Genesis 15
God’s Covenant with Abraham

Genesis 15

Abram Promised a Son

1 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.” 2 Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will 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.” 6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8 He said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” 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 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 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 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

17 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. 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.”

Unpacking Genesis 15

God’s promises are awe-some! I have several books that claim to have compiled God’s promises, but as far as I can tell, none of them include God’s promises from Genesis 15. That’s a shame because this chapter gives us some of the most important promises in the entire Bible! These promises were first given to Abram, yet they ultimately include everyone who will call upon the Lord to be their Savior, God, and King.

As we start our study in Genesis 15, ten years have passed since God first met with Abram in Genesis 12 and called him to establish a new nation of people who would obey God. So, this is roughly 2081 B.C. In Genesis 12, God gave Abraham three key promises (descendants, land, and blessing to all nations). Here in Genesis 15, God restates these promises in the solemn form of an unconditional, everlasting covenant.

To see how this unfolds, let’s begin with verse 1, which starts off by saying, “After these things.” What are “these things”? Well, Genesis 15 came after the events in Genesis 14 when Abram rescued Lot from the hands of King Chedorlaomer and then gave an offering to King Melchizedek.

So, “after these things,” the Lord came to Abram and said, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”

Interestingly, the Lord mentions “fear” in verse 1. Abram seemed pretty courageous in Genesis 14! However, the Lord reminds Abram that He (the Lord) is Abram’s protector and shield. Thus, whatever rewards Abram received were specifically from the hand of God.

Apparently, Abram knew where this conversation was going, so in verses 2 and 3, he pointed out he still didn’t have any children. What’s worse, so far, the only possible heir on the books was Eliezer, a guy from Damascus!

Abram has a good point. He’s 85 years old. His wife is 75 years old. He understands enough about the biological process of life to know there is no way he and Sarai are having kids. That ship sailed decades ago, and it’s only getting further away with every passing year.

However, the Lord stands firm on His previous promise and reiterates to Abram that he and Sarai will have a child together. There are no fingers crossed on this promise.

To make this point even clearer, the Lord then has Abram look up to the night sky, and the Lord says to Abram that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars! This would have been an awe-some moment as Abram beheld the stars and saw the magnitude of God’s promise.

What is more, Abram believed God. In fact, verse 6 is a key verse quoted in several places throughout the Bible. Verse 6 says, “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” This shows us the beauty of salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. Paul said something similar in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

It’s important to recognize why the Lord reckoned Abram as righteous. To reckon means to determine or make a judgment about something. God determined that Abraham was righteous, not because of Abram’s actions, but because of his faith. Abram heard God’s Word and believed it; therefore, God regarded him as righteous.

Look at all the things Abram has believed in this passage:

·In verse 1, the Lord promised to shield Abram; Abram believed Him.

·In verse 4, the Lord promised Abram a son; and Abram believed Him.

·In verse 5, the Lord promised Abram descendants as numerous as the stars; Abram believed Him.

· In verse 7, the Lord promised Abram the land; Abram believed Him.

Not only did Abram believe God, but his life also reflected the reality of his faith. Back in Genesis 12, the Lord called Abram to leave Haran. Abram believed God and left. He believed God in Genesis 14 when he went to rescue Lot. Abram believes God here. Abram’s life was a life of faith.

He even serves as a pattern of faith for us: We are to hear God’s Word and accept it at face value. Then we are to live our lives in light of His promises. It’s that simple!

We can see in verse 6 that Abram believed God in this way, and God justified him. To be justified means to be declared as righteous. That’s what the Lord is doing with Abram here. He is declaring Abram as righteous, not because of Abram’s actions but because of his faith. Along these lines, when we believe God in this way, He declares that we are righteous too!

In this passage, verses 9 to 21 are why this is a key chapter. These verses begin with Abram’s conversation with the Lord about His promises and how Abram will know that he, Abram, will actually receive these promises. In response, the Lord enters into a covenant with him.

We have talked about covenants in the past. “Covenants” form the backbone of the Scriptures. You can see the unfolding of God’s covenants with Adam (Genesis 3), Noah (Genesis 9), Abraham (Genesis 15), Moses and the Children of Israel (Exodus 19-24), David (2nd Samuel 7), and New Covenant, which Jesus brought to the world (Luke 22:20, 2nd Corinthians 3:6).

A covenant is a binding agreement between two people. It’s rooted in relationship, goodwill, and trust. It is not a contract because a contract is meant to hold the other person to their word. A covenant is about the promises we make to them. Often, a covenant is a promise to treat the other person as family.[1]

The most common covenant in our day is the “marriage covenant” where two people promise to unite and treat each other as a beloved family. These promises are so joyful the couple typically invites their friends and family to witness the formal declaration of these promises. So, a “covenant” is at the heart of a wedding ceremony.

That’s a bit like what’s going on here. In verses 10 to 17, Abram takes several animals and sacrifices them to the Lord. He cuts them in half and forms a walkway between their carcasses. In this ancient ceremony, the two covenant makers would walk through these carcasses to solemnize their promises to one another.

Notice, in verse 17, that only the Lord passes through the carcasses. He appears as a “smoking oven and a flaming torch.” Often, when people see a manifestation of the presence of God, they see fire. For instance, Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29 say, "God is a consuming fire.” Here, this is only a small display of the inferno of God’s holiness.

In terms of this specific ceremony, the main point of verse 17 is that only God went through the carcasses. Not Abram. Why not? Because God’s solemn covenant with Abram (known as “The Abrahamic Covenant”) is not based on the promises Abram made to God, but the promises God made to Abram. This is key. Since only God passed through these animal carcasses, all of the obligations were on God. This is an unconditional, unilateral covenant with God and Abram. These promises will come to pass, and they will bring abundant glory to God in their fulfillment!

This passage also gives us a couple of new sets of promises we need to notice. For instance, in verses 13 and 14, the Lord tells Abram that he will not only have a multitude of descendants, but they will also be enslaved for 400 years, and then they will return to the Promised Land (in verse 16). These promises were fulfilled during the days when the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt and eventually delivered by the Lord through Moses in the book of Exodus.

Notice, also, the Lord gives Abram the boundaries of this Promised Land in verses 18 to 21. In rough terms, these boundaries extended from Egypt in the east all the way to the Euphrates River in the west. These would be the land boundaries that God’s people would inhabit. As for when these promises were or will be fulfilled, that question has produced much debate, so we will just mention these boundaries and move on.

As we finish up our study of Genesis 15, we began by saying this chapter contains some awesome promises. Indeed, it does. For one thing, we see that Abram’s descendants will be as numerous as the stars and dwell in a specific land. We will see these promises unfold in the rest of our study of Scripture. In the ultimate sense, these promises are fulfilled by faith by everyone who is a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Those who believe God, like Abram, are reckoned as “righteous” and are citizens in His kingdom forever. This is a promise that all of God’s people can look forward to!

Study and Discussion Questions

Listening to the Key Chapters Podcast on this chapter provides further insights into the following questions.

1. Read over Genesis 15:1-5 and put a triangle around everything that Abram believed. If you were 85 years old and God made these promises to you, would you have struggled to believe them?

2. According to the study, how many years have passed since the Lord first met with Abram back in Genesis 12? How would that delay have impacted your faith in God’s promises? How did it impact Abram?

3. When God reiterated His promises to Abram, what practical problem did Abram point to in verses 2 and 3? Why would this have seemed to be a problem to Abram? Why is this not a problem to God? Are there any principles we can glean from this regarding the problems we face in our lives?

4. What was the Lord’s response to Abram’s concerns in verses 3 and 4? In what ways would God’s solution only come about by means of a miracle?

5. Verse 6 says Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to Abram as righteousness. When God “reckons” a person to be righteous, what does that mean for them? Why is this reckoning by God necessary to inherit these promises and be a citizen of His kingdom?

6. When verse 6 says Abram “believed God,” how is this different than having a “faith” that is just a wispy hope? How was true faith reflected in Abram’s life? Why did God declare Abraham righteous based on his faith and not his works?

7. The later part of Genesis 15 records the covenant God made with Abram. What was Abram’s role in this covenant? What was God’s role? What is the significance of these two roles? Similarly, in our covenant with God that we have made through Christ, what is God’s role, and what is ours?

8. Genesis 15 speaks to the nation God would establish through Abram. While most modern believers in Christ are not related to Abram by blood, they are related to him by faith. Are you part of this kingdom? How does your life reflect these truths?

[1] Gentry, P. J., Wellum, S. J., Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Wheaton, IL 2012) 129.