I love coming to Genesis chapter 15 again as I journey through the Bible!  There are some really neat things there to think about! Abraham, although called “the father of the faithful” is having trouble believing that God is going to honour His promise (in chapter 12) to make of him a great nation.  He is now an old man and he’s still waiting for the family to start arriving and has resigned himself to the seeming reality that one of his servants will be his heir! As he talks to God he is encouraged to continue believing that God has the matter in hand!

Then God brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” The next verse simply says: “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  It was this faith in God that made him a legend to other Bible writers and this phrase is quoted by the Psalmist, the Apostle Paul in Romans and Galatians, as well as Jesus’ brother, James.

However, the part of Genesis 15 that really encourages me is a seemingly insignificant statement by God.  He tells Abram that his descendants would surely possess the land where he was living, but that they would be captives in a foreign land and suffer affliction for 400 years BECAUSE “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full”!

As God surveys the land of Canaan He sees that most of the nations are completely given over to evil and have gone beyond what can be allowed to continue.  HOWEVER, in the land of the Amorites, there are some who are not completely beyond His grace.  For the sake of those, He is willing to allow His chosen people to remain in slavery for 400 years! THAT is GRACE!

That may not strike you as something to get excited about, but it sure excites me! It speaks volumes about this God of mine who is still holding back from His “unusual act” (Isaiah 28:21, 22) of destroying the wicked and setting His people free at the 2^nd coming of Jesus. While we pray for the coming of Jesus to take place soon, a “God’s eye” view of this planet sees that there are some, maybe amongst our loved ones and neighbours, who need to be given a demonstration of the love of God so they will accept His free gift of salvation before it is forever too late.

How can we best show them a picture of God today? Surely it must be by accepting Jesus’ promise to abide with us and allowing Him to change us into His loving likeness.

Have a great day!