This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Dr. Wellum’s exposition of Genesis 15 from Sunday April 6, 2008.

This chapter continues the emphasis from Genesis chapters 12-15 on the promise of land. In v. 1, God reminds Abram of this promise, stating, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” At the time, Abram did not have any land of his own, though he had “settled in the land of Canaan” (13:12). Neither did he have an heir to inherit what possessions he did own, namely, “livestock, silver, and gold” (13:2). Thus, his response to God in 15:2 seems legitimate: “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

God’s reply to Abram is that Eliezer will not be his heir, but that he will have his own son. Thus, the reader is informed by Moses (the author) that the promised seed of 3:15 will not be found in Eliezer’s line, but in the line of God’s covenant partner, Abram. What comes next becomes central to not only the Old Testament episode in the story of redemption but to that of the New Testament as well: “Then he [Abram] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (v. 6).

That this faith that leads to righteousness comes before circumcision (ch. 17) or the giving of the Law to Moses (Ex. 20), reveals that Abram was saved by faith, apart from works of the Law; but, it also reveals—as the New Testament authors point out—that the promise of being “heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13) is made “also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (4:16). This is because the faith that Abram had was faith in God’s promised Heir, none other than Jesus Christ. This is what Paul means when he says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham” (Gal. 3:8).

The land promised to Abram wouldn’t be inherited by Eliezer. Indeed, it wouldn’t even be inherited by Abram’s biological son, Isaac. One is, thus, left with Paul’s frequent question, Has God’s promise failed? To which Paul’s answer is necessary, May it never be! One from Abram’s line would come who would posses the land of Canaan, and not the land of Canaan only, but that of the whole world. And, if you belong to that One, then you too are “Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Audio from this week’s lesson: Genesis 15.

~DGG