Abraham, my Friend 31

The Seed – Part 1

As I promised we will now return to the narrative of Genesis 15. There is so much material in this chapter that it is easy to forget that the incidents it records all took place within a 24-hour period. It is important, however, not to forget this, as there is a flow of revelation through this chapter that we ought not to disturb. First a reminder of the events. Abraham has made his choices as to the future source of his life and wellbeing: 

And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto Jehovah, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth… (Gen 14:22 ASV)

God’s response to this is to promise Himself to Abraham:

 After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. (Gen 15:1 ASV)

Abraham’s thoughts immediately turn to the question of the future: 

 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house in mine heir.  (Gen 15:3 ASV)

If we were to give a title to the chapter perhaps it ought to be ‘The Seed’.

First a command, later a promise of the land

We are able to time events easily; they begin in starlight (Gen 15:5). It is in the starlight that ‘…he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness’ (Gen 15:6 ASV). The subsequent events will pass through mid-day when the rising thermals lifted the vultures aloft (15:11), early evening, ‘when the sun was going down’ and night again when extraordinary events will take place (15:17).

Following the moment of Abraham’s justifying faith (15:6), God reminds Abraham of His promise: 

 And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. (Gen 15:7 ASV)

When we check back we find that up to this time God had not told Abraham that he would inherit the land; only that he was to journey to a land and that God would show it to him. It had been in the heart of God from the beginning but God often works on a need to know basis. God has wonderful plans for us all, but He often doesn’t tell us the details; for some of us it would be a distraction. It is better that Abraham should begin his journey because he obeyed rather than because of any blessing there might be at the end of it. Abraham then asks a significant question. ‘Whereby shall I know…?’ The word ‘whereby’ in Hebrew is an all-inclusive question mark; it includes why, how, where, when? It is interesting to ask each of these questions separately and to think about the answers we might give. God’s answer is an instruction to prepare for a covenant ceremony.

Cutting the covenant

In Bible use the verb usually used for the creating of a covenant is the word to ‘cut’. It enshrines within it a fact almost forgotten in our modern usage, but is captured in the letter to the Hebrews in Young’s Literal Translation: 

‘…for where a covenant is, the death of the covenant-victim to come in is necessary’ (Heb 9:16 YLT). 

Where there is a covenant, there must be, of necessity, the death of the covenant-victim. Of course, if the ‘covenant’ is a last will and testament then the covenant-maker himself must die for it to be enacted, but the Hebrews truth is wider than this and extends to all ancient covenants; without the death of the covenant-victim, the covenant could not be established.

In Bible times the pattern of cutting a covenant was well established. It was based on a self-imprecatory oath. (Yes, I thought it was, I hear you say!) Some children still use a self-imprecatory oath although they don’t realise it. They emphasize a promise by saying ‘cross my heart’ or in the full version ‘cross my heart and hope to die’. It builds an ‘if’ into the event. If I fail to keep my promise let this happen to me; it is an ancient pattern. 

Ancient biblical covenants were initiated in an avenue of death. The covenant-victims were slaughtered, and the parts separated into two lines. The covenanting parties then met in this little valley of death and declared the conditions of their covenant. All the time the slaughtered animals provided the emphasis for their promises; if I fail to keep my promise let this happen to me. Sometimes these oaths can be observed in the Scriptures by noticing unfinished sentences. There is one in Hebrews, accurately translated in the King James Version but usually translated without the ‘if’ in more modern, more easily read translations.

 ‘For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.’ (Heb 4:3 KJV). 

For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”  (Heb 4:3 NKJV)

The older translation ‘if they shall enter into my rest’ sits uncomfortably to our ears. Young’s Literal Translation alters the punctuation: 

For we do enter into the rest — we who did believe, as He said, ‘So I sware in My anger, If they shall enter into My rest’ — and yet the works were done from the foundation of the world… (Heb 4:3 YLT). 

This is God saying ‘if I let them enter…’ the rest of the sentence does not need to be said. It is the equivalent of ‘cross my heart…’

Abraham prepares for the ‘cutting of a covenant’

Abraham, then, is instructed to set the stage for the cutting of a covenant. The animals are slaughtered and the avenue of death is created: 

 And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not. (Gen 15:9–10 ASV)

He would have seen this often and no doubt participated in such covenants himself. He knew what would happen next; the two covenant makers would enter the avenue of death from either end, they would meet in the middle and seal their covenant. Abraham knew what would happen. But it didn’t. The whole day passes and the other covenanting party does not arrive. At midday or later the vultures descend and Abraham beats them off. He waits, and waits, and waits…

He did not ‘fall asleep’ but a deep sleep ‘fell upon him’.

 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.  (Gen 15:12 ASV)

And God began to speak, not about his promise but about a promise for Abraham’s Seed. The next four hundred years of his descendants’ history is sketched out for him, with the promise that although tragedy must first come…

And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.  (Gen 15:16 ASV)

The Parties to the covenant 

See the scene in your imagination; the avenue of death stands unused; one covenant partner is asleep, the Other has not appeared but has only spoken to Abraham. Abraham continues his deep sleep under the horror of great darkness. He will not be an active covenant partner in what follows but a passive witness of the cutting of a covenant which will set in motion earthly events which will change history and eternity. Abraham is not the first human being to experience this kind of deep sleep: 

And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (Gen 2:21–22 ASV)

Sleeping Abraham now witnesses one of the most mysterious events in the Bible — two phenomena pass between the slaughtered animals. In my imagination I see them approaching each other from opposite ends — a smoking furnace and a flaming torch. What is this that Abraham is witnessing? The smoking furnace is an emblem of God in all His holiness; the furnace smokes, our God is a consuming fire. The flaming torch is the Life that was the light of men, shining in the darkness. Father and Son walk together in this valley of death and seal their covenant; Abraham is witnessing Calvary. He sees no cross; it would have meant little to him, but the horror of a great darkness has fallen upon the earth and Abraham is witnessing it.

The Father and the Seed

This is not Abraham’s covenant; he never did step into that avenue of death. This is an eternal covenant, sealed at the scene of the covenant-victim’s death. Eternity has broken through the thin skin of time and eternal events are being portrayed in his dreamless sleep. In real-time, as we call it, the covenant-victim would not die until April AD 30 but in real-time, as God calls it, He is… 

the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8 NKJV)

God did indeed make a covenant with Abraham on that day, but this was not it. Abraham’s name is not on this event as one of the covenanting parties, but simply as a witness.

In the epistle to the Romans Paul seems to concentrate on Abraham’s experience in the first half of Genesis 15: reckoned righteousness. But in Galatians the focus is different; Paul concentrates on the covenant of the second half of Genesis 15. This is most obvious in a few verses: Galatians 3:16-19. In verse 16 Paul declares that these events had in focus not ‘seeds’ as in the sense of Abraham’s many descendants, but ‘seed’ singular:

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. (Gal 3:16 NKJV)

This speaks if you follow the line of thought, of promises made by God to Christ, not to Abraham. According to Paul the focus of the events that Abraham witnessed was Christ, the Seed. Again the point comes through clearly in Young’s Literal Translation as Paul adds 

…and this I say, A covenant confirmed before by God to Christ, the law, that came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not set aside, to make void the promise (Gal 3:17 YLT). 

The Promise to the Seed

And, just in case we need further evidence, the theme is repeated:

 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.  (Gal 3:19 NKJV)

Paul is speaking here of ‘the Seed, who should come, to whom the promise was made’.

But what was the promise that was made to the Seed? 

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13–15 NKJV)

It was a mystery enshrouded in an enigma to the disciples for the time being, but when the Spirit came Peter saw immediately all the implications: 

 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. (Acts 2:32–33 NKJV)

And Paul wasn’t far behind: 

   Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Gal 3:13–14 NKJV)

There is an old story told from the time of the Scottish Covenanters. The government had prohibited ‘conventicles’, unauthorised meetings of believers. A young woman was apprehended by the red-coated soldiers and questioned. Under her cloak, she had concealed a precious Bible. She did not want to lie but did not want to betray fellow believers to the Red Coats either. She lifted her heart to God for wisdom and replied to the questioners; “Please don’t delay me. Our Elder Brother has died and we are going to read the Will.”

The Covenant Partners, the Will and the Executor

The Holy Spirit is the great executor of Christ’s Will and Testament. All that was agreed and witnessed on earth by slumbering Abraham is assured and brought into force from heaven on the Day of Pentecost. 

 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, (Titus 1:1–2 NKJV)

Did you ever ask this question? 

If this ‘eternal life’ was promised ‘before the world began’ to whom was the promise made? Our risen, ascended, enthroned Lord has not only brought the New Covenant into being, He is the Covenant, and… 

…all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. (2 Cor 1:20 NKJV)