Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #22 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are reading Genesis 15:13-16:

And he 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; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt 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.

I will stop reading there. We have been looking at this for the last few studies. Last time we started to look at the spiritual meaning of this passage and the “400 years.” We saw that it must relate to “4,000 years” and we began to discuss a timeline that would have application to an individual and would fit to indicate a time path to the end of time. That individual was Jacob, as the promise to Abram regarding the seed and the land of Canaan was re-established with Jacob upon Jacob’s birth in 2007BC. Jacob is a great type of all the elect in the Bible.

We saw that from his birth in 2007BC to 1994AD is exactly 4,000 years. It works out to 4,001 years, but we minus “1” because there is no year “zero” and we get 4,000 years, exactly, and the 4,000^th year falls in the year 1994, which was a Jubilee year. A Jubilee year is a year of deliverance, just as the 400 years of affliction ended on the 430^th year that Israel was in Egypt, historically, and then they were delivered. They came out of Egypt and they were freed from their captivity. The year 1994 was a Jubilee year and it is a year that there is a declaration that the captives are to be set free. This was the second Jubilee year, spiritually, in which God would complete His salvation program. Interestingly, from 1994 to 2011 was about 17 years and it was the Latter Rain period that identifies with Jacob when he entered into Egypt in the year 1877BC at the age of 130. The last five years of the famine in which he and his family were well cared for is a spiritual picture of being spiritually nourished and it typified the people of God leaving the churches and entering into the world to be cared for by Christ during the Great Tribulation period. The second part of the Great Tribulation lasted about 17 years. And when Jacob entered into Egypt, he died 17 years later, so we have a tie-in with Jacob (who represents all the elect from the beginning of the world to the end of the world) and that is why he was 130 years old when he entered into Egypt.

It also very nicely typifies Old Testament Israel and the New Testament congregations because from 2007BC there was exactly 2,000 years until the birth of Christ in the Jubilee year of 7BC. From the Jubilee year of 7BC to the Jubilee year of 1994 was another exact 2,000-year period of time, which would identify more with the New Testament church age. Then, finally, in the year 1994 the second Jubilee ensued and the preaching of deliverance of the captives began, so it was a very excellent time in history for that 4,000-year mark to fall. God was setting free spiritual Israel that had been captive in the kingdom of darkness or spiritual Egypt, as God delivered His people.

It goes on to say in Genesis 15:14:

And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

We know that judgment began at the house of God. The final judgment of the world (Egypt) began with the house of God because the house of God had become spiritually identified with Egypt and Sodom, according to Revelation 11. So, 1994, a Jubilee year, was a time of deliverance and it was the beginning judgment of the churches and congregations, as judgment begins on the house of God and then it transitioned to the judgment upon the world on May 21, 2011. They served that nation and afterward they came out with great substance.

Then it says in Genesis 15:15:

And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

But, notice that the next verse says, “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again,” and we almost sense that verse 15 is out of place about Abram dying and going to his fathers in peace and buried in a good old age. Why is God interjecting this after speaking of the 400 years of affliction and then after verse 15 God is still speaking about the coming out of Egypt in the fourth generation. Why did He place verse 15 where He did? If we turn to Genesis 25, it says concerning Abraham in Genesis 25:7-8:

And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

Abram died at the age of 175. He was born in the year 2167BC and 175 years later would be the year 1992BC.

But, again, why did God tell us that in Genesis 15, verse 15? Notice that it said he died and was gathered to His people. God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the saints is the promise to the living elect and a promise to those that have died in the Lord. When we get to the last day at the end and the time of the final deliverance, God will deliver those that are still alive and remaining on the earth and the dead saints that were buried but went to be with the Lord in heaven in their soul essence. The Lord makes a point of emphasizing deliverance for both groups in 1Thessalonians 4:14-18:

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Spiritually, God is looking ahead in time to the end of the world. And that is exactly the time we are living in, the time of the end of the world. The Lord is looking ahead to that great day of deliverance and the time He would set His people free. As we look in the Bible, God highlights the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, again, and again. You can read about it in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Joshua and the Psalms and also in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, we read of God delivering His people Israel out of Egypt by His mighty hand and setting them free. It was a glorious and wonderful deliverance of the corporate people of God. To say it another way, it was the deliverance of the physical seed of Abraham. And, yet, it was a type and figure of what would happen at the end of the world when God would set His elect people free, the eternal church and spiritual seed of Abraham that are counted for the seed in Christ.

They would also all be delivered and it is interesting as we read the Bible we find that God reminds Israel, again, and again, that He is the God that delivered them and freed them from bondage. He is reminding them that He is due their worship, honor, praise and service and He is telling them that He has done all the work in delivering them. Yet, when we see what a big deal the Bible makes of that deliverance from Egypt, we almost forget that following that incredible deliverance when God brought the mightiest nation of the world (Egypt) to its knees, Israel had to wander 40 years in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land. There was tremendous grief. There was tremendous trials and hardships for 40 years after their time of deliverance.

Likewise, when God delivered His spiritual Israel and completed His salvation program on May 21, 2011, that program of deliverance was begun in the Jubilee year of 1994 when God began to set His people free and He completed that program on May 21, 2011. Since 1994, we can look at it as if there is a 40-year period of time the Bible is indicating which may go to the year 2033, which is 40 inclusive years. God has completed the deliverance of everyone that was to be saved. And, yes, that is a big deal. It is a major event in the Bible. It is a major milestone that God has completed His salvation program and everyone whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life has been found and brought safely into the kingdom of heaven (even those that are still alive and remaining on the earth at this time). God has done an incredible work of salvation. He has performed the miracle of salvation, again, and again and it is an awesome thing that He has completed His salvation program. And that ought to be acknowledged and recognized by the people of God, even though we have not reached the conclusion of the matter by leaving this world and crossing Jordan, as it were, into the new heaven and new earth.

When you read all these references about God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt, God is not emphasizing what He did in bringing them over the river Jordan, but He is emphasizing what He did 40 years earlier in delivering them out of Egypt. That seems to be the main emphasis when we read of that period of history; it was a focus on their deliverance and setting them free, even though there would be a severe period of trial before they could enter into the Promised Land.

So, we should not think that God will only deserve glory, honor and praise once He has completed the severe testing of the people He has brought out of the kingdom of darkness or spiritual Egypt and brought us safely across into the new heaven and new earth. Is it only then we should praise Him? Is it only then we will glorify Him? “Oh, what a wonderful God He is because He has delivered us into heaven.” No – now is the appropriate and fitting time for us to recognize the incredible God that has completed His magnificent salvation program by delivering all those He had intended to deliver. He worked steadfastly over the course of 13,000 years to save each and every elect and, finally, He saved the last one. That is worthy of glory, honor and praise to the One that has done all the work in saving His people. The Lord Jesus Christ – Eternal God Himself – is worthy of praise.

Yes, this passage in Genesis 15 is looking ahead to the time of the end and the time of coming out of Egypt after the affliction, the final completion of all things. When God has done that, He will raise the elect that are in the graves and they will rise up in their bodies and there will be the completion of His salvation when all receive their new resurrected bodies. And, yet, this period of time that is just past ought not to be overlooked and we ought not to take it for granted. “Oh, yes, God saved scores of millions and everyone in the Lamb’s Book of Life. What else is new?” And, yet, this is always what history was looking toward – God was going to war and spiritual battle, in generation after generation, to accomplish the salvation of His people. Now He has accomplished it and He has finished that war. And we can only thank Him for His tremendous faithfulness. He is Faithful and True. He worked out that salvation from before the foundation of the world by electing those to be saved and dying for their sins at the foundation of the world and then He let history unfold and He completed His salvation work in our day, relatively recently, on May 21, 2011. God completed this entire salvation program and it is the most glorious thing imaginable. We are greatly blessed and privileged to be counted among that number and also to be alive to witness what God has done.

I think God is mentioning Abraham going to his fathers in peace and being buried in a good old age, because he will be “gathered” and many were gathered when they were saved when living and then they went to be with the Lord until the last day, when there will be the resurrection of the “just” to life and the rapture of all the (elect) living; and we will forever be with the Lord.

Then one last comment about the end of Genesis 15:16:

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again…

Again, that refers to the land of Canaan and, spiritually, the land of Canaan is not referring to the physical land of Canaan, but at the time of the end it is referring to the kingdom of God. The elect “come out” in the fourth generation. There is an interesting reference to “generations” I never noticed before in Joel 1:1-2:

The word of JEHOVAH that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men…

The “old men” would refer to the first generation. Then it says in Joel 1:2:

…and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it…

The “children” would refer to the second generation. The “old men” would tell their “children.” Then it says in Joel 1:2:

…and let your children tell their children…

This would be the third generation. And, finally, it says at the end of Joel 1:2:

… and their children another generation.

This would be the “fourth generation.” So, God refers to four generations, but notice the context of what He is saying about what to tell the generations, in Joel 1:4-6:

That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

We do not have time to read more here in this study, but Joel, chapter 1 is an historical parable that describes Satan’s assault, the “nation” spoken of in Deuteronomy 28, verse 49 where it refers to a fierce king and nation that will come against rebellious Israel. It pictures Satan, as typified by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians (Satan and the kingdom of this world) that come against the people of God. The “fourth generation” is linked through the context here. So, too, when we go 4,000 years from the year 2007BC (the year of Jacob and Esau’s birth), which neatly covers 2,000 years of Old Testament time and 2,000 years of New Testament time and then we reach the “dividing point” of the Great Tribulation in 1994, which came after the 2,300 awful evening mornings when virtually no one was being saved. The Great Tribulation was under way and the “fourth generation” brings us to the point of the Great Tribulation.

We could also look at the “fourth generation,” which features the number “4” or the furthest extent of what is in view and this would also identify with this time at the end of the world.