God's Covenant with Abram (Gen.15)

Backstory: God called Abram to leave his country, his people and his father’s household and set out for his ‘promised land’. God would bless Abram making him into a great nation with a great name. Moreover, God would eventually bless the whole world through Abram (Genesis 12:1-3). Originally God called Adam to multiply God’s images throughout the earth (1:28), and later God restated that responsibility to Noah (9:1-2). Now God calls Abram out of idolatry in Ur and promised him multiple descendants and homeland to bless ‘all peoples or nations of the earth’. However, it’s now a decade or so later and Abram remains childless and he still has no property. 

Genesis 15 (NIV)

^1-6 In a vision the Lord tells Abram not to fear for the Lord was Abram’s shield, and great reward. Abram is elderly and he’s been waiting on God for several years. The Lord had promised Abram would be a ‘great nation’ through whom God would bless the world. But, Abram was childless and his servant was his heir. Now Abram’s in his 80’s having set out for Canaan when he was 75 years old. Abram has no son, no land and now the Lord tells Abram that ‘a son coming from Abram’s own body’ would be his heir. The Lord shows Abram the night sky and says “count the stars if you can—so shall your offspring be.”  Abram sees countless stars; beyond number and he believes the promise and the Lord counts it to Abram as righteousness.

^7-21 The Lord reminds Abram how He brought Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans and having promised him the ‘Land of Canaan’. It’s been a number years now, so Abram wants to know how he can be sure that he would possess the land. So the Lord tells Abram to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, with a dove and a pigeon.  Without any further instruction, Abram knows to cuts the animals in two and arranges the halves opposite each other. When the ‘birds of prey’ come down on the carcasses, Abram drives them away. Then at sunset Abram falls asleep, and a ‘dreadful darkness’ came over Abram.  The Lord tells Abram how Abram’s descendants would occupy their ‘promised land’ 400 years in the future.

So in this story God formalizes the covenant he initiated with Abram in Genesis 12. The Lord confirms his ‘promises’ to give Abram multiple descendants and a homeland. However, Abram’s descendants would go down to country not their own for 400 years and be enslaved (Gen.15:13-14). Abram would rest with his ancestors and God would judge their oppressors. Abram's descendants would possess Canaan, but the Amorites would face God’s judgment.

Now we know that Isaac, Abraham's promised son, would have a son, Jacob. Jacob would be the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob’s gifted son, Joseph, through a series of providential events would become a ruler in Egypt and would preserve the Israelites through a time of famine. However, after Joseph dies the Israelites become enslaved in Egypt. Then God would call Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. Moses aid, Joshua, would lead them in their conquest of Canaan when the sin of the Canaanites tribes was ‘complete’ (after 400 years). So Abram's descendants would possess the ‘Land of Canaan’ after a long delay because the sin of the Amorites was not yet full (Gen.15:16).

The story depicts the long range purposed of God. We see God’s long-suffering as He patiently waits over 400 years before judging the ‘ungodly Canaanite tribes’. The various Canaanite tribes defiled Canaan with their ‘idolatry and sexual deviant behaviors’. Therefore God justly expelled them from Canaan (Leviticus 18, 18:25). Moreover, God gave them ample time to turn from their ‘wicked ways’ but to no avail.  Eventually, God told Joshua to “completely destroy” them (Deuteronomy 20:17, Joshua 24:8). However, we must take note that God said that what applied to the Canaanites would apply to the Israelites as well.

Leviticus 18:24–29 (NIV84) ²⁴ “ ‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. ²⁵ Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, ²⁷ for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ “ ‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people.