"Covenant Timing" Genesis 15:12-16

Introduction:

Genesis 15 is one of the key covenant ratification text of the Abrahamic covenant. God’s covenant promises are like the providential track that the train of His purpose and plans in redemption runs on.

I once had a train set when I was a boy. But funny thing, my toy train wouldn’t work on a real train track. It was way to small to fit the rails.

That is the problem with many Christians today. Their Christianity is self informed and determined and they think that that brand of Christianity is legitimate but the problem is that it won’t fit God’s track. It may fit a personal model or even a cultural model but it won’t run on the rails of God’s covenant providence.

We know that Abraham trusted in the covenant fidelity of God for his well-being in the world. He was running on the rails of covenant providence by faith alone.

Being people of the covenant does not insulate us from oppression. There will be times of tribulation and difficulty in this world that we will have to live through.

Christian, God’s covenant fidelity doesn’t necessarily shield us from trials but it does serve to remind us of God’s presence with us and it undergirds us with the hope of His covenant deliverance and restoration to come.

We see this in our text this morning as the physical descendants of Abraham mirror the spiritual reality of the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

Look back at your text to verses 12-13:

I. The Time of Oppression (12-13).

When the text says, “And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him;” understand that this is a difficult message that God is getting ready to reveal to Abraham. It would be something difficult for Abraham to embrace.

The ethnic descendents of Abraham would find out that the idea of being a covenant people is not always easy. And ethnic Israel would learn this but it was a spiritual truth that was true as well for those who had the faith of Abraham in that day.

Abraham is being told that his physical descendents through Isaac would be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. And that they would end up being enslaved and be afflicted for 400 years.

Most of us know the story of how Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and he was taken off to Egypt to be a slave.

But by the providential design of God he ends up being second in command over the whole land of Egypt.

Then there is a famine in the land and his brothers have to go to Egypt for food. And through a series of events the descendents of Abraham through Isaac end up living in Egypt. God providentially brought them there to keep them alive during the famine. Joseph understood God’s providential ordering of the events as he confronts his brothers in Genesis 45:7–8 :

“7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

But eventually they would end up being enslaved by the Egyptians during their time in Egypt. And God is revealing all of this to Abraham while at the same time ratifying His covenant with him.

Just imagine, you have this wonderful covenant promise from the Lord and you find out that your physical descendents are going to wind up slaves in a foreign land for 400 years.

Christian this oppression that Israel would endure in a foreign land mirrors a spiritual truth for the descendents of Abraham by faith as well.

That truth is simply that the covenant people of God, throughout all ages, are not necessarily sparred being oppressed in a fallen world.

Some in our day preach this idea that God only wants the best that this world has to offer for you. This prosperity gospel teaches prosperity in both health and wealth. And they often make reference to the wealth and prosperity of Abraham to back the idea up.

But this idea is not consistent with the whole teaching of the word of God. And this is one of the reasons that some professing believers are often blindsided by suffering and problems in the world.

So many who claim to be Christian encounter trials and suffering and then find their faith in a crisis because it is so contrary to what their perception of the Christian faith really is.

It is little wonder that a materialistic society that emphasizes personal happiness as the highest goal falls for the prosperity gospel. In reality that train is too small to run on the covenant rails of God’s providence.

But in reality suffering and tribulation is common for the life of the Christian in a fallen world.

But like Israel of old God doesn’t leave us there in a state of perpetual oppression and suffering. But He has also providentially ordained a time of restoration. Look back at verses 14-16:

II. The Time of Restoration (14-16).

The Lord also tells Abraham of the time of restoration. A time when the Lord Himself will bring judgement on the nation that oppressed His covenant people.

The Lord promises that He will deliver His people and that they will be liberated from slavery with the plunder of great possessions. Again we see the “I will” emphasis of the promise of the Lord. He will initiate their deliverance.

Now we all know this all took place in the Book of Exodus when Pharoah finally let the Lord’s people go after 10 plagues upon the land.

The final plague was the death of the first-born. The Egyptians gave them their valuables and Moses led the people out of Egypt.

This was all foretold to Abraham hundreds of years before it happened. It is probable that this was known by the Israelites because of the oral tradition that would have come down from Abraham.

But notice verses 15-16: Abraham is going to die in peace as an old man and the people will come back here in the fourth generation “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

The Amorites are one of the people groups in the land of Canaan. They were descendants of Noah’s son Ham and Canaan was the son of Ham that Noah cursed because Ham looked upon his nakedness when Noah was in his drunken state (Genesis 9).

Christian it appears that the Lord is being patient with the Amorites until their sin reaches the equivalent level of their coming judgement.

When God destroys a people it is because of the deviant nature of their sin. Never think that what an individual does and the sins that get tolerated inside of a nation are inconsequential to the whole well-being of that nation. Such an idea is not in the Bible it is a false notion that gets promoted by a radical view of individualism that wants to silence moral objections to the behavior of a pagan society.

And among the Canaanite people groups there was a very high level of perverse pagan wickedness to go around. They were sexually perverse of the most grotesque nature and they even sacrificed their own children to their pagan prosperity gods.

Christian I look at all of this and I were Abraham I would think it would be more expedient to go ahead now and wipe out the Canaanites and just let my descendants to just skip the famine and the whole generations of slavery in Egypt. It would seem to me be a lot easier and it would save a lot of time.

But God doesn’t do it that way does He. That is because God is providentially working all of history to maximize to the highest calculated potential of His glory through His covenant plan in Christ. He doesn’t order His providence to fit our plans of the easy life and expediency of self-determinism.

In reality that train is too small to run on the covenant rails of God’s providence.

Heaven does’t have a customer service department where you call in and complain about the things God got wrong. We may lament the way things are in our prayer life but in the end the answer to our lament is that God’s ways are beyond us and His ways are always true and just.

If Christ is God’s priority then we need to make sense of our suffering in light of Christ and His glorification. And we embrace the hardships of life for His glory and our ultimate good by faith. The Apostle Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:16–18:

“16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

When the glorification of Christ is not a joy producing principle in our lives then we by default are connecting our joy to something of this world experience that is by default less than Christ.

Abraham didn’t find ultimate fulfillment from the world. He found ultimate fulfillment in the plan and purpose of God in Christ and He didn’t even know what that was to the degree that we do.

Christian don’t waste the trial when God’s intent is to hone your life in such a way as to allow the radiance of Christ’s glory shine through. And Christian God doesn’t take any short cuts as we sojourn in this world. We long for Him to return and take us home now but He is patient for He is not willing that any of His elect should perish.

This tells me there is more evangelism yet to do in the world. And it also tells me that the sin and tribulation on the earth has not yet reached the height of the judgement that is stored up for it under the man of lawlessness. Stage definitely appears to be getting set for that time.

Christian it all must happen before Christ returns. God will bring it to pass because He is ultimately working all things for the glorification of the Son. When He returns in all His glory it will be the day of our final deliverance and for the final judgement upon the nations of the world.

Conclusion:

It will be the final restoration in a new heaves and a new earth. Are you ready?

Unbeliever are you ready for His return? If you are an unbeliever you are not ready. You need to have faith in Jesus Christ who died in the place of sinners and rose again on the third day. Believe the gospel unto salvation.

Christian our focus must be on Christ and His glory and our hope must be anchored in the covenant fidelity of our God. Trials and tribulation do not signify that we are abandoned by God. They signify that God is at work sustaining us while He is manifesting Christ in us for His glory and our eternal good.

This table is all about the extent that God has gone to secure us to Himself. We may be at times cast down but we are not forsaken. Christ, the glorious one holds His people firm and He will loose none of His covenant people. Your life is about His glory!

Tim Keller once said, “It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.”

The covenant promises are the rails that the providential train of redemption runs on. Those rails are unmovable and they are nor designed for the toy trains of fallen men. Only what God is doing in and through His eternal covenant in Christ. This table is like a reset button for us today.

It calls us back to the reality of His grace. Let’s examine ourselves in preparation knowing His promises are true. If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to cleanse and forgive us. Let’s Pray!