Chapter 15
Subject: The worrying saint.
Verse 1 – “After these things.” This means after Abram has had four tremendous victories in the previous chapter. For example, the victory of mental attitude: how when he heard of Lot’s terrible catastrophe. He wasn’t full of I-told-you-so’s and he is getting what he deserves, and all the rest of it. Abraham understood some wonderful principles of doctrine and acted upon them. He understood that you never build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. Lot was in the status quo of terrible misery, a prisoner of Chedorlaomer and in a hopeless situation. However that was no cause for rejoicing on the part of Abram even though Abram had been hurt by Lot. So he won the great victory of mental attitude. Then he won the great military victory, and then a victory over motivation when he refused to become an extremely wealthy person by accepting from the king of Sodom all of the wealth of the Jordan Valley. Then finally in the last verse of chapter 14 the greatest victory of all, victory over smug self-righteousness. He refused to impose his high standards of maturity on believers who were very green and very new in the spiritual life. He did not make an issue out of things which they could not understand but he could. The principle behind this, now that Abram has won all of these victories in chapter 14, Satan is going to counter attack in chapter 15. We are most vulnerable to defeat after we have been victorious in our Christian experience because often pride comes in and we begin to congratulate ourselves as though we had “arrived.” The result is that we become vulnerable to various subtle attacks, one of which is pressure, and we react to that pressure by worrying.
What isn’t said but is implied throughout the entire chapter is, “After these things” Abram began to worry. So chapter 15 is a very practical one because it tells us something of the problems of worry and how to handle them. Worry set Abram back; he failed. One minute Abram is a great believer and the next minute he is a complete and total failure. All of his failure can be attributed to the fact that he began to worry. He followed that procedure to a disastrous ending in this chapter, and ending which was disaster but was rectified by the Word.
Now we have the three great problems in the life of Abram, the things that are causing him to worry.
a) Chedorlaomer was still the most powerful king in the Middle East, and even though his army had been destroyed most of that army would be recovered somewhere on the other side of the Euphrates river. There was still a great army at home and Chedorlaomer might just come back with a large army, and Abram still has 318 soldiers in his own household. So he started to worry about the possibility of Chedorlaomer taking vengeance.
b) He had insulted the king of Sodom by refusing to make a deal with him. So now there is the antagonism of the king of Sodom. Abram lived near the Jordan Valley and now there is the possibility that the king of Sodom will seek to take vengeance on him.
c) Abram does not have a son. Even though he has been promised that he would have a seed that would live forever and that from his loins would come several nations, at this point he no longer believes the promises. So he is worried about that.
This is more or less an outline of Abram’s problems when the 15th chapter opens. Worry is a system of legalism, and under the system of worrying you are
trying to solve your problems through anxiety instead of letting God solve them. If you are worried about your problems then that worry is human works attempting to solve a problem, and you have to decide who is going to solve the problems in your life, you or God. If God solves them you have no anxiety or worry, you have perfect peace, the battle is the Lord’s. But if you try to solve them then you are going to be constantly in a state of anxiety and be upset even as Abram was between chapters. So with all these problems it is time for Abram to hit the panic button and that is exactly what he does. He falls apart, and so when we open chapter 15 we are no longer looking at the victorious believer of the previous chapter, we are looking at a person who is out of fellowship through anxiety worry, and he needs help. And even though he has failed God at this point God has not failed him, and therefore in the first seven verses we have the first of three cures for worry, for anxiety. The cure which is given in these seven verses is the Word of God.
“After these things” reminds us of great victory followed by defeat.
“the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” The principle is that the Word of God is the solution to the anxiety problem. God has provided in His Word doctrines, promises and techniques whereby we may avoid any type of worry and anxiety in the life. The Word was the solution to the anxiety which was destroying his spiritual life and weakening him. “Fear not” is to stop Abram worrying. “I am thy shield” – he is worrying about Chedorlaomer coming back. It doesn’t matter how big an army Chedorlaomer has because the Lord is Abram’s shield. That is a promise! Then Abraham was thinking about the wealth he had refused from the king of Sodom and how fantastically rich he could be, and maybe he began to regret and worry a little about that decision. But now he has another promise, “I am thy exceeding great reward.” All of the reward that Abram will ever need will come from the God of the universe whose wealth is inexhaustible. Worry is simply a manifestation of the fact that you are not letting God solve your problems, you are working on them yourself.
Verses 2 & 3, Abram is satisfied on two points but the third point is still on his mind and we have his worried response.
Verse 2 – “And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” This brings us back to Abram’s hopeless situation. His wife is barren, he has no children. So he complains. Wherever you find a person who worries you find a person who complains. Eliezer of Damascus is his heir at this point. He doesn’t have any children of his own. He and Lot are separated, and now his will is made out to Eliezer who is not related to him in any way.
Verse 3 – “And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.” Here is something else that comes out of worrying: It is all your fault God, you haven’t given me a son. In other words, there is no one he can really blame at this moment so he tries to blame it on God. So at this point he is pretty far gone.
Verse 4 – we have the Word coming to him a second time. God is gracious and patient so He gives Abram a promise with regard to his third worry. “And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This [one] shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels [being] shall be thine heir.” His own heir is going to be his own flesh and blood. This is a promise.
Now God is very patient and He demonstrates His patience not only by giving two promises but by illustrating them. So in verses 5-7 we have three divine illustrations to show that God keeps His word and that God will solve Abram’s problems. If Abram will just stop worrying long enough God will take over.
Verse 5 – illustration #1, the stars. This is both an illustration and an analogy. In the illustration making reference to the stars simply says, “Now look Abram, I hold all the stars in place. Look up there. If I can do this with the stars do you think I can handle your little old problems?” Then in addition to the illustration there is an analogy: ‘Abram, if you can count the stars up there you’ll have a pretty good idea of what is coming out of your loins.’ “So shall thy seed be.”
Verse 6 – 2nd illustration. Salvation! Corrected translation: “And he had believed in the Lord” – he didn’t believe at this point, he had believed in the Lord, past tense. This is the perfect tense in the Hebrew, which is an action that has already been completed. He believed many years before in Ur of the Chaldees, so this is an illustration of something he has done in the past, and he needs to learn a lesson from what he has done. He had believed in the Lord, at which point he was saved.
“and he [God the Father] credited it to him for righteousness.” Look Abram, if the Lord Jesus Christ died for you while you were His enemy and evil, what do you think He will do for you now that you are saved? In other words, Why are you worrying?
Verse 7 – 3rd illustration: past faithfulness. How did Abram ever get to Canaan? God’s faithfulness. He got tied up in Haran, the dead end, the dried up place. God brought him out. God’s faithfulness took him to the land. He slipped out and went to Egypt; God’s faithfulness brought him back. He has failed many times; God has always been faithful, and there he is right now after all of these tremendous experiences and adventures and all of the marvellous things that God has done. So take a look at your past Abram! Has God been faithful to you in the past?
The cure for worry is the Word of God. Twice in this passage, “the word of the Lord came unto Abram.” Twice in this passage we have promises. We have three illustrations of the faithfulness of God and the grace of God and the love of God.
Verses 8-11, the second cure for worry: doctrine. That is, doctrine that you already know, not doctrine you can dig out when you are upset.
Verse 8 – the problem of Abram’s ignorance of doctrine. “How shall I know that I shall inherit it?” He is questioning the promises of God.
Verse 9 – first of all the answer is Christ. We have types of Christ. There are five types of animal life in the sense of lower life than man here. The heifer comes first for one reason. Is Abram saved or not saved? He is already saved. So what does he need right now? He needs rebound and the heifer is the rebound offering. He needs to get back in fellowship. He needs to confess his worry—“whatever is not of faith is sin.” He has sinned in that he doesn’t believe; he is worrying. So take a heifer, the rebound offering. Once you cut that up it is the same as confessing your sins.
Now take a she-goat and a ram because one back in fellowship you now need occupation with Christ. That will fall into two categories. The she-goat and the ram speak of two different aspects of the work of Christ on the cross. The she-goat is the reconciliation offering—the doctrine of the removal of the barrier. You need to remember that Christ removed all of that barrier just as Christ will solve your problems now. Then the ram is the propitiation offering. God is not satisfied with you Abram, God is satisfied with the work of His Son—propitiation. Since you are related to God the Son through regeneration, now Abram, because you are seen as being in Christ God will still deal with you, so stop worrying.
Next is the turtledove and a young pigeon. While the goat and the ram speak of the work of Christ in application, now we have the person of Christ in the turtledove and the young pigeon. These, as noted in the next verse, are not divided. The reason is simple. The turtledove speaks of the deity of Christ in His person, and it is not divided because Christ cannot be divided in His deity, Christ can’t die in His deity, and so on. The young pigeon speaks of the resurrected humanity of Christ. The two together remind us of the uniqueness of Christ, as He is today at the right hand of the Father—the God-Man. These speak of the doctrine of the hypostatic union.
Verse 10 – operation phase one. “… and divided them in the midst.” The dividing of the first: rebound; the dividing of the next two: occupation with Christ, emphasis on His death where he did something for us—reconciliation and propitiation.
“…but the birds he divided not.” Because they speak of the person of Christ: the humanity of Christ in resurrection; the deity of Christ.
So once again, the Father’s plan begins with Christ. Along with Christ God the Father provides for every need that the believer has in time and everything the believer has in eternity, phase three.
Verse 11 – worry on the part of Abram or any believer is an attack on the Father’s plan for time, an attack on phase two. “And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.” He drove them away because he has already rebounded—cut the heifer and in so doing declared his rebound. Now he drove away the vultures. They represent Satanic emissaries. Just like the birds that lodged in the tree in the parable. Satan always has his emissaries, his representatives, his disciples trying to get you to worry. Cf. 1 Peter 5:7-11. It is not in God’s plan for you to be in a state of anxiety about anything. When you cast your cares on the Lord you have mental stability.
Verses 12-21--the third cure for worrying: prophecy.
Verse 12 – Abram has nightmares. He had cast all his cares on the Lord and went to bed with perfect peace and then he woke up, as it were, in a cold sweat. Something is bothering him again, “an horror of great darkness.” This time God is going to cure his worry with prophecy. He is worried about the future of his progeny.
Verses 13-16, the prophecy of Israel’s [Abram’s progeny] future. This prophecy answers the question of verse 8. “How shall I know?”
Verse 13 – “Know of a surety.” He is going to know through prophecy. Knowledge of prophecy, knowledge of the future gives the believer assurance in time. In this verse is the prophecy of the Egyptian bondage. (Verses 14, the prophecy of the Exodus. Verse 15, the prophecy of Abram’s death and dying grace. Verse 16, the prophecy of the Jews returning to the land.)
The word surety means with assurance. Knowledge of doctrine produces assurance; knowledge of prophecy produces assurance, confidence. We have a wonderful pattern of this in 2 Corinthians 5—verse 1, “Know this”; verse 6, “Knowing with confidence”; verse 8, “we have confidence.” The more we know about the Word [doctrine] the more confidence we have in life. The more confidence we have the more worry is eliminated from the life.
“that thy seed [Israel] shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs [Egypt].” This is a prophecy of the Egyptian bondage.
“and [the Jews] shall serve them [the Egyptians]; and they [Egyptians] shall afflict them [the Jews] four hundred years.”
Verse 14 – the prophecy of the Exodus. “And also that nation [Egypt], whom they shall serve [bondage], will I judge” – the judgments that occurred in Moses’ time, culminating with the Passover judgment whereby the firstborn in every Egyptian family was destroyed.
“and afterward [the judgment of the Passover] shall they [the Jews] come out [exodus] with great substance”—they took the wealth of Egypt with them, Exodus 12:35,36.
Verse 15 – “Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.” This is the doctrine of dying grace. Abraham is going to live a long time and die a painless, easy death: “thou shalt be buried in a good old age.” What is he worried about then? He is going to live a long time!
Verse 16 – the return of the Jews to Palestine. During that 400 years of Egyptian bondage the iniquity of the Amorites will reach its peak. But at this time “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” This is because Abram’s missionary work resulted in the conversion of many of the Amorites and postponed their judgment for about 600 years.
This prophecy was the basis of peace and strength and hope and assurance; it was the basis of evangelism for the Jew during the Egyptian bondage. This was the prophecy that made Joseph take a promise from his brethren that they would not bury him in Egypt. Joseph knew that the children of Israel were going to leave Egypt, that God would bring them out; and this is how he knew. So not only is this prophecy a source of great blessing to Abram, and stops any further nightmare activity, but this promise was the whole Bible to the Jews in bondage.
Verse 17 – one more word about worrying. Abram, are you going to be a smudge-pot or a flaming torch? Are you going to be a smoky lamp or a lamp that shines brightly and sheds its light into the night?
“when the sun went down” – this is the day after the nightmare; “and it was dark” – speaks of pressure and adversity. When pressure an adversity comes to you it is dark. Do you shine, have a testimony? Or are you a smoking lamp, a smudge-pot?
“behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” In other words, every believer in time of pressure is either one of two things, a smoking lamp or a bright and brilliant torch. If you worry, you are a smoking lamp. If you cast your cares on Him and operate under the faith-rest technique, then you are a bright and brilliant torch shedding light into the darkness of pressure and so on.
Notice it passed between the pieces, which is a reference to the experience of the believer. The believer has walked between the pieces—a declaration of appropriation of salvation.
Verses 18-21, the first statement of the Palestinian covenant. The Palestinian covenant tells about the inheritance of the land. It is given at this time when Abram least deserved it. There are four declarations of the Palestinian covenant in the Old Testament: here and to verse 21, Numbers 34; Deuteronomy 30; Joshua 1. These are four passages which give an unconditional covenant, no strings attached. Abraham and his progeny are going to have the land forever. Only those Jews who are born again will inherit. If you are going to have a forever covenant you have to have forever life.