Commentary on Genesis 15:1-6

The book of Genesis begins with blessing. God blesses animals and humans alike (1:22, 28), and that blessing takes two forms: home and succession. God provides a home for each kind of creature, a place of belonging and security; and God empowers and guarantees the transmission of life to the next generations. “Be fruitful and multiply”—succession; “and fill the earth [land]”—home.

The early chapters of Genesis narrate the erosion of God’s blessing. Its several integral pieces fall apart. Humans experience alienation from each other and alienation from the land meant to be their home. They are estranged and exiled. They know infertility. The Abram/Abraham story in Genesis starts with both these circumstances. Sarai is barren and childless (11:30). Abram and his family are living in a place, Haran, that is neither his birthplace in Ur nor the destination his father sought in Canaan (11:28–30).

Into this situation, of seemingly interrupted or suspended blessing, God speaks in Genesis 12. God promises to bless Abram: to gift him with a land (home) and a nation of descendants (succession). Abram complies with God’s command. He and his family migrate (12:4). He builds altars for the Lord (12:7b, 8b). But God’s promises appear delayed. The home becomes uninhabitable because of famine (12:16). The succession is arrested because of infertility.

Abram demonstrates devotion to the Lord. He continues to worship and build altars (13:18). He thinks of God’s honor: after looting the enemy kings who had seized his nephew Lot, Abram receives a blessing from another local king, Melchizedek. But Abram refuses any further gifts from Melchizedek, because Abram wants to give credit to the Lord alone for his wealth (14:22–23).

Still, even as he demonstrates devotion, Abram also shows fear. When he and Sarai take refuge in Egypt, he fears that the Egyptians will kill him. He takes preemptive action; he makes arrangements in case God’s promises are delayed. God had pledged to bless the ones who bless Abram and curse the ones who curse him (12:3), but in the meanwhile, Abram lies to protect himself (12:13).

Chapter 15 finds Abram entertaining a similar preemptive action—laying out a practical plan in case God’s promise tarries. The Lord recognizes Abram’s fear. For the first time in the book of Genesis, the Lord says, “Fear not” (15:1a). God then reiterates and intensifies the past promise of protection: “I am your shield” (15:1b). Especially in light of Abram’s refusal of payment from Melchizedek, God says, “Your reward will be very great” (15:1c).

But Abram cannot imagine this reward while the issues of home and succession are still so unresolved. The Common English Bible translation helpfully draws out this dimension of his reply: “LORD God, what can you possibly give me, since I still have no children?” (15:2). Delay, irresolution, fear—they inspire Abram to propose an alternative, a workaround, a concession. If the grand promise of a successor remains far off, some real if diminished possibilities lie within reach.

Abram pitches his slave Eleazar to God as a potential heir. Eleazar is associated with Damascus. This is, notably, the city the previous chapter identifies as the place where Abram looted enemy kings and recovered his nephew Lot (14:15). Perhaps Eleazar was captured or enslaved there, and as such, is the fruit of Abram’s military strength, though not the fruit of his loins.

The Lord declines this workaround. The Lord insists, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir” (15:4b New Revised Standard Version). Or, in John Goldingay’s more vivid translation, “No, only someone who comes from your insides—he’ll come into possession from you.”¹

Instead of engaging in practical and prudential reasoning, accommodating to the alienated state of the world, God doubles down on a more specific and radical option. God names the very result that seems most foreclosed to Abram, a natural heir. In the previous chapter, Abram rejected a scenario whereby the king Melchizedek could take credit for Abram’s wealth. Now God rejects a scenario whereby Abram could take credit for his heir.

More than that: God doesn’t just double down on the most impossible scenario—God amplifies the scale of impossibility. God takes Abram’s mind, which is downcast, occupied with small, sad, near-at-hand courses of action, and lifts up the eyes of Abram’s heart. The Lord leads Abram outside and urges him to look up at the sky and count the stars, if he can (15:5). “This is how many children you will have,” God says (15:5b Common English Bible). It is an overwhelming and awe-inspiring vista. It is one whose calculation defies human capacity.

In effect, though, God has only authenticated the promise of succession already given. God has spoken not with persuasive words alone but with spiritual demonstration (1 Corinthians 2:4; see also 1 Thessalonians 1:5). The same promise recurs, but now it wins Abram’s trust. Genesis 15 says that “he believed the LORD” (15:6a). This response is precious to God.

Indeed, in the meantime, the interim moment when home is still unhomelike and life in the next generations seems impossible, this holding onto God’s word is the response God most desires. Abram cherishes the vision of God following through, and God cherishes that cherishing. God credits it to him as righteousness (15:6). More than building altars, it epitomizes devotion.

For preaching Genesis 15, the blessing of God is just as much a driving concern for modern people as for Abram: we, too, search for the belonging and security of home, and we struggle to preserve life into the future. The delay of God’s promises creates fear and inspires us to brainstorm workarounds and concessions. It is important therefore not to commend “faith” as some countervailing human activity or devotional regimen—but rather to lift up spiritual eyes to behold the plenitude of God’s future.

Notes

1. John Goldingay, Genesis, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2020), 218.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

God of the covenant,
As you promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars, you have also promised us that we might live under those stars as your people, faithful and loved. Show us how to live as your people, and how to nurture all your children with whom we share the same canopy of sky night after night. Amen.

HYMNS

Creator of the stars of night ELW 245, H82 60, UMH 692, NCH 111
Many and great, O God ELW 837, NCH 3, UMH 148
Open your ears, O faithful people ELW 519, H82 536

CHORAL

Be not afraid, Knut Nystedt (Walton)