Back in chapter 12 we read about God’s call to Abram to go to a land He would show him. Now Abram is in that land. He’s gotten to experience the good and the bad in it. He’s had adventures and dangers. He’s also experienced great blessings. Now in Genesis 15, God not only speaks to Abram, but he takes a form to appear to him in a vision.
“Fear not,” are the first words God speaks to Abram. It’s an interesting thing that often when people come into the presence of holiness they experience fear and trepidation. We seem to instinctively recognize the judgment true holiness pronounces on sin when we stand in God’s (or his messengers’) presence. However, it would seem that this was not the only fear that was on Abram’s heart. In a culture where children were very highly valued and it was understood that a child was born through God’s blessing, Abram saw one important area that he had not been blessed in.
God speaks to Abram to calm that fear, and in doing so makes an interesting promise that doesn’t come across well into English. God leads Abram outside and tells him to count the stars, and says, “So shall your offspring be.” Other translations say, “So shall your seed be.” In English, both words “offspring” and “seed” can be either singular or plural in that form. So Abram goes and counts the stars, and one would expect Abram’s offspring to be plural; he’s going to have lots of children. But Abram’s offspring is singular. And his singular offspring is going to be as the starts in the sky.
God is promising Abram something more than just the birth of Isaac here. He is pointing ahead to a singularly incredible descendant who would outshine even the stars: Jesus, the son of God.
To help Abram be certain of this, God forms a covenant with him. Properly speaking, covenants were “cut.” That is why Abram splits the animals and lays them out with a path between them. Normally, both parties in a covenant would walk through that gore as if to say, “Let this happen to me if I break this covenant.” However, Abram never walks that path. When God forms a covenant with people, it is thoroughly one-sided. God, for His own love and purpose, chooses to promise Abram that He will keep His word to give him an offspring and He will give Abram’s offspring (plural) the land. He has drawn Abram into a protective relationship with Himself.
We, like Abram, live in a good land, and we experience both good and bad, adventure and danger. Our land is not the Promised Land, but God has placed us here for this time for the sake of His own love and purpose. And like Abram, God has “cut” a covenant with us. It too is thoroughly one-sided. He gives his only begotten Son – the seed promised to Abram – to redeem us from our sins. And like Abram the only way to receive the promises of the covenant is by faith. And God credits that faith to us as righteousness.
God did awesome things through Abram. He will through us as well as we walk with Him in faith, and He makes us righteous.
Father, thank you for crediting faith to us as righteousness. You keep Your promises, and I pray for the strength to trust You completely and act upon the faith you have given me in Jesus. Amen.
“Fear not,” are the first words God speaks to Abram. It’s an interesting thing that often when people come into the presence of holiness they experience fear and trepidation. We seem to instinctively recognize the judgment true holiness pronounces on sin when we stand in God’s (or his messengers’) presence. However, it would seem that this was not the only fear that was on Abram’s heart. In a culture where children were very highly valued and it was understood that a child was born through God’s blessing, Abram saw one important area that he had not been blessed in.
God speaks to Abram to calm that fear, and in doing so makes an interesting promise that doesn’t come across well into English. God leads Abram outside and tells him to count the stars, and says, “So shall your offspring be.” Other translations say, “So shall your seed be.” In English, both words “offspring” and “seed” can be either singular or plural in that form. So Abram goes and counts the stars, and one would expect Abram’s offspring to be plural; he’s going to have lots of children. But Abram’s offspring is singular. And his singular offspring is going to be as the starts in the sky.
God is promising Abram something more than just the birth of Isaac here. He is pointing ahead to a singularly incredible descendant who would outshine even the stars: Jesus, the son of God.
To help Abram be certain of this, God forms a covenant with him. Properly speaking, covenants were “cut.” That is why Abram splits the animals and lays them out with a path between them. Normally, both parties in a covenant would walk through that gore as if to say, “Let this happen to me if I break this covenant.” However, Abram never walks that path. When God forms a covenant with people, it is thoroughly one-sided. God, for His own love and purpose, chooses to promise Abram that He will keep His word to give him an offspring and He will give Abram’s offspring (plural) the land. He has drawn Abram into a protective relationship with Himself.
We, like Abram, live in a good land, and we experience both good and bad, adventure and danger. Our land is not the Promised Land, but God has placed us here for this time for the sake of His own love and purpose. And like Abram, God has “cut” a covenant with us. It too is thoroughly one-sided. He gives his only begotten Son – the seed promised to Abram – to redeem us from our sins. And like Abram the only way to receive the promises of the covenant is by faith. And God credits that faith to us as righteousness.
God did awesome things through Abram. He will through us as well as we walk with Him in faith, and He makes us righteous.
Father, thank you for crediting faith to us as righteousness. You keep Your promises, and I pray for the strength to trust You completely and act upon the faith you have given me in Jesus. Amen.
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