Genesis 15:1-21
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
8 And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
9 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.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
God began His covenant agreement with Abram by assuring him that He was both a shield to protect and all the reward he ever needed. All would be found in the Lord and His provision, so He was to be trusted and waited on for all promises. Though without children as of yet, God promises that Abram would have innumerable descendants as countless as the stars above. Therefore Abram trusted God’s word by His promise; God says this faith was counted as Abram’s righteousness, the absolute reliance on God’s character and word to do all He said. But as to the details, Abram wanted to know how he would inherit the land which was promised to him and his offspring. God had him offer a sacrifice, told him how his people would be driven to Egypt for four hundred years, be delivered with great possessions, and how that land would be judged for enslaving God’s people (which we see in Exodus). Yet God promised Abram a long life with the promised land still to be theirs with the boundaries clearly spelled out for the future, including today. What we learn from this is to absolutely trust the trustworthy and sovereign Lord of the universe and His immutable promises to us in Christ Jesus our Savior who delivers forever from God’s wrath and the power of sin over us, knowing we have a certain heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16) to come which cannot be taken away. We have the promise of a certain and eternal salvation.
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