How old is abram in genesis 15

Abram's belief in God is credited to him as righteousness. In the New Testament, both Paul and James quote this verse Romans ; Galatians ; James , making it a cornerstone of the Christian teaching that God's acceptance of us comes by His grace and through our faith.

Even though Abram has faith, he respectfully asks one more question of the Lord, in response to God's repeated promise to give him the land of Canaan: "How am I to know?

Instead He instructs Abram to gather five specific animals, to cut some in half, and to arrange them in a specific way. This begins a covenant ritual between God and Abram that is momentarily interrupted by birds of prey trying to eat the remains of Abram's slaughtered animals.

Before God completes the ritual, He causes a deep sleep to fall on Abram and reveals to Abram a prophecy about the future of his descendants. They will live as captives for years in another country, serving that nation. When the time comes, they will be released with abundant possessions and return to execute God's judgment on the Amorites and other inhabitants of the land of Canaan.

Abram learns that he will live to a good, old age, but that he will not live to see the troubling events of this prophecy. Finally, God completes the covenant ritual in a dramatic fashion.

Abram witnesses a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass through the pieces of the animals, a sight he would likely long remember as evidence of God's covenant promises. God completes the covenant by describing both the southern and northern borders of the Promised Land, as well as identifying the peoples who would have previously occupied the various regions of the land when Abram's descendants would receive it as their own. The faith necessary for God to count him righteous Gen was much less than the extraordinary faith demonstrated when he offered up Isaac years later He learned increasingly more deeply that God can be trusted, and he learned this because he had a relationship with God, where God spoke clearly and Abraham obeyed fully.

In , however, when God promises Abram a reward, Abram balks. What reward can count, since Abram is childless? He cannot pass on any of his blessings to his children; they will go instead to his leading servant In Mesopotamian custom, however, a designated heir could be displaced if the testator subsequently had a son. Yet God renews the promise, and affirms innumerable descendants for Abram Keep in mind that Abram is now between 75 and 85 years old ; , 16 , Sarai is just ten years younger , and that they have had no children yet.

In fact, even when Abraham sees the promise fulfilled, there will be just one son of promise, who will also have just two sons himself. Yet Abram believes that God will give him innumerable descendants a. Still, this faith has yet to be tested over time.

No one could say Abram was made righteous because of his obedience or fulfillment of religious law or ritual. It was faith and faith alone that caused God to account Abram as righteous. Those who only believe in God in the sense of believing He exists are merely on the same level as demons James Abram boldly asked God for proof of the promise. Abram had no title deed to the land, no certificate of ownership that another person would recognize.

Abram had nothing to make anyone else believe he actually owned the land. All he had was the promise of God. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

A three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon : This reads more like a shopping list for a strange pagan ceremony than something the LORD would ask for. Yet Abram understood perfectly what God asked him to prepare for. Cut them in two… and placed each piece opposite the other : Abram knew exactly what to do with these animals; he understood that according to the custom of his time, God told him to get a contract ready for signing.

In those days, contracts were made by the sacrificial cutting of animals, with the split carcasses of the animals lying on the ground. The covenant was made when parties to the agreement walked through the animal parts together, repeating the terms of the covenant. Jeremiah makes reference to this same practice of a covenant made by cutting animals and repeating the oath of the covenant as one walks through the animal parts.

The symbolism was plain. First, this is a covenant so serious, it is sealed with blood. Second, if I break this covenant, let this same bloodshed be poured out on my animals and me. He had to wait and fight off the vultures until God appeared to complete the covenant ceremony. Abram had reason to expect that God would come down and walk through the animal parts with him, because God had previously appeared to him in some way Genesis It seems that Abram knew that God was capable of taking some physical form.

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Now when the sun was going down : As evening came, God had not yet appeared to walk through the animal parts with Abram and seal the covenant.

Instead, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Abram. Apparently, at least part of what followed came to Abram in a dream while he was under this deep sleep. Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them : Abram wanted concrete proof from God, and God would soon sign the covenant.

Yet Abram needed to know he would have land and descendants, but all would not go well with his descendants in the future.

This was a dreadful aspect to an amazing promise. They will afflict them four hundred years : Specifically, God told Abram of the slavery and hardship Israel would endure in Egypt Exodus Though the land was given to Abram and his covenant descendants, there would be this long period where they lived outside the land and in affliction. Yet after four generations they would return here Canaan , and come with great possessions. 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.

When the sun went down and it was dark : As Abram was either asleep or perhaps still groggy from the deep sleep, he saw God do an amazing thing. Abram saw God pass through the animal parts all by Himself, while Abram watched on the sidelines.

A smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces : In walking through the sacrificed animals in the covenant ceremony, God represented Himself by two emblems — a smoking oven and a burning torch. The smoking oven reminds us of the many times smoke or a cloud represented the presence of God:. The burning torch reminds us of the many times fire represented the presence of God:. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram : God, represented by the smoking oven and the burning torch, passed through the animal parts by Himself; as Abram watched, God showed this was a unilateral covenant.

Abram never signed the covenant, because he passively watched while God signed it for both of them in the ritual. Therefore, the certainty of the covenant God made with Abram is based on who God is, not on who Abram is or what Abram would do. This covenant could not fail, because God cannot fail.

In a sense, the Father walked through the broken and bloody body of Jesus to establish His covenant with us, and God signed it for both of us. God alone signed this covenant; Abram did not haggle with God over the terms.