Genesis
15:7 ¶ And he said unto him, I am the
LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to
inherit it. 8 And he said, Lord GOD,
whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9
And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she
goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a
young pigeon. 10 And he took unto him
all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against
another: but the birds divided he not. 11
And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
God
brings up another promise that He made to Abram, the inheritance of the land of
Canaan. God took Abram out of Ur of the
Chaldees. Remember, most of the time the ch sound is like a k. The
Chaldeans or Chaldees were a root
ethnic tribe of Babylonia and were dominant for a period of time. Some priests
of Babylon were identified as being Chaldean.
(see Ezra 5:12; Daniel 2:10) But, again Abram is challenging God and demands to
know what assurance he can be given that will guarantee this promised
inheritance.
God
promised to save the Christian from an eternity of agony and suffering, God’s
response to, His judgment on, a rebellious humanity.
Acts
16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Romans
10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. 11
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. 12 ¶ For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that
call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
God
coming to indwell a person by the vehicle of the Holy Spirit is the deposit,
the earnest money, the guarantee of that promise of salvation.
Ephesians
1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Any
Christianity or Christian philosophy without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
is a pathetic joke, a dangerous delusion, and stumbling block to sanity.
Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the Christian faith is reduced to
humanistic drivel, man aspiring to please a God he does not or cannot know
personally. It then becomes a political slogan, a cultural expression, a way to
keep the masses down, or a justification to dominate others.
The
Holy Spirit’s indwelling, the fruit it produces in the Christian as listed in
Galatians 5:22-24, and the religion it demands as an expression of your faith
as explained in James 1:27 and 1John 2:15-17, are part of the foundations of
proof that this indwelling is real. Being born again of the Spirit is the proof
we have that God’s promises in Christ are real to us as this upcoming ritual is
the deposit, the earnest, so to
speak, of God’s promise to Abram.
Abram
obeys God and performs the first part of the ceremony around making a covenant.
Jeremiah
34:18 And I will give the men that have
transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant
which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed
between the parts thereof, 19 The princes
of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all
the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;
Writers,
both Jewish and Christian, have different opinions about the significance of
the particular animals used. The she goat
might represent the Law given to
Moses later.
Numbers
15:27 And if any soul sin through
ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering.
The
ram might represent salvation through faith in Christ as Abram, then named
Abraham, tells his son, Isaac, in a prophecy that points forward to Christ;
Genesis
22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt
offering: so they went both of them together.
And
a ram was made available in place of Isaac;
Genesis
22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes,
and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and
Abraham went and took the ram, and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
The
turtledove and the pigeon, used for purification, are also part of this blood
covenant.
Leviticus
12:6 And when the days of her purifying
are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the
first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin
offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:
Leviticus
17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the
blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your
souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
But,
regardless of the purpose of those creatures other than the heifer, which
purpose scholars are not sure of although the verses I just quoted in Jeremiah
34 show that later the calf represented an agreement, this covenant was
understood by the people of the ancient world as the passage in Jeremiah
indicates.
Fowls
of the air are symbols also of the Devil (see the Parable of the Sower in Mark
4 as just one example) so there is significance in Abram’s part of this
covenant, in his obedience first, and also in his keeping corruption from his
part. We could make sermons about this and many have been made about keeping
things of evil from your worship of God; influences, worldly values, and
carnality fluttering around your solemn willingness to wait on, obey, and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Genesis
15:12 ¶ And when the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon
him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of
a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and
shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve,
will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace;
thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
God
is going to make this covenant with Himself and it is important that Abram have
nothing to do with this part. He puts Abram to sleep and it is a deeper sleep
than Abram had ever known. It is called an
horror of great darkness. God put Adam to sleep when He created Eve.
Genesis
2:21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed
up the flesh instead thereof;
But,
think of the deep sleep you are in within a nightmare where you see things so
clearly but cannot move or respond and feel so utterly helpless. Job’s friend,
Eliphaz, speaks of frightening visions in sleep, in Job, chapter 4, and Daniel
in chapter 10 of that book, as well. Fear and dread, horror, overwhelm a
helpless Abram who is in a deep sleep and unable to perform any part of this
covenant now.
We
are saved by God’s covenant and, by the cross, He has accomplished both parts
of it. Our will has no part in our being saved after we believed.
John
1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
God
tells Abram that his seed will be servants in a foreign land, which we know to
be Egypt. They will be afflicted for four hundred years and will serve the
people of that land. This is an about, not
an exact 400 years, ten months, 23 days, and two hours type of statement.
Exodus
12:40 Now the sojourning of the children
of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
And
then, Luke recounting what Stephen said, alluding to what Moses had written
from God’s words;
Acts
7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his
seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into
bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
If
I wrote you a lesson that said, “in the thousand years since the Norman
invasion of England,” and then, in the lesson later wrote, “in the nine hundred
and fifty four years since 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King
Harold at Hastings,” would that be a contradiction or would you understand what
I said as meaning the same thing?
Here
is Paul referring to this bondage bracketed between the covenant and the giving
of the Law.
Galatians
3:17 And this I say, that the covenant,
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect.
Rabbis
have written that the affliction begins when Ishmael, the offspring of Abram
and Hagar, an Egyptian, begins to persecute Isaac, the son of the promise. They
regarded the four hundred years to start from that point.
God
also tells Abram that four generations will come into being in Egypt before
returning to the land that is promised, The Promised Land of Canaan. For
instance, Levi, Jacob’s son, and his son, Kohath, and his son, Amram, and his
son, Moses. These were four generations that sojourned in Egypt. It is then
important to see that God is talking about two different things; four hundred
years of affliction and four generations in a foreign land. As the Bible
clearly states in Exodus the Hebrews come out of Egypt with a great deal of
wealth given to them freely by the Egyptians.
In
a parallel to the Christian’s life we see that Abram’s offspring must suffer
before they can reign. This is a doctrine clearly enunciated in Paul’s letters
to Christians, as it was reflected in Jesus’ ministry on earth; the cross
before the crown. If you read the account in Matthew and Luke of Satan’s
temptation of Christ you will see that Satan tried to reverse the order.
(Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13).
There
is a clear doctrine set forth here that shows that God will put up with just so
much foolishness from a people before he ‘drops the hammer’ in a manner of
speaking. The Hebrews are being built as a people nursed in Egypt while the
inhabitants of Canaan grow more and more wicked and when the right time comes
God will cause His judgment on Canaan to come about. Later, He will give Israel
hundreds of years to ‘get right’ before He removes them from the land.
Genesis
15:17 ¶ And it came to pass, that, when
the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning
lamp that passed between those pieces. 18
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the
river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the
Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And
the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the
Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
The
geography of the grant of land given by God to the Hebrews is very interesting
and has an impact today on international events. God, in the symbols of a
smoking furnace and a burning lamp (see Deuteronomy 4:24; 9:3; and Hebrews
12:29 among many other passages) passed between the pieces of animals
establishing the covenant with Himself to grant this land to Abram’s
descendants so it was not dependent upon any action of Abram other than
believing and receiving. This is not unlike salvation from an eternity of agony
in a place described as a lake of fire. God provides this to anyone who
receives His visible image, Christ, as Himself, believing the gospel.
From
the river of Egypt, the Nile river, to the Euphrates river, the land boundary
of the territory promised to Israel, to be realized in the millennial reign of
Christ, is pretty extensive if you look at a map. It is the seat of Christ’s
rule from Jerusalem in the millennium, during which He will reign for a
thousand years because, for one reason, Paul said;
Galatians
3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And
to thy seed, which is Christ.
We
know Christ will physically rule on earth for a thousand years as John said.
Revelation
20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat
upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had
not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon
their foreheads, or in their hands; and they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. …6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.
During
His reign the Jewish people will occupy the earth and the promise of this land
grant will be fully realized.
Zechariah
8:20 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It
shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of
many cities: 21 And the inhabitants of
one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the
LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. 22 Yea, many people and strong nations shall come
to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. 23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days
it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the
nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We
will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.
In
a prophecy of a time after Christ God said He will bring the remnant of Israel
home. See this great prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 11.
Isaiah
11:1 ¶ And there shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon
him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in
the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and
the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their
young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on
the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’
den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
LORD, as the waters cover the sea.10 ¶
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an
ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be
glorious. [see Romans 15:12; Revelation 22:16] 11
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand
again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be
left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from
Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The
nation of Israel, created by human political action and struggle, will always
face adversity, even near extinction under the persecution of the Beast of
Revelation, until Christ returns. But, when He returns to rule the promise will
be realized.
Revelation
11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and
there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever
and ever.
Genesis,
chapter 16
Genesis 16:1 ¶
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an
Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 2 And
Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I
pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And
Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. 3
And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had
dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be
his wife.
Sarai
acknowledges that her not having children is God’s will at that point. God has restrained her from having a child. How
many modern Christian women acknowledge God’s hand in something like this?
Since the time of Isaac Newton, Christians have reduced God to the First Cause
of things only and do not typically acknowledge His hand in the fundamental
processes of life. The modernist’s watchmaker God who winds things up and
stands back, available perhaps to wind it if it runs down or correct the time
if in error, is not the God of the Bible. Any honest reading of the Bible, in
particular, the Book of Job, will show us that God is directly involved in the
daily processes of our lives and life’s complexity. His will goes beyond life’s
existence to its moment-by-moment function. If God can be likened to a
watchmaker then He is a watchmaker that not only built the clock but moves the
hands.
At
this point in the narrative we could understand if the promise that God made to
Abram, that a great people would come from him, did not include Sarai. But, she
is part of the promise as we will find out. Still, as we will see later in
Jacob’s life, a woman of substance in those days might regard children coming
from her personal servant as her own. This never worked very well emotionally
as jealousy and a sense of being held in contempt would rise up in these
situations where the patriarch afforded himself intimacy with a servant woman.
Sarai
may not have known about the promises made to Abram although I doubt he kept
her in the dark. But, if she knew what God had promised to Abram, here is a
classic example of going ahead of God. We need to wait on God and not try to
improve on His plans and His will. God will do a thing in His own time and our
impatience and ego can cause a world of trouble for us when we try to push
ahead without God. Sarai is going to “help” God. This is an unfortunate
mistake.
Sarai
has given her servant, Hagar, to Abram for the purpose of producing a child. We
would rightfully regard this as wicked and sin today but remember the culture
that Abram and Sarai were brought out of and understand that our veneer of
Christianity, even civilization, is very thin. God is merciful, though, and His
grace abounds all through the Bible as we will see.
Here,
also, we see how the concept of wife is
bound to sexual intimacy and we understand the meaning of go in unto my maid.
This
shows one of the great differences between slavery and servanthood in the world
of the Bible and that of Antebellum (Pre-Civil War) America. The thousands of
sexually abused slave girls in America forced to bear their masters’ offspring
was never viewed by the unfortunate wife of the slaveowner as representing her.
In fact, there are diaries of the wives of slaveowners which revealed that
those women were heartbroken over the culturally accepted adulteries they had
to suffer.
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