What Did God Promise Abram in Genesis 15?

God promised Abram, who was fearful and asking about the future, an heir from his own body, countless descendants, and the land they would receive. Genesis 15 records how Abram told God about his situation, believed God’s word, and asked again how he could know the promise would be fulfilled. God answered with a word and then established a covenant with Abram.

Abram Said He Had No Heir

God told Abram not to be afraid. God revealed that He Himself was Abram’s shield and his very great reward.

But Abram had an unresolved issue. He said that he had no children. If things remained that way, he thought that Eliezer of Damascus or someone born in his household would become his heir.

Abram did not hide his situation before God. He asked what he could receive and also said that God had not yet given him offspring. The promise in Genesis 15 follows as God’s answer to that question.

God Promised an Heir from Abram’s Own Body

God said that the person Abram had in mind would not be his heir. Instead, He clearly answered that one who would come from Abram’s own body would be his heir.

God took Abram outside and told him to look at the sky. After asking whether he could count the stars, God said that Abram’s descendants would be like them. There was a great gap between Abram’s present circumstances and God’s promise, but the passage records that Abram believed the LORD. The LORD credited that faith to him as righteousness.

What this passage emphasizes here is not that Abram came up with a solution on his own. It is that Abram believed God’s word about the heir and the descendants.

God Also Answered the Question About the Land

God revealed that He was the one who had brought Abram out from Ur of the Chaldeans. And He said that He had brought him out in order to give him this land as his possession.

Abram asked how he could know that he would possess the land. God had Abram prepare a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon. Abram brought the animals as instructed and laid them out, driving away the birds of prey that came down on the carcasses.

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and deep darkness came over him, and he was terrified. God told him that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land and would be oppressed for four hundred years. At the same time, He said that He would judge the nation that enslaved them, that Abram’s descendants would come out with possessions, and that they would return to this land in the fourth generation.

God Established a Covenant with Abram

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a blazing torch passed between the pieces. That day God made a covenant with Abram. And He said that He would give the land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, to Abram’s descendants.

Genesis 15 does not say that every promise was fulfilled immediately. Rather, it also tells of the long time Abram’s descendants would experience and of what would happen afterward. So the central answer we can see in this chapter is clear. God answered Abram’s questions with specific words about an heir, descendants, and land, and He established a covenant.

Today, read the entire chapter of Genesis 15 and write the three promises God made in one sentence. It is best to write what God Himself said in the passage, rather than Abram’s situation.

Biblical Basis

• Genesis 15:1-6
• Genesis 15:7-16
• Genesis 15:17-21