Genesis 15:1-21

God appears to Abraham in a vision and reaffirms His promises to him.  God is gracious to reveal Himself to man.  God establishes a special relationship with Abraham and interacts with him in a unique manner.  God makes it very clear that He is going to do something special with Abraham and through his descendants.

THE PROMISE OF A PEOPLE: God has promised all along that Abraham would be the father of a great nation.  The problem is that he does not have any children.  His wife is barren and he is getting old.  Abraham suggests that his head servant would be his heir and that perhaps this nation would come out of his servant.  God assures Abraham that he will father a child and then takes him out to look at the stars and promises him that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky.  Abraham believes God and God counts this belief as righteousness for Abraham.  God always justifies men on the basis of faith.  We must believe that God keeps His promises even when we do not see how these promises will come true.  We must trust in the faithfulness of God.

THE PROMISE OF A POSSESSION: God also reiterates His promise of the possession of the land in which he lives.  Abraham questions how he can be assured of this promise, so God tells Abraham to prepare a blood covenant in which animals are divided and the makers of the covenant pass between the animals.  The purpose of the covenant is to demonstrate that the consequence of not keeping the covenant is death like was done to the animals.  Abraham prepares and protects the covenant sacrifice throughout the day and then at the close of the day falls into a deep sleep.  God passes between the animals alone and seals this covenant with Abraham.  It is significant that God does not cite any conditions for fulfilling the covenant and that He is the only one to pass between the animals.

THE PROMISE OF PROBLEMS: The beginning of God’s promise does not sound very encouraging as it is a promise that Abraham’s descendants will become slaves for 400 years.  However Abraham would not see any of this and his descendants would eventually be set free and take with them the wealth of the nation that enslaved them.  These promises were fulfilled in a very literal way.  Abraham died in peace, the children of Israel were slaves for 400 years in Egypt and they left with the wealth of the nations after all of the plagues.  There is every reason to believe that since the first part of the covenant was fulfilled literally that the second part of the covenant will also be fulfilled in a literal manner.

THE PROMISE OF PROPERTY: God then makes a very specific delineation of the property that Abraham’s descendants would possess and own perpetually.  He gives the boundaries of the land as well as the names of the nations that would be judged in this process.  It is significant to note that Israel has never gained possession of these properties.  During the reign of David and Solomon they came close and even possessed lands that were not included in the promise but they did not retain possession of the land perpetually and today they do not even come close to these boundaries.  This leads me to believe that God will fulfill this part of His promise in the future.  I believe that the nation of Israel still has a special place in the heart of God and that they will one day experience the full possession of this property.  Our God keeps His promises.