টীকা বর্তমানে শুধুমাত্র ইংরেজিতে উপলব্ধ। বাংলা অনুবাদ চলছে।
Genesis 15 — Counted for Righteousness
God reaffirms His covenant to Abram. Childless and aging, Abram believes the promise of innumerable descendants. The Lord counts his faith for righteousness. The covenant is sealed by a smoking furnace passing between the pieces.
“And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
— Genesis 15:6
- v.1-6 The promise of descendants like stars; Abram believes
- v.7-11 The covenant sacrifices prepared
- v.12-16 The dark prophecy of Egyptian bondage
- v.17-21 The smoking furnace; the land promised
Innumerable. Abram in his old age, childless, was asked to count what cannot be counted, and to receive that as the size of his offspring.
God gave him the visual — look up. The same visual remains available. Every clear night is a sermon on the Abrahamic promise.
Hebrews 11:12 notes this: descendants "as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable." Two pictures — stars and sand — for the same promise.
One of the most theologically loaded verses in the Old Testament. Paul builds Romans 4 on it. James reflects on it in James 2. Justification by faith is anchored here.
Notice — Abram was justified by faith before he was circumcised (Genesis 17) and before the law was given (centuries later through Moses). Justification has never been by works of the law.
"Counted" — Greek logizomai, accounting language. God credits Abram's faith as if it were righteousness. The transaction is real and legal in the heavenly books.
God tells Abram about Egypt centuries before it happens. The bondage is foretold; the deliverance is included in the prophecy (verse 14). Affliction does not catch God by surprise.
For the believer, the principle stands. The hardships ahead are not failures of God's plan but part of it. He has seen each of them already.
A covenant ceremony — but only God passes between the pieces. Abram is in a deep sleep (verse 12). The covenant is unilateral. God binds Himself; Abram receives.
This is the unconditional covenant. Its fulfillment depends on God, not on Abram's performance. The Mosaic covenant later was conditional ("if you obey"); the Abrahamic was not.
Hebrews 6:13 — God could swear by no one greater than Himself. The smoking furnace was God passing through the pieces alone — taking on Himself the obligations of both sides.
If you have been counting yourself out — too old, too late, too unsuited — read Genesis 15:5 again. The God who told Abram to count stars at ninety is still telling people they have a future they cannot see. Believe Him. He counts that faith as righteousness.
The smoking furnace passing between the pieces foreshadows the cross. There, God Himself passed alone through the place where the sinner should have died. The covenant of grace was sealed not by our blood but by His. We receive, like Abram, by believing.
"Fear not" — God's most common command, said sixty-some times in Scripture. Always paired with His own presence. Fear not because I am.
"I am... thy exceeding great reward." Not just the giver of rewards — He Himself is the reward. The highest blessing of faith is not what God gives but God Himself.