Genesis 15:6

‘And he believed in Yahweh, and he counted it to him for righteousness.'

What a remarkable verse is this, for it is the heart of the Gospel. As Abram looks at the multiplicity of stars he believes, not in the stars, but in the faithfulness and goodness of Yahweh. All his disappointment and bitterness melts away for Yahweh has promised and He is faithful. And Yahweh sees his believing heart and accounts it to him as righteousness, as the fulfilment of all that was required of him in the covenant of God.

To the men of those days, in tribes and nations of which they were an essential part, the idea of righteousness was very much founded in loyalty to the tribe or nation. The truly righteous was he who truly served his tribe. This did, of course, include a certain morality, for obeying the laws of the tribe was part of his service, but it meant more than that, it meant total dedication to the tribe.

But here that thought is transferred to a man's response to his God. Abram had left his tribe because of his loyalty to his God. Now in a supreme act of faith he responds to God's promise, the God who in his own heart had replaced his tribe. And God accounts him as a worthy man, both as one who has walked in obedience to all His requirements and as one whose total loyalty is to Him.

But the vital point is that this is not because of his obedience, nor because of his loyalty, although both had in fact been amply proved, but because of his response of faith, because he accepted the impossible of which God spoke to him. For his obedience could never be total, and his loyalty could never be total (we have seen how he has sometimes failed in both) but God accounts him as, and accepts him as, totally faithful and obedient because of his faith in God's promise. No wonder Paul uses this verse as the rock on which his doctrine of justification by faith is founded (Galatians 3:6).

The pointing to the stars by Yahweh is subtle. To other nations the stars were gods, but to Abram they are to be the permanent reminder of the promises of Yahweh. Wherever he goes he will see them and remember.

Now in Genesis 15:7 God returns to the point he had begun at in Genesis 15:1. This is the main revelation, the ‘word of Yahweh', although in His goodness God has given Abram a second subsidiary word of Yahweh to confirm the birth of a natural son. In a sense there has been a diversion over the great concern of Abram's heart, but how blessedly it has been responded to, and what great blessing it means for Abram both with regard to the desire of his heart and in his spiritual life, but now Yahweh must return to His primary purpose. This is no break in the narrative. It is demanded in verse 1. Now will His covenant with Abram be ratified as never before. (Genesis 15:2 were in one sense a break in the narrative, to satisfy the deep yearning in the heart of Abram).