The Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:1–21)

 

The Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:1–21)

God is a God of grace. Throughout history, He has made covenants with people like Adam, Noah, and Abraham—not because they deserved it, but because of His grace. It was one-sided, entirely initiated by God. So, there’s nothing for us to boast about. Our role is simply to believe in the Lord with thankfulness and joy.

God’s covenant of grace is ultimately a promise of salvation. True salvation doesn’t happen the way we want—it happens according to God’s will. And His will is to rescue us from sin and death and give us eternal life.

God’s way of salvation is through Jesus Christ. Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross for the sins of the world. Because of His blood, anyone who believes in Him receives the grace of redemption from sin.

Being redeemed in Christ means we’re now able to bear good, spiritual, and righteous fruit (Galatians 5:22–23). Before that, we could only bear sinful fruit (Galatians 5:19–21). God promised Abraham that He would give him the land that could produce such fruit, and He sealed that promise with blood. God sees the fruit we bear and makes His judgment accordingly.

“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:18–20)

God—Our Shield and Great Reward

“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’ But Abram said, ‘Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?’
And Abram said, ‘You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.’” (Genesis 15:1–3)

This moment happened after Abram had just won a battle against a coalition of kings and rescued his nephew Lot. Though he was victorious, Lot went back to Sodom, and Abram likely feared retaliation from nearby enemies.

So, God came to Abram in a vision and said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m your shield and your very great reward.” In other words, God was saying, “I’ve got you covered. I’m your protection, and I’m all the reward you need.”

This is also true for every believer in Christ: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

But Abram still struggled with the fact that he had no heir. He was well past 75 years old, and his wife Sarai was about ten years younger. He brought up the issue to God: without a son, his servant Eliezer would have to be his heir. This was actually a common custom in ancient times—if you didn’t have children, your most trusted servant could become your heir.

Back in Genesis 12:2, God had already made a promise to Abram: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” But with no child, that promise seemed like a distant dream.

Still, God is a promise-keeping God. Jesus said:

“Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18)

God’s promises are fulfilled not in our timing, but in His. So, real faith means trusting in God’s promises, even while we wait.

God Counts Abram's Faith as Righteousness

“Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then He said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:4–6)

God made it clear: Eliezer was not the one. Abram’s heir would be his own biological child. Even though Abram’s plan seemed reasonable, God had something better. That’s a good reminder for us: sometimes our solutions feel smarter than God’s, especially when we’re struggling—but His ways are higher.

“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.
‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8–9)

God then took Abram outside and told him to look up at the sky. “Count the stars, if you can. That’s how numerous your descendants will be.”

That promise was almost difficult to believe—Abram didn’t even have a single child yet. But Abram believed God. He trusted the One who made the promise, and that faith is what God counted as righteousness.

Faith isn’t about how strong we are—it’s about who we’re trusting. People can break promises, but God, the Creator of the heavens and earth, never fails. He is the only One truly worthy of our full trust.

Of course, Abram ended up having only eight sons total: Isaac through Sarah, Ishmael through Hagar, and six more through Keturah. That’s not exactly “countless stars.” But this promise had a deeper, spiritual meaning.

Anyone who trusts and believes in God—just like Abraham did—is considered part of his spiritual family. And through Abraham’s descendant, Jesus Christ, countless believers have come to salvation.

“The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (Romans 4:23–24)

Being declared righteous means we’ve passed from death to life. We’ve been rescued from God’s wrath and brought into His grace. The broken relationship caused by sin in Adam has been restored. Now we can enjoy eternal life and the blessings of heaven forever.

And it all starts with one thing: believing in the Lord.

God Leads Abram Out of Ur to Give Him the Land

“Then God said to Abram, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will actually gain possession of it?” So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram—each three years old—along with a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram brought all of these to Him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.” (Genesis 15:7-10)

God told Abram that He had brought him out of Ur to give him this land—Canaan—as his inheritance. But at that point, Abram didn’t even own a single piece of it. In fact, the only land he ever officially owned during his life was a burial cave for his wife Sarah. Still, God promised that the entire land would be his.

This was a hard promise to believe. Yet God wasn’t just talking about physical land. In the spiritual sense, land—especially land that bears fruit—often symbolizes a life of faith that produces spiritual fruit. On the third day of creation, God gathered the waters and let the land appear (Genesis 1:9). That land bore fruit—just like faith can bear fruit in a believer’s life. God blesses those who live by faith with abundance—not just physically but spiritually.

When Abram asked, “How can I know I’ll possess it?”, God responded not with words alone but through a covenant. He told Abram to prepare a sacrifice using animals, which was the way people in the ancient Near East made serious agreements. Abram obeyed, cutting the animals in two and laying the pieces opposite each other, as was the custom—except for the birds, which were left whole.

This wasn’t just any promise; it was a covenant sealed with blood. It showed just how serious and certain God’s promise was. He was saying, "I will absolutely keep this promise."

This points forward to the ultimate covenant. When Adam and Eve sinned, God clothed them with garments of animal skin—already foreshadowing the day Jesus Christ would shed His blood to cover our sins. Every covenant with God has always involved a sacrifice.

God Foretells the Future of Abram's Descendants

As the sun was setting, birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. Then, as the sun went down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and terrifying darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, where they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great wealth. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:11-16)

As Abram kept watch over the covenant sacrifice, birds tried to swoop down and eat it. He chased them away. Then, as evening fell, a deep sleep came over him, and with it, a heavy darkness and fear—God’s holy presence had come.

God then spoke again, this time revealing a future that would be hard to hear. Abram’s descendants would be foreigners, mistreated for 400 years in a land that wasn’t theirs. But God assured Abram: He would bring them out with great possessions, and eventually, they would return to take possession of the promised land.

Why the delay? Because the sin of the Amorites—those living in Canaan—had not yet reached its full measure. God is patient, giving people time to repent. The Hebrew word used here, shalem, means fullness, completion, or even paid in full. It hints at the time when Jesus Christ would pay in full for the sin of the world. Until then, God’s judgment was held back.

This tells us something vital: Israel wouldn’t receive the land because of their own righteousness, but because of God’s justice against sin. Spiritually, this speaks of our eternal inheritance—the kingdom of heaven—not earned by us, but given by grace through Christ.

God Seals His Covenant with Fire and Promise

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:17-21)

After nightfall, Abram saw something amazing: a smoking firepot and a blazing torch moving between the halves of the animals. This was God's way of confirming His covenant—sealed with fire. Fire represents God's holy presence, and this act was God's way of saying, “I’m bound by this promise. I will do what I said.”

God promised to give Abram's descendants the land stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, including all the lands of the seven nations living in Canaan. This covenant was not based on anything Abram had done—it was God's unilateral, gracious promise. Abram didn’t walk through the pieces—God alone did.

This shows us that God’s covenant is a gift, not something we can earn. Abram represents all of us—broken, undeserving people who are invited into a relationship with God through grace.

As Paul later wrote in Ephesians 2:8–10:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Praise the Lord! Thanks to God who keeps His promises forever!

May 18, 2015
Buffalo Livingstone Church ©2025, David Lee Ministries ©2025 – All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotes are from the NIV.