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17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." ~ Genesis 15:17-21
Today, we conclude our study of Genesis 15 where God has continued to develop Abram's faith in Him. The development of our faith in the God of heaven this side of heaven will never be complete. However, as our faith develops, we will know God and recognize His ways better and better. Faith is essential in our personal relationship with God because faith is the heart's ability to see God. As we have seen, the Word of God is integral to our growing knowledge and experience with God. Our faith is born out of God's faithfulness.
In today's passage we will see the whole story of the believers life with God after we entered into a personal relationship with Him. In our passage today we have a smoking oven and a burning torch. These two object lessons illustrate the story of the nation Israel had with God throughout its history. Their's is a story of affliction followed by blessing. The oven was an illustration of God's wrath and the torch was an illustration of His direction.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces."
Previously, Abram had offered five different sacrifices to the Lord. In those days when the people of one group joined in a covenant with another, they followed this same ritual to demonstrate their sincerity to the covenant. They first slaughtered an animal, cut it in two and then they pass between the two pieces of cut up animal to demonstrate the veracity of their covenant. In today's passage, God followed this ancient practice, and only the Lord passed between the divided animals. This meant the promise was one-sided and unconditional. Abram wasn’t bound to anything, but the Lord bound Himself to the promise that He had made to Abram.
The sacrificed animals signified God's atonement for the penalty of Abram's inability to keep the covenant, although Abram wasn't expected to uphold anything. The smoking oven and the burning torch represented the process whereby God's protection was applied to Abram and his descendants. The smoking oven represents the wrath of God which only the Lord Jesus could endure on our behalf. The burning torch on the other hand, represents the direction God gives to the one who has entered into a personal relationship with Him.
In v.18-21 of today's passage we read, "18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'"
Ten groups of people are listed here. The land they possessed was promised by God to Abram. The unconditional covenant was made by God to Abram, and to this day, it is yet absolutely binding. What God has promised to Abram and Israel will come to pass. The land will always belong to Israel.
The inhabitants of the land at that time were representative to us of "the self life" which is the essence of sin. Before we became "born again" we lived our lives defending and protecting these various expressions of the self life. We had no idea that for years these expressions of the self had been defining, defiling and destroying us. Such sins as anxiety, bitterness, greed, impatience, envy, self-righteousness, and lust are just a few of the expressions of the self life.
Similar to Israel, God has also entered into a covenant with us who have placed our faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When He agreed to come to this earth to be our Savior, the Lord Jesus came as the smoking oven and the burning torch. Similar to what God did here for Abram, the Lord Jesus has passed between God and us by going to the cross of Calvary to remove our sin from us. By going to the cross, God judged our sin in the body of the Lord Jesus as He hung on that tree. And, like Abram, we also have a sign, the promised Holy Spirit who is our seal, our deposit, and our guarantee of all that God has promised to us in Christ.
When we become aware of how much we were enslaved by the self life, enslaved by our own self-indulgence, self-pity, and self-righteousness, it was then that we are made ready. At the moment when we become aware of the real condition of our hearts, we are made ready. And, the minute we turn to the Lord Jesus for His help and we trust in His finished work on the cross, God is no longer the smoking oven to us. In that moment, He becomes for us the burning torch! We go from the judged to the enlightened. Once His Spirit comes into our spirit to live, we begin to see life differently and more clearly. What has always been confusing to us before is becoming more and more clear as we listen to Him and we learn to be defined by Him.
Having entered into a personal relationship with God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are finding that He stands up to the self life and in the fullness of His grace and His truth, He is becoming to us everything that we need. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our strength, our redemption and our life. Suddenly we have discovered that we, like Israel, are learning to possess the promised land! In fact, now we are learning to enjoy His life lived in us, to us and through us. We now experience the fruit of the Spirit which is the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you are a parent, you’ve had the experience of walking through a crowd with your child. Your child hesitates, and you put your hand down. By putting your hand down you’re saying, "You can trust me. I can get you through this. I know it’s fearful for you, but I can see the way through this." And all the child has to do is reach up, grab your hand, walk, and trust you.
Our life of faith with God is like grabbing hold of His hand, not just with knowledge and ascent, but with trust that our Father is good and that He knows what’s best for us. God can be trusted because He is a covenant-keeping God even though we have continually shown to be covenant-breakers. He is completely faithful because He has promised on the basis of His goodness and His love toward us.
