Genesis 15

Chap. XV. Ver. I-11. Abram justified by faith.—Several years had elapsed, perhaps eight or nine, since God had first made promise to Abram concerning his seed, and now he is about eighty years old, and Sarai is seventy, and he has still no child. He must yet live upon assurances and promises, without any earthly prospects. He is indulged with a vision, in which God appears to him, saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” This is certainly very full and very encouraging….. For what can be wanting to those who have God for their “exceeding great reward?” Abram had not availed himself of his late victory, to procure in Canaan so much as a place to set his foot on: but God has something greater in reserve for him…..

He shall be the father of the Church, and “the heir of the world.” —The promise, to be sure, is great and full; but he has heard much the same things before, and there are no signs of its accomplishment. This works within him in a way of secret anguish, which he presumes to express before the Lord, almost in the language of objection: “Lord God, what wilt thou give me? Thou speakest of giving thy servant this and that,…. but I shall soon be past receiving it….. I go childless, This, Eliezer of Damascus is a good and faithful servant, but that is all….. Must I make him my heir? and are the promises to be fulfilled in an adopted son?—(Fuller.) God now condescends to assure him, “He that shall come forth of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”

He is brought forth from his tent by night to view and count the stars; and when he had surveyed the heavenly host, in all the multitude and brilliancy of an eastern sky, the Lord assured him, “So shall thy seed be.” And now he is no longer weak, but strong in faith; and, therefore, it was “imputed to him for righteous- ness.” Much use is made of this passage by the Apostle Paul, in establishing the doctrine of justification by faith; and much has been said by others, as to the meaning of both him and Moses. The truth appears to be this, (says Fuller,) it is faith, or believing, that is counted for righteousness; not, however, as a righteous act, or on account of any inherent virtue contained in it, but in respect of Christ, on whose righteousness it terminates.”

This the same able and ingenious writer thus illustrates:—“Whatever other properties the magnet may possess, it is as pointing invariably to the North that it guides the mariner; so whatever other properties faith may possess, it is as pointing to Christ, and bringing us into union with him, that it…

Ver. 12-21. Abram’s prophetic vision—We have here the first and only instance of a sacrifice in which the animals were thus divided, though it is plainly referred to by the prophet Jeremiah, ((Genesis 34:18-19).) as a usual custom; and Cyl speaks of it as a practice of the Chaldeans, as is remarked by Bishop Patrick and others. The ceremony is supposed to imply an imprecation upon the party violating the engagement.

Having divided the sacrifices, and passed between them, it should seem Abram occupied the whole day in this sacrifice, sitting down to watch the birds of prey, and driving them from the sacrifice when they approached; but no symbol of the divine presence appeared till after sunset, when ‘a horror of darkness” came down, like the smoke of a furnace, and a burning lamp (or “lamp of fire,” as the margin reads, ver. 17.) appeared, and passed between the sacrifices, as the token of the divine presence, and the ratification of the covenant of God to Abram. A deep sleep now fell upon Abram, and he had a prophetic vision, which, in its purport, harmonized with the scene ere described—it was a period of great darkness, with “a lamp of fire,”

the signal of the divine presence in the midst. We may observe here, by the way, that our sacrifices want watching: prayer and watchfulness should be united, as our Lord teaches us. ((Matthew 26:41).) The dispensations of Providence often resemble a dark cloud in their appearance, but there is a lamp of fire within, which indicates the divine presence. Though the dark side may be towards us, the light of God’s countenance is on the other side. “Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.” But we must now attend to the sacred prediction—“Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, (that is, Canaan,) and they (Israel) shall serve them, (the Canaanites;) and they (the Canaanites) shall afflict them (thy seed) four hundred years.”

Ainsworth very properly reckons this period from the time of Ishmael mocking Isaac, thirty years after this promise, to the entrance of Israel into the wilderness, in which same year the law was given at Sinai, which agrees exactly with St. Paul’s account, ((Galatians 3:17).) that the law was 430 years after the promise here mentioned; at which period they were to come out of their servitude with great substance, and this was literally fulfilled. (Ex. xii, 35, 36.) To Abram himself, personally, it is said, “thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age;” in which some commentators can see nothing but a long life and a peaceful end; but others derive hence an argument for the separate existence of human souls.

Abram’s body did not rest in the country of his fathers, but his spirit “was gathered to his fathers” in the world of souls. The reason why the deliverance of Abram’s posterity was so long delayed, is founded on the long sufferance and forbearance of God—“The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” “There is a fitness in all God’s proceedings, (says Fuller,) and a wondrous fulness of design, answering many ends by one and the same event. The possession of Canaan was to Israel a pro- [perty] good, but to the Canaanites a threatened evil. It is deferred towards both, till each be prepared for it.” “Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God!” ((Romans 11:22).)

Notes on the verses

CHP. XV, Ver. 2. Dr. Dodd rends this verse in a parenthesis; “For Abram had said (i.e. within himself) Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?” &c. The word of the Lord, ver. 1. then comes in answer to this inquiry. Ver. 3. One born in my house shall be my heir.—“It is still a custom in India, especially among the Mahometans, that in default of children, and sometimes where there are lineal descendants, the master of a family adopts a slave for his heir; educates him agreeably to his wishes, and marries him to one of his daughters….. This is a custom of great antiquity in the east, and prevalent among the most refined and civilized nations.” —Forbes’ Orient. Memoirs. Capt.

Carver mentions a similar custom among the American Indians. Among the Mamelukes in Egypt, Volney says, “the freed man is called a child of the house.” —Orient. Lit. Ver. 10. And he divided them in the midst.—The sacrifices of the heathens certainly implied such an imprecation as is above suggested. “So when the Greeks and Trojans agreed to determine their quarrel by single combat, after various ceremonies were gone through, somewhat similar to the above, as to dividing the victims, the Roman priest called on Jupiter, in case his countrymen should prove perfidious; ‘That very day, many people, as I today shall strike this hog: us you are more powerful than me. O Jupiter! strike the Ro- and so much the more heavily, And having so spoken, with a sharp flint he dashed out the brains of the animal.” —Huner’s Sacred Biography.

Ver. 13. Shall serve them.—Dr. Boothroyd renders this passage more perspicuous by referring the two verbs to the same agents; “they will enslave, and afflict them.” So Pagninus, (in margin,) Et servire facient eos, “shall make them serve;” and Dr. B. adds, “So all the ancient versions render, and the sense requires it.” They shall afflict them 430 years.—The chronology, as given in our quarto Bibles, stands thus:— Abram enters Canaan and receives the promise, Before Christ, 1921 a.c. AS9L Now the difference between the first and last of these dates, is just 430 years. Ver. 16. Fourth generation.—(In former times, most ancient people counted by generations, to each of which was assigned a term of years amounting from 20 to 110; for the generation was of various lengths among various people, at different times.

The fourth generation here probably means the same as the 400 years in the thirteenth verse.) —Bagster. Ver. 15. River of Egypt.—(This was probably not the eastern or Pelusiac branch of the Nile, as some have supposed, but a stream in the south border of the land of Israel, between Gaza and Rhinocorura, and the same as Sichor.) —Bagster