises throughout his relationship with God. [2] Abram was not like the wife whose husband never tells her he loves her because he figures, "Oh well, I told her that on our wedding day." God kept reminding Abram of his promises throughout Genesis 12-25, with tokens and assurances of his good will again and again.
So what we have in Genesis 15 is a snapshot of Abram and his relationship with God, sometime between when he left Haran at age 75 and when he circumcised himself and the males of his family at age 99. For Genesis chapters 12 to 25 is like a photo album containing the most important pictures of Abraham with his God, spanning the time God called him from his father’s household and from worshipping his father’s gods at age 75, to his death at age 175.
Now, the thing about snapshots is, it is a moment frozen. And you might miss the shot, the moment. A split second is the difference between a good shot and, one, well, which must never see the light of day.
We’ve all had that experience, when the shot looks great in the lense, but when it comes back from the developer, and hmmm. You know the ones, when you turn out looking dopey, halfway through a blink, or with red eyes, like a rabbit. That’s one of the advantages of digital cameras.
Anyway, Genesis 15 is a snapshot of Abram and his God. It is a good shot of them together. We see both Abram and God in the picture. There is Yahweh, with his arm around Abram. It is a good likeness of each of them in their typical poses.
First, we see Yahweh as the promising God. God is a promise-making God. Which is amazing, when you think about it.
Gracious promise
Often, when we make promises, we do so because there is something we will get that we don’t have, and couldn’t get otherwise. I need to earn money, so I promise to turn up to work. I need to live somewhere, so I promise to pay rent. We have to make and keep promises to live in the world.
But it is not so with God. God doesn’t have to promise anything. He is all powerful, and self-sufficient. He doesn’t need to bargain with us to get something that he wants. Yet he freely binds and commits himself to do certain things things he didn’t have to before he promised them. Rather, his promises flow from his gracious, loving, gift-giving nature as our creator.
Now God reiterated two promises to Abram in chapter 15. And with both he gave a sign or token that confirmed the promise.
The first promise was in verses 1 to 5, and related to Abram’s heir. Abram will indeed have an heir, a son coming from his own body. Abram will not need to adopt. Abram will have a son that will share his gene pool. And his son will become a great nation. The sign of this was the innumerable stars in the sky. That’s why God took Abram outside to show him them. The sign was meant to confirm his faith.
The second promise in verses 7 to 21 related to the land. Abram’s descendants will receive the land in which he journeyed as an alien and a foreigner. God stated the promise in two ways. First, in verse 7:
He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." (NIV)
And second, Yahweh, the LORD, further explained what he meant by this in verses 13-16:
Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." (NIV)
Here God spelt out what he meant when he said that he will give Abram the land of Canaan. What he meant is that Abram will be an alien in the land. He will continuing wandering through it, while it’s owners, the Canaanites, possess it. Abram will be an alien and a stranger in it, really a tenant living in a tent in a caravan park, and going cap in hand to the owners when he needs the tap fixed or somewhere to bury his wife. [3] But over 400 years after he dies, his descendants will come back and possess the land.
That’s why the author to the Hebrews describes Abraham this way:
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Heb 11:8-10 NIV)
God promised Abraham that he would be a stranger and an alien throughout his life. But Abram looked forward to a heavenly city (cf. Heb 11:16). The promise is strangers now, then death, but inheritance later, but not for you, but your children, and for you in heaven.
Friends, it is the same for you and me. God doesn’t promise inheritance now. God promises blessings, yes, every spiritual blessing in Christ, everything we need to live a godly life. But now we are aliens and strangers in the world, looking forward to our heavenly country.
Friends, understand what God promises. It is not the health and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel that God wants you to have every material blessing now. We are aliens and strangers now, looking forward to heaven. But God is with us now, leading us in our pilgrimage, till we cross over Jordan to the celestial city and rest from all our labour.
This then is what God promised Abram: first, a son from his own body, and second, a land for his descendants, though far off and distant, and not for Abram personally except in the new heaven and the new earth.
The events described in Genesis 15:9-11, 17 seem strange to us don’t they? Abram cut up animals, set up half on one side and half on the other, with a path in the middle. Then, in a vision, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a blazing torch pass between the pieces. What does all this mean?
Well, all these things were the ancient version of making a formal covenant. A covenant is a more solemn form of promise, which uses signs and rituals and oaths to cement the promises and formalise a relationship. What Abram did was the way the ancients made an agreement ‘signed, sealed and delivered’. Literally, a covenant was said to be ‘cut’. The firepot and torch were symbols of God’s presence. These passed between the pieces of the animals, symbolising that God was the one making the covenant. God was in effect saying, "If I don’t keep my word about my promises of descendants and land, then may I become like these animals. And if you, Abram, don't keep your word, then I will step in and take the punishment for you." [4] It was a very solemn way for God to say to Abram, "You can count on me. These things will surely happen."
That is the picture of God we have here. He is a God who makes promises. However, there is a very clear picture of Abram here, that Abram trusted God’s promise.
Faith in God’s word
Look at verse 6 with me:
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (NIV)
This is the typical way that Abram responded to God. He trusted God’s word. He believed God. He rested in the confidence that God is faithful, and will do the thing that he promised. And Abraham’s faith here is shown to be trust in God’s word, and a response to his promise. And that was righteousness, and God credited righteousness to him.
Friends, here is the benefit of faith in God, that is, righteousness. Righteousness is the status of being acceptable before God by having done what God commands. But here it came to Abram not because he’s done what God commands, but because he trusted God. It has not come to Abraham because of his good works, by his actions and good deeds. Though Abram has many good works that he had done and would do. Yet it was here when God made a promise dependent only on God to fulfill, that Abram was declared righteous. Abram simply believed that God would do what he promised. God promised Abram descendants and land. God will be good for it.
What does God promise us? Let us not put words in God’s mouth! Let us not say what God has not said! For faith is primarily the response to promise.
Does not God promise you this?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16 NIV)
Does not God promise you this?
If you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9 NIV)
Don’t say to me, "Oh this is beginner’s stuff". Maybe it is! But it is also ‘ender’s’ stuff as well. Because on our deathbeds, which is coming, these are the promises that will sustain us. So, friends, fellow sinners, rest on God and his son, Jesus Christ. Trust that God is faithful to his word. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul as he explains Genesis 15:6 to us:
“The words, it was credited to him” were written not for him [Abraham] alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Rom 4:23-25 NIV)
Believe in God who provided Jesus as a sacrifice for your sins. Believe in God who raised Jesus from the dead for you, for your justification, forgiveness, and pardon, so that God might credit righteousness to you. Trust God and his promises, for these words are not just for Abraham.
Faith in the midst of doubt
But, we see in the example of Abram, that true faith lives in the midst of questionings, and imperfections, and sins. Abraham trusted God. But it wasn’t perfect trust. Chapter 15 of the Abram story shows Abram taking God at his word. That was Abram’s characteristic and typical response. But there are some other less flattering snapshots in the album. And over chapters 12 to 25, we see that some things do not come from his faith.
In chapter 12, Abram went down to Egypt because of a famine. He left the land God showed him. And there we see Abram calling his wife ‘my sister’. This was a deception because he was afraid and desired to be treated well (Gen 12:10-20). In fact, Abram did this at least twice (Gen 20:1ff). It was his usual pattern, to put his wife, Sarah in danger this way.
We also see him wanting to hurry up the promise. So Abram listened to Sarah and had sex with Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant (Gen 16:1-15). And the fighting and rivalry this act brought caused no end of domestic trouble for Abram (cf. Gen 16:1-15; 21:8-21).
And Abram was not beyond questioning God, complaining to God, asking God to give him a sign, even laughing when God suggested Sarah will have a child. We see this in chapter 15 verse 3, "You have given me no children." You see that bringing our complaints to God is an act of faith! Or verse 8, "But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" (NIV) So here again, the desire of an earnest from God is not inconsistent with true faith.
Faith works
But Abram’s faith, though not perfect, was real. And there are other proofs of this.
When faith hears a promise, it rests and does nothing. When God says, "I will save you, I will give you salvation as a gift", then believing God means not to try to work for your salvation.
But faith sometimes also hears a command. And when faith is commanded, it obeys. Obedience is trust in action. Because faith works. And we see the album full of examples of Abram’s obedience. His works evidencing his faith.
Perhaps the most famous is in Genesis 22. Abraham in obedience to God’s command, offers his son Isaac as a sacrifice. As James says:
Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. (Jas 2:21-23 NIV)
Abram’s works showed that he trusted God’s word. They were evidence of his faith. For faith cannot be seen, but these works can. And friends, as was the case with Abram, so with us. No one is saved by works, but no one is saved without works. We are not saved by our works, just as Abraham was justified by faith apart from works. But we are saved for works, just as Abraham showed his faith by his works.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to walk in. (Eph 2:10 NIV)
Friend, let me ask you: Is there any evidence of your faith in Christ? If you were on trial for being a Christian, would you be convicted?
The story of Abram doesn’t demand perfection of us. Abram did not have that. But it does demand obedience as evidence of our faith.
Friend, are you obeying God? Is there some area where you need to obey him? Then obey, and demonstrate your faith in God. Leave an enduring legacy for your Christian friends and relatives, so that when they ask themselves, "Did he have faith, did she have faith", there will a life littered with the evidence of good works.
Of course, God asked Abram to sacrifice his son, but he didn’t let Abram go through with the sacrifice. It was a test. God stopped Abram from plunging the knife into his only Son, whom he loved. And God provided a ram instead of Isaac.
But much later, on that same mountain, God would himself do what he would not let Abram do. He offered his one and only Son, whom he loved, as a sacrifice. And on the mountain of the Lord, it was provided. Jesus was the sacrifice on that mountain, that only God could provide. Jesus, the Son of God, but also the son of Abraham, the seed of Abraham, would bring blessing to the nations, just as God promised Abraham.
Let’s pray.
[1] God made promises to Noah and all creation, that never again would God destroy the world with a flood. No matter how bad the flooding we see in our current world, God will not destroy the whole world with water. He has promised to destroy the world with fire, but that is a different story. The point is that God didn’t have to make that promise. But he did. And he gave a sacrament or sign of his promise, which we can see when God brings the clouds over the earth, being the rainbow, the sign of God’s promise.
When Abraham first arrived at Shechem in Canaan: "To your seed I will give this land" (Gen 12:7 NIV)
After Abram and Lot parted, with Lot taking the land that looked the best: "All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you." (Gen 13:15-17 NIV)
When Abraham was 99 years old, and before YHWH made the covenant of circumcision: "I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers […] You will be the father of many nations […] I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you […] The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you." (Gen 17:2-8 NIV)
The reiteration of the promise by the three visitors: "Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." (Gen 18:14)
When God tells Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away: "Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." (Gen 21:12)
After Abraham offers his son Isaac: "The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, 'I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring/seed all nations on the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.'" (Gen 22:15-18 NIV)
When Abraham sends out his servant to find a wife for Isaac from among his relatives: "Abraham said, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, "To your offspring I will give this land" – he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.'" (Gen 24:6-7 NIV).
[3] Compare Genesis 23:3ff when he bought his wife’s burial plot at an exorbitant price, or Genesis 21:25ff, when he complained about the wells taken from him by Abimelech’s servants.
[4] See Waltke, Genesis, 244-5.