Genesis 15:1-6 Commentary

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I suppose it’s fair to say that Hebrew Scripture has been in the cultural zeitgeist long enough that its contents are public domain. I mean, I don’t even know who would be qualified to bring a lawsuit on behalf of … Moses? At the same time, I do think you could make a plausible copyright infringement argument against Disney’s The Lion King, which near enough cribs a scene from this very text of Scripture.

If you have projection capacity, it might not be a bad idea to show a video clip of this scene because the similarities and differences are quite instructive. The similarity is in a promised presence, comfort and assurance against great fear. The difference, of course, is that Mufasa is making a “great [star] cloud of witnesses” argument, in other words, “Look up to the stars to see what has been and draw courage from the past.” God’s promise to Abram is more like, “Look up to the stars to see what will be and draw hope for the future.”

Commentary:

The CEB Study Bible observes that this section of verses actually makes up a kind of three-act play:

Act 1 – God’s promise

Act 2 – Abram’s doubt and confusion

Act 3 – God’s kind reassurance.

Notice how these three acts map neatly onto Walter Brueggemann’s analysis of the Psalms: Location—Dislocation—Relocation. In fact, many of the narratives in Genesis serve as examples of this dynamic.

Act 1 – God’s promise

In fact, this is not the first time God makes these promises of off-spring and land to Abram.  These promises came first in Genesis 12, will be retold in another voice in Genesis 17 but only fulfilled (well, the off-spring part) in Genesis 21.  The promise of land takes multiple books of Hebrew Scripture to fulfill. So, even though for the purpose of this text, we begin with the promise and end with reassurance, the fact of the matter is that this promise is, itself, a reassurance of God’s faithfulness to promises already made.

Although both seed and land are promised in Genesis 15, the Lectionary selection of v. 1-6 focuses our attention on the promise of an heir and many descendants. This is, perhaps, for the past as the promise of land to Abram continues to be a theological rationale for dubious, even harmful, political applications.

Notice how the promise in v.1 begins not with the action God will take but with the character of God.  God is our shield, protection and defense. God greatest promise is faithfulness to God’s own character.  All other promises of future action, blessing, etc. would be moot without knowing that we can trust God’s character anyway. This particular promise of God as “shield” does not appear often in Hebrew narrative but is a consistent motif in the Psalms.  Similarly, the phrasing—“The word of the Lord came to Abram”—evokes prophetic literature, along God granting a vision to Abram.

You could really play with the theological concept of Munus Triplex in this text.  Just as Jesus Christ comes as prophet, priest and king — Abram seems to carry vestiges of each of these roles as well. The priest who leads the psalms, the prophet who hears the word of the Lord and the king who guarantees a dynasty of leadership for the people.

Act 2 – Abram’s doubt and confusion

Abram’s complaint is not an unreasonable assessment of his circumstances.  God made a promise about descendants a long time ago. It hasn’t happened yet and, as the saying goes, they’re “not getting any younger” while they wait. Similarly, his proposed solution while likely strange to many of us was not unusual at the time. The notes in the CEB Study Bible observe, “According to an ancient Near Eastern custom, a servant could be adopted as the heir of a childless couple. The servant would inherit their wealth in exchange for assuming the duties of a son.”

In his commentary on Genesis, Bill Arnold points out that this is the first time that Abram “talks back” to God in the text.  Robert Alter’s translation notes elaborate this observation when he writes, “Until this point, all of Abram’s responses to God have been silent obedience.” Here we see an honest expression of doubt and thus “this first speech to God reveals a hitherto unglimpsed human dimension of Abram.

There is a curious phrasing in verses 2 and 3 that breaks up Abram’s speech to God.  This seems to indicate that Abram spoke once and, being met with silence, tries again.

Act 3 – God’s kind reassurance.

Whereas previously, God had instructed Abram to observe the numberless grains of sand, here God is—quite literally—turning Abram’s sights higher. While it’s mind-boggling to consider the number of grains of sand, there is something awe-inspiring about looking at the innumerable stars. The farthest reaches of outer space serve the purpose of reminding us to wonder at God’s unfathomable creativity and capacity for proximate goodness to us.  According to Alter, “After his initial skepticism, Abram is reassured by the imposing character of God’s reiterated promise under the night sky.”

Bill Arnold breaks God’s reassurance to Abram into two parts: assertion and invitation.  God will do what God has promised (assertion) then the call to contemplate the stars as a tangible reminder of God’s promise (invitation.) From these two actions, Abram simply and profoundly believes.  Arnold observes, “Although only fives words in Hebrew, the notion expressed here becomes the standard of faith in Israel’s Scriptures and central to early Christian formulations of faith.” In fact, Paul relies heavily on Genesis 15:6 in making his argument that God’s crediting Abram with righteousness (justification) precedes his act of faith and obedience (sanctification) by way of circumcision in chapter 17.

It strikes me that there is something in the sequence here that we can capture with our congregations.  God reassures us of promises and makes that reassurance tangible.  Following that, we have faith enough to continue following God’s plan for us.  As Christians, we might look to the way baptism assures us of God’s promise, makes it tangible in the water, resulting in a call to walk in newness of life. We might also invite people to fill out the following sentences in response to this sermon:

 

• God is ____________________________.
• When I experience __________________________ I am reminded that God is [fill in blank with word/phrase above]
• Reassured that God is [fill in blank with word/phrase above], I have faith to _____________________.

The CEP website has a commentary from 2022 on Isaiah 1:1, 10-20: https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2022-08-01/isaiah-11-10-20-3/