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The Lord’s Promise to Abram

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Romans 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? :2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. :3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Galatians 3:5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? :6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” :7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. :8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” :9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

James 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.

The Lord Makes Another Promise to Abram

Genesis 15:7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”

Genesis 15:8 And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”

Genesis 15:9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” :10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.

The sign of ancient covenants often involved the cutting in half of animals, so that the pledging parties could walk between them, affirming that the same should happen to them if they broke the covenant  --MacArthur.

Example of this covenant……Jeremiah 34:18 And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it—:19 the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf—

Genesis 15:11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Genesis 15:12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 

Similarities….Genesis 2:21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

Genesis 15:13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. :14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 

The words of God in the covenant ceremony assured Abram that his descendants would definitely be in the land, although a painful detour into Egypt would delay fulfillment until long after his demise. Cf. Ac. 7:6, 7.  --MacArthur,

The 400 years mentioned refers to the time of Israel’s harsh affliction in Egypt. Jacob and his family were not in bondage when they first came to Egypt.

Genesis 15:15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.

Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”:17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 

Note that only one symbol is seen passing between the pieces, namely, the appearance as of a smoking furnace from which torch-like flames shot out. This indicated that Yahweh alone was undertaking the fulfillment of all the conditions attached to the covenant. The covenant of grace is thus not a pact, as between two, but a promise confirmed by covenantal forms.

Genesis 15:18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—:19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, :20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, :21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

“Scripture records both general and specific descriptions of the Promised Land, centering on the ancient land of Canaan. Such precise geographic demarcation will not allow for any redefinitions which would emasculate God’s promise of its specificity. The river of Egypt was most probably what became known as the Wadi El Arish, the southern border of Judah. Kenite … Jebusite. The various peoples who inhabited the land are named. Such precise detailing of the nations in the land of Canaan attests again to the specificity of the Promised Land in God’s promises.” --MacArthur

Hagar and Ishmael

Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 

This shows the legitimacy of the old testament writings and an interpretation of this section  (Gal 4:21–31): 

Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? :22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 

Galatians 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, :24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—

Galatians 4:25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—:26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 

Galatians 4:27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband.” :28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 

Galatians 4:29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 

Galatians 4:30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” :31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. 

Genesis 16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.

Genesis 16:3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.

After 10 childless years , Sarai resorted to the custom of the day by which a barren wife could get a child through one of her own maidservants (v. 2, “I will obtain children through her”).

Abram, ignoring divine reaction and assurance in response to his earlier attempt to appoint an heir, yielded to Sarai’s insistence.

Macdonald, Farstad  Grady Scott, Hindson, E. MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006).