Chapter 15
Abram complains to God that despite God's promises, he has no son, and one of his servants is to inherit all that he has. God shows him the stars, tells him his offspring will be as many, God tells Abram this:
5 And he 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." 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. [Gen 15:5-6 ESV]
Very important verse. Before the law was written, before Christ. God tells Abram that he will still have a son of his own. It is this promise of a son that Abram believes, and it is counted as righteousness.
2021 - He believes what God tells him despite very compelling, visible, explainable evidence that the promise is not possible. This is faith - choosing what you cannot see because God promised it, instead of believing what you can reasonably logically expect based on human understanding and natural law. This is really it isn't it? This is the essential, fundamental difference between believers and unbelievers. Unbelievers require an explanation based on natural law, and natural law only. Nothing inexplicable is allowed. Believers see inexplicable events all around them, and attribute these directly to a God who is beyond natural law. This is the difference. This is faith.
Possible FB post.
2024 - We know that Abram was following God's orders from the time he left Haran. God was speaking to him. But it is not until here, in 15:6, that we are told Abram's faith was great enough to save him. Now what does that mean? Is it possible for non-believers to do a lot of things according to God's direct word to them, and to experience the worldly success that might accompany that, but not truly believe until some time later when they get over the "I appreciate the help" mentality and get to the "I trust you and you alone to do the impossible" state? Was Neb like Abram before Abram gets to 15:6, but Neb never got there? Seems a big stretch...but surely it is significant that Abram's faith is not mentioned until we get here. Unless...what were those two stages...repentance and then made righteous? Adam and Eve were sinless, but not righteous. Abram was not sinless or righteous...well, if there was no law at all it was pretty easy to be sinless. No sin was imputed before the Law, but you still had to "become righteous" through faith in order to have right standing with God. This is the first time those terms have made sense to me. To get into heaven you must be both sinless and righteous. It has always been thus. With the Law came sin. Boatloads of sin. And sacrifice was required to remove that sin. But faith made you righteous, then as now. And Jesus eventually paid for all those "carried forward" sins. AND, his righteousness in living a sinless life with Law all around him, is imputed to us also. That is how it works.
He organizes and runs his business based on the belief in the fulfillment of that promise. This is the original salvation by faith, the one way to righteousness, and still the only way.
God has Abram bring a sacrifice, then a deep sleep falls on him, and God reveals some of the future to him, including:
13 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, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [Gen 15:13 ESV] The long captivity in Egypt, predicted many generations in advance.
16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." [Gen 15:16 ESV]
Israel was staying in Egypt until the time was right for the Amorite nation to fall at their hand. The Amorite nation was apparently growing more and more evil, and likely God had set in motion the characteristics found in Romans 1, but was waiting until they were so evil, that God is glorified in bringing about their downfall. This seems to imply that a generation is 100 years. The fourth generation - four hundred years in Egypt.
2024 - God already new that the Canaanites were evil and had to fall. But he waits to actually bring about their judgment so that become so unbearably recognizably evil that when they fall the whole world knows they got what they deserved, the world knows there is a God in heaven, and the whole world knows that God sets up Kings and he brings them down.
2024 - From the map below, we see that it was in fact the Amorites that were settled in the entirety of what became Israel, and more besides. Hivites, Girgashite, Perrizites...all those were apparently subsets of the Amorites based on Kingly lines or some such thing. But when God says here that it is not yet time to deal with the Amorites, THIS is what he means. They had to get worse before Israel invaded and carried out God's judgment of these awful people. Wow.
https://www.bible.ca/archeology/maps-bible-archeology-amorites-2000-1400bc.jpg
https://www.bible.ca/archeology/maps-bible-archeology-moabites-2000-1400bc.jpg
https://www.bible.ca/archeology/maps-bible-archeology-edomites-2000-1400bc.jpg
Abram has brought sacrifices to God, and kept the birds off them all day. Then he goes to sleep and the captivity in Egypt and the promise of the land are given. It says God made a covenant. There is a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. Need to see what MSB says about these when I get more time. (2021 - The smoke represents the Holy Spirit and the torch represents fire? I never thought of this before, but surely this is what this is about! It ties the promises of salvation to Abraham with the promise of salvation to the whole world. How in the world can anyone believe that the Bible is not inspired by God when such things - so very far apart - in such completely different manuscripts - recapitulate each other in this way!?!? The MSB note on vs 17 doesn't say this is the symbolism. It says that it was God alone passing between the animal pieces to symbolize his promise to Abram. I think it is more than that.)
Possible FB post to follow up the one on Gen 15:5...
2023 - In Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes on Pentecost, there are tongues of fire. This is the symbolism I see. And it is just jaw dropping to me.
God promises Abram again - the third time I believe - and this time it is far more specific than previously, as follows:
18 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, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites." [Gen 15:18-21 ESV]
Note that it says "on that day the LORD made a covenant". He had made two previously. I would assume that they are contained inside this one. Each of the earlier ones was along these lines, but not nearly so specific as this. God reveals all this to Abram after Abram complains, and questions God about how, or even if, the promise will be fulfilled. Once Abram believes God's answer that the promise is true, God reveals much more to him.
2024 - From the Nile to the Euphrates. From river to river. From the river to the sea is nothing. It is made up by descendants of the Amorites. AND, if you run things from river to river, the divisions in Ezekiel might "fit" into Israel.