Chapter 15
[Genesis 15:1] -- After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." The blessing that Abraham had received from the priest Melchizedek, the Lord himself now confirms. For the priest had said, "And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand" (Gen. 14:20). The Lord says, "I am your shield." The priest had said, "Blessed be God Most High." God himself says, "And your reward shall be very great." By reward he means not only the affection he had shown to his brother in distress but also all the devotion with which he had served the Lord with a whole heart since he left his homeland and relatives.
[Genesis 15:2] -- And Abram said: Lord God, what will you give me? I go childless, and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer. And Abram added: You have given me no offspring; and behold, my servant will be my heir. He does not ask as though doubtful of God's promises, but simply inquires what reward he, who has no son in whom to rejoice as heir and participant of the divine promise, will receive from the Lord, and whether his servant will be his heir instead. This servant was called by two names, that is, Damascus, Eliezer, by whom, they say, the city of Damascus was both founded and named. But the Lord, favoring Abram's desires, promised him this reward which he sought, when he immediately added:
[Genesis 15:4] -- This one shall not be your heir; but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. This is proved by reason to have been said about Isaac and his offspring; of whom it was later heard: In Isaac shall your seed be called. For the sons of the concubines, although they were the seed of Abraham, could not be partakers of his inheritance; and since to this inheritance beloved by God, in which the divine protection and great reward would exist, only heavenly souls pertain, it is fittingly added:
[Genesis 15:5] -- He brought him outside and said to him, "Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you can," and he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." For the just and the elect are rightly compared to stars, not only because, like the stars, they cannot be counted by men; but also because they are exalted with heavenly happiness, because they transcend the base and low desires of this life with great sublimity of mind; because they shine among the reprobate as lights in the world, holding the word of life. Of such it may rightly be said in the end: "Star differs from star in glory, so is the resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor. 15:41). But what he said, "So shall your offspring be," he does not say only of those elect who were to be born corporally from his lineage but also of us, to whom it is said by the Apostle: "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed" (Gal. 3:29). Hence, he first heard while being situated inside: "But one who will come from your body will be your heir." Obviously for those who were to emerge from his seed, who were also to become co-heirs of the promised blessing and inheritance. Afterwards, bringing him outside, he commands him to number the stars, if he can; saying, "So shall your seed be," undoubtedly because of those who were not to be procreated from his body, but were still to be gathered as his seed from the whole world; in accordance with what the Lord himself said in the Gospel to the believing centurion, who not carnally but spiritually pertained to the seed of Abraham: "I say to you that many will come from the east and west, and will sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8:11). For he brought him outside so that he might learn that he was yet to receive the seed of blessing in the breadth of the whole world. He commands him to look toward heaven and number the stars, so that he might know that he was to be enriched with this inheritance in the heavenly homeland.
[Genesis 15:6] -- He believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. The Apostle recalls this sentence (Rom. IV, 3) to commend the grace of God, lest circumcision should boast, and the uncircumcised nations should be unwilling to admit to the faith of Christ: for this was done when faith was reckoned to the believing Abraham for righteousness, and he had not yet been circumcised. Therefore, faith is reckoned as righteousness, not idle and naked, but that which works through love; and also, faith which, although it does not yet have the time to work, still has a perfect will to work. For the faith of the thief was reckoned as righteousness, which, even though it could have no time for works given the imminent article of death, was judged so perfect by the inspector of hearts, that on the same day, it was rewarded with habitation in paradise with him. The faith of Cornelius and his household was reckoned as righteousness, even so much that before the washing of regeneration, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit; because as soon as it was conceived in the heart, it was prepared to work through love. Thus, Abraham's faith was also proven sufficient to be reckoned as righteousness, since he was prepared to offer even his only son as a burnt offering at the command of the Lord. Therefore, the just man lives by faith (Rom. I, 17), that faith surely which is ready to work through love, and if it has time, it works.
[Genesis 15:7] -- And he said to him: I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it. Some think Ur is the name of a place, but because Ur is interpreted as Fire, it is better understood according to the tradition of the Hebrews, as we said above, that he was rescued from the fire of the Chaldeans, who wanted to consume him with flames because he refused to worship and adore the fire which they worshipped as God. But, with God protecting him, they could not accomplish this.
[Genesis 15:8] -- But he said: Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? Abraham is not to be thought to have failed in faith after he believed in God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, so as to say: Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? For he is not seeking a sign to believe as if he were still unbelieving; rather, he entreats that some similarity be given to the thing he believed would happen, by which the manner of it being achieved might be recognized. Hence the old translation has more significantly: Sovereign Lord, according to what shall I know that I will be its heir? Just as there was no lack of faith in the Virgin Mary when she said: How will this be, since I do not know a man (Luke 1:34)? She was certain of what was to come, she inquired about the manner of how it would happen. And when she had asked this, she received an answer. Consequently, here too a similitude was given from the animals: a heifer, a goat, a ram, and two birds, a turtledove and a pigeon, so that he might know through these that what was to come would surely come. For it follows:
[Genesis 15:9-10] -- The Lord replied: "Take for me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, and a three-year-old ram, also a turtledove and a pigeon." He took all these and divided them in half, and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not divide the birds. For the heifer may signify the people under the yoke of the law; the goat the same people who would be sinful, the ram the same people who would also reign. Therefore, these animals are called three because in the third age of the world that people matured and entered the land of promise. The first age is from Adam to Noah, the second from Noah to Abraham himself, the third from Abraham to David; in which the people were saved from Egyptian servitude and transferred to the land of promise. Or if these signify something else more fitting, I would by no means doubt that the spiritual are prefigured in the addition of the turtledove and the pigeon; and thus it is said: "But he did not divide the birds," because the carnal are divided among themselves, but the spiritual by no means, whether they remove themselves from the busy dealings of men like the turtledove, or dwell among them like the pigeon; yet both birds are simple and harmless, signifying that in the very Israelite people, to whom that land was to be given, there would be undivided peoples of promise and heirs of the kingdom remaining in eternal happiness.
[Genesis 15:11] -- And birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. These divided birds, which descended upon the carcasses, do not indicate anything good, but rather certain spirits of this air seeking their sustenance from the division of the carnal; or certainly the carnal adversaries of the same people, who, according to the counsel of Balaam the diviner, were seeking an opportunity for victory from their crimes, concerning whom the prophet says: "Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens" (Lamentations 4:19).
[Genesis 15:11] -- But Abram drove them away, because by his merits Israel was often delivered both from the distress of temporal evils and from the snares of evil spirits.
[Genesis 15:12] -- But what is added: When the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and a great and dark dread fell upon him, signifies the great distress and tribulation of the faithful that will occur near the end of this age. About which the Lord says in the Gospel: For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning (Matthew 24:21).
[Genesis 15:13] -- And it was said to him: Know for certain that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not their own, and they will enslave them, and oppress them for four hundred years, etc. This was very clearly prophesied about the people of Israel who were to serve in Egypt. Not that this people were to be afflicted for four hundred years in the same servitude under the Egyptians who oppressed them, but it was foretold that this would happen within the four hundred years. For four hundred years are called so because of the fullness of the number, although they are somewhat more; whether computed from the time these promises were made to Abraham, or from when Isaac was born because of the offspring of Abraham of whom these promises are spoken. They are counted from Abraham's seventy-fifth year when the first promise was made to him, to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, four hundred and thirty years, of which the Apostle thus makes mention: Now this I say, says he, the covenant confirmed by God, which was made four hundred and thirty years later, does not nullify the promise (Galatians 3:17). Therefore, these four hundred and thirty years could already be called four hundred, which are not much more; how much more so when a few of this number had already passed when these things were shown and said to Abraham in a vision, or when Isaac was born to his hundred-year-old father twenty-five years after the first promise; when of those four hundred and thirty, four hundred and five remained, which the Lord wished to call four hundred.
[Genesis 15:16] -- But in the fourth generation, they shall return here. Kohath entered Egypt with his father Levi, whose son was Amram, whose son was Aaron, whose son was Eleazar, who was the fourth from Kohath. And he went out from Egypt with his father Aaron, and when he died in the wilderness, he himself entered the Promised Land.
[Genesis 15:17] -- So when the sun had set, a dense darkness came over, and a smoking furnace appeared, and a blazing torch passed between the pieces. This darkness and the fire furnace occurring after the sunset signifies that at the end of the world, the carnal will be judged by fire. For just as the affliction of the City of God, such as never was before and is expected to come under the Antichrist, is signified by the frightening darkness upon Abraham at sunset, that is, as the end of the age approaches; so at sunset, that is, at the end itself, it is signified by this fire that the day of judgment will save the carnal through fire and condemn them in fire.
[Genesis 15:18] -- On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants, I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. The river of Egypt, which is the Nile, he does not call great but small, which separates Egypt and Palestine, where the city of Rhinocorura is. Therefore, the Lord made a covenant with Abram on that day, when he offered the sacrifices of animals and birds. Certainly, that covenant was that he and his descendants would always offer prayers and sacrifices to the Lord with a faithful heart; and the Lord in turn would grant him and his descendants the land of Canaan to possess forever.