A Hair-Raising Prediction
Genesis 15:1-21 (RCL 1-12, 17-18)
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Key Text: Genesis 15:6
“And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
Are you afraid of the dark? How about being in thick darkness while spooky things happen and the voice of God shakes your world? Today’s text deals with just such an experience, in which Abraham was overwhelmed by “a terrifying darkness.” Would you like to have been in his sandals?
A state of despair (vv. 1-6)
Today’s text drops back in time from last week’s lesson, all the way to Abraham, from Israel in the promised land to the ancestor who first received the promise.
Today’s text, Genesis 15, follows a chapter in which the narrator has reported a string of successes for Abram, as he was still called. With a small army of his own servants he reportedly defeated a coalition of five “kings” who had pillaged the city of Sodom and captured many citizens, including Abram’s nephew Lot.
As we will see more clearly in a later lesson, “kings” is a relative term in Genesis. During the Middle Bronze Age, there were no large kingdoms in Canaan. Each city of any size considered its leader to be a king. Thus, the five “kings” Abraham fought would have been equivalent to the mayors of five small cities.
After chasing the invaders across the country, according to the story, Abram freed the captives, recovered their goods, and returned them to their owners. He refused to keep even a small share, save a tithe offered to Melchizedek, the “priest of Salem,” who then blessed him (14:1-24). [DD]
One would think these victories should leave Abram feeling upbeat, but none of his success could make up for the fact that he and his wife Sarai still had no children, though Yahweh had promised to make him the father of many nations (Gen. 12:1-3).
As Abram lamented in despair at having no heir, the story says, Yahweh appeared in a vision, declaring “I am your shield” (compare Psalm 3:3, 28:7, 33:20) and “your reward shall be very great” (v. 1b). Divine encounters through visions are characteristic of the Elohist author, who is responsible for much of today’s text (see “The Hardest Question” online for more on this). [DD]
Abram was doubtful, however. He wanted children, not rewards, and despaired that he had no son to inherit his wealth and carry on his name, leaving him to name his steward Eliezer as his heir (v. 2). Verse 3 repeats the same thought in different words, probably due to the awkward combination of two similar stories.
Again “the word of the LORD” came to Abram, assuring him that his heir would be a natural son (v. 4). God challenged Abram to go outside, look at stars in the night sky, and to count them if he could. As Abram marveled at the myriad stars, God promised that Abram’s descendants would be their equal in number (v. 5).
Abram’s response was so memorable that it was quoted multiple times in the New Testament and a favorite of Reformers such as Martin Luther. [DD] The narrator declared: “And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
The Hebrew word behind “believed” is ’aman, which basically means “to be firm” or “to trust. It is the root from which the English word “Amen” is derived. Abram trusted God’s promise, with the result being that God “reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
But what does the text mean by “righteousness”? In this context, “righteousness” is not a reference to ritual purity or perfection: it indicates a state of being right with God, which comes from trusting God and following God faithfully. This is why the Apostle Paul was so fond of the text: it reinforced his belief that salvation was through faith, not works: Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
A covenant promise (vv. 7-11)
Though v. 6 indicates that Abram trusted God implicitly, he seems more doubtful in vv. 7-8. These verses do not follow smoothly from v. 6, and are more characteristic of the Yahwist author. God speaks to Abram, not in a nighttime vision by “the word of the LORD” (as in vv. 1 and 4), but in a direct conversation during daylight: “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess” (v. 7).
“I am Yahweh” is a self-description of God’s divine identity. Here, as usual, the statement is followed by a relative pronoun that says something about God. In this case, Abram is reminded that it was Yahweh who brought him to his present position of power and influence.
But Abram wasn’t satisfied: he reminded Yahweh that he was a long way from possessing the land, as God had promised. How could he possess the land if he had no children to live there and spread through it? “O Lord GOD,” he asked, “how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (v. 8).
Yahweh responded with both patience and understanding. If Abram needed further reassurance, God offered to give it by entering a formal covenant with him. The Hebrew language for covenant making was to “cut a covenant.”
In this formal ceremony, partners entering a covenant would kill one or more animals and cut them into two parts, arranging the halves opposite each other with a space between. The two parties would then walk between the slaughtered animal parts as a way of swearing “May God do to me as to these animals if I do not keep the covenant.”
God instructed Abram to prepare for the ceremony by bringing a heifer, a nanny goat, and a ram that were each three years old, a sign of their maturity and value. In addition, he was to bring a dove and a pigeon (v. 9).
Knowing the ritual, Abram slaughtered the animals, split each of the large ones into two parts, and placed them on the ground in proper order. Because of their small size, perhaps, the birds were not split apart, but considered as a unit, with one bird placed on each side of the path (v. 10). [DD]
After preparing for the ceremony, Abram was met with silence. As hours passed, nothing happened: God did not appear to walk between the carcasses with him and ratify the covenant. In time, vultures spotted the dead animals and gathered for a feast, so that Abram had to chase them away. The narrative suggested that Abram waited patiently through the day, not charging God with dereliction, but trusting that Yahweh would make the next move.
He had only to wait until nighttime.
A deal sealed (vv. 12, 17-18)
“As the sun was going down,” the narrator says, “a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him” (v. 12).
Yahweh then spoke, but in a surprising way. As explained in “The Hardest Question” online, vv. 13-16 interrupt the story and are probably a later addition. The subject at hand is the birth of children and possession of the land, but vv. 13-16 jump ahead to predict that Abram’s descendants would spend 400 years “in a land that is not theirs.” The reference is clearly to the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt. They would return from Egypt, the text says, when “the iniquity of the Amorites” (an alternate name for Canaanites) had reached a certain point.
The insertion appears to explain why the narrator believed Israel was justified in killing the Canaanites and taking the land away from them – he believed their sinfulness had reached a limit that called for punishment.
After the insertion, the natural flow of the original story returns at vv. 17-18, with another reference to darkness after the sun had set. Whether still in a deep trance or not, Abram saw “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch” appear and float between the pieces. Abram was not asked to follow: Yahweh bore the weight of the covenant oath alone.
Why the firepot and torch? The “smoking fire pot” might refer to a pot used to carry coals from place to place to start a new fire, but the same word was used to describe the large clay oven used for baking bread.
The meaning of these particular symbols is unclear, though we might suggest that the divine smoke and fire in combination with common household items could indicate a covenant between Yahweh in heaven and Abram on earth.
The section concludes with a summary statement: “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram.” An interesting thing is that, despite Abram’s despair over being childless, the covenant focused mainly on the land: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (v 18).
But property and progeny go together: the land could not be possessed without a multitude of descendants to live in it.
Modern readers have different issues in our lives. We are not in Abram’s place, waiting for a promised string of descendants to fill an entire land. We do, however, have hopes and dreams, as well as real needs. The text challenges us to ask if we can express the same sort of faith that Abram showed, living with such faith and trust that God would “count it to us for righteousness.”
Both God and Abram showed patience with each other, and trust in each other. Could you describe your ongoing relationship with God in a similar way?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Genesis 15:1-21
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
What are your students scared of? They probably aren’t scared of monsters in their closet or under their bed, but they still have fears. Are they afraid of failure, letting you down, letting their friends down? How they deal with failure with impact how they move forward. Be honest with your students about how you have failed, but also how you recovered.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Genesis 15:1-21
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Scared of the dark” from Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse
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