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Genesis
Preface This is a very important chapter in the Old Testament, primarily as it relates to the grace of God. Within this chapter three items are of great significance to every single man and woman that has lived, that now lives and will live upon the face of the earth. These items that are overwhelming and mind boggling, or should be, to every single person created by God are as follow: 1. God condescends to His creatures for their benefit, since they are unable to transcend up to God by either their abilities or actions. 2. Salvation (righteousness) is solely by faith, a non-meritorious process of the will of man to simply accept and place one’s genuine confidence (trust) in God’s Word, the Person of Jesus Christ. 3. God’s salvation and blessing for mankind is based on an iron-clad covenant that is confirmed by the authority and character of God apart from man’s participation, a truly unconditional contract between God and man, which is demonstrated by a truly unique ceremony ordered and designed by God. This is a foundational chapter in God’s Word. Although the Abrahamic Covenant has been stated by God in previous chapters, it is within this chapter that God executes the covenant-ceremony that demonstrates to Abraham the surety of His irrevocable words of promise and blessing; which incorporate, in addition to personal blessings for Abraham during his life and blessings for the people of Israel and those who will support Israel, the promise of the Messiah who will be the eternal blessing (through salvation by faith in Him) for all mankind. Genesis 15:1-3 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.” But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” God revealed His will to the patriarchs and to the prophets of the Old Testament in a variety of ways, as follow:
In this case the “Word of the Lord” came to Abram by a vision, which is believed to have taken place during nighttime but could have happened just prior to sunset. This is the first place where God reveals Himself by His “Word.” In fact, the term “Word of the Lord” may indeed be the equivalent to the “Word was God” in John 1:1, which phrase refers clearly to Jesus Christ (John 1:14). Also, the first reference to God in this verse is made by the use of the Hebrew word yhovah (Jehovah), which indicates the deity of God as the “Self-Existent or Eternal One.” Again, a parallel to the “Word” of John 1:1. God informs Abram that he has nothing to fear, because he has the guarantee that God Himself would be Abram’s protection and exceedingly great reward. This was not a reference to physical protection and material wealth. It was God’s assurance that He would protect Abram from evil and that he would be the recipient of eternal rewards. Yet Abram was focused on his material worth, which would be an inheritance for his descendants. (Another interpretation is that since Abram refused the rewards of the king of Sodom, Jehovah was assuring him that he would be protected and fabulously wealthy.) I am thy shield, &c.] Can it be supposed that Abram understood these words as promising him “temporal” advantages at all corresponding to the magnificence of these promises? If he did he was disappointed through the whole course of his life, for he never enjoyed such a state of worldly prosperity as could justify the strong language in the text. Shall we lose sight of Abram, and say that his posterity was intended, and Abram understood the promises as relating to them, and not to himself or immediately to his own family? Then the question recurs, Did the Israelites ever enjoy such a state of temporal affluence as seems to be intended by the above promise? To this every man acquainted with their history will, without hesitation, say, No. What then is intended? Just what the words state. God was “Abram’s portion,” and He is the “portion” of every “righteous soul;” for to Abram, and the “children of his faith,” He gives not a portion in this life. Nothing, says father Calmet, proves more invincibly the immortality of the soul, the truth of religion, and the eternity of another life, than to see that in this life the righteous seldom receive the reward of their virtue, and that in temporal things they are often less happy than the workers of iniquity. (The Holy Bible with Commentary and Critical Notes by Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., &c., Abingdon Press) Being childless, Abram feared that Eliezer of Damascus, one of his servants, would be his only heir, since that was the law at that time. Abram wanted a natural descendant to be his heir, but God had not allowed him one. From a human standpoint, this was impossible, since Sarai had passed the time when she could bear a child. Abram reminded God of this. This was only natural, since the anxiety of Asiatic people to have offspring was and is intense and universal. Genesis 15:4, 5 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.” 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.” At the indication of Abram’s concerns, God assured Abram that His promises that He had stated to him previously would indeed be carried out. God then transported Abram outside to look at the stars, which were then perceptible in the sky since it was during sunset (vs. 12). He again pointed out that just as Abram could not count the stars, so he would not be able to count the number of his natural descendants. In Genesis 13:16 God had promised descendants as numerous as the dust, and here in 15:5 as numerous as the stars. The dust pictures Abram’s natural posterity—those who are Jews by birth. The stars depict his spiritual seed—those who are justified by faith (see Galatians 3:7). Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. The truth of justification by faith is first mentioned here in the Bible. It is repeated in the following New Testament passages: For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.” (Romans 4:2-8) Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." (Galatians 3:6-8) As stated above, this is the first occurrence of the means whereby man apprehends salvation (righteousness). Since man transgressed the clear instruction of God in the Garden of Eden, he has been without righteousness (Psalm 51:5; 58:3; Romans 3:9, 23; 5:12; 11:32; Galatians 3:22; Ephesians 2:3); therefore if he is to be just in God’s sight, God must assign (impute) His own righteousness to man’s account, which is based on the work of Christ on the cross and is apprehended by man only through non-meritorious faith. The quotation of this passage in Romans 4:3 signifies that the means of salvation, on man’s part, is the same in both the Old and New Testaments. Not only does an individual apprehend salvation by means of faith, but Galatians 3:3, 6 and Colossians 2:6 affirm that the Christian life is one of faith (or must be lived by faith). Verse 6. . . . This I conceive to be one of the most important passages in the whole Old Testament. It properly contains and specifies that doctrine of “justification by faith” which engrosses so considerable a share of the epistles of St. Paul, and at the foundation of which is the “atonement” made by the Son of God: “And he (Abram) ‘believed’ (‘heemin,’ he put faith) in Jehovah, . . . and He [Jehovah] counted it—the faith he put in Jehovah, to him for righteousness,” “tsedakah,” or justification; though there was no act in the case but that of the mind and heart, no “work” of any kind. Hence the doctrine of “justification by faith, without any merit of works;” for in this case there could be none—no works of Abram which could “merit the salvation of the whole human race.” It was the “promise” of God which He credited, and in the blessedness of which he became a partaker through faith. (The Holy Bible with Commentary and Critical Notes by Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., &c., Abingdon Press) Genesis 15:7-21 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.” And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” 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.” 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. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 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. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 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. 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—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” This passage affirms that the Abrahamic Covenant, an agreement between God and Abraham (then Abram), is an unconditional covenant. Although it is between two parties, it will be seen that its guarantee of fulfillment rests only upon One. Upon Abram’s inquiry regarding a portion of the covenant that God had previously declared to Abram and his request for some sort of sign of assurance, God enacted a ceremony common to the ancient Eastern manner of making a covenant, with one substantial alteration. Although there were different kinds of covenants then, the most binding of ancient covenants was the covenant of blood. In this covenant the parties both passed between the divided halves of sacrificial animals, a symbol that they pledged their very lives to live up to the terms of the agreement between them. This background helps us understand the uniqueness of the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. First, it was a covenant of blood, the most binding of all ancient legal formulations. The sacrificial animals were carefully divided and laid on the ground. But then God caused Abraham to fall into a deep sleep, and God “alone passed between the pieces of the sacrificial animals [God’s presence was symbolized by the smoking furnace and lamp of fire]. God committed himself “unconditionally” to keep the promises originally recorded in Genesis 12 and reaffirmed here in Genesis 15. Abraham did not pass between the sacrifices. He made no commitments to God, so nothing that he did or failed to do could relieve God of the commitment He made to keep His promises. Thus Hebrews 6:17 calls this covenant an oath, and says, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath.” (Bible Difficulties Solved by Larry Richards, Fleming H. Revell, 1993) Here then is a legally binding oath or contract, formally taken by God, as a guarantee to Abram that He would keep His multifaceted promise to Abram—regardless of what Abraham or his descendants might do or fail to do. This “oath” was and is solely contingent and guaranteed by the veracity and nature of God—there can be no stronger assurance! This is a picture of God’s salvation-covenant through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to all mankind. The work is performed and guaranteed by God through His Son. Man can do nothing in the manner of works or meritorious effort to achieve salvation. Man may only accept or apprehend it through non-meritorious faith, just as Abram apprehended it. Israel’s deliverance would not come until the iniquity of the Amorites was complete. These pagan inhabitants of Canaan must eventually be exterminated. But God often allows evil to run its course, sometimes to the seeming detriment of His people, before He judges it. He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish—even the depraved Amorites (2 Pet. 3:9). He also allows evil to come to fruition so that the awful consequences of wickedness can be clear to all. Thus His wrath is demonstrated to be completely righteous. (Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995) In verse 17 the phraseology,” when the sun was going down,” is used by skeptics of the Bible to claim the Bible contains scientific error, asserting that the writers of the Old Testament thought that the sun revolved around the earth. This is a foolhardy position, since every form of language is filled with phenomenological terms and phrases—terms and phrases which describe events as to appearance and not scientific fact. Just as in English, when the sun “appears to rise,” everyone calls it a “sunrise.” In speaking and writing about things in terms of how they appear, neither modern man nor ancient Hebrews coach their descriptions of the solar system scientifically. Verses 13 and 14 pose a chronological problem. They predict that Abram’s people would be in harsh servitude in a foreign land for 400 years, and that they would leave at the end of that time, carrying great wealth with them. In Acts 7:6 this figure of 400 years is repeated. In Exodus 12:40, 41 we read that the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, were sojourners for 430 years, to the very day. Then in Galatians 3:17 Paul says that the period from the confirming of the Abrahamic Covenant until the giving of the Law was 430 years. How can these figures be reconciled? The 400 years mentioned in Genesis 15:13, 14 and in Acts 7:6 refer to the time of Israel’s “harsh affliction” in Egypt. Jacob and his family were not in bondage when they first came to Egypt. On the contrary, they were treated quite royally. The 430 years in Exodus 12:40, 41 refer to the total time the people of Israel spent in Egypt—to the very day. This is an exact figure. The 430 years in Galatians 3:17 cover “approximately” the same period as Exodus 12:40, 41. They are reckoned from the time that God confirmed the Abrahamic Covenant to Jacob, just as Jacob was preparing to enter Egypt (Gen. 46:1-4), and they extend to the giving of the Law, about three months after the Exodus. (Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995) The four generations of Genesis 15:16 can be seen in Exodus 6:16-20: Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses. Israel has not yet occupied all the land promised in verses 18-21. Solomon had dominion over it (1 Kings 4:21, 24), as over vassal states, but his people did not occupy it. The covenant will be fulfilled when Christ returns to reign. Nothing can stop its fulfillment. What God has promised is as sure as if it had already occurred! The river of Egypt (v. 18) is generally believed to be a small stream south of Gaza now known as “Wadi el Arish”, and not the Nile. (Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995) |