GENESISChapters 15-17

July 13, 2003

Genesis 20:7

Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours

will die.

Psalm 106:31

This was credited to him as righteousness for endless

generations to come.

Galatians 3:6

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him

as righteousness."

James 2:23

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed

God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was

called God's friend.

Romans 4

Exodus 12:40

Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt

was 430 years.

Jeremiah 34:18

The men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then

walked between its pieces.

Gen 12:1–3 promised Abraham a land, descendants, and a covenant relationship. It is worth tracing these three aspects of the promise through the following chapters to

see how chap. 17 constitutes a climax.

The land becomes “this land” in 12:7, “all the land which you can see” in 13:15, and “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” in 15:18. Though the

narrator has frequently identified the promised land with Canaan, it is first

explicitly promised by God in 17:8, “I shall give to you … the whole land of Canaan as

a permanent holding.”

In 12:2 Abraham is assured he will become a “great nation.” In 13:16 he is told his

descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth; in 15:5 that he would himself

father a child and his descendants will be as many as the stars. In chap. 16 Abraham did father a child, whose offspring will be too

many to count.

But this apparently miraculous achievement is dwarfed by the promises here. Abraham

is not merely to father a nation but a “multitude of nations,” and “kings shall be

descended from you.” He is to father a child not simply through a youthful slave-girl but through his elderly wife, who at

ninety will bear her first child (vv 4–6, 15–16).

The nature of the covenant relationship is also defined more clearly in chap. 17 than

previously. In 12:3 there was a vague guarantee of protection: Abram’s blessers will be blessed and his disdainer cursed.

But this too becomes more explicit… 17:7 announces an eternal covenant with

Abraham and his descendants, “in order to be your God and your descendants’ God.”

Wenham, Gordon, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 2: Genesis 16-50, (Dallas, Texas: Word Books, Publisher) 1998.

Genesis 3:17

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I

commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground

because of you.

Exodus 3:7

The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying

out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned

about their suffering.

Genesis 17:18

And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under

your blessing!"

Exodus 23:17

Three times a year all the men are to appear before the

Sovereign LORD.

Exodus 34:23

Three times a year all your men are to appear before the

Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel.

Deuteronomy 16:16

Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will

choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of

Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles.