Site Search Engine

THE COVENANT WITH ABRAM

Chapter 15

In this chapter we have what is called the Abrahamic covenant created by God, between Him and Abram.

Abram in the previous chapter was among kings; now, for the fourth time, he is in the presence of God himself. The honour of being among the kings belongs to the important of this world, but being in the presence of God belongs to the saints.

The alliance consists of a series of promises from God, without any obligation on Abram’s part: God knew the heart of Abraham and his faith was enough to be blessed that way.

Perhaps Abraham was afraid of revenge by the powerful kings of the north, from whom he had taken prisoners and property. Even the great servants of God have their moments of fear (2 Corinthians 7:5).

The Lord begun by claiming to be his shield, and declaring that Abram's reward will be great: in rescuing Lot Abram acted unselfishly and God was certainly pleased with the way he behaved in front of the kings of Sodom and Salem. The reward of those who love the LORD is greater than anything we might experience in this world (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Abram's response shows his perplexity: he was already rich - he did not lack material goods - and what reward could God award him when he needed a son to inherit what he had and give him descendants? In accordance with the laws of the time (found in archaeological discoveries) was customary for rich and childless couples to adopt a servant and make him their heir: would this be God's plan? The words he used, LORD God, reveal his full submission to God's sovereignty.

God then stated that Abram would have an heir begotten of his own body, and to illustrate the amount of his seed, He took Abram out and showed him the stars of heaven, who cannot be counted (astronomers still cannot count them because the universe seems to be infinite.) In chapter 13:16, God had told him that his descendants would be like the dust of the earth (physical descent?), but now as the stars of heaven (spiritual offspring? Galatians 3:7).

Abram opposed no doubt to what God said to him, although he was one hundred years old: he firmly believed in His word and this was accounted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:18-22), that is, because of his faith that God fulfils his promise, God accepted him and, like other Old Testament saints (Hebrews 11), God declared him righteous in anticipation of Christ's redeeming work, his descendant who came into the world almost two millennia later. Similarly those who put their faith in Christ are declared righteous by God and heirs of the blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:6-29).

Then God reminded Abram that it was He who had taken him out of Ur of the Chaldeans (the name I AM is also a name of God, indicating his eternity (Exodus 3:14)) and reason: to give him the land where he was, by inheritance.

Abram then asked for some proof of this promise. In view of the faith he had shown before, we do not believe that he now doubted the promise of God. However he wanted a concrete sign, perhaps so that later on he would not begin to have doubts about the reality of what he was hearing this evening (was it a dream or vision)?

God then gave him the sign that he asked, in a way that seems extraordinary to us:

Abram should take five animals (of the kind that would later be used in sacrifices). This he did, cutting in two the heifer, the female goat and the ram, all three years old, and lining up the carcasses; and the turtledove and the young pigeon he did not cut in two. It has been found that in antiquity it was customary to ratify an alliance by cutting an animal in two, and placing the two sides side by side so that the participants walked through the middle (Jeremiah 34:18-20). Apparently, Abram proceeded according to this custom.

Nothing happened all day, and patiently Abram drove the vultures away from the carcasses.

At dusk, tired, he fell into deep sleep, and was stricken with horror and great darkness (highlighting the severity of the revelation he was about to receive), then again God appeared and warned him that his descendants would be strangers in a land which was not theirs, and slaves for four generations of one hundred years each of Abraham's time (which happened later in Egypt). But they would not stay there forever, they would return to the land of their inheritance with vast wealth, and their captors would be punished.

God reassured Abram about himself: he would die a natural death in a good old age (actually he was 175 years old when he died).

God also stated that the descendants of Abram would be deprived of Canaan because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete.

When night came and it was very dark, then God ratified the covenant, formally, in the form of a smoking oven and a burning torch (Exodus 13:21) that passed between the pieces of animals, thus giving the proof that Abram had requested. Both are also pictures of Christ: oven indicates judgment, and the torch light for the world. By going alone among the carcasses, God swore fidelity to His promises and took upon himself only the responsibility for their fulfilment, again confirming that they had been given unilaterally and unconditionally.

The people of Israel eventually took over all the land of promise, at the end of David's kingdom and during the reign of Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:26), but lost it three times because of their unfaithfulness to God (Genesis 15:13, 14, 16, Deuteronomy 28:62-65, 30:1-3, Jeremiah 25:11, 12). But one day, the remnant of Israel after the great tribulation of the “last days” will come to take up their inheritance forever, thus fulfilling the covenant of Abraham. (Deuteronomy 30:3, Jeremiah 23:5-8, Ezekiel 37:21-25, 47:13-20, Luke 1:30-33, Acts 15:14-17).

In summary, the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:1-4, 13:14-17, 15:1-7, 17:1-8) includes the following:

1) "I will make you a great nation" in three ways:

• Natural descent "as the dust of the earth."

• Spiritual posterity as "the stars".

• By Isaac .

2) "I will bless you" in two ways:

• Centuries (Genesis 13:14, 15, 17, 15:18, 24:34,35).

• Spiritually (Genesis 15:6, John 8:56).

3) "Magnify your name" Abraham is a “universal" name.

4) "And you shall be a blessing” (Galatians 3:13, 14).

5) "I will bless those who bless you”, and

6) "I will curse those who curse you." These two promises were faithfully fulfilled in the history of the dispersal, in relation to people who have hosted or persecuted Jews. They will also be completed at the trial of nations before the millennium: Deuteronomy 30:7, Isaiah 14:1, Joel 3:1-8, Micah 5:7-9, 2:22 Haggai, Zechariah 14:1-3, Matthew 25: 40, 45.

7) "In thee shall be blessed all the families of the earth." This is the great promise of the Gospel, accomplished in the seed of Abraham, Christ (Galatians 3:16, John 8:56-58). It defines more clearly the Adamic covenant promise concerning the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).

 

R David Jones

 

 

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!"
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir."
5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

 

 

 

7 Then He said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it."
8 And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?"
9 So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.

 

 

 

 

11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.
18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

Genesis chapter 15