The Lord, in His tender care for His faithful follower, came to reassure Abram that He would protect him. This gave Abram opportunity to tell the Lord what was really bothering him—he had no son to be his heir. Up till now he at least had his nephew, Lot, but as soon as they separated Lot began to drift into sin. Lot didn't change even after being taken captive. There was no reason to expect that he would carry on the life of faith that Abram was pioneering.

Abram was no longer interested in other things. That is why he asked the Lord, "What will you give me, for I am still childless?" The Lord responded by repeating and strengthening His promise that Abram would have a multitude of descendants and that they would inherit the good land. The whole procedure with the animals and the torch and smoking pot passing between them was to ratify, to make official, this covenant with Abram.

But even though Abram believed the Lord's promise he was still concerned about how it could be fulfilled. He was already 85 and Sarai was 75 years old. By that time it seemed impossible for Sarai to have a child and time was running out for Abram. So Abram went along with his wife's suggestion that he do something himself to produce the needed heir. Almost immediately things began to go wrong with their little plan and trouble began. But the deed had been done and Ishmael was born. The Lord even intervened so that they could not send their slave away as if nothing had ever happened. On the one hand, the Lord would not accept Abram's attempt to fulfill His purpose with his own strength. Ishmael was not the heir that would carry on the line of faith. On the other, once Abram had produced Ishmael, he had to live with the results of his mistake.