Genesis 15:is one of the most beautiful, comforting and instructive chapters in the Bible. The revelations God gave to Abram, and the pains He took to assure him of the certainty of His promises, are simply marvelous. What could be sweeter than verse i ? After Abram had refused the offers of the king of Sodom, see how beautifully God comes in and says, "Fear not, Abram:I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward "! Just think of it:not merely "great reward," but "exceeding great reward "! Had he not proved Him to be his shield in the battle against the kings (chap. 14:) ? and now he was to prove Him to be his exceeding great reward, and the childless Abram was to hear of an innumerable seed assured by promise, and a glorious inheritance secured by sacrifice which not even the smoking furnace could rob them of.
I will not, however, dwell on the first part of the chapter,-God deigning to stand and talk with a man, and give him such promises,-wonderful as it is, but pass on. " Abram believed God." He honored Him by his faith, and God reckoned him righteous (ver. 6). Then verse 7 begins another subject, that of the inheritance which God intended for him; and that calls forth from Abram the question, "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it ? " God might have said, "You ought to trust Me, Abram, and not raise questions;" but no; He condescends to Abram's weakness, and gives him the most marvelous pledge imaginable, to satisfy him :God covenanted with Himself to secure it for him.
God said, "Take Me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove and a young pigeon" (ver. 9). And Abram did so, and divided the animals, and set the pieces one against another. Evidently Abram knew something of the meaning of that action of his, and protected the sacrifice from the fowls of the air. Then, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep, and a horror of great darkness, fell on him, and he heard God tell him of the servitude and affliction of his descendants in Egypt, as also of the judgment of their oppressors and their deliverance and entrance into the land of Canaan.
But the revelations did not stop there. God had still more to tell and assure to Abram:"And when the sun went down "-not when it was going down. How fitting the time for the revelation about to be given! Then Abram hears of a smoking furnace into which his descendants would be cast; but the burning lamp of promise and hope would shine amid that darkness and smoke, and assure them of final deliverance from the furnace and admittance into the land once more. And this, I take it, is connected, not with Egypt and their sojourn and affliction there, but with "the time of the end," and their final deliverance from "the great tribulation"-that awful smoking furnace which yet awaits them.
But what could it mean to lay the pieces of those animals against each other, and for God to pass between them by His burning lamp ? Turn to Jer. 34:, and read from verse 17. There we get an explanation of it in a later day. God had to charge His people with not having harkened to Him and done what He commanded; therefore He says, "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 pieces and passed between the parts thereof, the princes . . . eunuchs . . . priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf" (vers. 18, 19); and God gave them over to their enemies to be slain (ver. 20).
Now this, I think, makes it quite clear. To pass between the pieces of a slain victim, or victims, was. to ratify, or confirm, a covenant which had been made, and it evidently involved the death of the contracting party if he or they failed to carry it out. Thus the people mentioned in Jer. 34:20 were to die because they had failed to carry out the covenant which they had made and solemnly sworn to fulfil when they passed between the pieces of the calf.
The wonderful thing, however, in Gen. 15:17 is, it was God who, by that lamp (or flame) of fire, "passed between the pieces," and thus bound Himself to accomplish what He had covenanted to do. Abram did not pass through-it was God. He not only made known the smoking furnace,-apt picture of the great tribulation which yet awaits them in a still future day, when the Sun will be completely hidden, or "gone down,"-but He went through the pieces by His burning lamp of promise and hope, and covenanted with Abram that day to give his seed the land "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates " (ver. 18); and they shall yet possess it.
What marvelous grace on the part of God to answer Abram's question, "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" and pledge Himself to carry it out! It is truly wonderful! Can that promise fail ? Never! never! It depends neither on the faithfulness of Abraham or his seed, but on the almighty Promiser, who pledged Himself in that wonderful way when He "passed between the pieces."
Abram's seed, as we have seen, pledged themselves, failed, and died. God pledged Himself, has not failed, will never fail, but will fulfil His covenant, and give them the inheritance secured for them; not, surely, on the ground of the victims that Abram slew, but because of the death of the One of whom they were the type, our Lord Jesus Christ. And if an earthly inheritance is so secured to the earthly seed, will there be any danger of heavenly blessings not being made good to the heavenly seed, born anew, blessed, and fitted for heaven by the reception of the gospel in the power of the Holy Ghost ? No, blessed be God, "all the promises of God are yea and amen in Him (Jesus Christ), to the glory of God by us" (2 Cor. 1:20). They can never fail. May our hearts, beloved, ever confide in Him "who is able to keep us from falling and present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy," and thus in some little measure respond to the outgoings of that marvelous love till we are ushered into the fulness of what He has pledged Himself to give! W. E.
New Zealand.