Genesis 15

The Voice

15 Some time passed. One day, the word of the Eternal One came to Abram through a vision—a kind of waking dream.

Eternal One: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am always your shield and protector. Your reward for loyalty and trust will be immense.

Abram: ²Eternal Lord, what could You possibly give to me that would make that much of a difference in my life? After all, I am still childless, and Eliezer of Damascus stands to inherit all I own.^[a] ³Since You have not given me the gift of children, my only heir will be one of the servants born in my household.

⁴Immediately the word of the Eternal One came to him.

Eternal One: No, Abram, this man will not be your heir. No one but your very own child will be an heir for you.

⁵God took him outside to show him something.

Eternal One: Look up at the stars, and try to count them all if you can. There are too many to count! Your descendants will be as many as the stars.^[b]

⁶Abram believed God and trusted in His promises, so God counted it to his favor as righteousness.^[c]

Eternal One (to Abram): ⁷I am the Eternal One. Remember, I am the One who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to give you this land to possess and to pass on to your descendants.

Abram: ⁸But Eternal Lord, how am I supposed to know I really will possess it?

Eternal One: ⁹Bring to Me the following: a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

¹⁰Abram brought God all of these animals and cut them in two, laying each half next to the other, making two rows. Only the birds were not cut in two. ¹¹And when any birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, Abram swatted them away.

¹²As the sun was setting in the west, Abram fell into a deep sleep. A terrifying darkness descended upon him.

Eternal One (to Abram): ¹³I will tell you this on which you can stake your life: Your descendants will first be foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will be made slaves there and will be oppressed for 400 years. ¹⁴But then I will judge the nation that enslaves them.^[d] When that time comes, your descendants will emerge from that land with many possessions. ¹⁵As for you, you will rest with your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. ¹⁶Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here to possess the land, because the sin of the Amorite people has not yet reached its full measure.

¹⁷When the sun had gone down and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the animal carcasses. ¹⁸With this ritual and on this day, the Eternal One made a covenant with Abram.

This ritual may sound strange, but it is a common way of making agreements between parties in Abram’s day. The exact meaning is unclear, but the various elements and actions point to one undeniable fact: Abram and the Lord are entering into a relationship that has serious and long-lasting consequences. God’s covenant with Abram changes not only Abram’s future but the future of the world itself.

Eternal One: I make a solemn promise to give this land to your descendants—from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River, ^19-21the land where the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites all live. All of this I will give to you.