Landing on the Promises

, it's only appropriate for me to, take a few moments to, Say a few words to you guys about last Sunday, before we get into the word this morning, and there is an insert that is in your bulletin that I would encourage you guys to, to pull out where I do, an inadequate effort of expressing mine and Donna's thanks. There's more thanks to come, and we're thanking individuals, people individually for the different roles that they, play, but I do wanna at least, walk through this with you.

that you see in the insert and let you guys know that Donna and I were absolutely thunderstruck by The extraordinary kindness that you all showed to us and to our family, last week at the 25th anniversary celebration event. the day was beyond, anything that we, honestly could have, imagined and we're still savoring, still struggling to digest everything that, we experienced from so many of you last week that the tiniest details down to the smallest details.

of last week from the decor. to the worship song selections, the flowers, the lunch, being Italian food, which I love, the cake, the ever-present photographers photographing, our every move, and the afternoon program that took place, in this room, all of that down to the smallest detail evidenced, so much love and, carefulness of thought. the video greetings, in the program. last Sunday, touched us deeply.

The photo montage, both in the reception and in the program last Sunday afternoon reawakened a lot of precious memories. And on top of that, with all the details and that needed to be tended to and all that you guys were doing, it was evident that you were doing what you were doing with joy. including the massive cleanup operation, after the, everything was over. we were very blessed beyond words by the gift of the Alaskan cruise.

That's something that we've, talked about and wanted to do for years but have not done. And the memory book that you guys, compiled, filled. With page after page of photos and memories and expressions of love from so many of you. we've also been, just speechless, reduced to tears by the private and personal expressions of generous kindness from many of you, in this, church body.

I'm so thankful that the elders took the time in the program last Sunday afternoon to lay their hands on Donna and, me, including Ed Lindsay. It was special for you, Ed, to be a part of that. last Sunday, praying for God to empower us to serve you guys better on the road ahead. and above all, I, I was blessed by how you guys made sure and everything that was done and everything that was said to give all the glory to Jesus Christ.

he's the one that all the glory should go to for all that. he has done, in our midst over these last 25 years. I do want to take a moment to thank Ruby Kimball, who was the wizard behind the curtain, for what had happened, last week along with her husband, Britt, and Alvin and Kim Davis, Jonathan Jones, Kelly Lamon, Jira Hanson. Paul and Lynette Kumamoto, Melissa Kaufman, and Brian and Chris Kearns, who were essentially, making up the core, leadership team or celebration team.

we're also grateful for everybody who was here and who worked along with them in any ways large and small and seeing to it that the various aspects of all that happened last Sunday were such a delight to everybody including us. I was, very blessed by how just everything that happened last week just put on display the grace of God at work in this congregation. we did have some visitors here, last Sunday, and I can't imagine anyone visiting last Sunday who did not walk away thinking, wow, what a beautiful congregation.

What a loving, beautiful people.

the beauty of Christ was evident. in you, and we were touched by that and I know anyone that was here was touched by that as well. I can honestly say that what happened last Sunday was the closest to heaven. That I've ever been on.

On earth, together with my wife, and it left us all the more committed and desirous of serving you guys better on the road ahead and all the more looking forward to spending eternity. In heaven with you guys. so, from the bottom of our heart, thank you. it's an unspeakable honor, to serve you all and to grow together with you and experience God's grace together with you all as well.

So thank you. In fact, I'd like just anyone that was involved in any aspect of the program from the leadership level on down, and helping to make last week what it was from the reception to the program, all of the details. Could you just stand so we can express our appreciation to you? Nobody You had any role OK.

I know there were more and We've been doing a lot of investigating this week. we will find you. we've been getting, gathering names and just learning this week almost daily of details and things that people, did to serve everyone so well last week. You guys nailed it.

You just nailed it last week. and I just finally, I want to thank you guys for creating a special event that our children, needed to come visit us for. and, and my parents, So, that, that meant a lot, to us to have them here and they, they were all very blessed by The love that was shown and all that was expressed last week as well. So, I hope you don't mind me taking the time this morning to just share some of those thoughts and sentiments on behalf of myself and, and Donna.

We love you guys. And I'm, I'm blessed to be your pastor. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis 15. For our time of, of study and God's word, this morning.

We're gonna, we're coming back to our series through the Book of Genesis, and this morning we are gonna be looking at Genesis 15:7 through 21. And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be Landing on the Promises. Landing on the promises. Is this switching?

For some reason It's turning red. There we go. Landing on the promises. Growing up in a church, we, I, I would often sing in the various churches that we were, attending, growing up, a hymn entitled Standing on the Promises.

How many of that hymn or familiar with it? well, today's message is entitled Landing on, the promises. In our passage today, we're gonna see God making a number of promises to Abraham regarding the land that he was going to give to him. And we're gonna see Abraham a bit unsettled and asking for some assurance from God regarding his promise.

And we're gonna see God providing that assurance to Abraham. In order for Abraham's heart to find a landing place inside the covenant faithfulness of God. On top of that, this account is given here in Genesis chapter 15 verse 7 and following in order to land the Israelites in a place of assurance and to convince them that now is the time to take the land that God promised to Abraham in this chapter. And as we study this passage today, I want us to be mindful of that original audience.

of Israelites who are the first readers, the first hearers of this story recorded in the book of, of Genesis. In fact, to help us, I want you to use your imagination as we start off this morning. Imagine one day, going through your family heirlooms. And you find among those heirlooms a journal written by one of your ancestors over 500 years ago.

So during the days of Martin Luther, you have an ancestor who was your ancestor, and you have found a personal journal that was written by this ancestor over 500 years ago and to your amazement, You discover in that journal, a record of a moment in which your ancestor had an encounter with God. And in that encounter, God is speaking to your ancestor. And telling him things that would happen in the lives of his descendants 500 years later. In the year 2017, which means your lifetime.

Imagine that you've recently gone through a long bout with some severe affliction and to your amazement, you read in this journal that God told your ancestor. About that exact affliction. that you have just endured. Also imagine that you've been delivered from that affliction.

And you read in your ancestors journal that God had told your ancestor that you would experience that very deliverance. And imagine that in your life right now, you're on the cusp of some huge and intimidating task and you read in that journal written over 500 years ago, that God told your ancestor about that very task and how God had already decided to give you victory. In achieving and accomplishing that task. How would you feel?

Upon reading something. Like that What perspective would it provide you with? About the affliction you've experienced, the deliverance you've experienced, and about the road ahead for you. Would you feel more at peace now?

About your past and more brave as you face the road ahead. If you read that. In your ancestor's journal. That's almost exactly the dynamic of how the original readers of Genesis 15, during the days of Moses who wrote this book would have felt upon reading this chapter for the very first time.

As we look at Genesis 15:7-21, we rightly observe that there's only two players in this chapter and that's Abraham and God. But let's be aware of the original audience of 1.5 million million Israelites when they were hearing this story read to them from the Book of Genesis for the very first time. They have been miraculously delivered from Egypt. They're being led by God through the wilderness and they're on their way to the land of Canaan to conquer it at God's command, and they're going to find perspective.

On all of these things in Genesis 15:7 through 21, which will help them greatly. Maybe some of these Israelites who are in the wilderness on their way to Canaan, are wondering if they will succeed in this endeavor of taking the land. Maybe some are wondering why in the world it took God 400+ years. To bring them to this point.

Why the delay? Maybe some are wondering whether the centuries of affliction in Egypt were some deviation from the plan of God. Whatever they were thinking and feeling, this chapter would fill them with an epic sense of history. And perspective for the road behind them, the road they are on, and the road ahead of them.

And I want us to keep this original audience of Israelites in mind as we listen to this chapter together with them. First, let's do a real quick review at the end of Genesis 1 Genesis 11, I'm sorry, we see God bringing Abraham. Out of of the Chaldeans. And we see Abraham getting as far as the city of Huron, which was about the halfway point from Ur of the Chaldeans to the Land of Promise.

And at the beginning of Genesis 12, we saw how God calls Abraham from Haran and tells him to go to the land that he would show him. That's the land of promise. And at that time, God makes promises to Abraham and among those promises was a promise to make of Abraham a great nation. Throughout human history, The whole notion of a nation involves at least two things.

First of all, it requires a people, right? And sure enough, in Genesis 15:5, we saw a few weeks ago, God appears to Abraham and promises Abraham that his descendants That he will have descendants and his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of heaven. We saw in verse 6 of chapter 15, how Abraham responds, not simply by believing in the Lord, but by believing in the promises that the Lord had delivered. The notion of a nation also requires the ownership of land over which a people have sovereignty.

And this is what Genesis 15:7-21 that we're looking at today is all about. Starting in verse seven, the Lord turns his focus to the promise of land. And speaks this to Abraham. In chapters 12 and 13, God's already made promises to Abraham briefly about giving him and his descendants the land, but in this chapter, we will see God speaking with a breadth and a specificity and a formality about this promise of land.

That exceeds anything that we have seen God say to Abraham thus far in the narrative of Genesis. The way we'll frame our study this morning is we'll observe 5 acts of God, 5 acts of God in making his covenant with Abraham regarding the land of promise. And we're gonna learn so much about God, even about Abraham and things that we can apply to our life. Today.

The first act of God is this, he states to Abraham, his intention to give the land of promise. To Abraham Look at what God says to Abraham in verse 7, and he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of err of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it. God is about to make some promises in this chapter to Abraham and everything he says is front loaded with pointing to himself and saying, I am the Lord who brought you out of of the Chaldeans. Interestingly, this is very similar language to how God introduces the 10 Commandments when he speaks to the children of Israel over 500 years later.

In Exodus 20:12, God says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Abraham has had his own exodus from of the Chaldeans, just like his descendants hundreds of years later would experience their own exodus from Egypt. And in both cases, God begins. His train of thought by reminding them of the salvation that he has accomplished in their lives.

Here in Genesis 15, God is about to make some monumental promises to Abraham. And he wants to remind Abraham of the work he's done in bringing him out from E of the Chaldeans. Clearly, God does not want Abraham to forget the pit. From which he was dug.

And he also wants Abraham to remember that it's God who delivered him from that pit. God brought him out. Abraham didn't come out of on his own. God brought him out of.

Just like we did not come out of the kingdom of darkness on our own, God brought us out. And in the New Testament, God frequently reminds us of his deliverance of us from our former life just as he does Abraham. In this passage. But in Genesis 15:7, God wants Abraham to know that he brought Abraham out of earth for a reason.

Look at what he says. He says, I brought you out of of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it. The Hebrew word translated possess is the same word that is translated heir. In verse 4, it means to inherit.

And God is telling Abraham that he didn't just bring Abraham out of err to save him from err. He brought him out of err in order that Abraham could inherit. The land of Canaan and possess it. And the same is true for us.

The story of our salvation is not just the story of what God saved us from. But also includes what we are saved into. God saved us from sin. He saved us from wrath, He saved us from hopelessness and bondage in order that he might bring us into a gospel inheritance.

Of forgiveness and sonship. An inheritance of freedom from sin and power to live right. And he did that in order that we might daily lay claim. To it all and take personal possession of it.

God speaks the same way to Abraham. He says, I brought you out of. To give you this land, to inherit it. This is the 3rd time actually in the narrative of Genesis that Abraham has heard God promise him land.

Or the land, the land of promise. And the first two times, Abraham just listened to God. But not today. This time, Abraham responds with a question.

And keep in mind that Abraham has been in the land probably for about 7 years now. In fact, when the curtains open on the next chapter, chapter 16, Abraham, it will be said, has been in the land for 10 years. So let's say in this chapter, he's been in the land for about 7, and thus far, God has not given to Abraham. A child, he's not given.

Any direction to Abraham about conquest or taking ownership of the land. Abraham's been in the land for 7 years and at least on this front regarding possessing the land, nothing has happened. And now Abraham is probably around 82 years of age. And so look at verse 8.

He said, Abraham said, oh Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it? Verse 6 has already told us that Abraham believed God, yet here, he hears God state his intentions, basically making a promise, and Abraham hears that and says, how can I know for sure that what you are promising is really going to happen? Abraham obviously, based on verse 6 has faith in his heart, but it's obviously not a perfect faith. Abraham probably should have thought, if God is speaking to me right now and telling me that he will give me this land, then that's all I need to know for sure that I'm going to get this land.

But today, Abraham wants more. He believes God, but he is essentially asking God to help him with his unbelief. So if you wanna level some criticism at Abraham for asking this question of God, that's OK. But at least appreciate the fact that what Abraham's question indicates is that he has the faith to come to God with his doubts and lay his doubts before the Lord and say, how may I know for sure?

Can you help me with this, Lord? What we learn here guys, is that faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is being willing to come to God with your doubts. And that's what Abraham essentially is doing here.

You guys probably remember the story of Zechariah and the angel Gabriel in Luke one. Gabriel had told Zechariah that he and his barren wife, Elizabeth would have a son in their old age and that this son would be The forerunner to the Messiah. And Zachariah responds, this is Gabriel standing before Zachariah making this promise to him. And Zechariah responds by saying in Luke 1:18, how shall I know this for certain?

That's not a good thing to say to Gabriel when he's standing in front of you making a promise. It was a big mistake. And what did Gabriel do in response to this question? He rebuked Zechariah.

And struck him dumb. For the next 9 months until John the Baptist was born and named, but he also very mercifully. assured Zechariah that God would certainly fulfill his promise. And God shows similar mercy in his response to Abraham here in Genesis 15, but Abraham does himself get a little more than he bargained for in the response that he receives from God.

Before all is said and done, Abraham is going to be harassed by birds of prey, and he will experience a deep terror and a great darkness, but God will mercifully confirm his promise to Abraham in a most formal and breathtaking of ways. In fact, observe how God responds and this leads us to the second act of God in making this covenant promise of land to Abraham. And that is he instructs Abraham to prepare the setting in which his promise of land will be reaffirmed. He instructs Abraham To prepare the setting In which his promise of land will be reaffirmed.

Look at verse 9. So he said to him, bring me a 3 year old heifer, and a 3-year-old female goat, and a 3-year-old ram. And a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Interesting response by God to Abraham saying, how will I know?

When you read what Abraham does in the next verse, it's evident that he knows exactly what it is that God intends to do. Abraham understands just from what God says in verse 9, that God is going to make a covenant with him. Back in this day, when someone makes a promise to you, and you say, how do I know for sure that your word is good? And they respond by saying, bring me some animals, you understand right away that the person is wanting to use those animals to make a covenant.

Abraham knows this, so he obeys God. He gets the animals that God requested, and he brings them to God, and then he does something that is strange to us, but perfectly consistent with the customs of his day. Look at verse 10. Then he brought all these to him.

And cut them in two and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds. This is what people in this day did when they made covenants. They would take animals and cut those animals in half and then put those halves several feet away from each other in order to create a passageway, a walkway between the halves of the animals, and then they would walk. Between those halves.

Between those animal parts and while doing so, state their promises out loud. And through this ritual, essentially what the person making the promises was saying. Was this May what has happened to these animals. Happened to me If I do not keep my promise to you.

That's the meaning of the covenant. So Abraham does this, he cuts the animals in half and puts them opposite one another for God to walk between. The only exception is the turtle dove and the pigeon. Probably because of their smaller size.

Abraham does not cut them in half. He slays them both and puts the turtle dove on one side. And the pigeon on the opposite side and thus a walkway, a passageway is created. So the stage is set.

But it's here that something happens that ruins the mood of the occasion. Look at verse 11. The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abraham. was driving them away.

The birds of prey could be anything from falcons to vultures or buzzards. And it's likely that there is symbolic significance in the attack of these birds of prey. In that, as one writer says, they foreshadowed the attacks that would come upon Abraham's offspring. But whatever it means, what a hassle.

For Abraham. And how this would ruin the Spirit of the occasion. Earlier, if you start reading at the beginning of Genesis 15, You notice in the earlier verses that the stars of heaven were visible, so we know that this conversation with God. At least started in the wee hours of the morning when it was dark and Abraham was able to see the stars.

Based on what follows, we can infer that Abraham kills these animals and positions them for the covenant, but then evidently, God does not show up right away. Abraham has to wait. And as the day wears on, these birds of prey are taking the opportunity to descend upon the carcasses, leaving Abraham having to wait on God and occupy himself with chasing these scavenger birds away. But then look at what happens as the day wears on, verse 12.

Now when the sun was going down, we're now reaching the, the end of the day, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. Abraham is probably exhausted from waiting and from the constant vigilance required to protect the carcasses from the birds. Eventually he falls into a deep sleep. And guys, this was no ordinary sleep.

The Hebrew expression used here is the same expression used to speak of the sleep. That came upon Adam when God. Took the rib from his side to create Eve. Abraham falls into a deep sleep and while sleeping, look at this, the text says, behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.

Some suggest that this terror and darkness is from the approach of Jehovah God. More likely, it is a deep premonition that is coming over Abraham of the coming affliction of his descendants. It's as if Abraham is feeling in his own person the sufferings that await his descendants who are still yet in his loins. One writer says that in this moment, Abraham is experiencing the terror which his descendants must endure, and he feels these things in anticipation.

Some people experience flashbacks. Commentators suggest that Abraham here is experiencing a flash forward. The text also says that a great darkness fell upon him. A darkness so dark that Abraham could not see his hand in front of his face, a darkness so great that it actually entered inside.

Of him. It entered into him, leaving him feeling as dark inside as it was outside. This is an overwhelming feeling of depression. There's no other place in Genesis where we're told that a terror and a great darkness fell upon Abraham.

Meaning that this is likely the lowest and darkest moment of his life recorded on the pages of scripture. This is what some writers call the dark night of the soul that all great men of God experience at one time or another. But here's the cool thing Abraham doesn't know it yet, but he's right on the cusp of experiencing one of the greatest and highest moments in his life. It turns out that his terror and great darkness, in other words, his anxiety and great depression was not the end of the story, it was merely the prelude to the real story.

God enters the darkness, and he enters into Abraham's moment of terror and he speaks revelation to him. And what God does here teaches us, and we need to know this. That there is no darkness in our lives that is too dark for God. To join us in, and there's no terror too great for God to speak to us in.

And this passage also teaches us what is often true, and that is the darkness is often the greatest right before the light breaks through. And we need to know that, don't we? Some of you in your hearts are just roiling with anxiety. And you would say, yes, inside I'm in great darkness.

Let God speak to you. Let him enter into that and speak to you and direct you and speak his promises to you. Look at what happens next. What God is about to say will serve to put words as it were, to Abraham's terror.

And the darkness that he's feeling and it will also serve to lift him out of it as well. And this brings us to the next act of God as he details his promise of land to Abraham. And that is Act number 3. He foretells the journey of Abraham's descendants to the Land of Promise.

There's a number of promises that God makes to Abraham here in this section of the chapter, and the first that he's promising is that Abraham's descendants will be oppressed for 400 years. Look at what God says in verse 13. And God said to Abraham, know for certain. Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years.

God wants Abraham to know for certain. That his descendants will find themselves in a land that is not theirs and they'll be in that land for 4 centuries. And in that land they will be enslaved and oppressed. We all know that the land is what?

What's the land that he's speaking about? Egypt. Now Abraham. Hearing this now has an explanation for what he's feeling.

He's feeling in his own person in all likelihood a deep premonition of the oppression that will come upon his seed. And God is giving words to this premonition so that Abraham understands it. But then the picture brightens as God continues. He says, look at verse 14, but I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.

Yes, things will be dark for 400 years, but God will intervene, and he will judge the nation that oppressed Abraham's descendants. He will free them from the land of oppression, and he will see to it that they come out of that land of oppression with many possessions. And guys, this is exactly what we find happening in the book of Exodus when God delivers the children of Israel from Egypt, right? He sends 10 plagues, delivers them from Egypt through his mighty power, and as they're leaving, The Egyptians shower them with gifts as they head out of Egypt toward the Land of Promise.

And that's exactly where the original readers of this chapter. were when they're reading Genesis 15 for the very first time. And as they're in the wilderness on their way to the Land of Promise, having been delivered from Egypt, they're learning in this chapter, in these verses. That all that they have experienced, including their oppression in Egypt, was God's plan foretold by God hundreds of years prior.

Their time in Egypt, their experience of affliction was not some deviation from the plan of God. It was God's plan. Just as their deliverance was, along with the many gifts that were lavished upon them as they left. As for Abraham, what will happen to him?

Well, God assures Abraham that he will live to a ripe old age. Look what he says to Abraham in verse 15. As for you, you shall go to your father's in peace and you will be buried at a good old age. This isn't just the promise of long life.

It's one thing to live a long life, but that's hardly any consolation. If one leads a long life of nothing but trouble. But God is promising Abraham here that he will experience Shalom. Well-being and that he will be buried not just at an old age but at a good old age.

An old age characterized by goodness. Abraham's life will not be cut short by some awful tragedy. Abraham has nothing to fear. God will be a shield and Abraham will experience peace and he will be buried.

At a good old age. But going back to what will happen to his descendants, God. has already said that after 400 years, they will come out of the foreign land that oppressed them, but where will they go? In verse 16, God answers that question, and he says to Abraham, then in the 4th generation, they will return.

Here, in other words, they'll return here to the land where you are right now, Abraham. The Land of Promise. Commentators struggle with that word generation, 4th generation. We tend to think of that as every 20 years or 40 years, and that's not enough time.

But in Abraham's day, the word translated generation could also be thought of as a lifespan, and in this day, a good lifespan was a minimum of 100 years. Which would mean that God is speaking of roughly 4 100 year spans or so. So for our purposes, God is saying this, then after roughly 4 centuries, they, your descendants, Abraham, will return here to the land of promise. Imagine what an encouragement this would have been for the Israelites in the wilderness.

Upon reading this. Reading these words, they would realize this is not some wistful prophecy that is gonna be fulfilled in some future day, way off. They were actually the generation Experiencing the fulfillment of a part of what God is promising here in Genesis 15. God had delivered them from Egypt with a mighty hand just like he promises Abraham he would do.

They were showered with many gifts just like he promised Abraham would happen, and now they're in the wilderness and they're on the verge of fulfilling God's promise to Abraham. That they would return to the land of promise. It had to have been for some of them an amazing feeling to realize that they're living in the days of fulfillment of what God had promised 500 years prior. Just like it is for us or should be for us.

It's an amazing thing for us today to be living in the fulfillment of what God promised throughout the Old Testament of the coming of the Messiah and the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories to follow. We are so blessed to be living at this point in gospel history. And I hope you appreciate that. That's why Peter in First Peter chapter one, essentially tells us that we are the envy of angels.

We are the envy of Old Testament prophets. We are living in the fullness of Fulfillment beyond anything that anyone in the Old Testament ever knew. And I'm sure that the Israelites reading these promises from God that were given to Abraham hundreds of years prior, are feeling something of that, like, boy, it's great to be this generation, to be alive today, where these things are being fulfilled. Anyway, as God speaks to Abraham in these verses about this roundabout journey of his descendants to the Land of Promise after 400 years, God totally anticipates a question in Abraham's mind.

And the question is, why is it, Lord, that you would wait so long? To bring my descendants into the land of promise. Why not just have me start taking this land now? Why have 400 years in a foreign land before then bringing them back to Canaan to take the land?

What's up with that? Well, God anticipates those questions. And he says in verse 16, for or because the iniquity of the Amorite. is not yet complete.

One commentator said that expression that you see there at the end of verse 16 is one of the great sayings of the Old Testament. Because the iniquity of the amorite is not yet complete. Understand that Amorites were not the only people dwelling in the land of Canaan, but they were primary among them. So God refers to the Amorites as a representative of all the peoples who are living in the land of Canaan.

And God essentially here is saying, Abraham, the reason I'm not giving you the land right now is because it would be unjust for me to drive the Canaanites from the land right now. Because their iniquity, is not yet complete. Yes, right now, they are guilty of iniquity, but their iniquity has not yet reached the level that it would need to be for me to righteously expel them from the land. But in 400 years, their iniquity will reach its fullest and most decadent bloom.

And when the Amorites and the Canaanites reach that depth of iniquity, then I will send your descendants into the land to execute my righteous judgment. Against them What this means, guys, is that Israel's conquest of Canaan. was not just about conquest. It was about two things.

First of all, it was about achieving God's goal of executing judgment upon the inhabitants of Canaan for their wickedness. And then secondly, it achieved God's purpose of bringing the descendants of Abraham into the land to acquire it for themselves as God had promised. And by the way, if you think it's unjust of God to commission His people, Later in Israel's history to invade the land of Canaan and cast out the Canaanites. Read Leviticus chapter 18.

If you have the stomach for it. And learn of the wickedness that the Canaanites were guilty of. Leviticus 18. And also realize that even later after the Israelites do come into the land, Hundreds of years later, when the wickedness of the Israelites comes to its most decadent point, God will send people into the land to drive the Israelites from the land of Canaan because of their sin, and he will use the Assyrians and the Babylonians to accomplish that.

Look at verse 16, what God's words in verse 16 are making clear is that God is orchestrating the timing of the Israelites' conquest of Canaan in a way that is consistent with his righteous moral governance of the world. Things will happen in a timing that is merciful and just. God will do right not only to Abraham's descendants, but also he will do right to the inhabitants of Canaan. God will wait to expel them from Canaan until it's righteous to do so, even if it means that Abraham's descendants will have to wait hundreds of years to take the land.

God is a patient God who is slow to judge. He's rich in mercy. He offers plenty of time to repent. And when the right time comes for the Israelites to enter into Canaan, it won't simply be a land grab.

It will be justice upon the wicked inhabitants of Canaan who had reached the point of no return. This perspective would help. Again, let's think of the original audience of this passage. It would help the Israelites who were in the wilderness on the cusp of entering the land.

It would assure them that Now is the time. Where the iniquity of the Amorite is in its fullest bloom. The Canaanites are past the point of no return. And the Israelites now can take confidence in the fact that God is wanting them to serve as executioners of his justice upon the Canaanites who are ripe for the judgment of God.

Now having explained the journey of Abraham's descendants to the Land of Promise, God then in the next act, Engages in an act whereby he ratifies his covenant with Abraham. Look at what happens next. Act number 4. He ratifies his covenant.

With Abraham regarding the land of promise. Verse 17, it came about when the sun had set that it was very dark. And behold there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. It's the pieces of animal that he's talking about.

God here is choosing to make his appearance observable to Abraham in the form of a smoking oven and a flaming torch. And I don't, how do I say this? It could possibly be two things. Here's a smoking oven, here's a flaming torch, and Abraham is seeing two things.

In all likelihood, these aren't two things but one. Understanding what furnaces look like in this day, imagine a large upside down clay bowl with a hole in the top of it. And coming out of that hole is smoke. And a flame That is like a torch, as one writer says, the fire pot.

Has the fire within it kindled and flaming out of the top of the oven like a torch. The image of smoke and fire here, guys, serves as a foreshadowing of God appearing to the Israelites and leading them through the wilderness. In the form of a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. And we have smoke and fire appearing here in Genesis 15 representing Jehovah, and this connection would not be lost on the original audience.

Of the Book of Genesis. Appearing in these forms, look at what God does, verse 17, he passed between these pieces. And walking between these severed halves of the animals, God is stealing His promise to Abraham. Essentially saying, may what has happened to these animals happen to me if all that I am promising does not come to pass.

God is saying, Abraham, you wanna know how you can know what I'm promising is true or not? Here you go, I stake my life on it. If I don't keep my word on this, I die May what has happened to these animals happen to me. This is amazing condescension from God to adapt himself to the customs of Abraham's day and ratify his covenant to Abraham in this way to give Abraham the assurance that he needed.

In fact, in a, in a most ironic twist, perhaps God is actually taking this custom and making it mean something far deeper. Perhaps God, is saying In order to fulfill these promises. And all my promises to you, Abraham, and to make all of them come to pass, I will die. I will be accursed.

I will be slain. I will be severed. I will experience separation between the members of my Trinitarian Godhead in order to make all of my promises to you come to pass. We do know that when God walked through these severed carcasses, he already knows that the day is gonna come when he's gonna send his son to earth.

He knows that his son. will have his flesh separated by the business end of a scourge of several strands. He knows that his son will die upon a cross. And shed his blood.

He knows that his son will have nails. And a spear and crowning thorns piercing through him, separating his flesh at many points. He knows that while on the cross, God the Son will experience a forsakenness, a separation between him and God the Father. And cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And all of that will happen. So that God can save those who are sons of Abraham. And bring about the full fruition of his promises to Abraham to bless all the families of the earth through him. Which includes us seated here today.

What Abraham did to these animals that God is walking between. is nothing compared to the brutal tearing, the brutal rending that God Himself will experience so that these promises might fully come true. And that the blessings of Abraham might come to those who believe in Jesus. What a price God has paid.

Please notice, guys, in this passage that God does not Invite Abraham To walk between the animals. He doesn't ask Abraham to make any promises. This is a unilateral covenant, not a bilateral one. God's promise is not conditioned on Abraham at all.

God doesn't say, Abraham, if you keep your end of the covenant, then I will keep my end. So don't blow it. No, this is a completely unilateral covenant that God is making with Abraham, and what? Abraham can just lie down and sleep and do nothing.

While God does the work. And while God walks through the halves of these animals. Intending to do all That the rending of these animals represent in a future day. There's one final thing we see God saying and doing as he details his promises regarding land to Abraham.

And that is Act number 5. He defines the scope of the land that he's promising to Abraham. Verse 18 represents what God says while walking between the animal pieces. Verse 18 says, on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham.

Literally guys, the Hebrew reads this way, on that day, the Lord cut A covenant With Abraham. Back in this day, that's the expression you would often use. You cut a covenant with somebody. You cut animals in half and then walk between the halves of the animals.

A covenant was a bloody affair where there was death and bloodshed, as it is here. God is cutting. A bloody covenant with Abraham. And while walking between the halves of these animals, God speaks and explains the specifics regarding the land he's giving to Abraham's descendants, and he describes the land in both geographic and ethnographic terms.

In fact, look what he says in verse 18. To Abraham, to your descendants. I have given this land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kennite and the Kennezite and the Cadmanite and the Hittite and the Parasite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite and the Canaanite, and the Gurgite and the Jebusite. These are all the pests that the Israelites will need to exterminate.

From the land in a future day. Essentially God is saying to Abraham, Abraham, I give your descendants all this land, and I give Into the hand of your descendants, all the various peoples of this land for them to dispose of as I instruct. This is a bestowing of authority. On Abraham's descendants.

Most interpreters. Of this passage, take the river of Egypt, not to be referring to the Nile, but to indicate the southernmost border of the promised land that God is promising here, and they take the river of Egypt to be referring to a seasonal river called the Waddi, on the northeastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. They also take the river Euphrates, not to be speaking of the full length of the Euphrates. But only a portion of the river Euphrates that identifies the northeastern border of the land that's promised to Abraham.

And the map that you see behind me is pretty much what the land of promise is that God is promising to Abraham based on that interpretation. It may be more than this, but at minimum, it's what you see reflected. On this map. Guys, if, if we understand God to be speaking.

Consistently with even what's reflected on this map, which represents the least of his promise. Then we would understand as we read the rest of the Old Testament that this promise was realized by the Israelites only during short intervals in Israel's history during the reign of David and Solomon and perhaps Jeroboam II. But all in all, these moments against the backdrop of the full length of Israel's history were fleeting. Over the course of Israel's history, God's people failed to fully and permanently possess the full scope of the land that God here is saying to Abraham, it's your inheritance.

And the inheritance of your descendants. Even after possessing the land, God hundreds of years later drove the children of Israel out of the land because of their sin. He used the Assyrians to do that and then later the Babylonians. After 70 AD.

The Jews were scattered abroad and did not officially inhabit any portion of this land. For almost 2000 years until 1948 when the United Nations authorized some of this land to belong to the Jews as a nation again. But even now Israel does not encompass the full land mass that God is telling Abraham. That he's giving to his descendants here.

We know that the ultimate fulfillment of this promise will come in the millennial kingdom, when Christ Himself will reign upon the earth for 1000 years. He will sit on the throne of David, and during that day, guys, Abraham himself. will be living in this land. And possessing it And experiencing the good of this land during the millennial reign of Christ that is still to come.

What God has told Abraham here in this chapter would be hugely helpful for Abraham. Abraham now has a vision for the future, the long range plan of God. When it comes to his descendants in the land of promise. This chapter that we've studied today was first read by the Israelites in the Sinai Peninsula on their way to the Land of Promise.

500 years later, and what is said in this chapter would give them perspective that they needed to understand their circumstances and understand the way forward. The Israelites would know that they can succeed in taking possession of this land of promise. It's their inheritance. God has given it to them.

And it's now time for them to take the land that God had given to them. But amazingly, When it came time for the Israelites. To take and conquer Canaan. And God said, go into the land and take it.

Many of the Israelites freaked out and said, we're gonna fail, we're gonna die. Even after reading chapters like Genesis 15. Even after reading this account of what God said to their ancestor. Over 500 years earlier.

And before you shake your head at them, I ask you, what about you? Guys, this book that I have before me that you have sitting on your lap, this is our ultimate. Family gospel heirloom. And in this book, we're told about Jesus.

Who experienced dread in the garden of Gethsemane to the point where he sweat drops of blood. He experienced great darkness while on the cross. The sun was blackened and darkness was over the face of the land. He experienced the ultimate darkness of being forsaken.

By God the Father, he was pierced, he was torn asunder. He went even into the deep sleep of death until he was raised from the dead on the 3rd day. And he endured all of that. To deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and to bring us into His kingdom of light, and he did all of that, not just to save us from sin, but to bring us into a gospel inheritance that is fully detailed in this book.

If we would read it I ask you this morning, have you believed in Jesus Christ? If you haven't, I urge you to believe in him. Today and call upon him as your Lord and Savior. If you have believed in Jesus, I ask you, are, are you reading this book right here?

Are you reading your Bible? Are you taking possession of all that God says is yours? Are you possessing and enjoying the forgiveness and the grace that God says is yours in Christ? Are you walking in the good of the promises of God?

There are many in this heirloom, this family heirloom. Are you believing in His grace and letting his grace make you a bold and courageous repenter and confessor of your sin to God and to others? Are you taking possession of the very freedom from sin and relationship with God that Jesus died to give you and tells you over 2000 years ago, this is yours. Own it, take possession of it, enter into the fullness of it.

Are you walking each day and relating to God as the son of God or daughter of God that you are? Are you taking time each day to read this book and to know the details of the inheritance? That this family gospel heirloom says belongs to you. I hope that you are I know one question I'd love for you to ponder in your care groups today and tomorrow is, all of us struggle with these things.

I would ask you to ponder, what are some things that God says in his word or yours, that Jesus purchased for you? That you have trouble believing. And laying hold of and owning. As yours Let's share these things with each other and seek for prayer and encouragement from one another.

That we would not fall short. of fully taking possession of the blessings of the gospel that God says, belong to us in Christ. Let's pray together Lord, we We just come to you this morning and we, we hear your promises and often Our faith is not What it ought to be But we do ask this morning that you give us the faith to at least come to you with our doubts. That you might address our doubts and give us the assurance and bringing us to a great landing place.

And your covenant promises. We see such mercy and such grace. which you so thoroughly speak to when you speak to Abraham in this passage, and you overwhelmingly speak to our doubts. In the New Testament that we read.

As you give us assurance after assurance that you stand ready to forgive. Ready to welcome. The repentant Ready to lavish your grace. Upon us Make us bold and courageous repenters and confessors of sin.

Make us bold and courageous possessors. If all that you say belongs to us in Christ, which he died that we might. Have these blessings and walk in the good of them each day. Enlarge our faith, Lord.

We say to you, we believe. We also say help us. With our unbelief We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, and we ask that you would receive these funds and Too much with every penny that's given. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to give to you and to your work here in this local church and your work as it goes forth throughout the world.

We're blessed to participate through our gifts to you and to your people and to your work, and so receive these gifts. And use them mightily for the spread of this great Message about a great savior named Jesus. At the same time, we give ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.