The Abrahamic Covenant
Notes
Transcript
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”
2 Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”
4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”
5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7 And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”
8 He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.
11 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.
14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.
18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite
20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim
21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
Introduction
Introduction
We return to Genesis 15 following the great passage on Abram’s justification by faith alone.
And in the same way we will see how the story of Abram, or Abraham as he will be called later, connects all the way to the New Testament and to our lives as believers today.
In chapter 12 the Book of Genesis starts telling us the saga of Abram’s family all the way until Joseph, Abram’s great-grandson, dies in Egypt as vice-regent to the Pharoah.
And these narratives show that God was working out His perfect plan in history for His glorious and good purposes.
In spite of the failures and sins of Abram and his descendants, in spite of the physical limitations of even their reproductive systems, God was working His will out in history.
He orchestrates Abram’s moving away from his own country in order to create a nation of people that didn’t exist before.
And of course we see that He was doing this in order to fulfil His promise to Adam and Eve, that a seed would come to crush the head of the serpent and rid us of the curse of sin and death.
So God calls Abram in chapter 12 and makes promises to him.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
And from chapter 12 through chapter 25 God will repeat and expound His promise to Abram.
Starting with the word’s here, then illustrating those words with pictures of the stars and grains of sand, and then a physical seal and reminder in the circumcision of every one of Abram’s sons and descendants.
He even changed his name from Abram, which means “exalted father,” to Abraham, “father of a multitude of peoples.”
God is making much of the promises He made to Abraham, and they are worthy of the details.
Again, I want to drive home how much the books and accounts of the bible are connected with each other.
Even though they are separated by years of time and written by different men, they tell one cohesive story.
And it is our privilege and joy to search the story out.
A big part of that story is that the God who created everything, is a God who makes, and keeps, promises.
And the more we see His faithfulness the more that every one of us must trust Him like Abram did.
Every believer must trust God’s promises like Abram.
Every believer must trust God’s promises like Abram.
I. By asking questions of God. v. 7-8
I. By asking questions of God. v. 7-8
7 And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”
8 He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?”
There were two parts to the promise God made to Abram.
The first was that he was to be the father to a great nation.
This was hard for the human mind of Abram to comprehend, because he and his wife, Sarai, were so old.
He asked God in the previous passage about this.
2 Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless…
God answered by taking him outside at night and showing him the millions of stars in the sky.
Abram’s descendants would be that numerous.
Abram believed the word of God, and God reckoned that faith as righteousness.
The second part of the promise made by God was that God was going to give him the land of Canaan.
And we see again that Abram asks God in verse 8
8 He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?”
God answered Abram’s first question, and we will see how He answers the second one.
But we first will see how it is that Abram can seem to be questioning God’s promises.
First, we see his attitude when he asks his questions.
He had an attitude of faith, and not of doubt.
How can we know this?
Because answers him and doesn’t rebuke him.
After his first question, when Abram responded with belief, God gives him the grace of justification.
We see other instances in the Bible when the questioning is made from a place of insincerity and doubt.
In the Gospel of Luke, we see the angel of the Lord come to Zacharias and tell him that he was going to be the father of John the Baptist, who would go before the Messiah.
The same physical limitation that Abram had, Zacharias had. They were old.
They both had questions for God, but Zacharias’ question came from an attitude of doubt.
18 Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”
And we see the response of the angel was quite different from God’s response to Abram
19 The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
20 “And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”
Abram asked in faith, and we know this because when God answered he received reassurance.
Second, he asked with expectation of an answer.
In his question, he was expecting God to give an answer.
He was looking for another illustration like he recieved before in the number of the stars.
His answer would be much different and more than he could have ever imagined, as we will see, but he wanted to know how this was going to happen.
All of his experiences with God were building up in his life.
He saw God’s hand in moving him from his home, his protection from his enemies, God’s great provision for his needs.
All up to the point where God gives him salvation, were building up a great foundation of Abram’s faith in Yahweh.
So he expects that God will show him the truth.
And this is how we are to come with our questions.
We are to come in faith, like Abram, not in sarcastic unbelief like Zacharias.
And we are to come in expectation that the God who saved us, who has given us every good thing that we have, and that has promised to walk beside us will answer us.
It will be in His way and in His time, but He will answer us.
So everyone of us are to trust God by seeking answers from Him, by asking Him questions.
God has graciously given us His word, and in our time so many resources based on that word.
Think about His promises, seek out answers to the questions you have in the 66 books of scripture, read books, listen to sermons, ask godly counselors, fellowship within the church that He has placed you, and He will answer you.
And when we trust God in our questions, we can, like Abram, rest in His answers.
II. By resting in God’s answers v. 9-17
II. By resting in God’s answers v. 9-17
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.
11 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.
14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.
Wow, what an answer God gave!
What in the world is going on here?
God commands Abram to do something very strange to us.
But Abram knew exactly what God was asking for.
He told Abram to get some animals in verse 9
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
And Abram prepared them by cutting them in half, making a path between them.
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.
You see these were very different times, and a very different culture.
You really didn’t have too many of what we would call nations, you had little kingdoms.
And I mean little.
In the previous chapter, we have this big war going on between 9 kings.
1 And it came about in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,
2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).
In our minds, this sounds like a world war!
Four kings made war with 5 other kings, and in the end Abram and his servants are able to turn the tide of the battle.
But you have to understand, these kingdoms were just like little or big towns or cities, and the kings were like mayors of these cities.
Some of them were bigger, with more people and land and resources, but they wouldn’t be like leaders of big countries like we think of today.
So when you wanted to make a treaty or agreement with another kingdom, for protection or trade, you didn’t sign a treaty.
That would be too wimpy, too unserious.
You would cut a covenant.
You would take an animal, or several, and cut them in half.
The terms of the covenant would be given, and one or both parties would walk between the bloody, halved carcass of the animal.
Why?
Because you are saying, if I break the terms of this covenant, make me like this animal.
I will be killed and left for the birds and scavengers to eat.
There were no civil or criminal courts to litigate the breach of contract.
They didn’t have credit bureaus to vouch for your signature based upon past history of keeping other contracts.
There was the sword and this very gruesome, but crystal clear illustration to keep everyone on the up and up when it comes to promises made.
Now Abram knew exactly what was happening.
He procured a 3 year old heifer, goat, ram, and a turtle dove and pigeon, sliced them all in half except for the birds and made a path to walk between the animals so that he could participate in this covenant ratification ceremony.
Then he waited, shooing away and birds of prey that came down on the animals’ carcasses.
Now I’m sure he didn’t know exactly what was going to go down, but I don’t believe he could have imagined what God had in mind.
Look at verse 12.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
In the evening, at dusk, God causes Abram to fall into a deep sleep, and it says terror and great darkness fell on him.
Terror and great darkness!
Every detail of this experience for Abram was serious, He was being brought before the three times holy God.
His presence certainly brings great terror, His holiness in the face of Abram’s unholiness causes sober reflection on exactly who he was dealing with.
This is not another mayor-king, this was the King of kings, and, in Abram’s mind, he was about to pass through the split animals saying, “This will happen to me, if I don’t keep my part of the deal.”
And Abram knew, especially in the presence of Yahweh, that he couldn’t keep any deal made.
Like Isaiah when he was brought into the throne room of heaven bowed down before the holiness of God.
3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
But that is not what happened.
God wasn’t setting Abram up to fail, God would be cutting the covenant with Abram.
God lays out the terms of the covenant in verses 13-16.
13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.
14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
God promises, for certain, that Abram’s descendants will possess the promised land, but after they are enslaved for 400 years in Egypt, he promises the Exodus, and he promises Abram peace in his time.
And the next thing that happened was amazing.
17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.
Instead of Abram having to walk through the animals and cut a covenant, a smoking oven and a flaming torch do.
And of course the oven and torch represent God, like in Exodus on Mt. Sinai.
16 So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
19 When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.
Abram is in the presence of God.
And God is doing something that is so amazing.
Brothers and sisters, God is giving him the gospel.
God is saying, Abram, I’m going to bless you.
I’m not only going to bless you, but I’m going to bless every nation by blessing you.
I’m going to create a nation from you, and that nation is going to record my promises, and my deeds.
The story of that nation is going to illustrate my will and my character.
All of your descendants are going to know the work of my hand and I’m going to separate them from the rest of the people.
And one day, one of your children’s children’s children is going to be the ultimate blessing.
God was walking through the covenant animals alone, saying I will keep my promise, because you can’t.
I will take on the curse of broken promises that you make, I will be cut down in your place.
He didn’t ask Abram to go with Him, He didn’t ask for Abram’s cooperation.
He didn’t say, “God helps those who helps themselves.” Or cooperate with me for your blessing.
He walked through and took the curse upon Himself alone, with no help from mankind.
Isaiah wrote this about Christ taking the curse on Himself
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Verse 8 says
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
He was cut off, like the heifer, ram, and goat that God’s presence walked through.
This brothers and sisters is the gospel, given to Abram as in sprout form, which would later be fully grown in the person and work of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Immanuel, God with us, His presence with us in the flesh.
Abram asked how he could know he would possess the land?
He had no idea God would answer in such a way.
Brothers and sisters, trust God’s promises, and you will be awe struck by the way He is faithful to keep them!
We rest in His promises like Abraham when we ask questions of Him in faith, by resting in His answers, and
III. By living in light of His faithfulness v. 18-21
III. By living in light of His faithfulness v. 18-21
18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite
20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim
21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
Abram’s story is much like ours.
I don’t mean that we will have the same visions of a covenant ratification ceremony, and God doesn’t promise all of us that we will have multitudes of descendants and our own country.
But that it was full of ups and downs.
One of the things that happened before his justification in this chapter is that he goes to Egypt and lies to Pharoah, telling him that Sarai is just his sister and not his wife, so Pharoah wouldn’t kill him and take her into his harem.
Then after his justification, the same exact thing happens with Abimelech, king of Gerar.
This is not a polished, white-washed story of a made up hero, but the real story of a man, after Genesis 15:6, a man who was simultaneously justified and a sinner, just like us.
In chapter 16, he takes matters into his own hands, and has a child by Hagar, but in chapter 22, he shows a trust in God that takes him to the point just before sacrificing Isaac.
Just like us, his Christian life was full of ups and downs.
But he held onto the promise that God made to him.
And this last part of the chapter shows that he was looking for a future promise, in many ways just like us.
His descendants would be given a land from the river of Egypt, to the river Euphrates.
It was a land that was currently occupied by others, 10 of which are listed in these last verses.
The land promise would be fulfilled through the conquest of Joshua, and finally under the reign of David and Solomon.
And Abram lived a life that looked to this future promise, with an understanding that one day God would bring through his line, a multitude of a people in a promised land.
And from this multitude of a people, God would bless all of the families of the earth.
Conclusion
Conclusion
And we get to live on the other side of the fulfilment of that promise.
That promise was misunderstood so often, especially by the Jews of Jesus’ day.
John 8 tells the story of one of the encounters Christ had with the Jews who were mistaken in thinking that the promise to Abraham only referred to his physical children.
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
35 “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.
38 “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”
39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.
40 “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.
What were the deeds of Abraham?
Faith in the promises of God.
And that faith was reckoned to him for righteousness, and changed the way he lived.
So that, when he died, he died satisfied in the promise of God.
7 These are all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, one hundred and seventy-five years.
8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people.
