A Promise Of Land

                                                                     Sunday School Lesson

                                            

Lesson: Genesis 15:7-21                                                                                                 
Golden Text: “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18).

 INTRODUCTION.  This week’s lesson centers on God’s confirmation of His covenant with Abraham to give him the Promised Land.  This time God gave the boundaries of the land that Abraham was given.  The Lord, who owns the world, can give any part of it to whomever He pleases.  This is the only land given to a specific person and his descendents forever.  All the drawing of boundaries and laws or treaties of man cannot change what God has dictated.  Today the nation of Israel is surrounded by hostile Islamic nations.  The nations of the world seem to feel they can dictate where Israel’s boundaries should be.  Some even question the right of Israel to be there, or to own any land at all.  Several of the neighboring nations have vowed to wipe Israel off the map.  However, Israel’s right to exist as a nation and their possession of the Land of Promise are not matters for man’s speculation or treaties.  God, who owns the earth, promised the land to Abraham and his descendents.
  Background for the Lesson: In last week’s lesson we saw how God scattered the descendents of Noah and the world was populated.  This week we turn to Abram, later called Abraham (see Genesis 17:5).  He accompanied his father Terah when the family left Ur in Mesopotamia and moved to Haran (see Genesis 11:31).  After the death of Terah, Abram followed God’s leading to Canaan (see Genesis 12:4-5).  After a brief time in Egypt and a lapse in faith (see Genesis 12:10-20), Abram returned to Canaan and shortly thereafter separated from Lot, his nephew (see Genesis 13:1-13).  At this time God promised Canaan to Abram and his descendents (see Genesis 13:14-17).  God also used Abram to repel a foreign invasion and rescue Lot who had been captured (see Genesis 14:1-24).  Then in Genesis 15:1we are told that “after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying Fear not, Abram I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”  Abram then asked God if he would give him a child since he had none and that Eliezer, his steward was his heir.  God told Abram that Eliezer wouldn’t be his heir and that he would have a child from his own bowels.  Then God showed Abram the stars in heaven and told him that if he could number them it would be the total of descendents he would have (see Genesis 15:2-5).  Then verse 6 says “And he believed in the Lord; and he (God) counted it to him for righteousness.”  This is where our lesson begins.   
A. A land promised (Genesis 15:7).  After promising to give Abram a child, God now confirmed another promise that He had previously made (see Genesis 12:7; 13:14-17).  This verse says “And he (God) said unto him (Abram), I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.”  Before confirming His promise of a land, God reminded Abram of who He was.  God said “I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees.”   As “Lord” or Yahweh, God was reminding Abram that He was the covenant keeping God who had led him “out of Ur of the Chaldees” which later became known as Babylon.  Therefore, He had all the power needed to accomplish anything that He promised.  This same God who had already taken Abram from one land now promised to give him “this land to inherit it.”  The words “this land” refers to Canaan where Abram was now settled (see Genesis 13:12).  God promised to give him this new land as his inheritance.
B. A question answered (Genesis 15:8-9).
1. (vs. 8).  In response to God’s promise, Abram asked “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?”  It appears here that Abram’s faith was not as firm as it was earlier when God promised him a child and Abram “believed in the Lord” (see Genesis 15:6).  What Abram was doing was requesting some kind of sign to give him assurance that he would inherit the land, but it was not due to lack of faith.  This was similar to Gideon’s experience (see Judges 6:36-40).
2. (vs. 9).  God replied by directing Abram to “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 turtledove, and a young pigeon.”  God instructed Abram to prepare for an old covenant ceremony called “cutting a covenant.”  The Hebrew Scriptures often speak of “cutting a covenant.”   Some Bible translations use the word “cut” while some translate the word “cut” as “make,” or “establish.  This was a solemn ceremony in which the animals were cut in half and laid out with the pieces opposite each other.  Then the contracting parties would walk between the pieces (see Jeremiah 34:18-19).  This signified the commitment of both parties to honor the covenant.
C. A procedure followed (Genesis 15:10-11).
1. (vs. 10).  Following God’s instructions, Abram “took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.”  The phrase “and divided them in the midst” means that he cut each animal in half.  The phrase “and laid each piece one against another” means that each half was laid out across from its match with a space between them.  Since the birds were not divided, Abram probably laid them across from each other.  Again, what Abram had done was to prepare for a specific type of ceremony associated with the cutting or making of covenants.
2. (vs. 11).  This verse says “And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.”  What Abram had done led to a problem: “fowls (most likely vultures) came down upon the carcases (the animal pieces).”  These birds were attracted to this site attempting to eat the cut up animals.
III. THE AFFLICTION TO BE SUFFERED (Genesis 15:12-16)
A.  Darkness (Genesis 15:12).  Now the writer says “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”  Since Abram had made preparations for making the covenant, at this point we would expect God and Abram to walk together between the carcasses to seal the covenant as the custom was.  But this didn’t happen.  Instead, we are told that “when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram.”  This was a divinely caused unconsciousness.  It was the same kind of sleep God induced in Adam when He created Eve (see Genesis 2:21).  The same thing happened to Saul allowing David and Abishai to walk right up to the sleeping Saul and take his water jar and spear (see I Samuel 26:12).  As Abram slept “an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”  God was about to reveal to Abram in the next verse that a time of darkness and suffering would occur before Israel’s rise to greatness as a nation. 
B. Abram’s descendents (Genesis 15:13-14). 
1. (vs. 13).  During this deep sleep, God “said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”  God here assured Abram of three things.  First, that “thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs.”  The Lord didn’t give the name of the land, but the details that follow indicate that it was Egypt.  Abram’s descendents would begin their stay in Egypt when Jacob and his sons went there at Joseph’s invitation to escape the famine in Canaan (see Genesis 46:5-7).  Second, God said that his descendents would “serve them” another reference to the Egyptians.  Thirdly, the Egyptians would “afflict them four hundred years.”  In other words, Abram’s seed would be enslaved and mistreated in Egypt for four hundred years.  This happened when a king of Egypt who “knew not Joseph” (see Exodus 1:8) feared the Israelites’ strength and subjected them to slave labor (see Exodus 1:9-11).  The time period mentioned of “four hundred years” seems to be a round number, because according to Scripture the exact length of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt was actually 430 years (see Exodus 12:40).
2. (vs. 14).  In this verse, God’s prophecy to Abram concerning Israel took a brighter turn as the Lord said “And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.”  God assured Abram that He would judge the nation that enslaved his descendents.  This was a direct application of God’s earlier promise to Abram when He said “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”  The judgment on Egypt came in the form of the plagues (see Exodus 7:8-12:33) and was to become a celebrated event in Israel’s history known as Passover.  The Lord also said that after the judgment of the plagues, Israel would “come out with great substance.”  This also happened just as God prophesied.  As a result of the plagues, the Egyptians were so anxious to get rid of the Israelites that they allowed them to take not only their own flocks and herds, but also whatever the Israelites requested of the Egyptians.  The Egyptians also gave them gold, silver, and clothing as they urged them to leave.  This was the “great substance” that they left Egypt with.  Note:  In four hundred years in Egypt, Abram’s descendents would grow from a small clan of about seventy people (see Genesis 46:26-27) to a full-fledged nation.  They would be miraculously delivered and their former oppressors would receive full recompense for their wickedness.  Abram could rest assured that the promise to multiply his descendents (see Genesis 15:5) would be fulfilled by a faithful God.
C. Abram’s death (Genesis 15:15-16).
1. (vs. 15).  In this verse, God continued to say to Abram “And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.”  Personally, Abram would not see any of these events that the Lord prophesied to him because he would “go to thy fathers in peace.”  In the Old Testament, to “go to,” or be gathered to one’s fathers was a way of speaking of one’s death.  God’s point was that Abram’s life would end in peacefulness and he would be buried at a ripe old age of 175 (see Genesis 25:7). 
2. (vs. 16).  God went on to say “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”  The Lord promised Abram that “in the fourth generation they shall come hither again.”  Four generations covered more than four hundred years, for the average life span was well over a hundred years.  Israel did indeed return to Canaan under Joshua to reclaim the land and purge it of evil.  One might wonder why four generations had to pass before Israel returned to Canaan.  It was because “the iniquity of the Amorites is (was) not yet full.”  This means that the sin of the nations that occupied Israel while they were in bondage, had not reached the point where God was ready to judge them.  The Amorites were one of the races of people living in Canaan, but here the name is used to refer to all the nations that lived there (see Deuteronomy 1:7, 19-20).  They had been filling up their cup of wickedness, but someday it would overflow and God would judge them through Israel’s invasion of the land under Joshua; but that time had not yet come.  God in His mercy was giving the Amorites plenty of time to repent, but He already knew that they wouldn’t.  Note: God does not allow evil to continue unchecked.  He punished Israel by keeping all those who had disobeyed in the wilderness out of the Promised Land.  When Israel would finally enter the Promised Land under Joshua, they would be commanded to destroy the nations there which included the Amorites and those listed in Genesis 15:19-21.  This command would be both a judgment (see Deuteronomy 9:4-5) and a safety measure.  On the one hand, the people living in the land were being judged for their sins, and Israel was God’s instrument of judgment, just as God would one day use other nations to judge Israel for her sin (see II Chronicles 36:17; Isaiah 10:12).  On the other hand God’s command to destroy those people and take the land was designed to protect the nation of Israel from being ruined by the idolatry and immorality of those other nations.
IV. THE PROMISE TO BE FULFILLED (Genesis 15:17-21)
A. The covenant (Genesis 15:17-18). 
1. (vs. 17).  Our lesson turns back to the covenant (see verses 9-10).  Now it was time for God to confirm it.  This verse says “And 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.”  The sun was going down when Abram fell into a deep sleep, but now “it was dark” or nightfall.  While still in his deep sleep Abram saw “a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.”  The “smoking furnace” and the “burning lamp” represented God as He walked between the animal halves.  This was the sign that Abram had asked for (see verse 8).  As mentioned earlier (see commentary on verse 9), normally in confirming a covenant, both parties would walk between the animal parts placed opposite each other.  However, God’s covenant with Abram was unconditional meaning that God was the only one committed to keep all the promises and prophecies made concerning Abram and his descendents.  It was a one-sided covenant made by God alone.  The covenant and the prophecies did not depend on Abram’s faith or works.   This agreement or contract was signed by only one party, the Lord God.
2. (vs. 18).  Here, we are told that “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”  This covenant was so important to God that He restated it to Abram “In the same day” or the same day that Abram had this vision (see Genesis 15:1).  Notice that neither Abram nor his descendents had to do anything to own the land; it was simply given to them.  God said “Unto thy seed have I given this land.”  The Lord then specified the boundaries of the land promised to Abram and his descendents.  It began in the west with “the river of Egypt” which many scholars believe does not refer to the Nile River, but to a river now known as Wadi el-Arish that lies about 50 miles west of the Gaza Strip.  This river also serves as a geographical boundary between Israel and Egypt today.  The eastern boundary was to be the “river Euphrates” or the Euphrates River which includes about half of modern-day Iraq.  The Euphrates River has never been part of the land of Israel, but in the future it will mark the northeast boundary of the nation.  The land now occupied by Israel is only a small portion of the land that God gave them.            
B. The peoples occupying the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:19-21).  Since the last three verses contain only the names of the nations that would occupy Israel when Joshua led the Jews in removing them, we will take all three verses together.  These final three verses list the nations that would one day be replaced by Israel.  They are “The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”  Ten nations are mentioned here, and their locations in Israel would have revealed to Abram the boundaries of the territory that God was promising to him.  Abram’s seed or descendents would eventually overcome these inhabitants and inherit God’s Promised Land (see Deuteronomy 7:1).
                                    
V. Conclusion.  This covenant by God has never been set aside.  Only God, who established it can alter or amend it, and He said it would stand forever.  The prophecies God gave Abram were fulfilled in the enslavement of the people of Israel in Egypt and in their return to the land four hundred years later with great wealth.  Our lesson this week gives remarkable insights into God’s dealings with nations.  God would raise up the Israelites to represent Him and purify the corrupt land of Canaan; yet His timing provided a period of grace in which the corrupt Amorites might repent.  His holiness and love are combined in perfect proportions.