The Twofold Promise of "a Seed" to Abraham - Ishmael - Jehovah visits Abraham - The Destruction of

Sodom - Abraham's Sojourn at Gerar - His Covenant with Abimelech

(GENESIS 15-20, 21:22-34)

HIGH times of success and prosperity are only too often followed by seasons of depression. Abram had

indeed conquered the kings of Assyria, but his very victory might expose him to their vengeance, or draw

down the jealousy of those around him. He was but a stranger in a strange land, with no other possession

than a promise, - and not even an heir to whom to transmit it. In these circumstances it was that "Jehovah

came unto Abram in a vision," saying, "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward" - that is, Myself am

thy defense from all foes, and the source and spring whence thy faith shall be fully satisfied with joy. It was

but natural, and, as one may say, childlike, that Abram should in reply have opened up before God all his

wants and his sorrow, as he pointed, not in the language of doubt, but rather of question, to his own

childless state, which seemed to leave Eliezer, his servant, his only heir. But Jehovah assured him that it was

to be otherwise than it seemed; nay, that his seed should be numberless as the stars in the sky. "And he

believed in Jehovah: and He counted it to him for righteousness." The remark stands solitary in the

narrative, as if to call attention to a great fact; and its terms indicate, on the part of Abram, not merely faith in

the word, but trustfulness in the person of Jehovah as his Covenant-God. Most touching and sublime is the

childlikeness of that simple believing without seeing, and its absolute confidence. Ever since, through

thousands of years, it has stood out as the great example of faith to the church of God. And from this faith

in the living God sprang all the obedience of Abram. Like the rod of Aaron, his life budded and blossomed

and bore fruit "within the secret place of the Most High."

To confirm this faith Jehovah now gave to Abram a sign and a seal, which yet were such once more only to

his faith. He entered into a covenant with him. For this purpose the Lord directed Abram to bring an heifer, a

she- goat, and a ram, each of three years old, also a turtle -dove and a young pigeon. These sacrifices - for

they were all representatives of the kinds afterwards used as sacrifices - were to be divided, and the pieces

laid one against the other, as the custom was in making a covenant, the covenanting parties always passing

between them, as it were to show that now there was no longer to be division, but that what had been

divided was to be considered as one between them. But here, at the first, no covenanting party appeared at

all to pass between the divided sacrifices. All day long, as it seemed to Abram, he sat watching lonely, only

driving from the carcasses the birds of prey which came down upon them. So it seemed to the eye of sense!

Presently even gathered around, and a deep sleep and a horror of great darkness fell upon Abram. The age

of each sacrificed animal, the long, lonely day, the birds of prey swooping around, and the horror that had

come with the night, all betokened what Jehovah now foretold: how for three generations the seed of Abram

should be afflicted in Egypt; but in the fourth, when the measure of the iniquity of the present inhabitants of

Canaan would be full, they were to return, and enter on the promised possession of the land. As for Abram

himself, he was to go "to his fathers in peace." Then it wa s that the covenant was made; not, as usually, by

both parties passing between the divided sacrifice, but by Jehovah alone doing so, since the covenant was

that of grace, in which one party alone - God - undertook all the obligations, while the other received all the

For the first time did Abram see passing between those pieces the smoking furnace and the burning lamp -

the Divine brightness enwrapt in a cloud, just as Moses saw it in the bush, and the children of Israel on their

wilderness march, and as it afterwards dwelt in the sanctuary above the mercy-seat, and between the

cherubim. This was the first vision vouchsafed to Abram, the first stage of the covenant into which God

entered with him, and the first appearance of the glory of the Lord. At the same time, what may be called the

personal promise to Abram was also enlarged, and the boundaries of the land clearly defined as stretching

from the Nile in the west, to the Euphrates in the east, an extent, it may be here observed, which the Holy

Land has never yet attained, not even in the most flourishing days of the Hebrew monarchy.