The Book of Genesis, Chapter 15

Genesis 15:1-20

Summary

God speaks to Abram in visions and dreams, establishing between them the knowledge that Abram's nation would be great. The whole "Egypt" fiasco is hinted at, and God makes a covenant with Abram.

Commentary

Interesting to see this chapter, because, as I mentioned in the last post, I always view Abram as the ancient guy with many many children. However, in this chapter, Abram is childless, and he worries about the fact that one of his slaves from Damascus will inherit his house.

I'm intrigued by the practical nature of Abram's worries. God comes to him and says,

"Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." (Gen 15:1)

but Abram calls God out in return, saying,

"O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" (Gen 15:2)

Interesting note, the first few times God speaks, it's described as "The word of the Lord" coming to Abram. I'm reminded of Alan Rickman's character in Dogma, Metatron, with the memorable line,

"Human beings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstand the awesome power of God's true voice. Were you to hear it, your mind would cave in and your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that one out." (Dogma, 1999)

Dogma is rather silly, but it can jive with the scripture in this case if you're interpreting it in the right way. The author of Genesis says:

"But the word of the Lord came to him, 'This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.' He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'" (Gen 15:4-5)

So, depending on how you read this, the word of the Lord could be a person, because the language suggests that the word of the Lord brings Abram outside. It doesn't really have any major impact on the story of this chapter, but it's fun to speculate.

Shortly thereafter, God patiently tells Abram that he will give all the land in the area to him, and Abram is again skeptical. "O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" (Gen 15:8) Abram asks, and God says, "Hush you, and bring me dinner." Or something like that. Actually he requests a very specific sacrifice of three-year-old farm animals and a couple birds.

Perhaps there's a significance to what God asks for that I'm not understanding, but I honestly don't see how this validates his claim that he will give Abram a whole whack of land.

Abram falls asleep, and when he does so, a deep and terrible darkness falls upon him as well. God comes to Abram in a dream and plays the part of the dark prophet, warning Abram that while his descendants would face great trials and be slaves in a strange land for four hundred years, judgment would be brought on their oppressors and they would be a great nation.

According to the book, Abram's descendants are going to be paying for the "iniquity of the Amorites", but sadly a quick googling of this subject has resulted in finding little but the sites of people whose scholarly knowledge is very questionable.

Abram, however, is told to have a long life, many children, and a quiet death. In the ancient world this is a blessing and miracle in and of itself, and I hope that most of you don't under-appreciate how important a message to Abram this really is.

With a smoking firepot and a torch passing over the sacrifice, God makes a covenant with Abram to grant him the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Whew, that's a lot of land (I'm guessing). I'm kind of intrigued by the imagery of the sacrifice and the fire. It's indicative of the growth of our perception of God, from a very primitive and wordly God who is associated intimately with the affairs of the day to a God who plays from the shadows, much more like the Wizard of Oz (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!).

If God is eternal and unchanging, it must be that our perceptions and understandings of God change with time, as the God we know now is very different from the primitive and worldly God suggested by the ritual in this chapter.