Abram has a valid question at the beginning of Genesis 15.  God had made these seven promises to him in Genesis 12: I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you; I will make your name great; you will be a blessing to others; I will bless those who bless you; Him who dishonors you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  The blessings and curses had already started – Abram was rich and he had rescued his nephew Lot from the marauding kings who captured his family.  Abram’s question was about the first promise – how will there be a great nation if I don’t even have a son yet?

God restates the promise – “Your very own son shall be your heir. Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them.  So shall your offspring be.” Abram’s foundational response is to believe what God was telling him, and God “counted it to him as righteousness.” It was not Abram’s actions, but his faith that was counted righteous.

God expands the nature of the promise in verses 13-16, outlining that Abram’s offspring would be servants and afflicted in a foreign land for four hundred years but would come out with great possessions and would return to Canaan afterward.  This is, of course, a description of the time Abraham’s people, the Israelites, spent in Egypt and the Exodus God arranged from there.

In verses 8-11 and 17-21, a covenant-making ceremony is conducted where animals are split in two and halves placed on each side of a walkway.  The covenant makers walking through the carcasses symbolized their pledge “may it be unto me like these animals – split apart – if I violate this covenant.” In this case, God is the only one going through the ‘valley of death’ – the smoking pot and flaming torch in verse 17 are similar to the cloud of smoke and pillar of fire that accompanied Israel through the wilderness.  He was showing how serious He was about keeping the promises He made to Abram.

The last promise –that all families (nations) of the earth would be blessed – has been fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The famous verses of John 3.16 and 18 are partly exhilarating and very sobering:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life… but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”  Please repent and believe, knowing that The LORD of the universe will keep ALL his promises.