Genesis 15:1-21 (NLT)
1 Some time later, the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.
3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
4 Then the LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.”
5 Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.
7 Then the LORD told him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
9 The LORD told 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 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.
11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him.
13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.
14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.
15 (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)
16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.
18 So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—
19 the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Belief is essential in a relationship with God, especially in those things that seem beyond reason and possibility. For Abram, this was critical in defining his character and qualifying him to fulfill God’s amazing purpose for his life. It’s interesting, though, that even after being counted righteous for his belief in God’s declared number of his descendants, his subsequent question did not disqualify him and negate his righteousness. His wondering was not met with rebuke and condemnation but an opportunity to enter into a covenant with a sacrifice. His offering to the Lord the animals and their killing and presentation as directed was Abram’s chance to renew his belief through acts of faith in God. At the same time, God simply continued Describing future events his descendants would experience. And, during this divine declaration, God consumed the sacrifice prepared by Abram, completing its purpose of a joint covenant.
To encounter and have a relationship with the Great I Am is to be presented with declarations that go beyond the realm of natural reasoning. The initial acceptance of Him is a response to the statement that He will forgive all sins and make everything right. This makes no natural sense, knowing what we’ve done and how far from perfect we are. But, simply accepting and believing Him indeed initiates an identity with righteousness and the removal of sin’s weight. This is just the beginning of a life of faith, however, where impossibilities can be met with acts of faith, turning skepticism into activation of God-consuming power. Those mind-boggling circumstances become engaging rather than repelling elements in our experience of Him as our lives become an ongoing offering of ourselves as living sacrifices and His proving Himself to be faithful beyond our wildest imagination.
There is something precious about this chapter. We are often familiar with this declaration of descendants as numerous as the stars and Abraham as a spiritual father of faith. But it was “After these things the word of the Lord came in a vision” After what things? Abraham had just given, just been faithful to sow, giving a tenth of spoils to Melchizedek, priest of ancient Jerusalem, Salem. Melchizedek has always fascinated me. But it was after this moment that the vision came and the word: “Do not be afraid, I am your shield, your reward [for obedience] shall be great”. Obedience in giving opened up that door- I hadn’t seen it that way before. What a faithful, giving Father we have!