GENESIS CHAPTER 15 A comfortable promise to Abram, Genesis 15:1. His prayer for an heir, Genesis 15:2,3. The promise of an answer to his prayer, Genesis 15:4,5. Abram's faith, Genesis 15:6. He desires a sign, Genesis 15:7,8. God gives him one, Genesis 15:9. He observes it, Genesis 15:10,11. God appears to him when in a deep sleep, Genesis 15:12. A prediction of evil to befall his posterity, Genesis 15:13. Their deliverance, Genesis 15:14-16. The covenant concerning Canaan renewed, Genesis 15:17-21. God anciently revealed himself to men two ways; either,
1. When the man was asleep, in a dream; or,
2. In a vision, Numbers 12:6, when he was awake: and this either,
1. When he was rapt into an ecstasy, wherein his senses are idle, but his mind is active and elevated to the contemplation and understanding of what God reveals. See Numbers 12:6-8 24:4 Isaiah 1:1 Acts 10:10,11. Or,
2. When the thing was manifested by an external representation. So here, God seems to have appeared to Abram in the shape of a man, as he did Genesis 18:1-33, as may be gathered from Genesis 15:5,10. Fear not, Abram; neither the return of those enemies whom thou hast smitten and provoked, nor the envy of thy neighbours for this glorious victory, nor for thy own desolate condition. Seeing thou didst trust to my protection, I will be a shield or a protector to thee; and seeing thou didst so honourably and for my sake reject other rewards, taken by thyself, and offered by the king of Sodom, thou shalt be no loser by it; I will abundantly recompense all thy piety to me, and charity to thy afflicted kinsman Lot, and thy liberality towards others: I will bless thee with all sorts of good things, as well as defend thee from all evil; which two things make a man completely happy.