After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Abram said, Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me? seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.
God has just promised to be Abram's shield and his very great reward. Abram answers with a question: what good is a reward to a man with no son, whose servant stands to inherit everything?
God's promise did not settle Abram. It made him feel the gap between what God said and his empty house.
But notice the effect. It awakens the sense of wants, and it draws out the expression of those wants. If Abram had long felt any such desire in secret, there is no reason to think he had ever told it out to God before. Now he does… He was not content with the general terms God had used with him so far. Where was the value of God being ever so great a reward, if after all he was childless?
The question sounds like a complaint. Read another way, it is faith at its boldest.
But faith is bold, very bold, apparently aiming higher than the purposes and undertakings of grace. Abraham seems to throw back the words of the Lord. "I am your shield; your reward shall be very great," says the Lord. Abraham replies, "What will You give me?" This was bold; but, blessed to say, not too bold for the ear of the Lord, who finds His richest joy in language of faith like this.
Abram's logic is exact. A servant may manage the estate, but only a son inherits it.
Notice how exactly Abram lays hold of the great principle the Spirit brings out later in Romans 8. "If children, then heirs." Abram felt that sonship and heirship cannot be separated. Without the first, the second could not exist. This is the meaning of his question. Abram rightly judges that to have "no seed" was to have no inheritance, for the word is not "if stewards or servants, then heirs," but "if children, then heirs." (Rom. 8:17)
(Older translations read "the steward of my house," where the ESV has "the heir of my house.")
Commentators differ on how to read Abram's tone. Others read it more plainly: his situation weighed on him more than the promise did.
Abram's circumstances pressed heavily on his soul at this time. So when he answered the Lord, he did not rise to the level God wanted to lift him to… God had promised him many descendants in Genesis 13:16, but as he says, God had not given him any offspring (v. 3). He was no longer a young man and did not see any prospect of having a son.
God does not scold the question. He answers it, and He measures the answer to what Abram can take hold of.
How flat all God's assurances seem to have fallen with the pattern man of faith! And yet in all this we may very clearly find our own pattern… Do you know what it is to reach out for this immense God as your portion, apart from Christ as now revealed to us? If you do, you will know how the wings of faith flutter uselessly in the void and cannot rise to it. Thank God, if you cannot rise, God can come down; and so He does here to Abram. Calmly He comes down to the low level of Abram's faith, and goes on to give him what it can grasp.
Eliezer is a servant, not a son. Setting him aside leaves room for someone else, and the same pattern returns later in Abram's story.
What is the setting aside of Eliezer the steward but the making room for a child of promise, the son in the house? We find the same thing in Genesis 16, in the story of Sarah and Hagar, and of Isaac and Ishmael. There stands the further reality that the "son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman."
God's answer to the question turned this childless man into the example Paul later points back to.
The answer to this was the word of promise. It drew out Abram's simple acceptance of God's word, so clearly and so fully that he stands for all time as the pattern of faith. Paul appeals to his example in Romans 4, calling him "the father of all who believe." The word to this childless man was that he should have true offspring as many as the stars of heaven.
- Promise exposes want. God's offer of Himself as shield and reward did not silence Abram; it drew out of him a desire he had never spoken before.
- Want becomes prayer. Abram tells God the one thing missing, and such boldness is "not too bold for the ear of the Lord."
- Sonship carries the inheritance. A steward runs the house; only a son inherits it — "if children, then heirs."
- God stoops to weak faith. Abram did not rise to God's level, so God came down to his, giving him something he could grasp: the stars.
- Servant out, son in. Eliezer's place goes to the child of promise, and the childless man becomes the pattern of faith for all who believe.
And Abram said, Lo, to me thou hast given no seed, and behold, a son of my house will be mine heir.
Genesis 15 opens with God calling Himself Abram's shield and very great reward. Abram answers by naming the one thing missing: he has no child, and a servant of his house stands to inherit everything.
Eliezer was no minor figure. A steward held real standing in a childless man's house.
The first man to be called a steward in the Bible was Eliezer of Damascus (Gen. 15:2). He was, however, not God's steward, but Abraham's. His position was an important one. If no direct heir came, he would inherit his master's possessions.
So the "member of my household" in Abram's words is a servant already next in line.
The promise in verse 1 did not settle Abram; it opened him up. God's way of encouraging a person is to make him honest about his actual condition.
If Abram had long felt in secret any such desire, there is no reason to think he had ever said it out loud to God before. Now he does. God had given him the land of promise, but with this he was not content, and God meant that he should have more.
Kelly draws a practical rule from this. God does not want a polished report from us.
Whatever the occasion, God will always have reality. He encourages in grace, but He begins with reality, and that is what we find in His dealing with Abram now. He searches out Abram's wishes and thoughts, and He brings out from his lips what was at the bottom of his heart.
Abram's complaint is not greed. It rests on a rule that Romans would state later. The wording below reads "no seed" where the ESV has "no offspring."
Abram felt that sonship and heirship could not be separated. Without sonship there could be no heirship. He judges correctly that to have "no seed" was to have no inheritance. The word is not: if stewards or servants, then heirs, but "if children, then heirs." (Rom. 8:17)
Mackintosh then turns to us. Service has its place, but our privileges rest on sonship.
It may be good and very valuable, in its right place, to realise our responsibility to act as "faithful and wise stewards" while our Master is away. Still, the fullest privileges, the highest joys, the brightest glories that belong to us through the grace and mercy of our God are closely tied to our character and place as "sons."
Commentators differ here. Mackintosh says Abram judged rightly. Others say his answer fell below what God was offering.
Abram's circumstances weighed on his soul at this time. So when he answered the Lord, he did not rise to the level to which God sought to lift him... Though God had promised him many descendants in Genesis 13:16, yet, as he says, God had not given him any offspring (v. 3). He was no longer a young man and did not see any prospect of having a son.
Naming the shortfall settles nothing. What matters is what God does next.
It is all very well to say that Abram's faith was not up to the mark here. In truth it was not; but that is no explanation... Thank God, if you cannot rise, God can come down; and so He does here to Abram. Serenely He comes down to the low level of Abram's faith, and goes on to give him what it can grasp.
Abram asked for one thing. God handed him two.
As ever with God, His gifts go beyond what we ask. Abraham had asked for a son, and, in reply, God promises him not only a son but also an inheritance for the seed... If we are sons, then we must be heirs. God does not have sons without providing for them an inheritance.
And the son could only come one way, since nature on both sides had already given its verdict.
The inheritance lay stretched out before Abraham's eyes in all its vast size. But where was the heir? Abraham's body and Sarah's womb both answered "death." But Jehovah is the God of resurrection, so a "dead body" was the very thing for Him to act upon.
- Empty. A steward stood to inherit everything if no son came, so Abram's sense of loss was real, not imagined.
- Honest. God's promise drew the buried want into words, because He will always have us in the truth of our state.
- Son. Stewards do not inherit; children do — sonship is the ground of every privilege, not service.
- Down. Where faith could not rise to God's greatness, God came down to the level faith could grasp.
- More. Abram asked for a son and received a son plus an inheritance, given through a body already as good as dead.
And behold, the word of Jehovah [came] to him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that will come forth out of thy body shall be thine heir.
Abram had answered God's promise of a great reward by pointing to his empty house and to Eliezer, his servant and heir. Here God rules the servant out and names a son not yet born as the heir — a son from a body already past hope.
Abram's question was not ingratitude. He had worked out that an inheritance needs a child to receive it.
See how exactly Abram lays hold of the great principle later brought out by the Spirit in Romans 8: "If children, then heirs." Abram felt that sonship and heirship were bound together. Without the first, the second could not exist. That is the meaning of his question: "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" Abram judges rightly that to have "no seed" was to have no inheritance. The word is not, if stewards or servants, then heirs, but "if children, then heirs."
Abram asked for a son. God's answer names a son and an inheritance together.
In reply the word of the LORD came to Abraham and, as always with God, His gifts exceed our requests. Abraham had asked for a son, and in reply God promises him not only a son but also an inheritance for the seed. Sonship and inheritance are the two great themes of God's reply. Our future hope is tied to our standing as sons. If we are sons, then we must be heirs. God does not have sons without providing an inheritance for them.
Abram's faith could not rise to the greatness of what God had offered him.
Thank God, if you cannot rise, God can come down; and so He does here to Abram. Calmly He comes down to the low level of Abram's faith, and goes on to give him what it can grasp.
The weakness in the question draws no rebuke, and the answer carries no conditions.
God does not reprove his lack of faith. Instead He encourages his faith by telling him that Eliezer would not be his heir, "but one who will come forth from your own body shall be your heir" (v. 4). God's promise was absolute, though it took longer to fulfil than Abram expected.
The ESV says "your very own son." The older wording the writers use, "out of your own body," points to the one place where nature had nothing left to give.
Sonship is the proper basis of everything. It is the result of God's sovereign purpose and working, as we read in James: "Of His own will He brought us forth." Finally, it rests on God's eternal principle of resurrection. How else could it be? Abraham's body was "dead"; so in his case, as in every other, sonship must be by the power of resurrection. Nature is dead, and can neither father nor conceive anything for God. The inheritance lay stretched out before Abraham's eyes in all its vast size. But where was the heir? Abraham's body and Sarah's womb both answered "death." Yet the LORD is the God of resurrection. A "dead body" was the very thing for Him to act upon.
Verse 4 settled who would hold everything. The rest of Abraham's household received something else.
Isaac was "heir" according to God's original promise (Gen. 15:4). Others might have gifts and do well; but nothing would satisfy Sarah but the heirship for her son. It is the same now. Men are content with an outward knowledge of Christ and the many gifts they get by it. But they stand completely apart from the true heirs of God. Those born of God can be satisfied with nothing less than what He is pleased to give.
- Question — Abram saw that without a child there could be no inheritance. The rule is not "if servants, then heirs," but "if children, then heirs."
- Answer — God rules Eliezer out and names a son of Abram's own. He adds an inheritance beyond what Abram asked for.
- Grace — God does not scold the weak faith behind the question. He comes down to the level Abram can grasp and gives an absolute promise.
- Power — The heir had to come from a body already dead, so that the son could only be the work of the God of resurrection.
- Result — Others in Abraham's house received gifts; the inheritance went to the son alone. Those born of God are content with nothing less than all He gives.
And he led him out, and said, Look now toward the heavens, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, So shall thy seed be!
Abram is old and childless, and he has no heir. God takes him outside into the night and ties the promise of a family to something Abram cannot count.
Going outdoors pictures a change in how Abram measures his own case.
Another thing to notice is that when Abram measured himself by himself, he was childless and had no heir. But as soon as he viewed himself in the vastness of God's thoughts, all the comparisons drawn from things around him fell infinitely short of the Lord's intentions... A most important fact springs out of this look toward heaven, for the Spirit says, "He believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness."
God asks nothing of Abram here except attention.
God brings Abraham out from his own circumstances, and all he must do is look, listen, and believe. He is to look away from Sarah, himself, the earth, and everything of nature, and the LORD says, "Look toward heaven." And as he looks at the stars, he is to listen to what God says, "So shall your offspring be."
God sets Abram a task he cannot finish.
Could he count the stars? God did not tell Abram at the time that he could see only a very small fraction of all the stars in the heavens. He simply told him that his descendants would be as the stars.
Earlier God had compared Abram's family to the dust of the earth. Writers see the new image turning his hope in a new direction.
The contrast was great between thinking of his future descendants "as the dust of the earth" and now hearing them likened to "the stars of the heavens" (compare Genesis 15:5 with 13:15-17)... From then on God measured the future seed by the glory of His own dwelling place in heaven, not by Abraham's path as he walked by the sight of his eyes on earth. Abraham needed daylight to travel from place to place. But God spoke to him again in the dark of the night, when nothing hindered the display of heavenly glory in the countless stars, which witnessed to God's mighty power and wisdom.
Commentators differ on how far to press this. One writer sorts the promises into three, and the note printed with that article disagrees:
The Lord had said before, "All the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever." This concerns Israel. Then He said besides, "I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth." This applies to the nations at large. Now He says, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars." Here we have a heavenly family, and by this the promise is completed.
Editor's note: Though this interpretation is not new, is it warranted by Scripture? Do not Genesis 22:17, Deuteronomy 1:10 and Deuteronomy 10:22 show that "the stars of heaven" applies to the earthly people just as much as "the sand of the sea" does?
Verse 5 is the promise that verse 6 answers. What makes Abram's response remarkable is what he did not ask for.
Abram simply took God at His word. He believed it, he rested on it. He asked for no sign about the birth of the heir. He did not ask when he would set eyes on him, though he did ask for a sign that he would inherit the land. About the birth of the heir, the bare word of God was enough for him, and God reckoned his faith to him for righteousness. From that day on he was a justified man in God's eyes, justified by faith.
One writer turns the same call on the reader:
God brings Abraham out and points him to the starry sky... And what, dear friend, does your soul need? And where are you told to look for all the blessings you need? Toward heaven. Is it, Look within? No — toward heaven... Oh, dear one, "LOOK NOW." God never says, "Look tomorrow."
- Outside. Measuring himself by himself, Abram found nothing. God moved him out to see himself in the vastness of God's thoughts.
- Upward. God asks three things: look, listen, and believe — away from Sarah, himself, and everything of nature.
- Uncountable. The stars Abram could see were a small fraction of the real number, and his family was to be as the stars.
- Heavenward. Dust of the earth gave way to stars of heaven. Commentators differ on whether the stars mean a heavenly people or the earthly nation.
- Counted. The bare word of God was enough for Abram. He asked for no sign about the heir, and from that night God counted him righteous.
And he believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him [as] righteousness.
The scene is a starry night: God has just told childless Abram to count the stars and has promised him offspring as numerous as those stars. What follows is one short sentence the New Testament quotes again and again — about how God makes a person right with Him.
The faith recorded here was a response to something said, not something seen. One writer marks the exact moment:
It is not when the Lord appeared, but when the word of the Lord came to Abram, that he believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness. It is better, as Paul interprets it, to translate here "believed the Lord." The Hebrew adds the word "in," but with this verb it hardly carries that force.
And the word he received was, by every human measure, impossible.
You remember the story — one of the most beautiful in the Bible, to make plain how a sinner is justified… Abraham believed the Lord's word, though he was then an old man, and his wife an old woman. In the eyes of man this promise was impossible. But Abraham believed God, and God counted, or reckoned, this faith to him as righteousness… Abraham did not look at how impossible the promise was. He looked at the almighty power of the One who made it… Remember that this happened 430 years before the law was given. Abraham had never heard of the law when God reckoned him righteous. It was all by grace. It was all by faith.
Others had believed God before Abram. But here Scripture says something for the first time.
He believes in the power of resurrection in God, and in His faithfulness to perform His promise, and it is counted to him for righteousness. This is the first time Scripture teaches this great and all-important truth, or even uses the word for it. I have no doubt this is intentional, though we know there were believers before. But now, in the great root of the tree of promise, God would bring out this basic truth. Here God laid the very ground of man's blessing.
Older translations read "counted to him for righteousness," where the ESV has "as righteousness." One writer weighs what that accounting word means:
"Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." That is, God reckoned Abraham righteous, or held him to be righteous, because of his faith. The little word "for" can mislead. It may suggest that faith is a substitute for righteousness, something that can be turned into righteousness. "Reckoned to him as righteousness" more nearly gives the sense.
The God Abram trusted gives life where there is none. That shuts out every human contribution.
God counted righteousness to Abraham here because he believed in the Lord as the One who gives life to the dead. This is the character in which He reveals Himself in a world where death reigns. When a soul believes in Him as such, God counts that soul righteous in His sight. This must shut man out as far as his co-operation goes, for what can he do in a scene of death? Can he raise the dead? Can he open the gates of the grave?
Working and believing are paid in opposite ways:
If a man works, the reward is not viewed as a gift. It is the wages due to him. But if, instead of working, he believes on Him who justifies the ungodly — what a magnificent proof and conclusion that his faith is reckoned for righteousness! This is free grace, and the very opposite of a debt according to law.
Abraham's faith here and his offering of Isaac are two separate moments, years apart:
Now this is mentioned in Abraham's history many years before he "offered up" Isaac. The former is in Genesis 15:6, the latter in Genesis 22. How thoroughly distinct, then, is justification before God from justification before men.
The record was never meant to stay in Abram's biography.
If any case could be regarded as special, it is surely Abraham's. Yet of him we read that the words "it was counted to him" were "not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord" (Romans 4:23-24).
- Word — Faith came when God spoke, not when God appeared; Abram rested on a promise he could not fulfil.
- Counted — God did not find righteousness in Abram; He reckoned him righteous because he believed.
- Life — The God Abram trusted raises the dead, so no human effort can add anything.
- Grace — Wages are owed to a worker; righteousness is credited to the one who believes — and this came 430 years before the law.
- Us — The verse was written for every later believer, so the same reckoning stands today.
And he said to him, I am Jehovah who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give thee this land to possess it.
Abram has just believed God, and God counted his faith as righteousness. Now God speaks again. He names Himself, recalls the rescue from Ur, and promises the land. Abram's next words ask how he can be sure of it.
Other passages also name Ur as the place Abram came from. One reference work locates it near the Euphrates:
A city or district somewhere near the Euphrates. God called Abraham from there. Genesis 11:28, 31; Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7. It is thought to be the site of Mugheir, one of the most ancient places in Chaldea.
God did not call this man because he was better than the people around him:
The call of God goes out in sovereign grace. He separates to Himself a man who was no better than his neighbours, but who was openly caught up in the idolatries of his fathers.
God raises the rescue Himself. He points Abram away from his own condition and back to the purpose God held before Abram wanted anything from Him:
The Lord goes further. He turns Abram's attention to Himself, and to His own part in it in grace (v. 7): "I am Jehovah who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it" — I came to you when you were a poor idolater, and I came with the purpose and the intention. Your lot depends on grace and purpose, not on your strength or your condition. It did not depend on them then; it does not now. I had the purpose when I visited you in your misery, when you did not even have the desire for it.
The promise rests on the identity of the One promising, not on the strength of the one hearing.
The basis of all blessing for the believer is the fact of who God is. This is why God reminds Abram in verse 7: "I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees …" So Abram is encouraged to have the fullest confidence in the living God and in what He says.
The order in the chapter matters: the son is promised first, and the land follows. (Older translations read "to inherit it" where the ESV has "to possess.")
Abram is now made secure about the seed. At once he receives a renewal of the promise of the inheritance. The purpose of God runs like this: "if children, then heirs." At this the patriarch's faith grows bolder still. He wants, as it were, to read his title deed to this inheritance. He did not doubt the promise of the inheritance, any more than he had doubted the promise of the seed. But he wanted to search out the ground of his confidence; he would know the covenant of his God. And the Lord hears him in this too.
Abram answers this promise with a question in verse 8, and commentators read it differently. Some hear an honest question from a man who knew he was a sinner:
Is this a challenge to the promise? Is this calling God's truthfulness into question? No, indeed. It is only faith letting God know that a conscious sinner was listening to His promise. The promise therefore needed some warranty to carry it with certainty to the heart. And the Lord was well pleased with this. Faith always pleases Him, since without it nothing does. At once He prepares to let Abraham know that sacrifice sustained the promise.
Others hear a dip in Abram's confidence, though God still answered him:
He is asking, and Jehovah answers, no doubt. But he wants a sign by which he may know that he will inherit: "How am I to know that I shall possess it?" This does not seem to rise to the wonderful trust in Jehovah that marked him at other times.
Writers apply the land to the believer's own inheritance:
For us the land is the good land of our inheritance. The eyes of the Lord rest on it always. It is not earth, but heaven. What a wonderful place to enjoy our portion, when we really know what our portion is! "Where I am" is the Lord's own description of it.
- Grace first. God came to Abram in Ur while he was an idolater — the purpose was God's before the desire was ever Abram's.
- Grace names itself. "I am the LORD" is the foundation; blessing rests on who God is, not on the believer's strength or condition.
- Grace gives. The land is a gift attached to the promised seed: children first, then heirs — a title deed, never a wage.
- Grace bears questions. Abram asked how he could know. Commentators read his question differently. God answered him rather than rebuked him, and pointed him to sacrifice.
- Grace reaches us. The same pattern holds today. God brings people out of one place to give them another — not earth, but the place the Lord calls "where I am."