Bible Study: Genesis 15

For starters
1. Would you describe yourself as a patient person? When do you find waiting for something most difficult in your life?
2. Try to put this proverb into your own words: ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life’ (Proverbs 13:12). Do you agree? How does this help us understand some of the challenges of living by faith in God’s promises in the gospel?

Into the Bible – Genesis 15
3. Recap the story of Abraham/Abram so far by looking over Genesis chs. 11-14.
• What are the promises God has made to Abram? (e.g. 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17)
• How would you describe Abram’s faith in God and God’s promises in these chapters?

Read Genesis 15:1-6
4. How are God’s words to Abram in v.1 exactly what he needs to hear?
5. Look at vv.2-3. Why does Abram struggle to take comfort from God’s words?
6. Can you relate to Abram’s struggle here? When do you struggle to believe God has the power to keep the promises he has made in the gospel?
7. Look at vv.4-5. How does God reassure Abram that he will keep the promises he has made to him to give him descendants ‘from his own body’?
8. Look at v.6. How does God respond to Abram’s faith in him and in his promises?

Look at Romans 4:1-5 & 18-25
9. How does the apostle Paul link Abraham’s faith with the faith of those who trust in Jesus? What can we learn from Abraham’s faith in our Christian lives?

Read Genesis 15:7-21
10. What promise does God reaffirm to Abram in v.7? How does Abram respond to this in v.8?
11. Look at the covenant God makes with Abram in vv.9-21. What is the significance of the cut-up animal pieces in vv.9-11?

[Note: In Near-Eastern countries of this period, this was the most solemn way of making an agreement with someone. The cut-up animal pieces are a sign of the serious consequences if one party breaks the agreement – ‘If I break this covenant, may I end up like these animals and be cut up and killed.’]

12. What is the significance of vv.17-21 – that it is only the LORD (in the form of a smoking brazier) that walks between the animal pieces, and not Abram (who is in a deep sleep – see v.12)?

[Note: By this action, God is saying the he will bear the consequences alone if his covenant with Abram is broken. Of course, both Abram and his descendants break their covenant with God repeatedly throughout the Old Testament – and God finally bears the consequences of that in the person of his Son Jesus at the cross.]