CHAPTER 15

(1913 B.C.)

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

¹After these things the Word of the LORD came unto Abram in a Vision (this presents one of the four ways which God spoke to individuals in Old Testament times [Num. 12:6-8]: 1. He spoke in Visions [Amos 7:1]; 2. He spoke in dreams [Gen. 41:1; Dan. 2:1]; 3. He revealed Himself by speaking directly to the Prophets mouth to mouth [Num. 12:8]; and, 4. He spoke through His Word [Mat. 4:4]; [the time of the Gospels was still under Old Testament authority]), saying, Fear not, Abram (shows that fear had been present; he was afraid he would be killed by enemies before the great Promise of God could come to pass in his life, regarding a son being brought into the world, which was necessary as it regards the coming Incarnation of Christ): I am your shield (protection), and your exceeding great reward (the Lord was telling the Patriarch that he had his eyes too much on the Promise, instead of the Giver of the Promise; the Lord is to always be looked at as the reward, and then the Promise is sure to come; but too often we get our eyes on the gift instead of the Giver).

²And Abram said, LORD God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? (Seeing I have no child, how can the promise be brought to pass? Can Eliezer be my heir? Even looking toward Eliezer portrays telltale signs of the flesh, which will come to sad fruition regarding the episode with Hagar.)

³And Abram said, Behold, to me You have given no seed (no son): and, lo, one born in my house is my heir (translation: as it stands at the present, the son of my house, not born of me, is of now my heir; Eliezer is his name).

⁴And, behold, the Word of the LORD came unto him, saying (the Lord rejects this thinking), This shall not be your heir (not Eliezer); but he who shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir (the Lord can only accept that which He brings forth).

⁵And He (the Lord) brought him (Abraham) forth abroad, and said, Look now toward Heaven (the answer is from Heaven, and not otherwise), and tell the stars (count the stars), if you be able to number them: and He (the Lord) said unto him (Abraham), So shall your seed be. (While Abraham was worrying about having one son, in fact, the Lord tells him, his seed shall be as the stars of the heavens for multitude. And so it is!)

⁶And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD (exercised Faith, believing what the Lord told him); and He (the Lord) counted it to him (Abraham) for Righteousness. (This is one of the single most important Scriptures in the entirety of the Word of God. In this simple term, Abraham believed the LORD, we find the meaning of Justification by Faith. Abraham was Saved by Grace through Faith, not by his good works. There is no other way of Salvation anywhere in the Bible. God demands Righteousness; however, it is the Righteousness afforded strictly by Christ and Christ Alone. Anything else is self-righteousness, and totally unacceptable to God. Directly the sinner believes Gods Testimony about His Beloved Son, he is not only declared righteous, but he is made a son and an heir.)

THE SACRIFICE

⁷And He (the Lord) said unto him (Abraham), I am the LORD Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it. (The Lord now reaffirms and, greater yet, expands the Revelation. We find from the examples of the Bible Greats, and our own experiences as well, that the Lord has to constantly reaffirm His Promises to us and, as well, to strengthen our Faith. It doesnt take much to weaken our Faith, despite our claims to the contrary.)

⁸And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? (Abraham asks two questions, What will You give me? [15:2], and Whereby shall I know? Christ is the answer to the first question; the Covenant to the second.)

⁹And He (the Lord) said unto him (to Abraham), 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. (The Covenant is founded on Grace, for five living creatures are sacrificed to establish it. Five in the Scripture is the number of Grace; and these five sacrifices set out the fullness of the great Sacrifice of Calvary. Williams.

The heifer symbolized the Priestly Office of Christ. The she goat symbolized His Prophetic Office. The ram symbolized His Kingly Office. Jesus was Priest, Prophet, and King. The turtledove symbolized Him being led and guided strictly by the Holy Spirit, while the young pigeon symbolized Him obeying the Spirit in every capacity.)

¹⁰And he (Abraham) took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not (the dividing of the three larger animals in Sacrifice, which means their bodies were literally cut in two pieces, with one piece on one side and the other piece on the other, signified the terrible depth of sin which the Cross alone could answer).

¹¹And when the fowls came down upon the carcases (the fowls represent the opposition to the Cross by demon spirits), Abram drove them away (in the Name of Jesus, we have power over demon spirits and, as Abraham, we must drive them away).

¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him (represents the sufferings which would come to Gods people Israel and, as well, to Saints presently).

¹³And He (the Lord) said unto Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years (the four hundred years pertain to the time from the weaning of Isaac to the deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage; the time frame covered the time spent both in Canaan, before it belonged to them, and Egypt, as well);

¹⁴And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge (Egypt): and afterward shall they come out with great substance (much gold and silver, etc., given to them by the Egyptians when they left [Ex. 11:1-3]).

¹⁵And you shall go to your fathers in peace (while Abraham would not see that coming time, nevertheless, it would come; the word peace proclaims the fact that what God had called him to do, he will have done); you shall be buried in a good old age (he was 175 years old when he died).

¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again (the count began when the sons of Jacob were born; the first generation began with Levi, the second with Kohath, the third being Amram, and the fourth generation being Moses; Moses would lead them out of Egyptian bondage): for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (As the Book of Job teaches, Jobs friends were wrong when they thought that God immediately brings judgment on sinners. In fact, He is patient and longsuffering; however, He is also just, and the judgment will eventually come, if there is no repentance, even as it did on the Amorites.)

¹⁷And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark (represents the state of this world, now filled with sin), behold a smoking furnace (proclaims the furnace of affliction that Israel will have to pass through, and, in fact, every Believer), and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces (the burning lamp passed between the pieces of the Sacrifice, and proclaims the Word of God; this presents the Biblical authority of the Cross, which the Sacrifices represented).

THE COVENANT CONCERNING THE BOUNDARIES

¹⁸In the same day the LORD made a Covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your seed have I given this land (Promises based on the Precious Blood of Christ are so absolutely sure that faith can claim them as already possessed; hence, the Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is neither ashamed nor afraid to say, I am saved), from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (the actual area promised by God to Abraham goes all the way to the Nile River in Egypt, which includes the Sinai, the Arab Peninsula, much of modern Iraq, most of Syria, and all of Lebanon):

¹⁹The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

²⁰And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

²¹And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Ten nations are listed here, nations which occupied the land of Canaan. Ten is the number of completeness in the Bible, and indicates that the entirety of this land, which would also include other tribes, would be given to Abrahams descendants.)