Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 15:7

Verses 7-11:

There is no element of doubt in Abram’s request for confirmation of the Divine promise. The request denotes Abram’s desire for a sign to strengthen his faith. Abram addressed God as Adonai Jehovah.

Jehovah instructed Abram to prepare and offer a sacrifice, consisting of three animals and two birds. These were afterward prescribed for sacrifice in the Law, see Ex 29:15; Nu 15:27; 19:2; De 21:3; Le 1:14. The number “three” denotes Divine perfection, and refers to Him who is, who was, and who is to come.

Abram slaughtered the sacrificial animals, and divided them in the same ritual afterwards observed among the Hebrews in the ratification of covenants (Ge 34:18). He waited for the Lord’s acceptance, and kept the fowls from them.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

7. I am the Lord that brought thee. Since it greatly concerns us, to have God as the guide of our whole life, in order that we may know that we have not rashly entered on some doubtful way, therefore the Lord confirms Abram in the course of his vocation, and recalls to his memory the original benefit of his deliverance; as if he had said, ‘I, after I had stretched out my hand to thee, to lead thee forth from the labyrinth of death, have carried my favor towards thee thus far. Thou, therefore, respond to me in turn, by constantly advancing; and maintain steadfastly thy faith, from the beginning even to the end.’ This indeed is said, not with respect to Abram alone, in order that he, gathering together the promises of God, made to him from the very commencement of his life of faith, should form them into one whole; (375) but that all the pious may learn to regard the beginning of their vocation as flowing perpetually from Abram, their common father; and may thus securely boast with Paul, that they know in whom they have believed, (2Ti 1:12,) and that God, who, in the person of Abram, had separated a church unto himself; would be a faithful keeper of the salvation deposited with Him. That, for this very end, the Lord declares himself to have been the deliverer of Abram appears hence; because he connects the promise which he is now about to give with the prior redemption; as if he were saying, ‘I do not now first begin to promise thee this land. For it was on this account that I brought thee out of thy own country, to constitute thee the lord and heir of this land. Now therefore I covenant with thee in the same form; lest thou shouldst deem thyself to have been deceived, or fed with empty words; and I command thee to be mindful of the first covenant, that the new promise, which after many years I now repeat, may be the more firmly supported.’

(375) “ Corpus unum efficeret.” — “ Et les joindre ensemble comme en un corps.” And should join them together, as in one body. — French Tr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Gen. 15:9. Take me.] Heb. Take for me, i.e., Take and offer for me. Three years old. Denoting, say Kalisch, the perfection of their species.

Gen. 15:10. Divided them.] In this manner animals were prepared for the ratification of a covenant. Hence the Heb. for to make a covenant is, to cut a covenant. The custom was to cut the animals intended for sacrifice in two, and then to pass between the parts (Jer. 34:18-19, Psa. 50:5). It consisted in cutting the throat of the victim, and pouring out its blood. The carcass was then divided length-wise, as nearly as possible into two equal parts, which being placed opposite to each other at a short distance, the covenanting parties approached at the opposite ends of the passage thus formed, and meeting in the middle, took the customary oath. (Bush). Laid each piece one against another. Heb. Gave every ones part, or piece, against his fellow, i.e., laid head against head, shoulder against shoulder, etc., so that the covenanting parties might pass between them. The birds divided he not. As there were two birds, they could be separated so as to make a space between them, without the necessity of their division. It was afterwards commanded in the Law not to divide birds in sacrifices. (Lev. 1:17). Fowls were regarded as mere appendages to the sacrifices.

Gen. 15:11. Fowls came down upon the carcases.] Ravenous birds of prey, such as eagles, vultures, kites, etc., which feed upon dead bodies.

Gen. 15:12. Deep sleep.] The same expression is used of Adam: Gen. 2:21. The LXX has ecstasya supernatural trance.

Gen. 15:13. Know of a surety.] Heb. Knowing know. A stranger. This refers chiefly to Egypt; but their sojourn in Canaan, where they lived as strangers, is also included. Four hundred years. 400 years is the manner of speech of prophecy, taking the greater and round numbers. It was really 430; see Exo. 12:40. The devices resorted to in order to produce exact agreement are beneath notice. (Alford).

Gen. 15:16. Fourth generation.] The fourth generation of the Isaaelites who went down to Egypt should return and possess Canaan. This was the result. Caleb was the fourth from Judah, Moses was the fourth from Levi; or Isaac, Levi, Amram, Eleazar, may represent the four generations. (Jacobus). In the fourth, age. An age here means the average period from the birth to the death of one man. This age or generation ran parallel with the life of Moses, and therefore consisted of 120 years. Joseph lived 110 years. Four such generations amount to 480 or 440 years. (Murphy). Amorites. The general name for the Canaanitish tribes.

Gen. 15:18. River of Egypt.] Some suppose the Nile is meant; but to this others object that the region from the Nile to the Euphrates includes a wider dominion than Israel ever attained. Hence it has been conjectured that the reference is to the Wady el Arisch, which is called the Brook of Egypt. It is true that the domain of Israel never reached exactly to the river Nile. But nothing between them and the Nile was independent of them. Virtually this was the extent; and as Kurtz remarks, these two rivers are considered here as the representatives of the two great powers of the East and the West; and the meaning of the promise is, that the land and commonwealth of the descendants of Abram should be independent, and continue by the side of and between these two empires, and that no other empire or nation should permanently bear independent sway in the districts which lay between Judea and these two great empires. (Jacobus).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 15:7-21

THE CONFIRMATION OF FAITH

Abram had now that faith by which he was regarded righteous in the sight of God. But faith is only the beginning of the spiritual life, which, as in the case of all life, is a season of weakness. Therefore it must be strengthened and encouraged and brought into further development. God graciously confirmed the faith of His servant, so that he might have entire confidence in His ability to accomplish the word of promise. He who gives spiritual life to the soul is ready to give it more abundantly. We may learn from the instance of Abram how, when once we have faith, we may reasonably look to God for the further assurance of it. How was Abrams faith confirmed? The answer to this question will be a guide and comfort to believers in all ages.

I. Faith is confirmed by the remembrance of Gods past dealings. The soul that has believed has already passed through some stages of spiritual history in all which the Divine goodness and leading were manifest. When faith wavers, or its life is in danger of growing feeble, it is well for us to review the past and to remember what God has been to us. We may use memory to stimulate both faith and hope. This was the use the Psalmist made of the past mercies of God: Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings I rejoice (Psa. 63:7). The several parts of this act of remembrance may be gathered from Gods dealings with Abram in this solemn transaction.

1. We should call to mind what God is. Abram was reminded of the majesty, the glory, and unchangeable nature of that Being with whom he had to do. The Lord announced His own awful name, I am JEHOVAH (Gen. 15:7). Gods name is Himself, and could we learn and know the mysterious secret of it, we should see an end to all our souls fears. God is the All-sufficient One, and if we but know that, we need want no more. But such is the frailty of our nature that we are under the necessity of ever reminding ourselves of fundamental truths. If the life of faith is to be maintained, the soul must frequently cast itself upon God. In the presence of His power and unchangeable purpose of goodness, we can have no fear that His promise shall fail.

2. We should consider the steps by which we have arrived at what we are already. Abram, now, for several years was conscious of Gods dealings with him. He had ordered his life by Gods direction. He had experienced many proofs of His favour, and of His power to deliver in the time of danger. The Lord reminded him of these things. I am JEHOVAH, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 15:7). That journey was long, leading through various prospects, and through paths of chequered experience; but God was with him and led him on. Abram may now confirm his faith by looking at the steps which God had already taken to secure to him the land of promise. Part of the Divine plan had been already accomplished, for God brought him out of Ur that he might give him possession of Canaan. This was surely enough. Will God now falter or fail in the midst of His work, and not go on unto the end? The believer can look back upon all that God has done, and upon all the way by which he has been led, and take courage.

3. We should keep that purpose of God before us in reference to which we first exercised our faith. I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it (Gen. 15:7). Abrams attention is called to the purpose which God intended for him from the very first. God had promised him the land, and on that word he had ventured to hope and trust. All Gods dealings were tending towards the fulfilment of this promise. I called thee, and promised to bless thee; and whatever may be the darkness of the troubled scene now to be set before thee, it is thy privilege still to know that He who brought thee out of Ur to inherit this land is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever (Candlish). All Gods dealings with believers now tend to the working out of His original purpose concerning them, which is to unite them to Himself and bring them to glory. If we remember what is the end of our high calling of God, we have no cause to fear. We have no need to be discouraged because of the way. Our faith, like that of Abram, rests upon the promise of God that He hath provided for us a better place.

II. Faith is confirmed by covenant. The Lord had entered into covenant with Adam and with Noah, but this is the first time that He makes a covenant with Abram. The patriarch needed encouragement. He was not yet in possession of the land which was promised, and the disclosures of the future of his race, which were shortly to be submitted to him, were not altogether cheering. A covenant is granted, not that God requires it for Himself, but for our sakes. We require the definite word, and that it should be confirmed by some act. God thus makes agreement with man, and ties Himself down to conditions. Consider the exact place which this covenant held in the spiritual history of Abram.

1. It was a token and pledge of Gods promises, not a concession to unbelief. Abram desires that his faith should be confirmed by some sign or token. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? (Gen. 15:8). This request was made after he had exercised genuine faith, and had been accounted righteous and accepted in the sight of God. This was not the demand of doubt or of unbelief, made in the spirit of an evil and adulterous generation which seeked after a sign. To require a sign before believing, and as a necessary condition of that act, is a sin. It is presuming to dictate to God, as if we had made up our minds not to agree to His terms until we heard them, or until He should come round to ours. But when we first rest our faith upon Gods bare word, we then may humbly hope for some token and pledge of His promises. That living thing called faith yet needs an atmosphere constantly renewed, fresh and invigorating. The fitting frame of mind for every child of God is, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. So it was with Abram. He believed, and had acceptance and peace; but the future was dark and he was compassed about with infirmity. Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit the land?

2. It was a covenant made by sacrifice (Gen. 15:9-10). In every covenant, some token or sign must be given as a common point of meeting for God and man. Thus, in the case of Noah there was a sign or token, but this is the first time in which God prepares for a covenant with man with all the formality of a sacrificial transaction. This shows that the gospel idea had now reached a farther stage of development. This transaction pointed to the sacrifice of Christ. Abrams sacrifice was to consist of animals of three years old, which was the time of full vigour. They were to be unblemished, and of the best. Such was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He was cut off in the time of his full strength. He was holy, and without spot. He was the flower and perfection of the racethe new and better beginning of humanity. In the tokens of this covenant there are two principles recognised, as bearing upon the great sacrifice for sin.

(1.) That life comes through death. These animals were slain, as plainly to set forth that death is the consequence of sin. It is also the means of life, for Gods covenants convey the gifts of mercy and salvation. Through the death of Gods Great Sacrifice we have life. In human experience we have some imperfect analogies to this. The sufferings, and even the death of men, are often the hard conditions securing the good of the race. The death of the mother is often the life of the child. Death for death is the stern requirement of our salvation, but He who saved us had strength beyond the power of death, and rose again for our justification. He brought life from the dead.

(2.) That this sacrifice pointed to a greater whose intent was to bring man into union with God. The animals were divided, according to the custom in such solemnities (Gen. 15:10). The parties were to pass together between the parts of the sacrifice, as denoting that they were thus at one. The unity laid down in the covenant is hereby expressed. The division of the sacrifices into two portions represents the two parties to the covenant. As these portions constitute in reality one animal, so these two parties to the covenant are joined into one (Kurtz). The form of the word atonement shows that it signifies that we are made one with God. To knit together again the broken relations between God and man is the great work of Christ.

3. It was a covenant which was so ordered as to give a further exercise to faith. When the sacrifice was all made ready, there followed a time of silence and suspense. Abram can only with difficulty keep off the devouring birds of the air which fall upon the divided fragments. He watches anxiously till the close of day, when he becomes weary and falls into a heavy slumber. A mysterious darkness surrounds him. Light at last shines forth out of it, and the symbols of the Divine glory appear, but still the waiting for them was a trial. While mankind was waiting for Christ, it was a time of darkness, suspense, and trial. While the Deliverer was only promised, it was difficult to keep even the most prophetic souls always awake.

III. Faith is confirmed by a further discovery of the Divine will. Abram was a prophet, and it was necessary that he should know what was the mind of God, that he might be able to interpret it for the benefit of the Church. It was necessary that God should reveal His will. But the principle still holds good in the case of each believer, that God always rewards obedience by a further discovery of His will. If any man, says Jesus, will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.

1. This discovery was preceded by a revelation of the awful majesty of God. There was an horror of great darkness upon Abram (Gen. 15:12). This produced a state of mind which is proper when God is about to grant an audience with His creature. This feeling of awe and horror was often an attendant upon special prophetic revelations (Job. 4:13-14; Dan. 10:8).

2. The future was unfolded. Not for the benefit of Abram alone, as an individual, but for that of the Church. Israel for four hundred years afterwards would have these words to ponder, and even after that to contemplate the still further issues which would be prepared. Of the future, which was here unfolded to the prophet, it may be observed

(1) That it was not altogether a cheering prospect. Abrams seed were to be strangers in a land that is not their own, to be condemned to a debasing and cruel servitude for four hundred years. The immediate future of his race was drawn in sad colours. Prosperity would only be granted after many years of grievous trouble. This is a picture of what the Church is, and will be throughout history. Her life is a transcript of that of her Lords. It was necessary that He should first suffer, and afterwards enter into His glory, and so His church must pass through weary seasons of darkness and trial before she sees full prosperity and enters into her joyful reward. Gods revelation does not hide from believers the troubles they may expect in this life. But

(2). It would be bright in the end. After a previous affliction for four hundred years Abrams posterity were to be delivered from the House of Bondage (Gen. 15:14). The afflictions of Gods saints are intended to issue in blessing. The horror of great darkness which fell upon the patriarch was a picture of the prospects of his race, which at first were discouraging, but afterwards joyous. God was about to create a people for Himself, and as in the creation of the world so it was here, there was darkness first and then light. This is also the order of the spiritual history of the individual. The new life of souls begins in sorrow, but ends in blessedness. In that prophetic picture of the afflictions of his posterity there were two things which would comfort and assure the mind of Abram. One was that God would punish the instruments of their affliction, Also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge (Gen. 15:14). Those who afflict Gods people bring down upon themselves His judgments in the end. Such is the terrible law of retributive providence as seen in the course of human history. God may use a nation as a rod to afflict His people, but afterwards He breaks the rod in pieces. No weapon that is formed against them can prosper. The Church is too strong to be broken by the powers of this world, for those who have opposed her have either been brought to submission, or have been blotted out of the family of nations. Another consolatary thought was that there were reasons for the delay of the promised blessings. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full (Gen. 15:16). He who is Lord of all must rule over the wicked as well as the righteous. His longsuffering towards sinners is often a reason why He delays the deliverance of His people. They must abide the time of Gods forbearance with those who afflict them. It should reconcile us to the prosperity of the wicked to remember that God allows evil in this world sufficient time to work out its own recompense. It is enough for us to know that what is right and true shall triumph in the end, and what is wrong and false shall be destroyed after it has had a fair trial. The Church cannot enter into her complete reward until the measure of the worlds iniquity is full.

IV. Faith is confirmed by the display of the Divine glory. And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces (Gen. 15:17). Here was a twofold symbol of the glory of God.

1. The Divine glory in the overthrow of evil. The smoking furnace was a symbol of the Divine wrath, and would represent Gods vindictive judgments upon their oppressors. This was the smoke of destructionthe consuming fire of Gods anger which burns up all evil. When the Lord comes it will be to take vengeance upon sinners as well as to reward His saints. God is true to His nature when He punishes, for nothing that is unholy can live in His sight.

2. The Divine glory in salvation. The burning lamp was a symbol of the light of salvationof Christ, the Saviour of the world. This is that glory of God, the contemplation of which gives joy. Without this the thought of God would be terrible to the soul. We might admire Gods wisdom, and stand in awe of His power and justice; but it is only when we know Him as the God of Salvation that our meditation of Him can be sweet. Our souls could not endure under the awful majesty of God unless we had the comforting light of His salvation. It is observable that God alone passed between the sacrifice. Abram had but to stand by and do nothing. He had asked a sign, and must wait for God. The covenant was one of grace, and God must first give before He requires any work on mans part. He alone will have the glory of our salvation.

V. Faith is confirmed by the prospect of a peaceful death, and of re-union with the spirits of the just. Faith in God cannot content itself with the present life. He who is our covenant God is ours for ever, and holds an eternal relation to our souls. Those to whom God gives Himself can never die. The words spoken to Moses, I am the God of Abram, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, are quoted by our Lord as a proof of the immortality of man. They imply that the real life of these men had not been extinguished by death; they were all living in the sight of Him from whose eye no human being could wander. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him. To Abram, God gave the promise, Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace (Gen. 15:15). To go from one place to another, and there to join companionship with others, is not annihilation. It may imply a change in the mode of existence, but the continuity of it is not broken. The Fathers were still living, and Abram was to join their company when God had prolonged his life to a good old age. He would come slowly and late to the grave, but his end would be peace, and that rest which God grants His people when they have laid down the burden of this life. God confirmed the faith of Abram by promising him this blessedness hereafter. Faith must fasten upon the future. To every faithful believer God gives the promise of a peaceful end, and of reunion with the spirits of the just.

1. This prospect renders the life of the believer independent of the earthly fortunes of the Church. The children of Abram, after much affliction, were at length to see prosperity. Abram would not live to enjoy it, and that melancholy thought may have oppressed him. But now he is assured that it shall all be well with himself. His own being was safe amidst all the varied fortunes of his peoples history. It is but poor comfort if we only believe in the immortality of the race, and not of the individual soul. Unless we have the blessed prospect of seeing the goodness of the Lord in what is truly the land of the living, our souls may well faint under the mystery of an existence, which without that blessed hope is meaningless and vain.

2. This prospect deprives the grave of its terrors. Abram, like all his fathers before him, must go to the grave, but it would be in peace. He would enter the assembly of those who were living in Gods sight. No alarm on meeting God in that world where the soul must be conscious of His presence. Thus faith transfigures that terrible thing, death, and makes it the gate of life. This, the first mention of the grave in the Bible, is cheerful and friendly, because the promise of God lighted it up with the life beyond.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Gen. 15:7. In that early age of the world the name of God was no mere designation of some mysterious Power, of which men were vaguely conscious, nor was it a convenient abstraction, but a solemn reality to those simple-minded but earnestly religious souls who used it. That name signified what God was, and who.

Enough for faith to know that God is by necessity what He is. This knowledge affords a stable centre where the heart can rest, and the intellect can afford to wait for such increase of knowledge as God may be pleased to grant.

He saith unto himGod expressly making out his mind to AbramI am Jehovah who now speak unto thee, who was, is, and is to come, who calls that which is not as if it were, and can make to be what and when I please; so that thy faith need not stagger concerning anything that I speak unto thee. All being is within the compass of mine.(Hughes.)

In this passage, God does seem to lay emphasis on his name, Jehovah, notwithstanding what is said afterwards: I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them (Exo. 6:3). Nor is there any real inconsistency here. It cannot be meant in that passage that the name Jehovah was literally unknown to the patriarchs, or that God in his intercourse with them never appealed to it. The idea rather is, that as God appeared in their days chiefly in the giving of promises, whereas in the time of Moses He appeared to fulfil them, His attribute of power was that principally concerned in the former case, and His attribute of faithfulness in the latter. The patriarchs had to look to Him as God Almighty, able, in due time, to accomplish all His promises which He was then giving them. Moses and the Israelites were to know Him as Jehovah, unalterably faithful after the lapse of ages, and fulfilling His promises given long before. Still, it does not follow that the view of God implied in His name Jehovah was altogether concealed from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; or, that it was never used to impart to their souls strong consolation and good hope through grace. On the contrary, the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, expressly tells us that to Abraham God sware by Himself; or, as he explains it, in support of His unchangeable word, appealed to His unchangeable nature or name. (Heb. 6:13-18.) And if, on any occasion, His name of immutability was likely to be thus used, it was at the opening of such a revelation as this.(Candlish.)

The record of Gods gracious dealings with His saints is an encouragement to all who shall hereafter believe. Hence the value of sacred biography.
What God had already done for Abram ought to strengthen and confirm his faith.

1. God brought him out of the land of his birth, which was defiled by idolatry.
2. All the events of his life were working towards the end contemplated by the promise.
3. God had deposited in his mind the seeds of religion, which would grow into a church.

Let the remembrance of what I have done for thee confirm thy confidence, since every former mercy is a pledge of a future. God giveth after He hath given, as the spring runneth after it hath run. And as the eye is not weary of seeing, nor the ear of hearing, no more is God of doing good to His people. Draw out thy loving kindness, saith David (Psa. 36:10, marg.), as a continued series or chain, where one link draws on another to the utmost length.(Trapp.)

Gen. 15:8. The same request may be made with two different minds. Zacharias (Luk. 1:18) asked this in unbelief; the Blessed Virgin (Luk. 1:34), as Abram here, in faith, humbly yearning for further assurance. God, who sees the heart, answers accordingly.(Alford.)

Abram grants God to be Jehovah, showing that his faith was still strong. The sign was needed, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his posterity, who might be tempted to despair on account of the slow realisation of the promise. In His dealings with individual saints God has often in view the future welfare of His Church.

Many instances are recorded where God has been graciously pleased to give signs to His people for the confirmation of their faith when there was not any doubt upon their minds respecting either His faithfulness or power. When He appeared to Gideon (Jdg. 6:14-21), and told him that He should deliver his country from the yoke of Midian, Gideon said, If now I have found grace in Thy sight, then show me a sign that Thou talkest with me. In answer to which, God caused a fire to come out of the rock and consume the kid and cakes which Gideon had prepared for Him; and presently afterwards (Jdg. 6:36-40) He gave him another sign, making the dew to fall alternately on the fleece and on the ground, while the other remained perfectly dry. In the same way He gave to Hezekiah a choice of signs, offering to make the shadows on the sundial go backwards or forwards ten degrees, according as he should desire. (2Ki. 20:8-11.) From hence it appears that the inquiries which proceed from faith are good and acceptable to God.(Bush.)

Even where faith is real it has a right to seek for its full assurance.
He desires a sign, not that he believed not before, but that he might better believe. How great is Gods love in giving us sacraments, and therein to make Himself to us visible as well as audible.(Trapp.)

We should be anxious to make our inheritance in the heavenly Canaan sure. It shall be given to those for whom it is prepared, but we may well be concerned as to whether we ourselves shall have part or lot in it.

Gen. 15:9. Abram must be prepared for the revelation which God was about to give him, by being reminded that he was not fit to approach God, except through an appointed way of mercy.

The outward signs of our faith, and the means of our redemption, are not left to mans device. God Himself appoints them.
The animals prescribed are of the three kinds afterwards allowed by the law for sacrifice; and the birds are those repeatedly mentioned in the law as those to be brought for offerings. The animals were to be each three years old, denoting the perfection of their species. But we Christians cannot shut our eyes to a deeper symbolism in this sacred number, especially when we remember that this part of the covenant symbolism was to be for ME, i.e., to signify Gods part of it. (Alford.)

The soul believes that it shall be even as God has promised, but it does not yet understand how or through what experiences the blessing is to come. In answer, therefore, to the promise it says, Whereby shall I know, etc. The Lord replies by a command to sacrifice, and in this worship and sacrifice His way is manifested. Beside the altar light breaks in. Faith may be strong while yet in outward things; but light comes while we stand before the Lord, by the holy altar of burnt-offering. At every stage we prove this. Noah is taught much beside his offering. (Ch. Gen. 8:20-22.) So, too, is David in later days. (Psa. 73:16-17.) Abram, no less, by the altar learns the reasons for the delay in the possession of the inheritance. There is opened the experience of his seed; there again the covenant is renewed and added to. (Jukes: Types of Genesis.)

Gen. 15:10. The universal Eastern custom was to divide the sacrifices, as Abram did, and both the contracting parties passed between the halves. Here one alone of the parties, Jehovah, thus passed. Abrams part of the covenant was the obedience of faith; and God on account of this entered, He, the righteous God, into bond with Abram, thus made a contracting party with God, and therefore accounted righteous. (Alford.)

In the Gospel covenant the only-begotten Son passes through between God and us. Christ gathers together in one all those things which sin has sundered and scattered.

Gen. 15:11. Having made ready the sacrifices, he waited, perhaps, for the fire of God to consume them, which was the usual token of acceptance. But meanwhile the birds of prey came down upon them, which he was obliged to drive away. Interruptions, we see, attend the Father of the Faithful in his most solemn approaches to God; and interruptions, though of a different kind, attend believers in their devotions. How often do intruding cares, like unclean birds, seize upon that time and those affections which are devoted to God? Happy is it for us, if by prayer and watchfulness we can drive them away, so as to worship Him without distraction.

Evil thoughts have a terrible power to come down upon us and enter our minds, even when we are able to shut out other influences.
Evil thoughts, unless we make an effort to drive them away, must spoil our sacrifice, which should be kept pure.
No sooner are the bodies of the beasts offered, and the parts laid open before the eye of God and the worshipper, than the fowls came down to mar the offering. So when the believer has set before him the sacrifice, and in the contemplation of it would fain learn to see and feel with God, the fowls, evil spirits in heavenly places, powers within or without subject to the wicked one, messengers of the prince of the power of the air, come to distract our communion. He that has stood beside his offering knows what distractions these winged messengers cause, while we rise up like Abram to drive them away.(Jukes: Types of Genesis.)

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

7. I

brought thee out of Ur Jehovah now reminds Abram of the past, and assures him of the former pledge to give him that land for an inheritance . As if to say: “I have had a purpose with thee from the beginning of thy wanderings, and will I be likely to let it fail?”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And he said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to inherit it.” ’

This solemn declaration commences the giving of what follows. We can compare it with Exo 20:2, “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”. It is a declaration of Yahweh’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.

“To give you this land to inherit it.” Abram has spurned riches at the hands of the king of Sodom, now Yahweh promises not only riches but total possession of the land. In the final analysis land meant everything. While a semi-nomad Abram had many blessings but he was to some extent dependent on others like Melchizedek for the use of land, now Yahweh promises that the land will one day be his, all of it. For purposes which only Yahweh knows the end of.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The covenant Sacrifice

v. 7. And He said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. In preparing to give Abram a special sign of the covenant’s consummation and to assure him of the fact that his descendants would be the possessors of the land of Canaan, the Lord introduces Himself as He whose conduct in the past is a guarantee of His faithfulness in the future.

v. 8. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? This was not a question of doubt, but of a desire for some assurance in the case of this promise which transcended all human understanding. He was asking for a covenant sign.

v. 9. And He said unto him, Take ye an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. All of these were sacrificial animals, which, although they were not burned as sacrifices to Jehovah, yet were to be consecrated to Him, Lev 1:2-14.

v. 10. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he not.

v. 11. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

v. 12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. At the direction of God, Abram prepared the sacrificial animals, the heifer, the ram, and the goat being cut in half lengthwise and the several pieces laid over against one another, by pairs, while the birds were not divided. The entire proceeding filled Abram with the deepest awe. When the birds of prey, eagles and vultures, came down to feed on the carcasses, Abram turned them away, drove them off. The ceremonial which was here enacted was that in use from ancient times, the contracting parties passing between the halves of the dead animals to indicate their reconciliation to a unity. The culmination of the strange scene came when, as the sun was setting, Abram was overcome by a deep sleep and a great horror fell upon him.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Gen 15:7

And he (Jehovah, or the Word of the Lord) said unto him (after the act of faith on the part of the patriarch, and the act of imputation or justification on the part of God, and in explication of the exact nature of that relationship which had been constituted between them by the spiritual transaction so described), I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees (vide Gen 11:28), to give thee this land to inherit (or, to possess) it.

Gen 15:8

And he said, Lord God (Adonai Jehovah; vide Gen 15:2), whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? Not the language of doubt, though slight misgivings are not incompatible with faith (cf. Jdg 6:17; 2Ki 20:8; Luk 1:34), and questioning with God “is rather a proof of faith than a sign of incredulity” (Calvin); but of desire for a sign in confirmation of the grant (Luther), either for the strengthening of his own faith, or for the sake of his posterity (Jarchi, Michaelis), or for some intimation as to the time and mode of taking possession (Murphy). Rosenmller conceives the question put in Abram’s mouth to be only a device of the narrator’s to lead up to the subject following.

Gen 15:9

And he said unto him, Take me (literally, for me, i.e. for my use in sacrifice) an heifer of three years old. So rightly (LXX; Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, Josephus, Bochart, Rosenmller, Keil); not three heifers (Onkelos, Jarchi, Kimchi, et alii). And a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old. These offerings, afterwards prescribed by the law (Exo 29:15; Num 15:27; Num 19:2; Deu 21:3), were three in number, and of three years each, to symbolize him who was, and is, and is to come (Wordsworth); perhaps rather to indicate-the perfection of the victim in respect of maturity (Murphy). Cf. Ganymede’s offering (in ‘Lucian’s Dialogues’) of a three years old ram for a ransom. And a turtle-dove, and a young pigeonalso prescribed by the law (Le Gen 1:14; Luk 2:24).

Gen 15:10

And he took unto him all these, and divided (a word occurring only here in Genesis, and supposed by Michaelis to have been taken by Moses from the ancient document from which he transcribed this portion of his work. The word is afterwards found in So Gen 2:17, and Jer 34:18) them in the midst, (LXX.); in equal parts (Onkelos)and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. So afterwards in the Mosaic legislation (Le Gen 1:7). Wordsworth detects in the non-dividing of the birds an emblem of “the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of peace and love; which is a Spirit of unity, and of “Christ’s human spirit, which was not divisible.” Kalisch, with more probability, recognizes as the reason of their not being divided the fact that such division was not required, both fowls being regarded as one part of the sacrifice only, and each, as the half, being placed opposite the other. Wordsworth numbers seven parts in the sacrifice, and sees a symbol of completeness and finality, the number seven being the root of shaba, to swear; Kalisch reckons four, which he regards as “denoting perfection, but rather the external perfection of form than the internal one of the mind,” and pointing “to the perfect possession of the Holy Land.” The ritual here described is the same which was afterwards observed among the Hebrews in the formation of covenants (cf. Gen 34:18), and appears to have extensively prevailed among heathen nations.

Gen 15:11

And when the fowlsliterally, and the bird of prey, a collective singular with the article, as in Gen 14:13, symbolizing the Egyptians and other adversaries of Israel, as in Eze 17:3, Eze 17:7, Eze 17:12; Eze 39:4, Eze 39:17; Rev 19:17, Rev 19:18 (Knobel, Rosenmller, Lunge, Keil, Kalisch), which may be regarded as probable if the divided victims represented Israel in affliction, which is doubtful (vide supra). It does not appear necessary to attach any special significance to the descent of the vultures, which are always attracted towards carrion, and the introduction of which here completes the naturalness of the scenecame down upon the caresses (the LXX. interpolates, ), Abram drove them away. Literally, caused them to be blown away, i.e. by blowing. “Though Abram is here represented as the instrument, yet the effect is to be ascribed primarily to the tutelar agency of omnipotence” (Bush; cf. Exo 15:10; Eze 21:31). The act of scaring the voracious birds has been taken to represent the ease with which Abram or Israel would ward off his enemies (Jonathan, Targums, Rosenmller, Bush); the averting of destruction from the Israelites through Abram’s merit (Kalisch, Keil); Abram’s religious regard for and observance of God’s treaty (Wordsworth); the patriarch’s expectation that God was about to employ the sacrificial victims for some holy purpose (Alford); simply his anxiety to preserve the victims pure and un-mutilated for whatever end they might have to serve (Murphy).

Gen 15:12

And when the sun was going down. Literally, was about to go down. The vision having commenced the previous evening, an entire day has already passed, the interval being designed to typify the time between the pro-raise and its fulfillment (Kalisch). A deep sleeptardemah (cf. Adam’s sleep, Gen 2:21); (LXX.); a supernatural slumber, as the darkness following was not solely due to natural causesfell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darknessliterally, an, horror, a great darkness, i.e. an overwhelming dread occasioned by the dense gloom with which he was encircled, and which, besides Being designed to conceal the working of the Deity from mortal vision (Knobel), was meant to symbolize the Egyptian bondage (Grotius, Calvin, Rosenmller, Keil, Aalisch), and perhaps also, since Abram’s faith embraced a larger sphere than Canaan (Heb 11:10, Heb 11:14, Heb 11:16), and a nobler seed than Sarah’s son (Joh 8:56), the sufferings of Christ (Wordsworth, Inglis)fell upon him.

Gen 15:13

And he said unto Abram, Know of a suretyliterally, knowing knowthat thy seed shall be a stranger in a land which is not there, and shall serve them (i.e. the inhabitants of that alien country); and they (i.e. these foreigners) shall afflict themthree different stages of adverse fortune are described:

(1) exile;

(2) bondage;

(3) affliction (Murphy);

or the two last clauses depict the contents of the first (Kalisch)four hundred years. The duration not of their affliction merely, but either of their bondage and affliction, or more probably of their exile, bondage, and affliction; either a round number for 430 (Calvin, Rosenmller, Keil, Alford), to Be reckoned from the date of the descent into Egypt (Kalisch, Lunge), as Moses (Exo 12:1-51 :89) and Stephen (Act 7:6) seem to say, and to be reconciled with the statement of Paul (Gal 3:17) by regarding the death of Jacob as the closing of the time of promise (Lange, Inglis); or an exact number dating from the birth of Isaac (Willet, Murphy, Wordsworth), which was thirty years after the call in Ur, thus making the entire interval correspond with the 430 years of Paul, or from the persecution of Ishmael (Ainsworth, Clarke, Bush), which occurred thirty years after the promise in Gen 12:3.

Gen 15:14

And also that nation (the name of which he does not reveal, in case of seeming to interfere with the free volition of his creatures, who, while accomplishing his high designs and secret purposes, are ever conscious of their moral freedom), whom they shall serve, will I judge:i.e. punish after judging, which prediction was in due course fulfilled (Exo 6:11)and afterward shall they come out with great substancerecush (cf. Gen 13:6; vide Exo 12:36).

Gen 15:15

And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace (cf. Gen 25:8; Gen 35:29; Gen 49:33). Not a periphrasis for going to the grave (Rosenmller), since Abram’s ancestors were not entombed in Canaan; but a proof of the survival of departed spirits in a state of conscious existence after death (Knobel, Murphy, Wordsworth, ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ Inglis), to the company of which the patriarch was in due time to be gathered. The disposal of his remains is provided for in what follows. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

Gen 15:16

But in the fourth generation, (LXX.); but, more correctly, the fourth generation, calculating 100 years to a generation. “Caleb was the fourth from Judah, and Moses from Levi, and so doubtless many others” (Bush). Drs. Oort and Kuenen, reckoning four generations as a far shorter space of time than four centuries, detect a contradiction between this verse and Gen 15:13, and an evidence of the free use which the ancient and uncritical Israelitish author made of his materials. On the import of vide Gen 6:9they shall come hither again (literally, shall return hither): for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Literally, for not completed the iniquity of the Amorites (vide Gen 14:7; here put for the entire population! until then (the same word as “hither, which is its usual signification).

Gen 15:17

And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down,literally, and it was (i.e. this took place), the sun went down; less accurately, (LXX.), which was the state of matters in Gen 15:12. Here the sun, which was then setting, is described as having setand it was dark,literally, and darkness was, i.e. a darkness that might be felt, as in Gen 15:12; certainly not (LXX.), as if there were another flame besides the one specified in the descriptionbehold a smoking furnace,the , or Oriental furnace, had the form of a cylindrical fire-potand a burning lampa lamp of fire, or fiery torch, emerging from the smoking stove: an emblem of the Divine presence (cf. Exo 19:18)that passed between those piecesin ratification of the covenant.

Gen 15:18-21

In that day the Lord made a covenantliterally, cut a covenant (cf. , foedus icere). On the import of vide Gen 9:9)with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egyptthe Nile (Keil, Kurtz, Hengstenberg, Kalisch) rather than the Wady el Arch, or Brook of Egypt (Knobel, Lange, Clarke), at the southern limits of the country (Num 34:5; Jos 15:4; Isa 27:12)unto the great river, the river Euphrates. The ideal limits of the Holy Land, which were practically reached under David and Solomon (vide 1Ki 4:21; 2Ch 9:26), and which embraced the following subject populations, ten in number, “to convey the impression of universality without exception, of unqualified completeness” (Delitzsch). The Kenites,inhabiting the mountainous tracts in the south-west of Palestine, near the Amalekites (Num 24:21; 1Sa 15:6; 1Sa 27:10); a people of uncertain origin, though (Jdg 1:16; Jdg 4:11) Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses, was a Keniteand the Kenizzites,mentioned only in this passage; a people dwelling apparently in the same region with the Kenites (Murphy), who probably became extinct between the times of Abraham and Moses (Bochart), and cannot now be identified (Keil, Kalisch), though they have been connected with Kenaz the Edomite, Gen 36:15, Gen 36:42 (Knobel)and the Kadmonites,never again referred to, but, as their name implies, an Eastern people, whose settlements extended towards the Euphrates (Kalisch)and the Hittites,the descendants of Heth (vide Gen 10:15); identified with the Kheta and Katti of the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, and supposed by Mr. Gladstone to be the Kheteians of the ‘Odyssey;’ a powerful Asiatic tribe who must have early established themselves on the Euphrates, and spread from thence southward to Canaan and Egypt, and westward to Lydia and Greece, carrying with them, towards the shores of the AEgean Sea, the art and culture of Assyria and Babylon, already modified by the forms and conceptions of Egypt. The northern capital of their empire was Carchemish, about sixteen miles south of the modern Birejik; and the southern Kadesh, on an island of the Orontesand the Perizzites, and the Rephaims (vide Gen 13:7; Gen 14:5), and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Oirgashites, and the Jebusites (vide Gen 10:15-19). The boundaries of the Holy Land as here defined are regarded by some (Bohlen) as contradictory of those designated in Num 34:1-12. But

(1) the former may be viewed as the ideal (or poetical), and the latter as the actual (and prosaic), limits of the country assigned to Israel (Hengstenbreg, Keil); or

(2) the former may represent the maxima, and the latter the minima, of the promise, which admitted of a larger or a smaller fulfillment, according as Israel should in the sequel prove fit for its occupation; or,

(3) according to a certain school of interpreters, the former may point to the wide extent of country to be occupied by the Jews on occasion of their restoration to their own land, as distinguished from their first occupation on coming up out of Egypt, or their second on returning from Babylon; or

(4) the rivers may be put for the countries with which the promised land was coterminous (Kurtz, Murphy); or

(5) strict geographical accuracy may not have been intended in defining the limits of the land of promise (‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ Inglis).

HOMILETICS

Gen 15:18

Taken into covenant.

I. THE BLESSING OF THE COVENANT.

1. The ultimate blessing, to which, in both the commencement and close of the present section, the prominence is assigned, was a splendid inheritancethe land of Canaan for his descendants, and for himself the better country, of which that earthly possession was a type.

2. The mediate blessing, through which alone the last could be reached, was a distinguished seeda numerous posterity to occupy the land, and a living Savior to secure for himself the bettor country.

3. The proximate blessing, to be enjoyed while as yet the second and the third were unfulfilled, was a celestial alliance by which Jehovah himself engaged to be his shield and exceeding great reward. It is obvious that these are the blessings which the gospel confers on believersa heavenly Friend, an all-sufficient Savior, a future inheritance; whence the Abrahamic covenant was nothing different from the covenant of grace.

II. THE REASON OF THE COVENANT. The essential idea in a covenant being a visible pledge for the fulfillment of a promise, the necessity for such a guarantee on the present occasion, it is apparent, could not lie with God. On the contrary, the proposal on the part of God to bind himself by a superadded engagement to implement his own gracious and spontaneous promise was an explicit condescension, if not to the feebleness of the patriarch’s faith, at least to the weakness of his human nature. Perhaps the recollection of who Jehovah was, and what he had already accomplished in bringing Abram from Ur, should have proved sufficient to authenticate the promise; but it would almost seem as if human nature, in its innocent no less than in its fallen state, instinctively craved the assistance of external symbols to enable it to clearly apprehend and firmly grasp the unseen and spiritual blessings that are wrapped up in God’s promises. In the garden of Eden the tree of life was Adam’s sacramental pledge of immortality; after the Flood the many-colored rainbow was a sign to Noah; in the Hebrew Church material symbols of unseen verifies were not awanting; while in the Christian Church the passover and circumcision have been replaced by the Lord’s Supper and baptism. The reasons that required the institution of these external signs may be held as having necessitated the solemn ritual which was exhibited to Abram.

III. THE SYMBOLS OF THE COVENANT.

1. The sacrificial victims. Seeing that these were afterwards prescribed in the Mosaic legislation, which itself was a shadow of the good things to come, to be employed as propitiatory offerings, it is impossible not to regard them, though not necessarily understood as such by Abram, as types (not of Israel, Abram’s seed after the flesh simply, nor of the Church of God generally, i.e. Abram’s seed according to the spirit, though perhaps neither of these should be excluded, but) of Abram’s greater Seeds whose perfect, Divinely-appointed, and substitutionary sacrifice alone constitutes the basis of the everlasting covenant.

2. The smoking furnace and the burning lamp. Compared with the smoke and fire that afterwards appeared on Sinai when Jehovah descended to covenant with Israel, and the pillar of cloud and fire that led the march of Israel from Egypt, these at once suggest their own interpretation. They were emblems of God’s presence, and may be viewed as suggesting

(1) the combination of justice and mercy in the Divine character, and

(2) the twofold attitude in which the Deity exhibits himself to men according as they are his enemies or friends.

IV. THE IMPORT OF THE COVENANT. Partly through visible sign, partly in spiritual vision, partly by audible words, the patriarch was instructed as to

1. The objective basis of his own justification, which was neither personal merit nor faith considered as an opus operatum, but the Divinely-appointed sacrifice which God was graciously pleased to accept in propitiation for human sin.

2. The true security for God‘s fulfillment of the promise, which was not any outward sign or token, but the everlasting covenant which in mysterious symbol had been unfolded to him.

3. The interval of discipline allotted to the heirs of the land; for his descendants three generations of exile, servitude, and affliction, to prepare them for receiving Canaan in the fourth; and for himself a continual sojourning, without a final settling within its borders; in both cases emblematic of the saint’s experience after justification and before glorification.

4. The ultimate assumption of the inheritance by his seeda Divine voice solemnly foretelling their return from captivity, as it afterwards declared that his spiritual descendants should be emancipated and brought back to their celestial abode, and a Divine vision unfolding to his gaze the wide extent of territory they should eventually possessperhaps the limits of the earthly land melting away, as his spirit stood entranced before the gorgeous panorama, into the confines of the better country..

5. His own certain passage to the heavenly Canaan, for which he was even at that time lookinga promise which belongs individually to all who are the children of Abram by faith in Jesus Christ.

See from this subject

1. The fullness of Divine blessing which the covenant con-rains.

2. The depth of Divine condescension which the covenant reveals.

3. The glorious securities which the covenant affords.

HOMILIES BY W. ROBERTS

Gen 15:7, Gen 15:8

The strength and weakness of faith.

I. FAITH‘S SOURCE OF STRENGTH.

1. Looking up to the Divine character”I am the Lord.”

2. Looking back to the Divine grace”that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees.”

3. Looking oat to the Divine promise”to give thee this land to inherit it.”

II. FAITH‘S OCCASION OF WEAKNESS.

1. Looking forwardthe fulfillment of the promise seeming far away.

2. Looking indiscovering nothing either in or about itself to guarantee its ultimate realization.W.

Gen 15:11

The silent worshipper.

I. THE NATURE OF ABRAM‘S WORSHIP.

1. Divine in its appointment.

2. Simple in its ritual.

3. Sacrificial in its character.

4. Believing in its spirit.

5. Patient in its continuance.

6. Expectant in its attitude.

II. THE INTERRUPTIONS OF ABRAM‘S WORSHIP.

1. What they were. The descent of the fowls may be regarded as emblematic of those obstructions to communion with God which arise from

(1) The principalities and powers of the air.

(2) The persecutions and oppressions (or, where these are absent, the pleasures and engagements) of the world.

(3) The disturbances and distractions of vain thoughts and sinful motions in the heart.

2. How they were removed.

(1) By watchfulness.

(2) By opposition.

(3) By perseverance.

(4) By Divine helpthe breath of Abram’s mouth being probably accompanied by a wind from God.

III. THE ACCEPTANCE OF ABRAM‘S WORSHIP. This was proved

1. By the approach of God at night-fall towards the scene.

2. By the supernatural revelation accorded to the patriarch.

3. By the passage of the symbol of Jehovah’s presence between the divided victims.

4. By the announcement that God had taken him into covenant with himself.

5. By the vision of the land which was granted to him.

Learn

1. The sinfulness and worthlessness of all forms of worship except that which God has appointed.

2. The need for self-examination and Divine assistance when engaged in serving God.

3. The certain acceptance and spiritual enrichment of those who worship God in spirit and in truth.W.

HOMILIES BY F. HASTINGS

Gen 15:12-17

Abraham’s watch and vision.

“And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep,” &c. The great blessings promised are still afar off. As yet Abraham has no son to hand down his name to posterity. By means of a vision God strengthened his faith. Weird is the picture in this fifteenth chapter. See the solitary sheik in the desert offering his varied sacrifice, then watching until the sun goes down to drive off the vultures from the slain offerings. His arms become weary with waving and his eyes with their vigils. As the sun sinks below the widespread horizon, and night quickly steals over the desert, a horror of great darkness creeps over his spirit. Then a deep sleep falls upon him, and in that sleep come visions and a voice. The vision was of a furnace and a shining lamp moving steadily between the divided emblems. Look at the meaning of that vision.

I. It indicated the ACCEPTANCE OF THE OFFERINGS. Fire in the East is generally understood to be a solemn witness to any engagement. To confirm an oath some Orientals will point to the lamp and say, “It is witness.” Nuptial ceremonies are sometimes solemnized by walking round a fire three times, and the parties uttering certain words meanwhile.

II. The furnace may have referred to THE NEED FOR PURIFICATION, AND THE LAMP TO THE CERTAINTY OF DIVINE GUIDANCE.

1. Both the Israel after the flesh and that after the spirit had to pass through the fire of persecution; but the lamp of truth had always been kept alight by the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and confessors of the Church.

2. The life and work of Christ may also have been shadowed forth in that furnace and lamp. Christ knew the bitterness of betrayal, denial, and death; but he knew also the joy of conscious sinlessness, complete self-sacrifice, and unending power of salvation.

3. They illustrated the character of the life of many believers. Trial and joy must be intermingled. As Abraham saw the vision in connection with sacrifice, so on Calvary shall we best learn the meaning of the smoking furnace and burning lamp.H.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

It is delightful to observe, that when God engageth to bless his people, how he makes reference to his own glorious character, by way of assurance. Heb 6:13 , etc.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Gen 15:7 And he said unto him, I [am] the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

Ver. 7. I am the Lord that brought thee. ] Let the remembrance of what I have done for thee confirm thy confidence, since every former mercy is a pledge of a future. God giveth after he hath given, as the spring runneth after it hath run. And as the eye is not weary of seeing, nor the ear of hearing, no more is God of doing good to his people. “Draw out thy lovingkindness,” saith David, Psa 36:10 , marg. as a continued series or chain, where one link draws on another to the utmost length.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Genesis

GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAM

Gen 15:5 – Gen 15:18 .

1. Abram had exposed himself to dangerous reprisals by his victory over the confederate Eastern raiders. In the reaction following the excitement of battle, dread and despondency seem to have shadowed his soul. Therefore the assurance with which this chapter opens came to him. It was new, and came in a new form. He is cast into a state of spiritual ecstasy, and a mighty ‘word’ sounds, audible to his inward ear. The form which it takes-’I am thy shield’-suggests the thought that God shapes His revelation according to the moment’s need. The unwarlike Abram might well dread the return of the marauders in force, to avenge their defeat. Therefore God speaks to his fears and present want. Just as to Jacob the angels appeared as a heavenly camp guarding his undefended tents and helpless women; so, here and always, God is to us what we most need at the moment, whether it be comfort, or wisdom, or guidance, or strength. The manna tasted to each man, as the rabbis say, what he most desired. God’s gifts take the shape of man’s necessity.

Abram had just exercised singular generosity in absolutely refusing to enrich himself from the spoil. God reveals Himself as ‘his exceeding great reward.’ He gives Himself as recompense for all sacrifices. Whatever is given up at His bidding, ‘the Lord is able to give thee much more than this.’ Not outward things, nor even an outward heaven, is the guerdon of the soul; but a larger possession of Him who alone fills the heart, and fills the heart alone. Other riches may be counted, but this is ‘exceeding great,’ passing comprehension, and ever unexhausted, and having something over after all experience. Both these aspects of God’s preciousness are true for earth; but we need a shield only while exposed to attack. In the land of peace, He is only our reward.

2. Mark the triumphant faith which wings to meet the divine promise. The first effect of that great assurance is to deepen Abram’s consciousness of the strange contradiction to it apparently given by his childlessness. It is not distrust that answers the promise with a question, but it is eagerness to accept the assurance and ingenuous utterance of difficulties in the hope of their removal. God is too wise a father not to know the difference between the tones of confidence and unbelief, however alike they may sound; and He is too patient to be angry if we cannot take in all His promise at once. He breaks it into bits not too large for our lips, as He does here. The frequent reiterations of the same promises in Abram’s life are not vain. They are a specimen of the unwearied repetition of our lessons, ‘Here a little, there a little,’ which our teacher gives His slow scholars. So, once more, Abram gets the promise of posterity in still more glorious form. Before, it was likened to the dust of the earth; now it is as the innumerable stars shining in the clear Eastern heaven. As he gazes up into the solemn depths, the immensity and peace of the steadfast sky seems to help him to rise above the narrow limits and changefulness of earth, and a great trust floods his soul. Abram had lived by faith ever since he left Haran; but the historian, usually so silent about the thoughts of his characters, breaks through his usual manner of narrative to insert the all-important words which mark an epoch in revelation, and are, in some aspects, the most significant in the Old Testament. Abram ‘believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.’

Observe the teaching as to the nature and object of faith in that first clause. The word rendered ‘believed’ literally means to steady oneself by leaning on something. So it gives in a vivid picture more instructive than many a long treatise what faith is, and what it does for us. As a man leans his trembling hand on a staff, so we lay our weak and changeful selves on God’s strength; and as the most mutable thing is steadied by being fastened to a fixed point, so we, though in ourselves light as thistledown, may be steadfast as rock, if we are bound to the rock of ages by the living band of faith. The metaphor makes it plain that faith cannot be merely an intellectual act of assent, but must include a moral act, that of confidence. Belief as credence is mainly an affair of the head, but belief as trust is an act of the will and the affections.

The object of faith is set in sunlight clearness by these words,-the first in which Scripture speaks of faith. Abram leaned on ‘the Lord.’ It was not the promise, but the promiser, that was truly the object of Abram’s trust. He believed the former, because he trusted Him who made it. Many confusions in Christian teaching would have been avoided if it had been always seen that faith grasps a person, not a doctrine, and that even when the person is revealed by doctrine, it is him, and not only it, which faith lays hold of. Whether God speaks promises, teachings of truth, or commandments, faith accepts them, because it trusts Him. Christ is revealed to us for our faith by the doctrinal statements of the New Testament. But we must grasp Himself, as so revealed, if we are to have faith which saves the soul. This same thought of the true object of faith as personal helps us to understand the substantial identity of faith in all ages and stages of revelation, however different the substance of the creeds. Abram knew very little of God, as compared with our knowledge. But it was the same God whom Abram trusted, and whom we trust as made known in His Son. Hence we can stretch out our hands across the ages, and clasp his as partaker of ‘like precious faith.’ We walk in the light of the same sun,-he in its morning beams, we in its noonday glory. There has never been but one road to God, and that is the road which Abram trod, when ‘he believed in the Lord.’

3. Mark the full-orbed gospel truth as to the righteousness of faith which is embedded in this record of early revelation, ‘He counted it to him for righteousness.’ A geologist would be astonished if he came on remains in some of the primary strata which indicated the existence, in these remote epochs, of species supposed to be of much more recent date. So here we are startled at finding the peculiarly New Testament teaching away back in this dim distance. No wonder that Paul fastened on this <scripRef passage=” Gen 13:1-13 “>, which so remarkably breaks the flow of the narrative, as proof that his great principle of justification by faith was really the one only law by which, in all ages, men had found acceptance with God. Long before law or circumcision, faith had been counted for righteousness. The whole Mosaic system was a parenthesis; and even in it, whoever had been accepted had been so because of his trust, not because of his works. The whole of the subsequent divine dealings with Israel rested on this act of faith, and on the relation to God into which, through it, Abram entered. He was not a perfectly righteous man, as some passages of his life show; but he rose here to the height of loving and yearning trust in God, and God took that trust in lieu of perfect conformity to His will. He treated and regarded him as righteous, as is proved by the covenant which follows. The gospel takes up this principle, gives us a fuller revelation, presents the perfect righteousness of Christ as capable of becoming ours by faith, and so unveils the ground on which Abram and the latest generations are equally ‘accepted in the beloved.’ This reckoning of righteousness to the unrighteous, on condition of their faith, is not because of any merit in faith. It does not come about in reward of, but by means of, their faith, which is nothing in itself, but is the channel only of the blessing. Nor is it a mere arbitrary act of God’s, or an unreal imputing of what is not. But faith unites with Christ; and ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,’ so as that ‘in Him we have redemption.’ His righteousness becomes ours. Faith grafts us into the living Vine, and we are no longer regarded in our poor sinful individual personality, but as members of Christ. Faith builds us into the rock; but He is a living Stone, and we are living stones, and the life of the foundation rises up through all the courses of the great temple. Faith unites sinful men to God in Christ; therefore it makes them partakers of the ‘blessedness of the man, . . .to whom the Lord will not impute sin,’ and of the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord reckons his faith for righteousness. That same faith which thus clothes us with the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, in lieu of our own tattered raiment, also is the condition of our becoming righteous by the actual working out in our character of all things lovely and of good report. It opens the heart to the entrance of that divine Christ, who is first made for us, and then, by daily appropriation of the law of the spirit of life, is made in us, ‘righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.’ May all who read these lines ‘be found in Him,’ having ‘that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith!’

4. Consider the covenant which is the consequence of Abram’s faith, and the proof of his acceptance.

It is important to observe that the whole remainder of this chapter is regarded by the writer as the result of Abram’s believing God. The way in which Gen 15:7 and the rest are bolted on, as it were, to Gen 15:6 , clearly shows this. The nearer lesson from this fact is, that all the Old Testament revelation from this point onward rests on the foundation of faith. The further lesson, for all times, is that faith is ever rewarded by more intimate and loving manifestations of God’s friendship, and by fuller disclosure of His purposes. The covenant is not only God’s binding Himself anew by solemn acts to fulfil His promises already made, but it is His entering into far sweeter and nearer alliance with Abram than even He had hitherto had. That name, ‘the friend of God,’ by which he is still known over all the Mohammedan world, contains the very essence of the covenant. In old days men were wont to conclude a bond of closest amity by cutting their flesh and interchanging the flowing blood. Henceforth they had, as it were, one life. We have not here the shedding of Abram’s blood, as in the covenant of circumcision. Still, the slain animals represent the parties to the covenant, and the notion of a resulting unity of the closest order as between God and Abram is the very heart of the whole incident.

The particulars as to the rite by which the covenant was established are profoundly illuminative. The significant division of the animals into two shows that they were regarded as representing the contracting parties, and the passing between them symbolised the taking up of the obligations of the covenant. This strange rite, which was widely spread, derives importance from the use of it probably made in Heb 9:16 – Heb 9:17 . The new covenant, bringing still closer friendship and higher blessings, is sealed by the blood of Christ. He represents both God and man. In His death, may we not say that the manhood and the Godhead are parted, and we, standing as it were between them, encompassed by that awful sacrifice, and enclosed in its mysterious depths, enter into covenant with God, and become His friends?

We need not to dwell upon the detailed promises, of which the covenant was the seal. They are simply the fuller expansion of those already made, but now confirmed by more solemn guarantees. The new relation of familiar friendship, established by the covenant itself, is the main thing. It was fitting that God’s friend should be in the secret of His purposes. ‘The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth,’ but the friend does. And so we have here the assurance that faith will pierce to the discernment of much of the mind of God, which is hid from sense and the wisdom of this world. If we would know, we must believe. We may be ‘men of God’s counsel,’ and see deeply into the realities of the present, and far ahead into what will then become the certainties of the future, if only we live by faith in the secret place of the Most High, and, like John, lean so close on the Master’s bosom that we can hear His lowest whisper.

Notice, too, the lessons of the smoking furnace and the blazing torch. They are like the pillar of fire and cloud. Darkness and light; a heart of fire and a wrapping of darkness,-these are not symbols of Israel and its checkered fate, as Dean Stanley thinks, but of the divine presence: they proclaim the double aspect of all divine manifestations, the double element in the divine nature. He can never be completely known; He is never completely hid. Ever does the lamp flame; ever around it the smoke wreathes. In all His self-revelation is ‘the hiding of His power’; after all revelation He dwelleth ‘in the thick darkness.’ Only the smoke is itself fire, but not illumined to our vision. The darkness is light inaccessible. Much that was ‘smoke’ to Abram has caught fire, and is ‘light’ to us. But these two elements will ever remain; and throughout eternity God will be unknown, and yet well known, pouring Himself in ever-growing radiance on our eyes, and yet ‘the King invisible.’

Nor is this all the teaching of the symbol. It speaks of that twofold aspect of the divine nature, by which to hearts that love He is gladsome light, and to unloving ones He is threatening darkness. As to the Israelites the pillar was light, and to the Egyptians darkness and terror; so the same God is joy to some, and dread to others. ‘What maketh heaven, that maketh hell.’ Light itself can become the source of pain the most exquisite, if the eye is diseased. God Himself cannot but be a torment to men who love darkness rather than light. Love and wrath, life and death, a God who pities and who cannot but judge, are solemnly proclaimed by that ancient symbol, and are plainly declared to us in the perfect revelation in Christ Jesus.

Observe, too, the manner of the ratification of the covenant. The symbol of the Divine presence passed between the pieces. No mention is made of Abram’s doing so. Why this one-sided covenant? Because God’s gracious dealings with men are one-sided. He seeks no oaths from us; He does not exchange blessings for our gifts. His covenant is the free result of His unmotived love, and is ratified by a solemn sacrifice, which we do not offer. We have nothing to do but to take what He gives. All ideas of barter and bargain are far from Him. Our part is but to embrace His covenant, which is complete and ratified whether we embrace it or not. What a wonderful thought that is of a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God! We do not hear so much of it as our fathers did. The more is the pity. It means that God has, as it were, buoyed out across the boundless ocean of His possible modes of action a plain course, which He binds Himself to keep; that He has frankly let us into the very secret of His doings; that He has stooped to use human forms of assurance to make it easier to trust Him; that He has confirmed His promise by a mighty sacrifice. Therefore we may enter into closest friendship with Him, and take for our own the exultant swan-song of Abram’s royal son: ‘Although my house be not so with God [although my life be stained, and my righteousness unfit to be offered to His pure eyes]; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

brought: Gen 11:28-31, Gen 12:1, Neh 9:7, Act 7:2-4

to give: Gen 12:7, Gen 13:15-17, Neh 9:8, Psa 105:11, Psa 105:42, Psa 105:44, Rom 4:13

Reciprocal: Gen 17:8 – And I Gen 50:24 – sware Exo 6:2 – I am the Lord Exo 32:13 – I will multiply Deu 9:5 – that he may Eze 47:14 – lifted up mine hand Mal 3:6 – I am Act 7:3 – the land Heb 11:8 – which Rev 4:5 – seven

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The Promised Blessings

The words “After these things” in verse one show the importance of remembering the victory God had given. Abram firmly believed God was also the source of his wealth. These facts must be recalled to fully appreciate the vision of Chapter 15. First, God reminded Abram that he was his protection and source of the great blessings he received.

Abram’s trouble with fully appreciating God’s blessings rested in his lack of an heir. God promised Abram’s own son would be heir to the blessings coming from God. In fact, Abram’s descendants would be many, like the stars in the heaven. The victory of Chapter 14 gave Abram a strong basis for believing in the Lord (Verse 6).

Second, God renewed his promise to give the land of Canaan to Abram. When Abram asked how he could know he would inherit the land, God’s answer came in the form of a covenant made with Abram (15:7-21). Abram knew he could count on a covenant with God because of the sovereignty he had displayed in the earlier defeat of the four kings.

These two chapters clearly tie God’s great promises with his sovereignty. If he rules over heaven and earth, then he can give his faithful whatever he has promised. No wonder Paul said God could work all things together for good to them that love the Lord ( Rom 8:28 )!

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Gen 15:7. I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees Thence God brought him by an effectual call; brought him by a gracious violence; snatched him as a brand out of the burning. Observe how God speaks of it as that which he gloried in. I am the Lord that brought thee out He glories in it as an act both of power and grace. To give thee this land to inherit it Not only to possess it, but to possess it as an inheritance, which is the surest title. The providence of God hath secret, but gracious designs in all its various dispensations; we cannot conceive the projects of providence, until the event shows what it was taking measures to effect.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Gen 15:7-21. The Making of the Covenant.In this scene Abraham is told that he is to inherit Canaan. He asks for confirmation of the promise. Yahweh bids him select three animals and two birds, such as were eligible for sacrifice, though they were not to be used precisely for this purpose. The animals were divided into two equal portions, but in conformity with later sacrificial usage (Lev 1:17) not the birds. Presumably the turtle dove was placed on the one side, the pigeon on the other. The carrion birds, ominous of evil, descend on the carcases, but their attack is foiled. At sunset a trance-sleep falls upon Abraham, and a great darkness, or, as the companion document puts it, a horror. It is the coming of Yahweh that freezes him with supernatural dread, a state suggested here with concise power, but portrayed with incomparable skill in the description of Eliphazs experience in Job 4. The scene is a vivid transcript of primitive religious experience. The bloody ceremony just described was no perfunctory piece of symbolism; it touched the mind below the level of consciousness; and that impression (heightened in this case by the growing darkness) induced a susceptibility to psychical influences readily culminating in ecstasy or vision (Skinner, p. 281). In Gen 15:13-16 the inner meaning of Gen 15:11 is laid bare. As the birds of prey swooped on the carcases, so the seed of Abraham should be oppressed four hundred years, but as Abraham succeeded in driving them away, so his seed should return in the fourth generation. When the sun had set, Abraham sees through the darkness a smoking stove and a flaming torch passing between the pieces (Gen 15:17). This was a manifestation of Yahweh (Num 9:15*, Bennett compares Exo 19:18; Exo 24:17, Psa 18:8). His action gives us a clue to the meaning of the ritual. The cutting of the victim in two is not a form of imprecation symbolising the fate invoked on themselves by the parties to the covenant should they prove unfaithful (cf. 1Sa 11:7). The division into equal halves, the arrangement of each opposite to the other, above all the passing between the two, are not accounted for in this way. Robertson Smith (RS2, 480f.) explains that originally the victim was divided and each party took its share. When it ceased to be eaten they stood between the portions to symbolise that they were taken into the mystical life of the victim (see on Jer 34:18 in Cent.B). The terms of the covenant follow in Gen 15:18-21. The land promised is defined as stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, limits which were not actually realised; possibly we should read brook of Egypt, the Wady el-Arish, the usual SW. limit. The chapter closes with an exceptionally long list (Gen 15:10) of peoples to be dispossessed by Israel. Briefer lists are numerous (Exo 3:8*). The Kadmonites are not mentioned elsewhere possibly they dwelt in the desert E. of Palestine; Kenites and Kenizzites lived in the Negeb and were absorbed by Judah. The Hittites were a great people in the N. (pp. 53, 55f.); here some branch must be meant. On the Perizzite cf. Gen 13:7*, the Rephaim Gen 14:5*, the Amorite Gen 14:7*. The Girgashites are often mentioned in these enumerations, but we have nothing to fix their locality. The Jebusites were the people of Jerusalem (Jos 15:8; Jos 15:63*, Jdg 12:1; Jdg 19:10*).

Gen 15:13. The duration of the Egyptian bondage is here described as 400 years. Since in 16 the return is to take place in the fourth generation, it would seem as if a generation was reckoned as 100 years, i.e. if the two statements come from the same hand; but more probably 400 years is due to the editor, for P reckons the stay of the Hebrews in Egypt as 430 years (Exo 12:40). Four generations are given from Levi to Moses in Exo 6:16-20.stranger: sojourner (gr) the technical term for resident alien (p. 110, Lev 17:8 f.*, Deu 1:16*, Psalms 15*).

Gen 15:16. Amorite: used here for the inhabitants of Canaan as a whole; the delay in the fulfilment of the promise is due to the fact that as yet they have not filled up the measure of their sin to the point at which Divine punishment will be inflicted.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible