Genesis 15 Bible Study

hello and welcome to the next part in our chapter a day series going through the book of Genesis today we find ourselves in Genesis chapter 15 where God is going to further affirm the promise that he is made to Abram if you've been following with us the previous chapters you saw how God brought out the man Abram called him from everything he knew to go to a place that only the Lord could show him and how with that command came a promise that God would bless him and make him a blessing that God would make him a great nation and that those who blessed him and his descendants would also be blessed and those who dishonored him and his descendants God would curse and that through him and his line that all the nations of the world would be blessed in our last chapter in chapter 14 we saw some powerful images as we saw how Abram went out and rescued his nephew lot from captivity we saw the picture of these two kings that met him after his victory the king of Sodom a pitcher of sin and Melchizedek we were told the king of Salem Melchizedek meaning righteousness in Salem meaning peace and how Moses pardon me how Abram accepted the blessing that came from Melchizedek and he honored Melchizedek high priest of the Most High God by giving a tithe of all that he had just taken but he rejected any payment from the king of Sodom so now we find ourselves in chapter 15 so let's look at the text after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram and a vision fear not Abram I am your shield your reward shall be very great but Abram said Oh Lord God what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Ali A's are of Damascus and Abram said behold you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir if you've been in our previous studies you know about this challenge when we first met Abram we were told that Abram was the husband of sorryi and the one fact were told about Sarah hi when she's introduced is that she is barren she is unable to have children and yet when God speaks to Abram the very first time and gives him the promise the promise is all about Abraham's descendants and who his descendants will be and how God will bless his descendants but this physical reality is always present in the background every time the Lord expands the promise and clarifies the promise this reality is there in the background standing in the face of the promise and now in chapter 15 Abram confronts the Lord about this physical reality he says to the Lord when the Lord says Abram I am your shield your reward shall be very great we have Abraham's speaking back to he's not speaking out of rebellion or criticism but but he's wrestling because he knows what the promise is and he knows what the physical state is the promise is a great nation the physical reality is he has no children he has no direct descendants he has no heir someone in his household by ancient near-eastern custom will inherit his family's possessions when abram dies that's his reality that's where he's out and then he begins to question the Lord and said you have not given me given me any offspring you told me my offspring will be blessed you've told me the land you will give my offspring but you haven't given me any offspring back to the physical reality look at how the Lord responds and behold the word of the Lord came to him this man Eliezer of Damascus this person in his household shall not be your heir but your very own son shall be your heir and then the Lord brought him outside so the Lord is clarified if there was any question in Abraham's mind the Lord is clarified the Lord will give him a son the Lord will give him a son saying this person connected through legal means will not be your heir that's not going to be the way of which you will have offspring that's not gonna be the way in which you will receive the blessing you will have your own son so now we have a further clarifying of the promise what is saying have you been trying to figure out how the promise can come to be in the face of physical reality let me tell you how the promise can be because now I'm making a promise even more clear to you this was the yet unspoken part of the promise one could say this was the understood part of the promise the Lord will give him a son and then we come to this picture that the Lord draws again says the Lord brought him outside and said look toward heaven and Number the Stars if you are able to number them then he said to him so shall your offspring be and then we come to verse 6 this is one of those key verses that shows us the growing faith that's happening in Abraham's life in verse 6 and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness in this moment a bro chooses to believe the lord abram chooses to believe the lord from what his experience has been for what the Lord is doing in him he hears the promise now the promise is clear the big promise a great nation the face of the physical reality she is barren now God has clarified the promise I will give you your own son and then he goes back to the bigger picture of the promise last time he said if you could count the dust of the earth then you could count how many descendants you will have now he's saying if you could count the stars if you could number them then you'll have an idea of how great your descendants will be and he believed the Lord and the Lord said to him verse 7 I and the Lord who brought you out of ur of the Chaldeans and give to you this land to possess but Abram is still in the process so the Lord has said this is who I am again the Lord is communicating his identity he is the covenant maker for those who will be reading this after it is written when they see the use of the name of the Lord capital L capital o capital R capital D the name used for Yahweh they would see that this is indeed the Covenant making God and this is how it was happening with Abram I am the Lord I am the same Lord who brought you out of ur of the chaldeans to give you this land to possess and now we see Abraham's next struggle he said to him no but he said O Lord God how am I to know that I shall possess it he said Lord this is this is awesome this is amazing what you're talking but how can I know it how can I really know it and the Lord said to him in verse 9 bring me a heifer three years old a female goat three years old around three years old a Turtledove and a young pigeon and he brought him all of these and cut them in half and laid each half over against the other but he did not cut the birds in half and when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away now we're going to see something here I'm going to take a moment to to explain what's happening because the Lord in this moment is going to help April understand the power of the Covenant that he is making with Abram because Abram is saying what how can I know this is true how can I know these awesome promises are true and so the Lord instructs him the Lord tells him to make a path of blood because he instructs Abram to take a series of animals and each of these animals were to be killed and we're to be cut apart cut in two and then the two pieces are pulled apart and between them their blood is spilt in the ancient Near East this was referred to as creating a path of blood and it has a very specific purpose these sacrificed animals and the blood become a picture and become a very important statement the statement is this it's a covenant making statement just as these animals have been slaughtered their blood has been spilt they've been pulled asunder in the same way when two parties would make a covenant together in the ancient Near East a serious covenant together they would sacrifice these animals they would shed their blood they would create this path and then each of the parties would walk along the path walk through the sacrificed animals and by walking on the path of blood what each is saying is I would rather die and break faith with you but the same thing happened to me that's happened to these animals if I should break my covenant with you I would rather die than break faith with you so the Lord has instructed Abram to create this powerful physical symbol of a binding covenant and now let's watch what happens as the Sun was going down verse 12 a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold dreadful and great darkness fell upon him then the Lord said to Abram know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there they will be afflicted for four hundred years but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions as for you you shall go to your father's and peace and you shall be buried and have got a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the amorite is not yet complete so the first thing that we see happens after these sacrifice has been made and the path of blood has been prepared is that God speaks God speaks of the future to Avram just so Abram has an understanding God begins to reveal the next part of his plan and he tells him some key things he tells Abram in this dream in this vision in the night he says to him that is people will go away they will become slaves we will suffer for 400 years and God will redeem them with his power so he gives Abram a picture I made a promise what I want you to understand how this promise is going to grow and develop not only am I going to give you descendants but your descendants are going to be on a journey they'll leave this land that we're in now and they're going to go to another land and in that land they are going to be subjugated and you'll become servants and slaves they're going to suffer in that land for 400 years and then with mighty power I will bring them back out of that land back to this land you you'll die of old age you're going to live a good life Abram I can make that promise to you but I also want you to see the next part and there's a key phrase here to that I want you to grasp as we go through this it gives us a little bit of understanding of the working of God says in verse 16 speaking of the children of Israel and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the amorite is not yet complete in the sense we have of this is that God is saying the children of Israel are going to leave this land for a period of time we know looking forward in Scripture that they will go down into Egypt that they will move into Egypt and then eventually the ruler of Egypt will no longer be favorable toward them the new leader who arises the Pharaoh and they will become slaves in Egypt and they will suffer in slavery for 400 years and then the Lord will come using his servant Moses and will deliver them showing God's mighty power and when they come out of Egypt and return to the land God will give them the responsibility under his direction to execute his judgment on the peoples of the land of Canaan but right now it's not time for judgment right now we are told that the iniquity of the amorite is not yet complete that at least of one of the examples of the people in the land the people who live right around the land where Abram is right now that they are still under God's long-suffering God is still being patient to them so that they may choose to turn to him and repent but we know that 400 years from this moment when the Lord is speaking to Abram that his long-suffering will end and he will execute judgment on the am rights because by then the am rights having rejected and having rejected and having rejected God they will then be held accountable for their sin so the Lord gives this picture of the future and then it comes to this moment in verse 17 when the Sun had gone down and it was dark behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your offspring I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river the river Euphrates the land of the Kenites kenna sites Cadman i'ts the Hittites the parasites the raff aim the amorite s' the Canaanites the girgashites and the jebusites so in the night sitting in the darkness after having this word from the Lord we have a theophany appear we have this image appears that is described in the writing as a torch and a flaming fire pot like a furnace this brilliant light comes and it passes between the pieces it passes between the pieces and a declaration is made another clear declaration of the promise I'm going to give your descendants this land you want to know which land and he names off all the tribes all the clans the people groups that are presently living in the land so Abram can know well I know the region where the Jebusites live I know where the parasites live I know where the girgashites live so now I have that visible picture in my mind of how large this land is that the Lord is promising me he's making that declaration but I want you to notice one other thing as we prepare to end this chapter in this moment in this theophany the Lord of glory passes between the pieces the Lord of glory / makes the covenant making statement I would rather die than break faith with you I would rather have this happen to me than break my covenant with you that is the force that God wants Abram to be able to comprehend God is saying I would rather cease to exist than break my covenant my promise with you the other thing I want you to notice is in an ancient Near Eastern covenant both parties would walk the path of blood but for this covenant the Lord of glory walks two paths Abram simply observes Abram is a spectator to this covenant why because the power to make this covenant the power to bring all this about the power to ensure that all this can happen only the Lord only the Lord can bring it about Abram is the recipient of the promise the recipient of the blessing but the Lord alone is the executor remedy the Lord alone can bring it about only he has the power only he has the will only he has the steadfast character this is the same Lord who spoke the universe into existence this is the same Lord who is basically saying by my character you can know that I will fulfill my promise to you because I would have to cease to exist in order to fail in fulfilling my promise because this is my character this is my divine nature the one who is faithful and true so - when the Lord makes his promise to us so we see in this umbrella covenant we see ourselves the Lord who makes his promise to us who says that whoever comes to him I will in no wise cast you out if you come to the Lord through Jesus Christ how can we be sure of that because it's him who is executing it how can we be sure our sins are forgiven when we put our trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ because it is he who promised it and it is he who carries it out the power of the Covenant is in the hands of the Lord so he's saying to Abram you can trust me because I'm the one who's going to make it happen I am the one who is going to fulfill this I would rather die than break faith with you what a powerful picture of an awesome God who is not distant from us who is not ambivalent to us who is not interested what happens matters to him and what he promises he will honor always be encouraged by that think about that dwell on that put your trust in the promises of God because his promises are true I hope this has encouraged you today I want to ask you to take time and read to the chapter again just meditate on the words on the images on the pictures that are there and think about the God who makes his covenant and says I would rather die than break faith with you when he has made his promise to you as always we'd love to hear your feedback any comments that you have and if this has blessed you please watch for our next video and please share this with somebody else thank you and God bless

Channel: Biblical Discipleship

Views: 2,864

Rating: 4.8490567 out of 5

Keywords: Stoneridge, Stephen Michels, Bible study, Chapter-A-Day, Genesis, Genesis 15

Id: txOyM4HZhls

Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 27 2018