Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #23 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are going to read Genesis 15:17-21:

And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day JEHOVAH made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

We have gone through this chapter and in previous verses we saw that God commanded Abram to offer sacrifice of a heifer, a she goat and ram that were three years old, indicating the purpose of God. He also sacrificed a turtledove and pigeon. There were five animals in all, pointing to the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. He divided some of the animals and he laid them all out. Earlier in the chapter it said, “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him,” so the sun had not gone down at that point, but now it says in verse 17, “And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down,” so now the sun is not in the process of going down, but has gone down. Then it said, “and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.”

Why is God saying these things? Of course, that is always our question when we read the Bible. We are constantly asking, “Why did God say this? Why did God say it this way?” These are good questions and then we study it using the resources God has provided in His Word, comparing scripture with scripture, and we pray and ask for wisdom.

Remember the Lord was answering Abram’s earlier question in verse 8: “And he said, Lord JEHOVAH, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” So, this is all related to the inheritance of the Promised Land to the promised seed that would be as the stars of the heaven for multitude. The Lord is laying out this entire scenario with the sacrificial animals and then He says, “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.” These verses are giving Abram what is basically a timeline for history of 4,000 years that includes the 2,000 of Old Testament history from the birth of Jacob in 2007BC to the birth of Christ in 7BC; and then from the birth of Christ in 7BC to the next Jubilee year of 1994AD there is a second 2,000-year period. The “400 years” relates to this 4,000 years and then at that point there was deliverance with the Latter Rain and the time to set the captives free. As this language indicates, it is a time that there would no longer be service done to those that were oppressing the people of God. After laying out the timeline, now God is speaking of the judgment in Genesis 15:17 and the judgment at the time of the end began on the house of God.

You know, today there are people that minimize that Biblical teaching as taught in 1Peter 4:17 where it says that judgment begins at the house of God. They dismiss enormous amounts of scripture and they do so, seemingly, without concern. Some have returned back to the churches or back to former doctrines or some say, “It does not matter one way or the other.” We should not think that way for a second. These people have failed the test and fallen in to the trap that God has laid at the time of the end. They have gone “back to Egypt,” as God likens the churches to Egypt, spiritually, at the time of the end, in Revelation 11. They have turned backward and they are going in the wrong direction away from God and, certainly, away from glorifying God. They are doing no good and they are not helping themselves or anyone else.

You will find that when people do an “about face” and start going back, they do not want to do it alone. They have some conscience about this because they have been associated with the true Gospel. They know the teaching about the end of the church age. They are aware of these things, so to make themselves feel better they try to convince others and they try to get others to go back with them. That is a horrible thing. Not only are these individuals bringing spiritual destruction to themselves, but they are also attempting to lure others, including some of God’s elect, in to the same pit of destruction.

Personally, I have no sympathy for anyone who turns back. I have sympathy as far as being sorry they are doing so, but not insofar as they are trying to ensnare others with their words and their attempt to use the Bible to get other people to go back with them just to ease their own consciences about it. I do not have any sympathy for those individuals and I would “unfriend” someone I saw attempting to do that in a split second, or I would remove them from an EBible Facebook group, or whatever, because they are not doing anyone any good when they do this.

Again, it says in Genesis 15:17:

And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark…

When we read of judgment in the Bible we typically read of a “darkened sun.” We read in Revelation, chapter 8 that the “third part” of the sun was darkened because it represents judgment on the churches. We read in Matthew 24, verse 29 that immediately after the tribulation the sun is darkened, because that is the judgment on the world. We read that when Christ was on the cross there was darkness over the land for three hours because that was a judgment. When the sun goes dark it is judgment, so God is indicating here in Genesis 15 that the sun went down and it was dark.

The Hebrew word translated as “dark” is Strong’s #5939 and it is only found four times in the Old Testament. It is found in Ezekiel, chapter 12 the other three times and it is translated as “twilight” in every place it is used. It says in Ezekiel 12:3:

Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house.

God refers to Israel or Judah as a rebellious house a few times in this chapter because it is pointing to the end of the church age. In commanding Ezekiel to take his stuff and remove it to another place, the Lord is illustrating the departure of His people out of the “rebellious house,” the corporate church, and He tells them to do it in their sight that they might consider. Of course, this no longer has application to us now because we are living in the time of Judgment Day and the entire matter of coming out of the churches is finished, but at the time when God commanded His people to leave the corporate church, the people should have notified the pastor, the elders or anyone in the congregation when they did so, in keeping with this verse. They should have said, “I have learned from the Bible that the church age is over and I have to get out of the churches and I am going to do that, by the grace of God, and I just wanted you to know my reason for leaving.” Then they would have left and that would have been like removing your stuff from one place to another in their sight, in hopes that someone might consider what just happened. They might think, “This person was faithful in coming to church regularly. He was active and passed out tracts and he talked about the Bible all the time, but now he says the church age is over.” That might have caused someone to consider what God has said.

In this context, it says in Ezekiel 12:5-6:

Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby. In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry itforth in the twilight…

The word “twilight” is our word from Genesis 15 that was translated as “dark,” Strong’s #5939. It is translated as “twilight” two more times. In other words, we were to carry it forth in the “dark” and what do we know about the “dark”? It is when the sun goes down, so the sun had gone down on the churches and the light of the Gospel had been extinguished. The Holy Spirit of God had departed out of the midst and, spiritually, there was no “sun,” as Psalm 87 says that JEHOVAH God is a sun and a shield. It goes on to say in Ezekiel 12:6-7:

…thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel. And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.

Then it says in Ezekiel 12:11-12:

Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into captivity. And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.

Three times this word is used and the number “3” indicates the purpose of God, which in this context was to come out of the churches. The command to come forth out of the churches and congregations of the world was implemented once the judgment had fallen upon the corporate body at the time of the end of the world, with judgment beginning at the house of God at the end of the church age. It was simultaneous with the end stage of history.

It was especially in effect in the year 1994. Remember, this “400 years,” the timeline given to Abram, identifies with “4,000” and relates to Jacob and 4,000 years from 2007BC takes us to 1994, the dividing point of the Great Tribulation and the time when God began sending forth the Latter Rain. So, this language of the sun going down indicates judgment and it was “twilight” or “dark.” Shortly after that, God would open the scriptures to reveal to His people that we were to flee to the mountains and depart out of Jerusalem. We can see how this fits with the timeline that was given.

Then it goes on to say, in Genesis 15:17:

… behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

Let us look at the term “smoking furnace.” The word “furnace” is also translated as “oven” in Psalm 21:9:

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: JEHOVAH shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

Likewise, the term “furnace” or “oven” identifies with God’s judgment. It is the same word we find in Malachi 4:1:

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith JEHOVAH of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Judgment Day is like an oven that will burn. So, we see here in our verse in Genesis 15 that it says, “behold a smoking furnace,” and the clear emphasis is upon the wrath of God in the time of judgment which began with the house of God, but transitioned to the unsaved of the nations and then continues until the end of the world.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 15:17:

… and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

The “burning lamp” can be used of God Himself. In the vision of the living creature, it says in Ezekiel 1:13:

As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

The “living creatures” are a picture of God. The wrath of God in the Day of Judgment is like that lightning that shines from the east to the west, in Matthew 24. The lightning of God is in view because it identifies with the fiery wrath of God.

Also, it says in Daniel 10:6:

His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ that is appearing in a vision to Daniel. We know it is Christ because the same type of language is used in the New Testament in Revelation 1:14:

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

The Lord Jesus Christ’s eyes are like lamps of fire or a flame of fire because He is God and God sees the sins of mankind. All man’s sins are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. As God sees the sin of mankind in the time of judgment, His eyes turn into lamps of fire or a flame of fire, to indicate His wrath.

The same kind of language is used in Revelation 8:10-11:

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

The “star” is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is falling from heaven and burning as it were a lamp. It is God’s wrath coming down upon the Gospel waters of the churches of the world, turning them to poison or “wormwood,” because this is language of the wrath of God upon the corporate church.

We find similar language regarding the flaming eyes of the Lord Jesus in Revelation, chapter 19, a chapter that describes the final judgment of the world. It says in Revelation 19:12:

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

If you continue reading, you read that Christ was treading the winepress and ruling the nations with a rod of iron. The eyes were as a flame of fire. Remember we identified flames as lamps of fire and in transitioning to the New Testament the wording changed from “lamp” to “flame,” but that is the idea.

In our verse in Genesis 15, the sun went down. It was Judgment Day. It was the “twilight.” There was darkness, first upon the corporate church and then upon the entire world. It was a smoking oven that would burn up the wicked and there was the burning lamp that passed between the pieces. Every statement is emphasizing and re-emphasizing the wrath of God upon the unsaved people of the earth.

Let us move on to Genesis 15:18:

In the same day JEHOVAH made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

We have spent a great deal of time discussing the seed. We know it points to the Christ, first of all, and all the elect in Christ in a secondary way. We will be given the new heaven and new earth, which is typified by the land of Canaan. The boundary of the land of Canaan is said to be from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates. It is significant that God uses these rivers and He mentions Egypt and he mentions the Euphrates, which is the river of Babylon, and both Egypt and Babylon identify with the world.

Then the 10 nations represent the kingdom of God because the land of Canaan, corporately, represents the outward representation of the kingdom of God on earth, just as the corporate churches did. But the eternal kingdom of God would be the new heaven and new earth. Normally, God mentions seven nations in the land of Canaan, to point to perfection, but this time he mentioned 10 nations in Genesis 15:21:

The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

There are 10 nations mentioned because the number “10” points to completeness, just like the borders from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates pointed to the whole world and, so, too, do the 10 nations of Canaan. It is interesting that here God does not mention driving them out, but that is the point God is making. These 10 nations will be disinherited and removed out of the land and the seed will receive the land of Canaan. The spiritual seed (all whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life) will receive what the land of Canaan always pointed to, the new heaven and the new earth.