The Abrahamic Covenant
Genesis 15:1-211
April 23, 2006

Today’s message is from Genesis chapter 15:1-21, the entire chapter. Two weeks ago I talked some about the first part of the chapter, verses 1 through 6. Today I’m going to talk about the entire chapter. As we read the passage, remember, as always, that it’s the word of God, breathed by his Holy Spirit. It’s able to sustain our lives.

Also, as always, I encourage you to read your Bible every day. We have the word of God on Sunday and Bible study on Wednesday. But just as food might keep you alive if you only ate it on Wednesday evening and Sunday morning, but wouldn’t keep you very healthy, so the word of God won’t keep you spiritually healthy if you only receive it twice a week. So read your Bible every day. Read it all the way through. Keep on reading it. And don’t just read it, but consider carefully what is being said. Meditate on it. It’s God, who created you, speaking to you.

[Prayer]

Now let’s read the passage. In the HCSB, which is the translation I’ll be reading from, it’s given the title The Abrahamic Covenant. Let’s read Genesis chapter 15—the entire chapter:

The Abrahamic Covenant
1After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield;
your reward will be very great.

2But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
4Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”
6Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
7He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
8But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?”
9He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10So he brought all these to Him, split them down the middle, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut up the birds. 11Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and suddenly a terror and great darkness descended on him.
13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be strangers in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. 14However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterwards they will go out with many possessions. 15But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

The first part of this passage, verses 1 through 6, is about the Lord’s promise to give Abram numerous offspring. The rest of the passage is about the Lord’s covenant with Abram to give the land to him and to his offspring forever.

Leading up to today’s passage, the Lord had told Abram twice that he would give the land of Canaan to him and his offspring, once in chapter 12 and again at the end of chapter 13 after he and his nephew Lot had separated. When the Lord spoke to Abram at the end of chapter 13, he told him that he would not just give the land to him and his offspring, but that he would give it to them forever. Not only that, the Lord also told Abram that his offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. But, at that time, Abram had no offspring.

In chapter 14, there was a war, the first war of many recorded in the Bible. Five kings who had been subject to four other kings had rebelled and fought for their freedom. The five kings lost the war. One of the kings was the king of Sodom, a city where, according to chapter 13, verse 13, the men were evil and sinning greatly against the Lord. The four kings captured Sodom and carried off all their food and possessions. They also captured Abram’s nephew Lot, who happened to be living in Sodom at the time, as well as his possessions. Abram and his men as well as some men that Abram had made a treaty with followed after the four kings that had captured Lot and caught up with then. They defeated the four kings and recovered all of people and possessions that they had captured, including Lot and his possession.

After they returned, the king of Sodom wanted to reward Abram by giving him the spoils that had been captured from Sodom. But Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of God most high came to Abram and brought bread and wine. (14:18)

(Melchizedek is a type of Christ. In current terminology, he was a Christ figure. There were close similarities between what he said and did and what Christ has said and done. Some even say that he actually was Christ who appeared to Abram before he was born as a man. Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day; he saw it and rejoiced.” The Jews replied, “You aren’t 50 years old yet, and You’ve seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.”)

Melchizedek, in today’s passage, evidently had asked Abram to swear an oath to the Lord not to accept anything from the king of Sodom so that no one could say that the king of Sodom had made Abram rich. Abram did so and accepted nothing from the king of Sodom. And that brings us up to today’s passage.

At this point, the Lord had promised Abram twice that he would give him the land, the second time that he would give it to him forever. The Lord had promised Abram that he would give the land to him and to all of his offspring forever, and that his offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. But Abram had no offspring!

Verse one of today’s passage says:

1After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield;
your reward will be very great.

Abram had come from defeating the four kings, and because of the oath he had sworn, he refused the king of Sodom’s offer of the spoils. The Lord came to Abram and told Abram not be afraid. He said, “I am your shield.” Let me ask you this: Do you think there is more security in having greater amounts of material things—of stuff that perishes—or having your security in God who has absolute control over all things? The Lord told Abram that his reward would be very great. Do you think he is able to reward you with things that are much greater than having lots of “stuff?” How about eternal life? “He who dies with most toys wins,” according to a bumper sticker that was popular about twenty years ago; but he who dies in Christ has eternal life with Jesus. (And actually, eternal life is not a reward, it’s a gift. But that gift is greater beyond all measure than any reward we can have in this life.)

Now look at Abram’s response to the Lord’s encouragement. Listen while I read verses 2 and 3:

2But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”

Abram seems to have forgotten about the Lord’s promise that his offspring would be like the dust of the earth, but the Lord reassures him (verses 4 and 5):

4Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”

Verse 6 says, “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” This, as I said two weeks ago, is the key verse of the Bible: “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” Faith is central to salvation. This is not only taught in the Old Testament, it’s all through the New Testament. Jesus taught it every time he healed someone: “Your faith has healed you!”

Do you believe the Lord? Believing the Lord makes you righteous in his way of accounting. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus died for your sin and rose from the dead? Can you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord?  Jesus told the crowd, “Don’t work for food that perishes, but for food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They asked him, “What can we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus replied, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He sent. (John 6:27-29) Do you believe the one whom God sent? Incidentally, I asked if you could confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. That’s from Romans chapter 10. Here’s what the apostle Paul says: “This is the message of faith that we proclaim: if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:8c, 9) I believe that when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you are confessing that he is capital L-O-R-D Lord, in other words, that he is God! The apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy Spirit, says, “No on can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:3)  Can you say, “Jesus is Lord?”

Let’s look at verse 7. Verse 7 says that the Lord told Abram, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” This is the thing that the Lord was trying to get across to Abram, that he was giving him the land to possess. But Abram wanted some assurance, something to hold onto and to remember. He said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?” (Verse 8) This is where the Lord made a covenant with Abram.

A covenant is a contract. It is a formal agreement: “If you will do this thing, I will do this other thing,” and vice versa. A covenant may be formalized by some such thing as a signature with one or more witnesses or by some sort of ceremony.

According to what I have read, what the Lord was going to do was to use the ceremony that was commonly used in Abraham’s time to formalize contracts. The parties entering into the contract would bring sacrificial animals and cut the carcasses in half and lay them out on the ground with a path between the pieces. Each party would state his part of the agreement as they would walk down the path between the pieces of the carcasses. This was the ceremony that formalized the agreement. When Abram said to the Lord, “How can I know that I will possess it?” the Lord said to Abram, “Bring Me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” (Verse 9) Abram evidently knew what the Lord was asking and prepared the animals in the appropriate way. Verse 10 says that he split the carcasses down the middle and laid the halves opposite each other. From what I read, the turtledove and the pigeon would not have been cut up, but one placed on either side of the path. Abram did this and then he waited. While he was waiting, he had to chase birds of prey away from the carcasses. (I wonder if these are the same birds that ate the seed that fell on the path in the parable of the sower. In the parable of the sower, the seed that was sown represented the word of God and the birds that came and ate it represented the “evil one”, Satan.)

Now let me read what happened after Abram prepared the animals. The first part of this is described in verses 13 through 16. Listen while I read them:

13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be strangers in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. 14However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterwards they will go out with many possessions. 15But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

First the Lord gave a prophecy to Abram: his offspring would be enslaved and oppressed in another land for 400 years, but then the Lord would judge their oppressors and rescue them. They would return to the land of Canaan that the Lord was promising to Abram with many possessions. The land Abram’s offspring would go to was Egypt. Abram’s offspring were the Israelites. The Israelites would go to Egypt. (We will see the story of how they got there later in Genesis.)

When the Israelites first came to Egypt, they were treated well by the Egyptians and given the choicest part of the land to live in. But later, when they had multiplied, the Egyptian rulers became afraid of them. They were afraid that if there was a war, the Israelites might side with their enemies, so they decided to enslave and oppress them to keep them subdued. But Israelites increased all the more, so the Egyptians tried all the more to oppress them. Finally they cried out to God and he delivered them by bringing a series of plagues on Egypt culminating in the death of all the firstborn Egyptians and their animal while the Israelites were spared by the blood of the Passover sacrifice. Even after the Israelites left Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them, but the Lord destroyed Pharaoh’s army.

After the Israelites had been in the desert for forty years, they finally arrived in Canaan. Most of you know the story. And most of you also know that what happened to the Israelites is a picture of our salvation through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ and our journey to heaven. Even the Lord’s rebukes and punishments that he brought against the Israelites in the desert when they complained and rebelled and disobeyed happened and were written as warnings to us “on who the fulfillment of the ages has come.” (1 Cor. 10:11)

The Lord told Abram that he would bring about the enslavement of his offspring in a foreign land and then their deliverance and he did exactly that. When the Lord says that something will happen, he is able to make it happen and will make it happen. When he says that he will save you from your sin, he is able to do it and he will do it! He will save you from your sin!

Now let’s look at verses 17 through 21 in today’s passage. Here’s what they say:

17When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

This describes the ceremony that sealed the Lord’s covenant with Abram. When it was dark, the smoking fire pot and the torch appeared and passed between the divided animals according to the customary way in which covenants were formalized. There was one difference, however. Abram didn’t pass through. Only the Lord did. This was a one-sided covenant! Abram made no agreement to do anything. It wasn’t “If you will do this, I will do that.” It wasn’t “If you will keep your part of the covenant, I will keep my part.” The Lord did make covenants like that, but this wasn’t one of them! Verse 18 says, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.” The covenant did not depend on anything Abram would do.

According to the experts, the smoking fire pot represents the furnace of the Israelites suffering in Egypt. It’s a refining furnace. After they had left Egypt and had been in the desert forty years, Moses told them, “But the Lord selected you and brought you out of Egypt’s iron furnace to be a people for His inheritance, as you are today.” (Deut. 4:20)

One other thing we ought to notice. The Lord said he would give Abram and his offspring the land from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River. That hasn’t happened yet. At the peak of Israel’s dominion during the time of David and Solomon, the territory Israel ruled was much larger than the area the Lord allotted to the twelve tribes when they entered Canaan. But, the additional territories were not occupied by Israelites. These territories were simply made subject to Israelite rule and paid taxes to the Israelites.  They didn’t stretch from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River. They were occupied by pagans, not Israelites. And neither does modern Israel stretch from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River. The Euphrates River is closer to the east side of Iraq. The territory the Lord was talking about includes Jordan, Syria and part of Iraq. Do you think Iraq could become part of Israel? The Lord has entered into a covenant to make it happen. It’ll happen.

You know, speaking of covenants, when Jesus took the cup after supper the night before he was crucified, he said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (1 Cor. 11:25) God the Father made a covenant with us through the blood of Jesus which he will absolutely keep. Through the blood of Jesus he will save us from our sin and give us eternal life.  All we have to do is trust that what he says is true.

[Prayer]



END NOTES
1 Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible ®, Holman CSB ® and HCSB ® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.