Our last lesson left us with Lot separated from Abraham, and on his way to Sodom. Although the nephew of Abraham improved his worldly condition by his new move, he was very soon in a position where be owed all that he had, and possibly his own life, to his generous uncle.
The king of Sodom rebelled against the powerful King Chedorlaomer, to whom he had become subject, and the latter, with his confederate kings, came against the king of Sodom and the other kings of the plain, and reconquered them.
"And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed." (Genesis 14:11-12)
News of this was brought to Abraham, who took three hundred and eighteen of his own servants, with some chiefs who were friendly to him, and pursued the victorious army. Coming upon it at night, he scattered it, and recaptured all the prisoners and the property.
This encounter might well give Abraham some uneasiness, for he could scarcely expect anything else than that the hosts of the East would return in stronger force, and give him trouble. But God did not forsake Abraham, but appeared to him in a vision, saying: "Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward." (Genesis 15:1)
God Our Defense and Reward
We have all things in having the Lord himself, He is our righteousness, our strength, our light, our reward, and our salvation. He does not merely impart strength, righteousness and salvation to us, but He himself is all that to us. So He is our reward. Having Him, we need nothing more. The psalmist says: "Whom have I in heaven but You? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside You." (Psalm 73:25)
Or, as the Norwegian has it: "When I have You, I have no desire for anything on earth."
There is nothing also that one can desire; for since "in Him all things consist," (Colossians 1:17, RV) that which is not in Him cannot continue. Note here that God never promises or gives anything to His people separate from himself. The land that He promised to Abraham could be inherited by him and his seed only as they were in Christ; and the countless seed of Abraham are only those who are Christ's.
"And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)
Those who have not God as their strength, their life, their salvation,--who are not satisfied with Him as their portion, can never have any part in the inheritance promised to Abraham.
Abraham's Descendants Not to Be Servants
Abraham evidently understood what God meant, but he could see no other way for the inheritance to come than through his servant Eliezer. He said: "What will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me, You have given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is my heir." (Genesis 15:2)
Verse 2 is thus given in the Revision: "He that shall be possessor of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus."
But it was not God's purpose that the seed of Abraham should be a race of servants. So the Lord said to him: "This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir. And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now, toward heaven, and tell the stars if you be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall your seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:4-6)
The Faith That Is Righteousness
Why should Abraham's simple belief in the promise that he should have a posterity as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea be counted to him for righteousness? Only because it was righteousness; for we may be sure that God does not play at a thing, calling it so when it is not so.
"With the heart man believes unto righteousness." (Romans 10:10)
Read the context, and see that the thing which the heart believes unto righteousness is that Christ, the Word, is very nigh, even in the mouth and in the heart. Now remember that Abraham "believed in the Lord." He believed in Christ revealed in his flesh, and that from the life at Christ all this would be wrought.
"For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yes; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." (2 Corinthians 1:20, RV)
So we see that the promise to Abraham was in Christ, and Abraham saw Christ in it. It was the Gospel to Abraham. It was no half-way Gospel, dimly get forth, but the complete Gospel of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that Abraham "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief," (Romans 4:20) although the vastness of the promise to a man in his circumstances was enough to stagger one; but he was "fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for offenses, and was raised again for justification." (Romans 4:21-25)
What Abraham Believed
That which Abraham believed in, was the offering of Christ for sin, and His resurrection for our justification. That is, he believed that Christ was already crucified "from the foundation of the world," (Revelation 13:8) and that He had come in his flesh with His resurrection life. He believed in and experienced the power of the resurrection; and he knew that God, who could make a new man of him, could make millions more.
More than this, he saw Christ revealed to all the world in his flesh, recognized as descended from him according to the flesh, and he knew that the power that could perform this is the Divine power that gives to us "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3)
So God indicated to Abraham, and through Abraham to us, that his seed is to be composed only of those who, through Christ, are free from sin.
A Covenant Confirmed by Death
Then God made a covenant with Abraham. The Hebrew idiom expressing, to make a covenant, is, "cut a covenant." It always implies the shedding of blood. The covenant was based on the life of God, the shed blood of Christ. In the deep sleep that fell on Abraham, in which "a horror of great darkness fell on him," (Genesis 15:12) God said to him: "Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterwards shall they come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." (Genesis 15:13-16)
What does this tell us? In the first place it confirms the statement that the faith which was counted to Abraham for righteousness was faith in the resurrection; for he was plainly told that he should die without inheriting the land. Not only so, but none of his posterity could have any inheritance in the land of Canaan until after four hundred years.
"He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." (Acts 7:5)
Abraham died in faith, not having received the promised inheritance. It is evident that he never looked for a possession in the land except by means of and after the resurrection of the just. The covenant taught Abraham not only that death could not break it, but also that death--the death of Christ, and his death with Christ--was the very means by which it would be established.
When the Land Was to Be Possessed
Another thing that we learn from the verses quoted is that Abraham's seed were to return to the land "in the fourth generation," after four hundred years of sojourning and oppression. That is, they were to inherit the land at that time. There would then be nothing in the way of their possessing the country, for the iniquity of the Amorites would be full.
But the children inherit from the father, not the father from the children. The seed cannot enter into the inheritance of the father before the father himself possesses it. Therefore since there was a definite promise that Abraham's seed should inherit the land of Canaan after four hundred years, it follows that this was the time appointed for the resurrection. If the children of Israel had not failed, because of unbelief, to possess the land, the resurrection of all the righteous dead would have taken place at the time of the Exode.
Giving the Heathen a Chance
Again, we learn that God will not cut off the heathen, as long as there is any hope that they will accept the Gospel. He would not allow the Israelites to dispossess the Canaanites of their land until the Canaanites had sinned so grievously that the land could not hold them. And in the meantime there was salvation for any of them who would accept a place among the people of God, as demonstrated by the case of Rahab.
This truth shows the fallacy and the blasphemy of the doctrine of a future probation--a probation after death. It is not necessary, because God has given all men "a chance" ever since the creation, "so that they are without excuse" if they have not repented. (Romans 1:18-21) And to claim that a future probation is necessary, is blasphemous because it charges God with trifling with men, and not dealing in the same way with all.
Canaan to Be Possessed Only by the Righteous
Still further: from the passage in Genesis we learn that the land of Canaan could be possessed according to God's promise only by righteous people. The Canaanites were cast out because their cup of iniquity became filled up. The Israelites who came out of Egypt could not enter because of unbelief. Therefore those who did enter did not hold the possession, because they did not keep the faith; and they were at last carried far away into captivity because of their sins.
The promise was of land for an everlasting possession; not that it should pass from one generation to another, but both Abraham and all his seed were to possess the land for ever. But an everlasting possession means an everlasting life in which to possess it; and everlasting life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore it follows that all talk about the fulfillment of the promise by the emigration of the Jews to Palestine is not only absurd, but is a denial of the Gospel.
The promise is to us, if we have the faith of Abraham. Christ is now in the heavens until the time of restoration of all things; and in the meantime He comes to us by the Spirit, in the power of His resurrection, to bless us, in turning us away from our iniquities, so that we may share the inheritance with Abraham when He appears in glory.
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." (Hebrews 4:1)
"The upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it." (Proverbs 2:21)--Present Truth, August 1, 1901--International Sunday-school Lesson for August 11--Genesis 15:1-18.
E.J. Waggoner