Genesis 15

v1-6: God has promised Abram a son, but with the passing of time, he “feared he would have no child at all.” It is possible for there to be “great faith” and there still “be many fears.” So, God assures him that his descendants will be so many that they could not be counted. Abram believed the Lord, “the truth of the promise which God had just made to him, depending on the irresistible power and the absolute faithfulness of him that made it,” and if we want to “know the comfort of the promises” which God makes to us, we “must combine faith with the promises.”

v7-12: “It is a very desirable thing to know that we will inherit the heavenly Canaan.” It is good to have the assurance given to us that we will be brought safely to heaven, and we can have this, because “if Christ is ours, heaven is also ours.”

v13-21: Abram’s promised offspring will be a persecuted offspring. “They will be strangers… servants… and sufferers” in Egypt, with those whom they serve, oppressing them. “Those who are blessed and beloved of God are often greatly oppressed by wicked people; and God foresees it and takes notice of it.” It has always been this pattern that God’s people will “first suffer, and then reign.”

Genesis 16

v1-6: “Wicked temptations may appear very” attractive, but “when we do not do good, both sin and trouble lie close at the door,” and we have no-one to blame but ourselves for the “guilt and grief” which comes to us. “If we were to seek God’s guidance by the word and by prayer,” this “would be happily avoided.”

v7-9: Hagar by running away from Abram and Sarai, was leaving the place where the promises of Christ were. “It is a great mercy to be stopped,” when we wander away from Christ.

v10-16: Our God is “an all-seeing God,” and “He that sees all, sees me.” This is good for us to remember. God see our “sin and folly,” and “sorrow and misery,” and the seriousness of our repentance, and any time we depart from Him.

Genesis 17

v1a: God graciously condescends to talk with His people. “He talks with them by his word. He talk with them by his Spirit.”

v1b: The LORD is God Almighty. “He is self-sufficient. He has everything, and he does not need anything.” If we have Him our God, we have enough, “enough to satisfy our wildest desires, enough to supply the defects of everything else, and to gain for us a happiness for our immortal souls.”

v2-14: “What God is himself,” He promises to be to his people. “His wisdom is theirs, to guide and counsel them; his power is theirs, to protect and support them; his goodness is theirs, to provide for and comfort them.”

v15-22: “Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day. Now he saw it and was glad. As he saw heaven in the promise of Canaan, so he saw Christ in the promise of Isaac.”

v23-27: Abraham did what God had told him to. It is good for us to obey God’s commands immediately, while they are “still ringing in our ears, and the sense of duty is fresh.” Let us “not deceive ourselves by putting it off to a time that we think more suitable.”