Genesis 15: 1 – 20
Do you see what I see?
15 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, “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.”
The Scripture says in chapter 2 verse 17 in the book of Acts that in the last days the Holy Spirit will be giving many visions and dreams. “In the last days” God said, “I will pour out my Holy Spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams.”
Visions are a special and unique way of hearing from the Lord. Looking up its definition we find it says a ‘Vision’ means to; gaze, look, behold, see, sight, and view.
A Biblical vision is a literal, spiritual and sometimes a physical happening. It’s not a product of the mind, imagination or logic. Receiving a vision is a gift from the Lord: an experience of sight, not the imagination
The bible has indicated some of the purposes our Holy God used them for;
1. Encouragement, hope, and promise (To Abram) Genesis 15:1-6
2. Announcement of judgment (To Samuel about Eli) 1 Samuel 3:1-18
3. Reveals secrets and an interpretation of a dream (To Daniel) Daniel 2:19
4. Announcement of a servant’s calling (To Zacharias for John) Luke 1:22
5. Announcement of good tidings (The women saw a vision of angels announcing Jesus was alive.) Luke 24:23
6. Guidance and explicit instructions (To Ananias for Saul) Acts 9:10
7. Changes an opinion and gives an assignment (To Peter about the Gentiles) Acts 11:5-10
8. Guidance to change locations (For Paul to go to Macedonia) Acts 16:9
There are levels of visions that are higher up in the scale where we can enter into trances which is experiencing visions of gazing wonder. In those types of visions, we do experience ecstasy in our emotions and all of our senses. However if we participate in them as in speaking, it is evoked by the Holy Spirit upon our spirits and it is our spirits that respond, using our mouths like when someone is speaking in tongues. Some who are taken into trances are given the Holy Spirit unction to speak out loud what they are experiencing and/or seeing.
In the highest level of visions are encounters. These are when one experiences visitations. In that level of experience, one can participate with their mind, will and emotions but under restraints of the great fear and love within the Presence of the Lord.
Have you ever experienced any of these amazing interactions by our Holy Master?
Today we are going to start off our study in verse 1 to see Abram experience personally a vision with the Lord God Almighty.
15 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.”
The prophets constantly received ‘the word of YHWH’. Here such a word is given to Abram. He is now a prophet. No wonder he is filled with awe. This is confirmed by the words ‘in a vision’. What he is to see is not natural; it can only be seen in vision, for no man can see God and live. He has refused earthly riches, now he is to have spiritual riches. We must not underestimate what this meant for Abram and also for his followers. He is their priest, now he is to be a prophet.
If you had the chance to go through the whole bible and came across a person’s interaction with an angel yet alone with our Creator God you will see these words spoken- ‘Do not be afraid’. Although it is not yet mentioned this already suggests the beginning of an experience which fills Abram with awe. He need not fear. Our Great and Holy Father Is his shield and protector so that he need fear nothing. Our Holy Father Is also over flowingly abundantly his treasury above all treasuries and the guarantee of his future prosperity and fruitfulness. He has refused wealth so that none might say they had made Abram rich. Our Great God will therefore Himself assure Abram of riches of a far greater kind.
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?”
As you walk the paths of life you wind up with different priorities. In a young age many would like to be like the Rich Young Ruler. Then you think you have it made – Rich, powerful, and the youth to go out and enjoy it all. For me not that I am older I just want more of Jesus. It is true like we see that this is also Abram’s desires as the scripture reveals to seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness then all the other things shall be added. This is exactly what is happening to Abram.
Yet, Abram in all truth has drifted from what our Lord had promised Him. Our Holy Lord God had promised that Abram and his descendents would inherit the land God had led him to. So, as you and I both know Abram had to have kids in order for all this to happen.
3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
This interruption in the vision is quite remarkable. Our Holy Father God has come to confirm His promises in an increasingly emphatic way, but Abram, in the midst of his awe and fear, breaks in and reveals the deepest yearnings of his heart. Although he loves YHWH and believes Him and His promises, he is also human, and years of hurt, both on Sarai’s part and on his own, now come through at this crowning point in his life. A prophet, yes, the founder of a nation, yes, but if he is a prophet let him know, - why, oh why, must it be through a servant and not his own son?
Abram is occupied with his thoughts that he has no heir born of his flesh. So as our Holy Father speaks to him he lets God know what is on his heart. He asks our Holy Father to take a look. He has promised him abundant seed, but that seed will not be that of him and his beloved wife. We cannot avoid the suggestion that he feels that God has disappointed him. God has only to look and He will see the cause of his unhappiness.
But YHWH is aware of the longings of Abram’s heart. He Is aware of what lies in the depths of his soul, and He takes time off from His greater revelation to comfort His servant. What comfort these verses should give to us. The faithful and redoubtable Abram has his weaknesses after all, and his God bends to him in that weakness.
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.”
Abram has become a prophet and his first prophecy will be concerning his own deepest desires. ‘This man will not be your heir, one who is of your own body and blood will be your heir.’ This is what he had craved, and this YHWH promises to give him -A child of his own. And yet it had not been a totally selfish craving, it had been a craving that God would fulfill in him what He had commanded to all, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (Genesis 1.28). He had not only felt sick at heart, he had felt that he had failed God. But now YHWH Himself assures him that this will not be so. He is to have a son and 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.”
The repetition of ‘He said to him’ is to emphasize the certainty of the promise. Abram will grieve no longer for out of his own blood will be born countless multitudes, countless as the stars above.
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
What a remarkable verse is this, for it is the heart of the Gospel. As Abram looks at the multiplicity of stars he believes, not in the stars, but in the faithfulness and goodness of Almighty God. All his disappointment and bitterness melts away for our Great Master has promised and He Is faithful. And our Father God sees his believing heart and accounts it to him as righteousness, as the fulfillment of all that was required of him in the covenant of God.
Abram had left his tribe because of his loyalty to God. Now in a supreme act of faith he responds to God’s promise. And God accounts him as a worthy man, both as one who has walked in obedience to all His requirements and as one who’s total loyalty is to Him.
The vital point is that this is not because of his obedience, nor because of his loyalty, although both had in fact been amply proved, but because of his response of faith, because he accepted the impossible of which God spoke to him. For his obedience and his loyalty could never be total (we have seen how he has sometimes failed in both). Our Precious and Holy God accounts and accepts him as totally faithful and obedient because of his faith in God’s promise. No wonder Paul uses this verse as the rock on which his doctrine of justification by faith is founded (Galatians 3.6).
The pointing to the stars by YHWH is subtle. To other nations the stars were gods, but to Abram they are to be the permanent reminder of the promises of YHWH. Wherever he goes he will see them and remember.
Now in verse 7 our Amazing God returns to the point he had begun at in verse 1. This is the main revelation, the ‘word of YHWH’, although in His goodness God has given Abram a second subsidiary word of YHWH to confirm the birth of a natural son. In a sense there has been a diversion over the great concern of Abram’s heart, but how blessedly it has been responded to, and what great blessing it means for Abram both with regard to the desire of his heart and in his spiritual life, but now YHWH must return to His primary purpose. This is no break in the narrative. It is demanded in verse 1. Now will His covenant with Abram be ratified as never before.
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.”
This solemn declaration commences the giving of what follows. It is a declaration of the every living God’s total sovereignty and goodness in readiness for a solemn declaration. Here is specific confirmation that it was in Ur of the Chaldees that God began the calling of Abram.
Abram has spurned riches at the hands of the king of Sodom, now YHWH promises not only riches but total possession of the land. In the final analysis land meant everything. As a semi-nomad Abram had many blessings but he was to some extent dependent on others like Melchizedek for the use of land, now YHWH promises that the land will one day be his, all of it. For purposes which only YHWH knows the end of?
8 And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
Moved by YHWH’s goodness and compassion to him Abram asks a vital question. ‘And he said, “Oh Lord YHWH, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” This is not a question arising from doubt, but arising from the faith that is welling from his heart as a result of his response of faith to YHWH’s previous promise. Inspired as a new prophet he is now bold to ask, for he must convince his people. He wants to know what he can give them as a guarantee.
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.”
Three, the number of completeness, indicates one which is complete and full. So, Abram wants information to tell his descendents then let him first understand what our God Is going to do is complete and full.
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.
Abram does what God tells him. He takes the defined animals and slays them and cuts them in half and lays the halves on the ground to provide a way between them.
11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
The birds of prey are a reminder of those who will seek to hinder God’s work here on earth. Remember the Parable of the Sower taught by our Holy King Jesus Christ. Matthew says, ““Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.’
Our Lord then goes on to explain to His disciples, “18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.”
So another message Abram can pass down to his descendents is that Satan will attempt to thwart the work of God on behalf of Abram’s descendents. In addition we know that the animals are but a symbol, a type, for the blood that must be shed, for the fulfillment of God’s covenant is to be His own blood, shed for the sins of the world.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
Abram for his own good must fall into a deep sleep for if he was awake he could not see God and live. And the horror of darkness is an awareness of inconceivable things that are occurring at this moment, which he can sense but cannot comprehend. An awareness of darkness, of unbelievable darkness, for before the light there must be darkness
If you want to tell you descendants make sure you share this experience Abram. For Another will one day hang with His blood drained and He too will experience such intense and unbelievable darkness. But Abram knows nothing of this. Yet he is a prophet, and a prophet reveals better than he knows.
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.”
Now our Holy Creator reveals to Abraham something of the future;
1. As a reminder that the certainty of him having seed comes out in that God can speak of their future.
2. We learn that their future will not be straightforward. They will be forced out of the land for a period of time and will be aliens and slaves in a foreign land. He has control of their destiny. But it stresses that their land will not be theirs for a long time to come.
3. There is the implication that this will be followed by them receiving a land of their own.
4. It brings out YHWH’s power as the One Who can alone determine the future of that foreign land as their Judge.
5. Abraham has the guarantee that it will not happen in his lifetime.
6. It brings out that God is a God Who acts as Judge only on the basis of true morality. His judgments are not arbitrary, but on a moral basis, and He will not punish or condemn any until it is necessary, and will judge according to deserts. Again there is the implication that all judgment is in His hands. He is over all. Other ‘gods’ were arbitrary and limited in what they could do and rarely took morality into account. They were simply sinful super-humans.
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.
The covenant is finalized and sealed. As elsewhere the flaming furnace and the flaming torch represent YHWH Himself (YHWH is often described in terms of fire), although not directly. The mention of two signifies a twofold divine witness. Abram is not involved. This is a gift of God’s grace.
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.”
Our Precious Holy Spirit now inspires Moses to now summaries the covenant. The special nature of what has occurred is clear. Nowhere else is such a comment as ‘know of a surety’ (know as a guaranteed certainty. He recognizes the solemnity and totally unbreakable nature of what has happened.
So the boundaries of the Promised Land are fixed in a general sense, to be achieved in the day of Solomon. ‘The river of Egypt’ is the Nile. The general boundary is clear. The land reaches from Egypt to the Euphrates, two natural boundaries.
It may be significant that the land is described in this way. Egypt’s civilization was based on the Nile, the River of Egypt, whilst the great Mesopotamian empires were based on the River Euphrates. In between was a diversity of tribes which were to be subjugated by Abram’s descendants, Israel. Then there would be three great nations, Israel, Egypt and Assyria/Babylon, two founded on rivers, and the third dependent on the God of heaven.
For His display of awareness of all that lies around the Promised Land the inhabitants of the land are identified. There are ten in number, a number which signifies totality.
