Let us turn to God's Word in
that portion of scripture that we read in Genesis chapter 15
and the first part of verse 18. In the same day the Lord made
a covenant with Abram. In Genesis chapter 15 the first
part of verse 18 we are told that the beginning of the chapter
it was after these things that the word of the Lord came unto
Abraham in a vision clearly there is a reference to the previous
chapter and that war between the four kings and the five kings
and their lot had been taken and it was Abram who asked to
arm his servants and go forth and rescue his nephew and under
the good hand of God he was successful. It's told there in verse 14 of
chapter 14 that when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive
He armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and
pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against
them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued
them unto Hobar, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And
he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother
Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And it was after these things,
after these terrible events, that awful conflict that we read
of in chapter 14, that the words of the Lord came unto Abraham
in a vision, what, or rather who, is the word of the Lord
who comes now in a vision. Isn't this one of the names of
the Lord Jesus Christ? The words were told in John's
Gospel in the opening chapter, the word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. The word of the Lord
came unto Abram in a vision. In fact, at the end of chapter
14 we read of this mysterious character. Melchizedek, king
of Salem, priest of the Most High God. And in Hebrews are
we not told that it is Christ, the Word made flesh, who is a
priest after the order of Melchizedek. There is much then of the Lord
Jesus Christ in what we see here with regards to God's dealings
with Abraham. We're looking at the words that
we've read for a text in verse 18. Observe something of the
context here. In the previous verse we're told
how It came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark. Behold a smoking furnace and
a burning flame that passed between those pieces in the same day. The Lord made a covenant with
Abraham. And I want us to consider something
of the blessings of this covenant that God made. We have in the
past considered something of that covenant that God made with
David. When he comes to the end of his
days, remember in the second book of Samuel, the end in chapter
23, we have his last words, the last words of David, the king,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, and amongst those last words
he looks to the covenant when he considers the state of affairs
amongst his own family. He puts his confidence in God
and the God of the covenant. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. This is all my salvation and
all my desire, although he make it not to grow, says David. It's the same God, it's the same
covenant, is it not? that God was pleased to make
with his friends, Abraham. First of all, we observe the
nature of the covenant. What sort of a covenant is this?
Well, it's unilateral. It's unilateral. Are we not told
in the text, the Lord made, more literally the Lord cut a covenant
with Abraham. It's God's covenant. It is God himself who makes the
covenant. We return to chapter 17, verse 2, God says,
I will make my covenant between me and thee. It's my covenant. We know that usually with a covenant
there are two parties that come together and each of the parties
make their vows and their promises as we witness of course in a
Christian marriage service when a young couple the bridegroom
and the bride come together in the face of a congregation in
the presence of God they exchange their promises they make a covenant
But God's covenant is different. It is one-sided. And we see this
with regards to the way in which God makes the covenant with Abraham. And we can observe a number of
things. First of all, see how the sacrifice
is associated with the making of this covenant. Previously
in the chapter we see how God gives Abram instruction as to
what he is to do. In verse 9 he said unto him,
Take me 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. 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. Here is Abraham acting
under God's instruction as he takes these animals and sacrifices
and cuts these animals up and lays them out as it were before
God. There is the shedding of blood
here and it's interesting Thomas Scott in his commentary makes
the striking observation that every animal that was commanded
to be sacrificed under the Lord of Moses is made mention of here. There were those various clean
animals that we read of in the book of Leviticus that the Israelites
were to make use of in their sacrifices. And these animals
are mentioned here. He doesn't just take one animal,
he takes each of these clean animals, does Abraham. and lays
them out before the Lord, he sacrifices them. There is the
blood of sacrifice, there is the blood of the covenant. Now, when we come to the New Testament,
of course, the best commentary we can find on what is recorded
in the Levitical laws, the sacrifices of the book of Leviticus, these
are really explained to us in New Testament terms in Paul's
epistle to the Hebrews. And are we not told there in
Hebrews 9 what was to be done or what had been done throughout
the Old Testament? The Mosaic Law How was it established? That covenant that God entered
into with Israel at Mount Sinai, there was to be the sacrifice,
there was to be the sprinkling of the blood. In Hebrews 9 verse
19, when Moses had spoken every priesthood to all the people
according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats. with water and scarlet wool and
hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying
this is the blood of the testament or the blood of the covenant
which God hath enjoined unto you. But we know that not all
the blood of beasts on Jewish altars shall I forgive the guilty
conscience peace or wash away the stain. That was what was
done with regards to the law, the covenant that God made that
man sign on. There in that same 9th chapter
of Hebrews, what does the Apostle say? Verse 14, How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the
mediator of the New Testament or the New Covenant. The word
that's translated testament on other occasions is translated
covenant. For this cause he says Christ
is the mediator of the New Covenant. that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. There is sacrifice associated
with the covenant, this covenant that is being made with Abraham. and the sacrifices that are employed
they are all pointing forward to that one bright sacrifice
for sins forever even the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
let us as we consider this covenant observe something of the symbolism
that is so marked in this particular chapter. There is not only the
cutting up of the sacrifice. But as we saw, the sacrifice
is then to be laid out in verse 10. As I said, the word that we have
here in the text, the Lord made, the word that is used is more
literally the Hebrew word for cut, the Lord cut. The Lord cut
a covenant with Abraham. How was it that God cut the covenant? Why is this particular word used?
It's not improper for it to be translated, of course, as we
have it before us in the familiar language of the authorised version.
God is making the covenant. But in the Hebrew, it's much
more graphic. God cut the covenant. How did
he do that? He cuts the covenant by passing
through the myths. of the sacrifice that has been
laid out. Just as when a road is being
laid they might make a cutting through a hill or through a meadow,
they cut the way through. So here we see that God passes
through, God cuts the covenant as the sacrifice is laid out
by Abraham. It's not Abraham who then passes
through the mix cutting the covenant. It is only God. All that Abraham
does is watch over these pieces that he's laid out and as the
fowls come down he drives them away. He's an observer. He's
an observer to what God himself is doing. Now we have the same
sort of language used in the book of Jeremiah. there in chapter
34 of Jeremiah verse 18 verse 19 and verse 20 God says to his
people through his servant the prophet I will give the men that
have transgressed my covenant which have not performed the
words of the covenant which they had made before me when they
cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof. They
had taken a calf, they had sacrificed it, they had cut it in two and
then they passed through the midst. They had entered into
a covenant with God of these people. And God says they transgressed
the covenant. and God will deal with them in
consequence. The princes of Judah, the princes
of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests and all the people
of the land which pass between the paths of the calf, I will
even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the
hand of them that seek their life and their dead bodies shall
be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of
the earth. They have made a covenant with God by means of that calf
and not only sacrificing the carpet, laying it out, cutting
it in twine and passing between the two parts. They'd entered
into a covenant with God. This is the same symbolism, I
say, that we have here in this 15th chapter of the book of Genesis. God makes his covenant and only
God passes through the midst Only God. That's what we see
in verse 17. 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 parts. In the same day
the Lord made a covenant, the Lord cut the covenant. Here is that which is symbolic
of God, is it not? burning lamp, the smoking furnace. Remember the children of Israel
when they are brought out of Egypt and God leads them through
the wilderness. How does he lead them? By means
of that fiery, cloudy pillar. And God is in the pillar of clouds.
God is in the pillar of fire. These things are symbolic of
God. There is something significant
about this covenant. It is not the same as that covenant
that God made with the children of Israel at Mansinai, that covenant
of works. That was a covenant that was
two-sided. There were certain things that
the children of Israel were required to do. There must be an observance
and a doing of certain things. Remember how we have the The
commandments of that covenant set out not only in Exodus chapter
20 but when they are on the borders of the promised land in Deuteronomy
we have the repetition. The commandments are repeated
there in Deuteronomy chapter 5. There at the end of that fifth chapter
in Deuteronomy we see that there are certain things required of
the children of Israel. They have their parts applied,
there is something for them to do. Verse 32 ye shall observe
to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you, ye shall
not turn aside to the right hand or to the left, ye shall walk
in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you,
that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that
ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess."
It's an inciting covenant this. Again at the end of chapter 6,
it shall be our righteousness, says Moses, if we observe to
do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded
us. This is what the law requires.
There is a doing, but here is a covenant that is so different.
because it is a covenant that is God's, one-sided, all is done
by God. It is God only who makes the
covenant and passes through the midst of the sacrifice that is
being made. This chapter really has its fulfilment
in the Gospel. covenant that God makes with
Abraham, it is that that is spoken of in Galatians chapter 3, that
was 400 years before the giving of the Lord at Man's time. We
are not to confuse it then with the law, the covenant of works.
It is clearly the covenant of grace. Those things that are
spoken of by the apostles, as I say, in that great third chapter
of the Galatian epistle. Look at what Paul says there. Galatians 3 verse 16, Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith, Not
to seed as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is
Christ, And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before
of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after, cannot disallow
that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more a promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise." What was the promise? The promise centres
in the seed, the strand that is promised there in this chapter. Abraham says to God at verse
3, Behold to me thou hast given no seed, and no one born in my
house is to be mine heir. And behold the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, Thee shall not be mine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own house shall be mine heir.
The promise is that Isaac is to be born And Isaac, of course,
is that one who is a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is Christ who is the true seed. As we read there in Galatians
3.16, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, and to
thy seed which is Christ. This is that covenant of gracing
that was made with Abraham. and made over 400 years before
the giving of the Lord at Mount Sinai. We're not to confuse the
two. Whereas that covenant requires that men and women should do
certain things and observe certain things. It's double-sided where
what we have here is that it is unilateral, it's God's covenant.
And so we see that it's an unconditional covenant. There are no conditions.
How is the covenant expressed? It is set before us quite clearly
in the form of promise. There are many promises here
in this chapter. Verse 1 After these things the
word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram, I am thy shield. and by exceeding great reward. Here is the great promise you
see. This God is the God of Abram. And as we saw in verses 4 and
5 there is his promise that God will give Abram a son. There is the promise of the seed. And that seed as I said is the
type of Christ. verse 5 he brought him forth
abroad and said look now toward heaven and tell the stars if
thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy
seed be all what promises God is giving to his servants here
verse 7 he said unto him I am the Lord that brought thee out
of her of the caldus to give thee this land to inherit it
God's repeated promises, many promises. Verse 14, Also that
nation whom they shall serve will I judge, that is the Egyptians,
and afterwards shall they come out with great substance, and
they shall go to thy fathers in peace, and shall be buried
in a good old age. It's a covenant of promise. And all the promise really centres
in the seed, and that seed of course, as we said, is the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. All the promises of God, in Him
are yea, and in Him are me. It's a covenant of promise. It's
a covenant that is confirmed. And how does God confirm it?
He confirms it with an oath. Abraham requests this of God.
He asks God to confirm the promises that he is giving. In verse 8
he says, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And how does God respond to that
request? Verse 9, He said unto him, Take
me an heifer of three years and so forth. He commands him here
to make the sacrifice. He commands him to cut the sacrifice
up, to lay the sacrifice out in its various pieces and God
will then cut the covenant, God will pass through the midst of
the sacrifice. And what is the significance?
Well, it's God confirming the promise. What God is literally
saying here is those things that have befallen, those sacrifices,
must befall God, if He is not true to His own words. As those
animals have been killed, so God Himself would be destroyed, would be
no more, if His promise was to fail. And that of course is an impossibility.
That is an impossibility. Here is God confirming, confirming
the promise that he has made. We have it in Hebrews chapter
6, do we not? When God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. or he comes, you see, and he
takes an oath upon himself, upon his own being, and if his word
fails, God ceases the birth. That's the symbolism that we
have when God cuts the covenant, and it's all in response, as
I said, to the request of Abraham. He wants God to confirm his promise. or this is the great God, this
is the only true God, the eternal one, the I am, the unchanging
God, who reveals himself to Moses, of course, at the burning wood,
and declares his name, I am that I am, that name from which the
very words, Jehovah, or Lord, is derived. The I am is the Lord
God. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The covenant is unchanging. It
is as unchanging as God. He has magnified His words above
all His name says the psalm God is true to his word and faithful
to his promise. And so the hymn writer Isaac
Watts says, the gospel bears my spirit on it. The faithful
and unchanging God lays the foundation of my hope in oaths and promises
and blood. And this is the God that we are
faithful to our beliefs with, is it not? This is the God who
reveals himself to us here in the page of Holy Scripture. We
have this record concerning God's dealings with Father Abraham.
And is he not the father of all them that believe? Can not all
believers in some measure relate to this man? What are we told concerning Abraham
in verse 6? He believed in the Lord and he
counted it to him for righteousness. As I said, this chapter really
relates to those things that are recorded in Galatians 3 and
that word there in verse 6 is repeated in Galatians 3 and
verse 6, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him
for righteousness. Oh friends, what was it that
was accounted to him for righteousness? It was what God had said. His faith had to do with the
promise of God. And that promise of God was reckoned
to him for righteousness and that promise it all centers in
the seed and that seed was Christ your
father Abraham says Christ to the Jews rejoice to see my day
and he saw it and was glad and we know how it was that he saw
it there in the events recorded in chapter 22 when God tested
the faith of Abraham in respect to his son, Isaac the seed. He's commanded to take his son,
his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and to take him into the land
of Moriah, to one of the mountains, and there he is to slay his son. He doesn't kill the son, that
he is willing to be obedient to the command of God and God
shows him the gospel does he not? Isaac is spared because
Ram is to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac and there it is that we have
that word of God swearing by himself By myself have I sworn,
saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and is
not without thy Son, thine only Son, that in blessing I will
bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven, and as the sun which is upon the seashore,
and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be bled. because thou
hast obeyed my voice. All nations are blessed. It's a promise not only for those
who are the natural descendants of Abraham, it's a promise also
to the Gentiles under the gospel. Those who are of faith, those
who are trusting in that one who was promised to Abraham,
even the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the true children of
Abraham. He believed God and it was counted
to him for righteousness. So his faith centres in the promising. For it is a covenant of promise.
It's a covenant that God is pleased to confirm with another. It is God himself who passes
in symbol through the midst of those sacrifices. And in doing
so he is confirming it. And then there is also comfort
here. Comfort in the covenant. Afflictions, trials, troubles,
dangers, whatever comes into Abraham's life, or the life of
any of the faithful, these things can never abrogate the covenant
that God has made. You remember the context, we've
already remarked on it at the beginning of the chapter. After
these things, after all those dreadful events spoken of in
the previous chapter, that terrible conflict, that warfare between
four kings and five kings and now even Abraham becomes involved
because he must go and rescue his nephew Lot. All of these things are in the
Covenant. In fact we see the Tribulation is very much a part
of the Covenant. There is a certain darkness associated
with the covenant here. Verse 12, When the sun was going
down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo and horror of great
darkness fell upon him. God is making the covenant. This is Abram's experience in
the midst of all this that God is doing. This horror of bright
darkness falls upon the man. And then verse 17, 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. All that that is dark, terrifying,
is associated with the covenant. Isn't this where God's children
have to prove his faithfulness to his promise in the midst of
many dark providences that come into their lives. The Lord Jesus
himself tells us quite plainly, in the world you shall have figuration.
There can be no avoiding it. The apostle repeats the word,
we must, he says, we must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom. There's no escaping these things.
This is the light of God's people. In the world you shall have tribulation,
says Christ, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Though God's children many times
have to come and plead with him in the midst of all their darkness,
Now the psalmist pleading there in Psalm 74, have respect unto
the covenant, for the dark places of the earth, he says, are full
of the habitations of cruelty. For this is the place where God's
children find their comfort, you see. They find their comfort
in a covenant of God. Are we those who are truly Abraham's
seed? Are we those who are embraced
by this promise? look now toward heaven and tell
the stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto
him so shall thy seed grow all that one true seed is Christ
but all are in Christ why they are part of that seed of Abraham
are we those friends who are in this secret are we those who
truly know that this God the God of Abraham is our God Look at the promise that we have
at the beginning of the chapter. God says, fear not Abram, I am
thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Now no word of
God is redundant in any sense. Why does God speak in these terms
to Abram? Because Abram was fearful. If
God says fear not, it's because he knows his people will experience
many fears. Often God's people, they're assaulted
by Satan, they're afraid. Or they're afraid sometimes of
themselves, their own nature. They're afraid of all their doubts
and all their fears, those things that creep upon them. And so
God comes many times in scripture, does he not? And he says graciously
to his children, fear not. How faithful Abram was, he would
not receive anything from the king of Sodom. I have lift up
mine hand, he says, unto the Lord, the most high God, the
possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread
even to a shoe latching, and that I will not take anything
that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abram rich. And how God honours the man.
I am thy exceeding great reward says God. Fear not Abraham, I am thy exceeding
great reward. All God is no man's debtor, he
will make every provision for his servant Abraham. And not
only that, he is not only there to provide for him, he is there
also of course constantly to protect him. I am thy shield,
He says, and I exceed in great reward. Here is his comfort. His comfort
is in God. His comfort centres in the promises
of God. He believed God and God counted
it unto him for righteousness. Is faith his objective, or is
it? That's what true faith is, it's
a looking away from self, is it not? The eye of faith. The eye looks away from self.
We cannot see our own faces with our own eye, we can only see
the reflection of ourselves as in a mirror. But eye is that
organ that looks away. And that's what the faith of
Abraham does. It looks away. And it looks away to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's that looking unto Jesus.
We have it, of course, there particularly in that fourth chapter
of the epistle to the Romans where Paul speaks of Abram and how he is justified
before God. What shall we say then that Abram,
our father, has pertained to the flesh and has found? For
if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory,
but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God? Here it is again, you see, that
quotation from Genesis 15.6, Abraham believed God and it was
accounted or it was counted unto him for righteousness. What was that that was counted to him? It's
the promise. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was able also to perform. Oh, he loved the promise of God.
He was persuaded that what God had promised God would perform,
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Oh, the objectivity
of his faith. He can't look into Christ, and
he's seeing all his salvation in Christ. It's the same, I say,
as David. He says of the covenant, it's
all my salvation. It's all my desire, and so it
was with this man, it is so friends with all who are the true children
of God, those who are real believers. Abraham, the friend of God, David,
the man after God's own heart. In the same day, the Lord made
a covenant with Abraham. Now the Lord grant that we might
know in his mercy that we also have a part in this covenant. Amen.