Genesis 15

The Explanation

Abram is not a young man anymore. He has left his country because God told him to, he has travelled through deserts, he has been rich and he has been afraid. And still the one thing God promised him has not happened: he has no child.

Then God speaks to him in a vision, a kind of waking dream: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

And Abram, who is supposed to be the great man of faith, answers with something close to a complaint. What good is any of it, he says, if I stay childless? The man who will inherit everything I own is Eliezer, a servant born in my household. Not my son. A servant.

Notice that God does not scold him for saying it. He takes him outside. It is night in the desert, where there are no streetlights and no glow from a city, so the sky is thick with stars. "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And then: that is how many your descendants will be.

Abram believes Him. One short sentence in verse 6 says something enormous: "He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness." God counted Abram's trust as being right with Him. Not his achievements. His trust.

But Abram still has a question, and it is an honest one: "how will I know?" How can I be sure this land will really belong to my family?

God's answer is strange to us. He tells Abram to bring animals: a cow, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, a pigeon. Abram cuts the larger animals in half and lays the halves in two rows facing each other. This was how people in his time made a serious agreement. The two parties would walk together between the pieces, as if to say: if I break my word, let it happen to me what happened to these animals. It was a promise sealed in blood.

Then Abram waits. Birds of prey circle down and he has to chase them off. As the sun sets, a heavy sleep comes over him, and with it "terror and great darkness." This is not a cosy moment.

In that darkness God tells him the truth, including the hard part. Your descendants will live as strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves. They will be treated badly for four hundred years. But I will judge that nation, and they will come out with great wealth. And you yourself will die old and in peace.

Then something happens that Abram sees but does not do. A smoking furnace and a flaming torch move by themselves between the pieces of the animals. God passes through. Abram does not. He is asleep.

What Does This Mean?

Two things stand out.

First: God lets Abram ask. Abram says "what will you give me?" and "how will I know?" Those are not polite prayers. They are the questions of a tired man. God answers with stars and with a covenant, which is a binding promise, a bond God ties between Himself and a person. Your questions do not push God away.

Second: only God walks between the pieces. Abram is fast asleep, and that is the point. This promise does not depend on Abram being strong enough or faithful enough. God takes the whole weight of it on Himself. If you ever wonder whether God's promises could collapse because of your failures, look at that sleeping old man.

And God is honest. He does not say "everything will be lovely." He says: there will be slavery, and there will be four hundred hard years. Why God allows that stretch of suffering before the rescue, the text does not explain. I do not know either. What the text does say is that God sees it coming and will bring His people out.

The Common Thread

Abram never saw the land filled with his descendants. He got a promise and a night sky.

Centuries later, one Descendant of Abram walks in the darkness of Golgotha. Jesus does not sleep through it; He carries the cost of the broken covenant Himself, the way God carried it that night between the pieces. And what was said of Abram is said of everyone who trusts Jesus: their faith is counted as righteousness, as being right with God.

The stars Abram counted include people who were not yet born, from countries he had never heard of. Possibly you.

For You

You are old enough now to notice that faith is not always simple. Maybe you have prayed for something for a long time and nothing happened. Maybe you have wondered whether God actually hears.

Do what Abram did. Say it out loud to God, exactly as it is. Not a tidy version. And then go outside on a clear evening, look up, and try counting. You will lose count. That is the whole idea.

Talk About It

Abram asked God, "how will I know?" What would you most like to ask God, and what stops you from asking it?

God told Abram about the hard four hundred years before He told him about the rescue. Why do you think He was that honest?

Praying Together

God, I do not always understand what You are doing, and sometimes I doubt. Thank You that You let Abram ask his questions. Thank You that You kept Your promise while he slept. Count me among the stars. Amen.