Genesis 15

God’s Covenant with Abram

1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram #Gen. 15:4; 46:2; 1 Sam. 15:10; Dan. 10:1in a vision, saying, #Gen. 21:17; 26:24; Is. 41:10; Dan. 10:12“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your #Deut. 33:29; Ps. 3:3; 84:11; 91:4shield, your exceedingly #Num. 18:20; Ps. 58:11; Prov. 11:18great reward.”

2#Gen. 17:18But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, #Acts 7:5seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed #Gen. 14:14one born in my house is my heir!”

4And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who #2 Sam. 7:12; Gal. 4:28will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and #Gen. 22:17; 26:4; Deut. 1:10; Ps. 147:4count the #Jer. 33:22stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, #Ex. 32:13; Rom. 4:18; Heb. 11:12“So shall your #Gen. 17:19descendants be.”

6And he #Gen. 21:1; Rom. 4:3, 9, 22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23believed in the Lord, and He #Ps. 32:2; 106:31accounted it to him for righteousness.

7Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who #Gen. 12:1brought you out of #Gen. 11:28, 31Ur of the Chaldeans, #Gen. 13:15, 17; Ps. 105:42, 44to give you this land to inherit it.”

8And he said, “Lord God, #Gen. 24:13, 14; Judg. 6:36–40; 1 Sam. 14:9, 10; Luke 1:18how shall I know that I will inherit it?”

9So 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.” 10Then he brought all these to Him and #Gen. 15:17; Jer. 34:18cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut #Lev. 1:17the birds in two. 11And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12Now when the sun was going down, #Gen. 2:21; 28:11; Job 33:15a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly #Ex. 1:11; Acts 7:6that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and #Ex. 12:40they will afflict them four hundred years. 14And also the nation whom they serve #Ex. 6:6I will judge; afterward #Ex. 12:36they shall come out with great possessions. 15Now as for you, #Job 5:26you shall go #Gen. 25:8; 47:30to your fathers in peace; #Gen. 25:8you shall be buried at a good old age. 16But #Gen. 15:13; Ex. 12:41in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity #Gen. 48:22; Lev. 18:24–28; 1 Kin. 21:26of the Amorites #1 Kin. 11:12; Matt. 23:32is not yet complete.”

17And 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 #Jer. 34:18, 19passed between those pieces. 18On the same day the Lord #Gen. 24:7made a covenant with Abram, saying:

#Gen. 12:7; 17:8; Ex. 23:31; Num. 34:3; Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:4; 21:43; Acts 7:5“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 15

1After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

2-3Abram said, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.”

4Then God’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”

5Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”

6And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”

7 God continued, “I’m the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.”

8Abram said, “Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?”

9 God said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.”

10-12He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.

13-16 God said to Abram, “Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they’ll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I’ll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you’ll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites.”

17-21When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when God made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

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Genesis 15

Genesis 15