Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #16 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are going to begin by reading Genesis 15:7-11:

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. And he said, Lord JEHOVAH, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, 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. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

We see that God has spoken to Abram and told him He brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan to inherit it. In our last study, we saw that “Ur” relates to “fire” and the Chaldees point to the land of Babylon. It points to the unsaved people of the world that live under the wrath (fire) of God in the world, as typified by Babylon.

And, yet, God chose Abram out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees to bring him into the land of Canaan, so Abram is a picture of those the Lord translates out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.

Then Abram asked the question in Genesis 15:8:

And he said, Lord JEHOVAH, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

It was a very reasonable question. Some time had already passed and he was just a sojourner. He is a man on a pilgrimage traveling through the land. He has some wealth, but that was a far cry from inheriting the entire land of Canaan, so how would he know that he would truly inherit it?

God responded in Genesis 15:9:

And he said unto him, 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.

We know that these are animals that were used in sacrifice. We also know God is using these animals to answer Abram’s question about how he could know he would inherit the land. Sacrifices point to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what kind of sacrifice it may have been or what type of animal. Any animal sacrifice God commanded to be offered pointed to the shedding of blood that Christ accomplished at the foundation of the world; later Christ would enter into history and go to the cross in 33AD to show forth what He had done.

With there being three animals, the number “3” is featured and they were also three years old and the number “3” points to the purpose of God. It was God’s purpose for how Abram and all the people of God can know they will inherit the land, because there had been a sacrifice made of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, at the foundation of the world. He was slain. He died and rose again. He had already washed the blood of His people and He had already paid the penalty for all their sins. In doing so, this allowed God to guarantee that He will bring salvation to each of the elect and Abram was elect. Christ was the “seed” and all the elect are counted for the “seed” in Him. So, because Jesus had finished the atonement work, you can know that you will receive the inheritance. The promised will be fulfilled. God will perform the doing of it in due time. This was the purpose of God, so there were three animals that were three years old and five animals in total: a heifer, a she goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. The number “5” points to atonement, which has everything to do with sacrifice and sacrifice has to do with the sacrifice of Christ. That is the basis of knowledge. It is the basis of assurance that each person the Lord saved can have. Our sins have been washed away and, therefore, we will certainly inherit all the promises God has spoken regarding eternal life in the eternal habitation of the new heaven and new earth, as typified by the land of Canaan.

So, indeed, God is answering Abram’s question by commanding him to sacrifice these animals. It is a picture that points to the sacrifice of Christ and that is the answer.

It goes on to say in Genesis 15:10:

And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

This means that Abram took the heifer and divided it in two. He took the she goat and divided it in two, as well as the ram, but when it came to the turtledove and young pigeon, he did not divide them. I am not sure why the larger animals were divided and the two birds were not divided. They were all sacrifices and we understand that, but I am sure God had some reason for dividing the larger animals, but not the birds.

Since it mentions “pieces” and laying “each piece one against another,” it means that instead of five animals, there were eight pieces: two of the heifer; two of the she goat; two of the ram; one of the turtledove; one of the young pigeon. So, this gives us the number “8,” which can point to the resurrection when Christ rose from the dead that early Sunday morning. As you go through seven days of a week, in a sense, Sunday becomes the eighth day. Yes, we know the week starts over again on Sunday, but it can be likened to an “eighth” day. It will be similar on the last day when there will be a day of resurrection; there will be a day of rising to receive the inheritance. And maybe that is what God has in view with the number “8.”

Or, if we break down the number “8,” it breaks down to “2 x 4” and the number “2” points to the caretakers of the Word of God and the number “4” points to universality or the worldwide nature of whatever is in view. In this case, the “8” pieces of the sacrifice would point to the fulfillment of the inheritance received through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ; the fulfillment will come to all God’s elect that are caretakers of His Word in a universal way. We know it had been God’s program to evangelize the earth to save all those He had intended to save from the foundation of the world.

Again, I am not sure of the exact emphasis in this picture. It could be both pictures, regarding the number “8” or “2 x 4.”

Then it says in Genesis 15:11:

And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

It is very typical in this world when you kill an animal and especially if you divide it in two, there is going to be a lot of blood and that attracts the vultures or birds of prey. They have a keen sense for when an animal has died and they feed upon the carcase. When the fowls came down, naturally, upon the carcases, Abram would not allow them to feed – he drove them away. This is interesting information because we read some similar language in Jeremiah 34:17:

Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith JEHOVAH, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

This is familiar language. God is finding fault with His people, Judah. As a result, since they failed to maintain faithfulness to the Word of God, God judged them. Here, He said He would judge them with the sword, pestilence and famine and He would remove them, just as they would later be carried away into Babylon.

It says in Jeremiah 34:18-20:

And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.

This sounds very familiar to what we are reading in Genesis 15, but in Genesis 15 it is just Abram that is passing between the parts. Abram cut the animals in half. As it says here, we do not see the princes of Judah and Jerusalem and the eunuchs and the priest passing between the parts – they are not even around yet. Abram will be the “father of Israel” and, yet, I think we can understand that God is considering that Israel and Judah are all in the loins of Abram and Abram is the figurehead for Israel. Of course, Abram is representative of the spiritual seed that include the elect Jews and Gentiles, but through Abram also came the nation of Israel, which had an outward representation of the land of Canaan and had an outward representation of the seed of Abram. God is finding fault with the physical seed of Abram or with those that passed between the parts, but they did not maintain the covenant; they did not keep the Word of God. They were not faithful and they needed to be faithful because they were not the spiritual seed. They were not the ones that God had made the promise of the inheritance. Therefore, if they were to have any hope whatsoever, it was through keeping the Law of God and being faithful to that Word, but they failed to uphold the covenant. And what did God say? It says in Jeremiah 34:20:

I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.

This is very interesting. The dead carcases of animals are spread out and the fowls of the heavens come to feed, but Abram will not allow it and he drove them away. He did whatever he had to do. He may have grabbed a garment and shook it at them or he may have thrown rocks at them, but he drove the fowls away whenever they tried to land.

God is saying of Israel or Judah that they “passed between the parts,” but they were unfaithful and failed to uphold the covenant, which they were obligated to do (perfectly) because they were not the spiritual seed of Abram, but the only the outward physical seed. When they fail to do so, then their dead bodies will be meat to the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the earth. It is as if they are taking the place of the animal sacrifice. And what did the animal sacrifice point to? It pointed to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that was performed only on behalf of His people at the foundation of the world. Do you see the substitution that the Lord has made here?

The people of Judah that were the outward representatives of the people of God on earth (just like the corporate church represented the kingdom of God) were not truly saved and, therefore, it was just a matter of time before they would fail to keep the covenant on one point or the other. And according to a time of God’s choosing, He would come in judgment and make them stand in the place of the sacrificial animal; it is as if God is slaying them and they are lying there like the animal pieces and the fowls come down to feed on them. This is because there must be sacrifice. There is no way to escape that there must be sacrifice for sin. It is either the sacrifice of Christ done on our behalf or it is our own sacrificial death at the hand of God as the wrath of God comes down upon us and the fowls feed upon us because we are dead. This is the substitution God made with Israel and Judah of old and with the New Testament churches and congregations, which Israel and Judah spiritually represented.

In Jeremiah, chapter 7 we find similar language in Jeremiah 7:33:

And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

What did Abram do to the fowls? He drove them away or frayed them away – he did something to scare the birds away so they would not feed upon the carcase. However, in the time of God’s judgment on Israel of Old or on the New Testament churches, there came a time when there was no more sacrifice for sin. That is the language in the Bible in Hebrews, chapter 6 and this applied to the congregations at the time of their end. It says in Hebrews 6:4-6:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

You see, it is then impossible. There will be no more sacrifice for sin. There will be no more dividing the carcases in two and putting out the sacrifice as payment for sin. No – God has ended the church age and removed His Spirit out of the midst of the congregations and He loosed Satan and turned the corporate body of the churches of the world in to a dead carcase that the fowls of the heavens (Satan’s emissaries) feed upon at will, with no “man” (Christ) to drive them away. They can do whatever they wish to do to that “dead” and stinking carcase of those that should have been God’s servants and that had the name of Christ in the churches. They can feed and feed and feed upon them throughout the entire Great Tribulation period and God would do nothing. The judgment was upon them. It was not upon the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf, but it was upon them because they had never truly become saved.