In this sermon on Genesis chapters 14 and 15, Chuck Misler explores the relationship between Abraham and Lot. He introduces the concept of the law of first mention, which suggests that the first mention of something in the Bible holds significant meaning. Misler highlights the first mentions of words like "blood," "word of the Lord," and "vision" to uncover deeper insights into the story of redemption. He also discusses the intentional omissions and silences in the text, pointing out that sometimes the Holy Spirit's omission of certain details is crucial to understanding the story. The sermon concludes with a focus on God's promise to Abraham that his descendants will be afflicted for 400 years before returning to the land, as the sin of the Amorites must first be complete for God to judge.

This is the 13th study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapters 14 and 15. We are going to see tonight the first of several lessons in the book of Genesis, where we're going to be conscious of the Holy Spirit by the use of His eraser. We're going to discover that there is designed in silences. There is omission that is not only useful, it's very intentional. One of these strange situations where if the Holy Spirit told you the whole story, He would fail to tell you the story. Isn't that wild? Got you curious now, right? I'll keep you awake at least to do the opening prayer. Right. And this is one of the interesting ones tonight. There's a mind-blowing one coming up later. And someday I should really do a book on the eraser of the Holy Spirit. Those places in Scripture where the Holy Spirit intervened to prevent something to be written down, because by its omission, it serves God's intention in terms of His communication to you. There are many cases you can probably think of in your life where in trying to explain something to someone, by leaving out a detail, it's clearer. It's close to that. So often when you explain something complicated, a good teacher will often tell you something isn't quite true, because you will understand it then, and he later takes care of the exception. Well, we're going to go even one step further where the Holy Spirit, if He included the detail, changes the meaning of what He's trying to communicate to you. So we'll have some fun with that tonight. And now that Dr. Metherill is here, we can go ahead with the opening prayer. Father, we just praise you this evening. We thank you, Father, for the joy that you have given us to make it possible to be gathered here tonight to open your Word and to be the beneficiaries of the ministry of your Holy Spirit. We thank you, Father, for this Word. We thank you, Father, for your intervention in the course of history to bring us these truths. We would ask you, Father, to open our hearts and our understanding, that we might behold those treasures which you've placed here for our learning, and that in all these things we might both behold and glorify Jesus Christ, of whom these things are written, and in whose name we pray. Amen. Okay. Well, we are in the book of Genesis, and we got through chapter 13, and we digressed from 13, as I recall. We took a peek at 19, didn't we? But for purposes of just our pace through the book, I think I'm reasonably correct, despite our excursions and secondary discussions last time, that we finished chapter 13 essentially, right? Okay. We have plunged into a whole series of lessons and ideas and things on Abraham and Lot, and we developed those last time. But by way of review and by way of summary of the relationship between Abraham and Lot, I commit to you an exercise that you might find useful as just an exercise, and it's more useful if you do it, don't just copy my notes. So I'll give you a few ideas, and I'll leave some out so you can, you know, the ones that do it themselves will be more richly rewarded than those that are, you know, just sort of auditing the course not for credit. I should warn you, there is a final exam. We don't know the date or the hour, but there is a final exam. Abraham and Lot. Abraham walked by faith. Lot walked by sight. Okay. And it's interesting, not just in one episode, but all the way through. Therefore, we can, you know, we developed that idea that you can't backslide alone. When Abraham went to Egypt, he took Lot with him. On whom did it have the greater effect? Interesting, isn't it? Some of you in this room are very mature Christians, and from time to time you'll backslide. But you have the spiritual resources to call upon the Lord, confess your sin, and be restored into fellowship. What you'll never know are the weaker brethren that sort of tagged along and are still stuck out there in the mud. You can't backslide alone. It's a heavy, heavy idea. We talked about that last time, but just by way of, you know, moving a little bit from my flippant style into some spiritual depth here. Second thing. Abraham was generous and magnanimous, right? Lot was greedy and worldly. We're going to talk, you know, Lot was saved. We talked about that. We'll talk more about that from what Saint Peter chapter 2 tells us. But certainly they're contrasted there. We notice particularly Abraham's generosity when they split up. We talked last time about how their herdsmen were starting to fight with one another and all that, and so they decided to split up. And as we watch that strife, we can't help but be intrigued. We can't help but take sides, right? Because what's Abraham's approach to the strife is to waive his rights. Hey, you take your pick. You want to go right, I'll go left. You go left, I'll go right. He's being generous, right? I don't want to detract from Abraham's position. He obviously was being generous. But we can also look back and smile because of his knowledge of prophecy. Why could Abraham be so generous? Because he had the promise. He knew what he was going to get, right? I mean, you can just sort of, if you want to, put yourself on the sidelines and say, Hey, Abraham, that's kind of an empty gesture to let the other guy play first at the roulette wheel when you happen to know it's rigged, right? So is Abraham generous there? No less generous than you can be. Think about that. If indeed my tongue-in-cheek description of Abraham is valid, that he could, in fact, negotiate with Lot saying, Take whatever you like, somehow knowing from the Lord's promise that, Hey, he's going to get the land. Then you can say, Well, gee, that's sort of an empty gesture. You can make the same empty gesture every day with the world. You can be just as generous as Abraham was to Lot because you know that the end reward, the inheritance, is rigged in whose favor? Ours. So you can be generous. I'll leave that to you to play with that one if it appeals to you. Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. Lot chose a city built by a man that was destroyed by God. Interesting contrast. Poor deal. Most people take the second deal. Most people take the second deal. Hopefully, if we have any visibility in God's truth, some number of us in this room will be in the former category. Abraham, of course, was the father of all who believe, and we're going to understand that better after Chapter 15. It's very interesting that Abraham's faith is pointed at, I mean, in which chapter? Chapter 12, where he left the orthicalities and went to Canaan? No. The famous expression that Abraham believed God and was counted to him for righteousness does not speak of his leaving the orthicalities. Was he a believer? Yes. But is that the faith that was counted for righteousness? You mean justification. Right. His believing God and, in fact, even obedience to God's call in Chapter 12 is not what the scripture points to when it points to Abraham's justification. His justification by faith. That's heavy. Do you mean you can believe a lot of true things the Lord says and still not be justified? Yes. In one sense, that's what James talks about when he says the devils also believe and tremble. Why do they say it? Are they believers? We're suddenly in heavy stuff, aren't we? We suddenly got in over our heads. What's justification really mean? There are some things that you can believe and appropriate to yourself that have the specific effect of justifying you as righteous before the throne of God. And it isn't just anything God happens to tell you that's true. It's a very specific truth, and it's that very specific truth that is dealt with in Chapter 15. Abraham's justification by faith occurs in 15, not 12, even though in Chapter 12 he's a believer. Interesting. You didn't know the book of Genesis was really the book of Romans, did you? Well, Paul makes it that way because most of the book of Romans has one foot in Genesis as it goes through its issues, and we'll see that too. Okay, obviously Abraham, the book carries the story of Abraham forward, and Abraham is pictured as the heir of this world, of all things, right? Abraham's the heir. What's Lot? Well, all his possessions were destroyed in Sodom, and Lot shows up at the end of the story hiding in a cave. Okay? I'm always fascinated how certain people end up hiding in a cave. The kings that were destroyed at the Battle of Beth Horon by Joshua in the climactic battle that finished the conquest of Canaan. The kings were hidden in caves and said, you know, rocks fall on us. We see another group of kings in Revelation saying rocks fall on us, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb, and so forth. Okay. We also talked about the fall, if you will, of Lot, how he beheld, and then he chose, he separated himself from Abraham, dwelt in the plain, pitched his tent towards Sodom, and eventually not only dwells in Sodom but becomes the city councilman, the alderman. He dwelt at the gate of Sodom. Okay, one of the interesting things we'll see tonight, I think we're going to recount the story of how these kings conquer Sodom and Gomorrah and take Lot captive. Abraham frees him, indulges in a raid, and frees Lot, and we're going to deal with that in a minute. But one of the things, let's not lose sight of, what does Lot do after he's been delivered? Goes right back to Sodom, doesn't he? Interesting, interesting. Reminds me of a New Testament phrase about a dog and his vomit, doesn't it? I'm not sure it applies exactly because we're talking about something else, but it certainly is reminiscent of that. Okay, well, that's sort of by way of review of Chapter 13, which is probably useful, if nothing else, because when we were in 13, we got into some of the other subjects. I think we wandered a bit. But at the end of Chapter 13, I'd like to start verse 14 of Chapter 13. And the Lord said unto Abraham, after Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes. Interesting expression. Just as one of those things that you can do if you have set aside time to dig in the Scripture. Lifted up his eyes. How many times did Abraham lift up his eyes? And behold, there are three. And it's very interesting to discover that if you take those three, they, by many respects, are the three most important events in Abraham's life. And how curious it is that the very grammar, the choice of phrase, separates that part of the text. Abraham lifted up his eyes three times. The first time is here. Where he lifted up his eyes, and what did he see? The land. And the key thrust of this passage and some subsequent passage is the commitment of the God of the universe to the land to one Abraham. The second time we see him lift up his eyes. Second time is when he lifted up his eyes and Abraham saw three men approaching. And he's at the Oaks of Mamre. One is the Lord and there's two angels. Two angels have a particular mission to take care of in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord stays back to share prophecy with Abraham and enter into a very interesting haggle and negotiation. We may look at that ethnically and say they were haggling. You can look at it spiritually and recognize that Abraham was interceding in prayer. But that's a little ahead of us. That's in chapter 18. The third time that he lifted up his eyes is when he saw a ram that was to be substituted for the sun. Substitutionary, which incidentally is the way Isaac is in effect resurrected back to Abraham. We'll get that in chapter 22. It's very interesting that even the use of praise, he lifted up his eyes, turns out to highlight the three peaks, if you will, in Abraham's chronicle here. Okay. It's also interesting that the Lord here said unto Abraham, comma, after Lot was separated from him. How interesting it is that the Holy Spirit instructs us that the separation between Lot and Abraham was a prerequisite condition for God's purpose. He asked Abraham to shed the baggage back in Ur of the Chaldees. They didn't do it. They all moved to Haran. When the father died, they moved on, but he still took Lot with him. It's interesting that the Lord used the strife among the herdsmen, or the strife between Abraham's servants and Lot's servants as a means of separation. The Lord can use strife. That sounds strange to us because we shouldn't strive. We always try to make peace, and that's appropriate. But it's also interesting that the Lord can use strife. Two ministers who have been working together a long time get into the most painful, sometimes childish, sometimes not, strife and bickering, and end up splitting up. And friends of both look at them and grieve for both because both sides are half true and half wrong, and they try to patch it up, and it just doesn't get patched up because they're both acting less than they should. And we grieve, not realizing. That's what the Lord did in the New Testament. You check Acts, that happens. We can see it around us, it happens from time to time. It's interesting that the Lord will use strife. I'm not recommending that. I'm not sure that that's the Lord's first choice. I suspect you might make a case that the Lord, that might be third on a list of two or something in terms of what the Lord would prefer to do. But in any case, it is interesting that the Lord speaks to Abraham after Lot was separated. That is a call to separation if you haven't been listening. The Lord may be anxious to speak to you, but he won't until the separation he is seeking in your life takes place. That separation can be from a habit, it can be from a person, it can be from an environment, it can be from something else. And the environment that you need to be separated from may be an environment that he's perfectly comfortable to have another Christian in. So it's a very personal, special thing the Holy Spirit has to lead you. But it could very well be. In fact, you make a good case in the Scripture, the Lord really won't reveal himself to you until there's that separation. And Abraham himself, the Lord approaches Abraham after Lot was separated. Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land that thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. The dust of the earth. That's interesting. We have three different idioms for the seed of Abraham. The sand of the sea, the stars in heaven, and the dust of the earth. You can also discover that Paul in the New Testament describes all of humanity in three categories. Jews, Gentiles, and the Church. And it's left as an exercise for the student to see if those idioms are consistently used. Is the sand of the seashore always Israel? Are the stars in heaven, as Daniel used it, the way that wind made it righteousness, shall shine as the stars in heaven? Is that idiom used consistently? And is the dust of the earth, you know, the more general case, namely, the Gentiles living in it? Interesting idea. I don't know if there's that, you know, that's something that you sort of have to play with yourself and decide whether it's an interesting thing or not. And I'll let you run with it. We'll talk more about the three seeds of Abraham later, so I'm sort of just baiting you a little. And then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land and the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. Then Abraham removed his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar for the Lord. It's very interesting that he's dwelling where? In Hebron. The oaks of Mamre. Mamre means vision, right? It also can mean fatness, abundance. It can mean both. These roots are not that, you know, 2020, but that's valid. Hebron means communion. Communion. Joining together and also going to mean communion. Hebron. It's interesting that as a benefit of this relationship, Abraham is at Mamre, and we're going to see it's very important in chapter 18. Some very exciting things happen there. We also notice that he dwells in Hebron, the place of fellowship, as a result of his obedience, albeit the Lord had almost forced the obedience by the separation of lot. But indeed, when Abraham was in a state of obedience, we have the fellowship. Very interesting situation. In the conquest of Canaan, there were two faithful, right? Joshua and Caleb, right? Caleb is singled out in the conquest and so forth as the one that followed the Lord fully. We find that highlighted in Numbers 14, 24, but also in Joshua 14, 14. And it's very interesting if you turn to Joshua 14, 14. Joshua 14, chapter 13, verse 13. Joshua blessed him and said unto Caleb, son of Jephunneh, Hebron for he's assigning places. Caleb gets Hebron. Hebron therefore became inheritance of Caleb, the son of, I can't pronounce it, Jephunneh, the Kenizzite unto this day because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. Why did he get Hebron? Hebron was desired. Hebron was a reward. Why? Because he uniquely among the bunch fully followed the Lord. The others all compromised a little bit. They didn't really drive out all the bad guys. Caleb did the whole thing and as a result he gets Hebron. It's very interesting that the concept of dwelling in Hebron as a symbol of fully following the Lord is used by Abraham here and it's used of Joshua. Does that mean that everybody that dwells in Hebron is fully following the Lord? Heavens no. But it does mean the Holy Spirit is dealing with these idioms so as to form a level of communication that may not be obvious except to the diligent student. Okay, that does bring us to the chapter 14 as we think of it. Verse 1, And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, the king of Shinar, Ariok the king of Elassar, and Kedor-lehomar, the king of Elam, and Tidal the king of nations, that these made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Bersha king of Gomorrah, and Shinab the king of Adma, and Shemimber I guess the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela which is Zoar. And all these joined together in the vale of Siddam which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served Kedor-lehomar and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. Now, well maybe the thing to do is just let's finish the rest of the passage and then come back and see what we can glean from this. Verse 5, In the fourteenth year came Kedor-lehomar and the kings that were with him and Smote Raphaim in Ashtaroth Karnaim and Tzitzim in Ham and Imim in Shaveh Wau and so forth. And the Horites in their Mount Seir unto El-Paran which is by the wilderness and they returned they came to En Mishpat which is Kadesh and Smote all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites that dwelt in Haz-azon Tamar and there went out and there went out the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admar and the king of Zeboim and the king of Bela the same is Zor and they joined battle with them in the Vale of Sidon and Kedor-lehomar the king of Elam and Tidal the king of the nations and Amraphel the king of Shinar and Ariok the king of El-Asar four kings with five say inside all the names there's four guys that are the stronger ones five that are rebelling against them ok couple of other things as we go here we could spend a lot of time talking about the fruitless research that I went through trying to track this all down because you'll find the commentaries and the encyclopedias and the archaeological records are full of finds and details of word roots to try you can find out all kinds of interesting background about these characters all of which it seems to have at least let me put it this way I personally haven't found any benefit from all of that yet so rather than bore you to death as is my usual style I usually you know at least impress you with all the background reading I've done by dumping stuff on you and the truth of the matter is that I either did it incompletely or it isn't really spiritually fruitful at that level so I in candor pass that on to you there are however some interesting things to be aware of the alliance of four kings under Keter Laomar is our Shemites from Shem of the sons of Noah the others are Hamites and the Hamites are serving the Shemites as you'll notice in here which is interesting because it is consistent with the prophecy of Noah that's just a side comment I don't think that's a central thrust to the discussion but it is interesting also you might be interested to know that Amraphel by some authorities is believed to be equivalent to Hammurabi we know much about Hammurabi one of the early Babylonian rulers and some scholars equate him with Amraphel of Genesis 14 others have elaborate arguments that they're not so sure and it's not particularly an enlightening thing one way or the other because this is you know very early in the biblical record and I'm not sure that I can point to any real prophetic aspect of the name I was hoping that maybe through the names of the tribes or something there'd be something of great significance and I have to admit that the Holy Spirit hasn't given me any insight so what's nice about a large group like this if I mention that candidly and tease you with that then you'll all go back to your libraries and next Monday night three or four of you will come up with new insights that I can add to my notes but right now I come up right ok and verse 10 in the veil of Sidim was full of slime pits which incidentally is an interesting thing because that slime the word slime pits is a clumsy translation it's bitumen which means there's probably oil in that area so all of you you know and don't laugh the in Mount Carmel a group based on the biblical reference decided to spend over a million dollars of personal money a few guys to dig for oil on Mount Carmel the government did give them permission everybody thought they're crazy and we recently heard that they've struck oil and ok moving on that's kind of exciting to find oil in Israel how important to find it is is still unclear because it's you know it's not that simple but they have in fact found favorable forms of oil bearing deposits ok and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there and they that remained fled to the mountain so in other words the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah are getting defeated here and they took and they that is the alliance of the four kings from the north took all their food supplies and went their way and they took Lot Abram's Abraham's brother's son who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed so basically what we have here is a military campaign of interest students of the scripture because the first war mentioned in the scripture of these powerful four the alliance of four from the north conquering the five from the south the uh and uh succeeding in taking spoil it impinges on our interest only because as a side issue having captured Sodom and Gomorrah they also took Lot and his possessions captive and uh verse 13 and there came one that had escaped and told Abraham the Hebrew here's the first place the word Hebrew appears in the scripture it means one who's crossed over first place the word Hebrew occurs for he dwelt by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite the brother of Eshgal and the brother of honor and the and these were confederate with Abraham with Abraham so he's made some local alliances himself and he's gotten word that his nephew Lot over in Sodom has been taken captive as a as a byproduct of this uh conflict now this is an interesting verse to me Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive he armed his trained servants born in his own house 318 of them and pursued them unto Dan now Dan is very far in the north that's a long way you know we have to just pause here and think a minute you know we like to put Abraham up as a model of the man of God right and certainly he was in spite of some of our emphasis the fact that he wasn't purposed he does blow it a few times more than once and we'll learn from that nevertheless we certainly are in good company when we point to Abraham as a man of God we could easily say that Abraham is the most important character of the Old Testament except that we're wrong there's one other we're going to stumble on here shortly and the book of Hebrews tells us which ones are more important but certainly Abraham is up there he's a big guy strong guy as an example as a man of faith right it's very interesting that he maintained a trained army that fascinates me these guys weren't just you know volunteers hey guys you know grab a rifle let's go they're trained servants trained in what in battle and if you don't believe it they succeed in a campaign against the alliance of four kings that wiped out these four kings to the south so these guys are no rookies okay they know what they're doing and Abraham and his band succeed in freeing Lot later on right so these guys are pretty swift they're trained I think it's fascinating to discover several things Abraham's an interesting guy number one he was prepared he didn't say gee we've got to go get Lot let's start you know somebody write a book on trust and whatever you know you do those things right he was ready okay guys I think that's interesting I think can a Christian be prepared for conflict I think he ought to be it may be his duty in certain cases that exceeds the scope of our study but I'll leave it with your thought because I'm sure it's an individual thing but here's an interesting initial example in the first war recorded in scripture we have a group of believers who with righteously I would suggest take arms to retrieve their kin there's probably a list of things that might make valid motives but here's certainly one of them interesting isn't it something else that asked to strike your note is that he has 318 servants born under his roof interesting now the born under his roof is an idiom perhaps of a certain thing I'm not an expert in that culture to amplify that but I do understand that of all the servants and there may have been thousands under Abraham the ones that were deemed as born under his roof had special privilege they had more freedom and more liberty and they were an elite group in fact the eldest servant born under his own roof was Isaiah in the book of servant is like the heir in the absence of the blood kin he's going to have a very important role actually historically in the life of Abraham he also has a very important role typologically we'll deal with that when we get later on in the book of Genesis but anyway these are servants born under his own roof and they're trained to fight and they equip themselves quite honorably they travel all the way to Don and Don is in the north when we were there the Israeli soldiers also took the occasion to visit the nature preserve took us a while to realize that the coincidence of their arrival had nothing to do with their recreational outing they were there for our protection because it's that far north anyway verse 15 he divided his men against them he and his servants by night and smoked them and pursued them unto Hobah which is on the left hand of Damascus that's quite a little traffic from Dan to Damascus it's interesting those kinds of distances are relevant to military distances today with tanks and artillery and what have you these guys are on foot brought back all their goods and also brought again his brother Lot notice his brother Lot I think that's interesting it's actually his nephew his brother's son Lot but for purposes of the text the Holy Spirit allows the generic term his brother Lot which I think is interesting especially as we try to understand Lot spiritually and his goods and the women also and the people in other words he freed the booty ok now ok verse 17 and the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kader Laomer and the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba which is the king's dale in other words Abraham is returning from this victorious military coup this was his entente if you will ok verse 18 we now come to one of the most fascinating verses in the bible this verse will raise more questions than answers and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high God and he blessed him and said blessed be Abraham of the most high God possessor of heaven and earth blessed be the most high God who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand and he that is Abraham gave him tithes of all Abraham gives this guy tithes here's a gentile king who is acting as a priest who knows the name of God in a way that has not appeared so far but occurs four times in this passage the most high God possessor of heaven and earth this isn't the Israeli God of the covenant this is the title here same person of course but I mean it's the title speaks to something quite differently now we go on here but that's all there is that's all we know about this guy and if that was all that we would find in the scripture we would be tempted just to pass over this interesting figure who was there and this is the only place he occurs other than the mention in Psalm 110 that's the only place he occurs in the Old Testament and yet I'm going to make the statement that this is the greatest character in the Old Testament and I'm excluding Jesus Christ I don't mean in terms of his Old Testament appearances I'm taking for granted we're treating him differently but setting that aside here is this character he's the greatest guy in the Old Testament you think I'm wrong the book of Hebrews chapter 7 verse 7 says he was greater than Abraham why because Abraham's giving him tithes so he is superior to Abraham we don't even know his name Melchizedek is not his name it's his title isn't that interesting Melchizedek strange character that emerges here briefly and disappears from the record that's all we know what we've just read these few verses and that's it as far as Melchizedek is concerned in the Old Testament it was useful I think if we stop here and turn to a commentary on the Old Testament that I think will help us understand turn to the book of Hebrews and we'll pick it up let's probably the end of chapter 6 of the book of Hebrews and we'll take the early part of chapter 7 take a look at what the writer to the book of Hebrews is telling us verse 20 says where the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus and the writer here speaking of Jesus Christ but he says made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and if you're reading the New Testament at this point you say a high priest after the order of Melchizedek you wonder what on earth is all that about and the more biblical background you have the more it puzzles you because if you've done a little bit of homework in the Old Testament you know that the priesthood is after the order of Aaron Aaron was ordained as a priest Aaron was in the tribe of Levi right and we know that in the tribal structure of Israel God ordained the structure he declared Judah was the royal tribe of which was the kingly line tribe of Judah and Levi was the tribe of the priesthood and he ordains that the priesthood and the king the royal line are never to be encroached one upon the other the separation of the priesthood and the kingship was ordained early and endured throughout their history in fact when one intrudes upon the other they get their wrists slapped at least or worse because that was God's way the priesthood was the priesthood and the kingship was the kingship and they were to be separated there are only two exceptions with a couple of footnotes there's only two exceptions Melchizedek is an exception and he takes significance theologically because he shows up in the book of Genesis as a king and a priest and the more you know about the Bible the stranger that is looking back because he's unique and the reason he becomes important biblically or scholastically if I can put it that way is because their most important king and the most important priest is in fact one in the same Jesus Christ and in fact the writer of the book of Hebrews in trying to explain the significance of Jesus Christ and his preeminence above all things points to him as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek not Aaron and the writer to the book of Hebrews is going to make the argument which may sound strange to our mind but makes a lot of sense to a rabbinical mind in that the Aaronic priesthood Aaron came from Levi and Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek therefore Aaron is lower than Melchizedek or Melchizedek is higher than Aaron because even Aaron the priesthood of Aaron his tribal patriarch would be Levi was unborn in the loins of Abraham kneeling before the king and priest by the name of Melchizedek and that may sound like a strange line of reasoning but it isn't to the Jewish mind and that's exactly what the writer of Hebrews the issue is going to press here chapter 7 verse 1 of Hebrews for this Melchizedek Malka means king it's still used that way in some cultures Malak is a person name that still carries that idea okay and Zedek means righteousness Melchizedek is king of righteousness but he also has a title king of Salem those are both titles Melchizedek king of Salem priest of the most high god now first of all right away there we're kind of freaked out because here the New Testament is ordaining or ratifying or highlighting the fact that Melchizedek wasn't just some self-appointed character who had a thing going receiving tithes he was indeed the priest of the most high god it's very strange for us to visualize a gentile priest of the most high god I'm saying gentile servant quotes because he certainly isn't of the issue of Abraham is he who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him it's obviously a reference to the passage we just read from Genesis to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all tithe is a tenth a tithe is not an offering you know that a tithe is what you owe the Lord your offering is after the tenth part of all to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all first being by interpretation the king of righteousness that's the translation of the title Melchizedek king of righteousness and after that also king of Salem which is king of peace king of shalom Salem shalom being king of etymologically equivalent okay notice something else that's interesting here he is first of all king of righteousness second of all king of peace that's not accidental that order is always preserved in the scripture and we'll trace that in a minute it's always in that order righteousness first then peace without righteousness we're gonna look at that without father without mother without descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the son of god abideth the priest continually now this is often misunderstood some people from this passage assume that Melchizedek actually had no beginning and no ending and I'm not here to say we know for sure that that view is incorrect but it's more widely held that that what the writer here is making the case typologically Melchizedek had no genealogy no birth nor death recorded did he have a birth did he have a death probably but from the point of view of the scripture it's silent on that subject and it's silent on that subject so that he becomes a type a model of Jesus Christ because from a biblical point of view we have no beginning no ending recorded so in a typological sense or if I may a rabbinical sense he has no beginning no ending as Jesus Christ indeed has no beginning and ending in that sense and he reigns a priest and a king forever now the writer's going to go on to contrast this with Aaron now consider how verse 4 how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils this guy's a pretty strong guy and verily they that are of the sons of Levi now he's shifting to look at the priesthood as a normal Jew would think of it namely a Levitical priesthood they that are the sons of Levi who receive the office of the priesthood have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law that is of their brethren though they come out of the loins of Abraham but he whose descent is not counted with them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises you see what he's doing the Levitical priesthood could never aspire to something higher than the Abrahamic role and the Abrahamic role was subject to the Melchizedek role that's what he's arguing here verse 7 and without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better and here men that die receive tithes but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth and as I may so say Levi also who received tithes paid tithes in Abraham see in the rabbinical sense the writer is suggesting that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek because he was in the presence of so he gets credit for it there's a strange biblical idea that the children are you know punished for the sins of the fathers the children carry the blessings that idea is strange to us but it's very clearly established in the scripture third and fourth generation of them that hate me is far broader far more important than the Levitical priesthood there are two things wrong with the Levitical priesthood one is that the Levitical priests were unclean personally they had to give offerings for their own uncleanliness before they could officiate as priests that had to be dealt with ceremonially obviously they would pick that up in verse 27 for such a high priest was fitting for us who was holy and defiled separate from sinners and made higher in contrast here's making a contrast on that point the second point is that the Levitical priesthood was immortal it had an ending and the writer is making the argument that the priesthood of Melchizedek had no ending does that mean it went on forever? No, but biblically it's not in view in other words from the biblical visibility point of view we see no beginning no ending and it's being used as a model ok verse 15 and yet it is far it is yet far more evident for after the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another priest in other words after the model or similarity or analogy of Melchizedek there arises now this incidentally is the verse that causes me to believe that Melchizedek wasn't literally Jesus Christ there are some scholars that feel Melchizedek actually was Jesus Christ in an Old Testament appearance he was there and Abraham came and he was in fact in fact one in the same so many good scholars hold that view and it may be true I personally don't think so I think he's there only by type if you will as a model because here in verse 15 it says it was after the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another priest who is the other priest Jesus Christ after the type or the model that Melchizedek represented I don't think Jesus Christ is a model of himself in that sense you want to follow what I'm saying who was made not after the law of carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life see the concept of an endless life with the argument here is that Melchizedek didn't have a visible ending in the scripture so the writer is playing upon that in a Levitical sense verse 17 he testifies thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and where is he quoting that from? Psalms, right, 110 for there is verily an annulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and the unprofitableness of it in other words this is an annulling of the Aaronic priesthood which is therefore a purpose but not the purpose of our salvation purpose of our instruction to set the stage for our understanding but not by which we are saved for the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw near unto God inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest for those priests were made without an oath but this was an oath by him that he said unto him the Lord swore and will not repent thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament and then it goes on to dwell further and I don't think we need to hammer this further tonight but the chapter goes on to point out that the Aaronic priesthood had weaknesses and the priesthood of Jesus Christ is superior to the Aaronic priesthood because it's after the order of Melchizedek very, very strange passage in many, many ways we might pick up verse 26 for such a high priest was fitting for us who was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens you couldn't say that of a Levitical priest who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for their own sins and then for other peoples for this he did once when he offered up himself speaking of Jesus Christ contrasting him and his role as our priest in contrast to the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood for the law maketh men high priests who have an infirmity but the word of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore in other words not mortal okay getting back then the king of Salem and the king of righteousness I'd like to touch on that for a minute it's interesting turn to Isaiah 32 17 Isaiah 32 17 and the work of righteousness shall be peace and the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever turn with me to Colossians 120 there's hundreds of verses but this will give you the flavor of what I'm after Colossians chapter 1 verse 20 and having made peace through the blood of the cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven all things are reconciled to the father in earth or not just in the earth in heaven also don't forget in Revelation I saw a new heaven and a new earth both are redeemed but they're made they're reconciled to the father how? by the blood of Jesus Christ right? which is which establishes its righteousness right? and where does that result in? having made peace through the blood what happens first? the offering which establishes the righteousness then the peace turn with me to Romans chapter 3 verse 21 but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is manifest being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ we're dealing here with the righteousness by faith of Jesus Christ he goes on to say for all that have sinned come short of the glory of God we're being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus right? verse 26 to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus verse 28 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law okay? just bear with me turn to Romans 5 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God very interesting thing you'll discover in the scripture invariably righteousness is established first in peace never the other way around Romans 5 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ you can't have peace with God until you're justified you cannot have peace with God until you're justified how are you justified? only one way only one way very bigoted narrow idea one way Jesus Christ by his blood you can believe a lot of true things that the Lord tells you but unless you believe that you're in trouble okay? you can believe a lot of truth right? you can believe in the law of gravity is that true? right? you know things fall through it you can illustrate the law of gravity right? Dave Schaefer tells me that you can illustrate the law of gravity by jumping out of a ten story building I would call that jumping to a conclusion wouldn't you Dave? awww isn't that awful? therefore we're being justified by faith we have peace with God Romans 14 17 we'll finish this little side trip even when we find a concatenation of neat things like in Romans 14 17 for the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit notice the order notice the order righteousness peace that isn't just a neat little concatenation of good things order is significant why am I dwelling on this? for two reasons one is there is a basic spiritual truth that you want to be sensitive to and that is you can't have peace until you have righteousness you get righteousness by being justified through faith that's the only way ok well there's two ways to be righteous there's two ways I should really correct Walter Martin there are two ways you can get to heaven and one way of course is the easy way that's to be justified by faith and so that we have appropriated to us the Lord's righteousness there is another way that's plan A the way I just mentioned plan A and that's that you are perfect what you do is when you're born and you become the agent of accountability you never make a mistake when you're tired and irritable and what have you you never lose your temper you never violate the laws of God in the slightest and you go all through life that way never stumbling never making a mistake never offending God and when you when you die and you go to heaven you just walk up to the throne of gates and say move over now there's two of us that was that story is probably heretical enough that I have no hesitancy to describe it to Walter Martin from whom I got it but it does illustrate the point is the perfection that it would take to get to the throne of God has to be flawless and none of us qualify none of us qualify but one and that's our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord through faith in him has allowed that righteousness to be appropriate to all of us okay a couple of other things getting back to Genesis chapter 14 and there's another thing when Melchizedek is first introduced in verse 18 and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth two very interesting things I think this is awfully interesting since we have no evidence that he had benefited from the New Testament he brought forth bread and wine I think that's fascinating you're going to discover bread and wine have very prominent roles in the book of Genesis you're going to discover bread and wine is introduced here in a person who is by the Holy Spirit's design intended to be a personification or a type of Jesus Christ and we have the elements of bread and wine bread speaks of life what you'll also discover is we have the book of Genesis that Joseph who also is a type of Christ is involved with two guys that have dreams a baker and a wine steward isn't that interesting and in three days in three days they're resolved the bread is broken he's hung but the wine steward is the mechanism by which he is restored to life after three days and it's interesting that the elements as we get into Joseph I'll try to remember to pass out a set of notes which will have over a hundred ways that Joseph is a type of Christ Gentile bride the whole thing okay before we leave Melchizedek the king of righteousness and here is a type of Christ if he is a type of Christ it should not surprise us that we have maybe an anti-type or I should say more precisely a type of an anti-Christ in the scripture and we're fascinated when we study the book of Joshua the Joshua whose Greek name would have been Jesus if he was Greek if he was Jewish was charged with leading the attack leading the attack of the his forces leading his people to dispossess the usurpers from the land and he is engaged in the battle that involved seven nations and he leads this he takes the stronghold first by the Jericho thing Jericho is the stronghold and I think as I've mentioned to you it's a fascinating study to discover that everything that Joshua did was against the law he marched seven times you're supposed to remember the Sabbath day he didn't he marched seven times on the seventh day in fact he marched seven times the book of Leviticus says you're not supposed to let the Ark of Covenant go to war it led the procession the Levites were not supposed to go to war they were ahead of the procession and you go on and on it's just a long list of details everything he did was wrong the night before he ran into a guy in the evening that drew a sword and he challenged the sentry and he says who are you? he says I'm the follow the ground that Joshua worships him and the guy commands himself to be worshipped who is the guy we're talking about? Jesus Christ he caught the battle of Jericho end of Joshua 5 for those of you that haven't been into this before but it's interesting that the whole book of Joshua is a model of the book of Revelation Joshua starts by sending ahead two witnesses we call them spies but the real role was to see that Rahab was saved Rahab the Gentile was saved and then he attacks Jericho and he goes in and it's interesting just as in the book of Revelation the pivotal battle in the book of Joshua is the battle of Beth Horon and who is he fighting there? an alliance of kings led by one who calls himself Adonai Zedek Adonai means Lord what does Zedek mean? Righteousness this guy calls himself the Lord of Righteousness and that's the one that is the primary final climactic battle in which Joshua wins the battle by signs and the sun and the moon and the stars the sun beat out silent the sun stood still and the moon stood still in the valley of Agilon the book records and what do the kings do when they're routed? they hide in caves it reminds you of Revelation? rocks fall on us and hide us from the wrath interesting model the book of Joshua is an interesting model of the book of Revelation it's also interesting that the Lord has taken trouble to model some of these things in type and we have Melchizedek our king and priest modeled here we have Adonai Zedek the leader of the alliance against God's people taking the land in the book of Joshua interesting interesting book with which we have to do this evening the most high God same root we had noted before four times as it occurred in this paragraph it looks beyond all natural relationships it's interesting that the priesthood of Aaron never transcended the limits of Israel this is the most high God who the possessor of the heaven and the earth we find a title very similar to that in Daniel chapter 4 what makes Daniel chapter 4 interesting in the book of Daniel is a chapter written by a Gentile king Daniel chapter 3 was the fiery furnace episode as you recall Nebuchadnezzar the fiery furnace and Daniel's three friends are thrown into the furnace Nebuchadnezzar looks in and sees there's four that the son of God is with them and has them come out and they get rewarded and it's a big deal and so forth what you've got to realize is in chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar wrote an edict that was written and posted throughout the known world it's testimony time and Nebuchadnezzar describes how God predicted that he would through pride fall and when he did that he would go seven years as a victim of a very strange mental disease where he thought he was a cow and would actually eat grass and sure enough Nebuchadnezzar after this prophecy was walking on the walls of Babylon and was boasting how he did all of this and he was struck with this peculiar disease and relieved of the throne for seven years and for seven years he was in effect in a sanctuary a sanctorium and then at the end of the seven years he was cured of this returned to the throne and acknowledged that God of the universe the God of Daniel was the God of the universe and I read chapter 4 that he was saved the guy that by tradition the guy that took care of him during those seven years was the God of the universe Daniel very interesting chapter but what's interesting is the title that Nebuchadnezzar uses of the God of Daniel the possessor of the heaven and the earth who makes kings of whom he will whom he will he put down and whom he will he builds up very interesting when we find this shadowed here in a sense the God of the most high God the possessor of the heaven and the earth again a very very broad concept we find we can also make references here of Zechariah 6.13 do you remember that when actually the priest symbolically was crowned in the book of Zechariah he was a priest crowned the concept of a king and priest it was just a ceremony that was introduced there sort of a vision ceremony thing as a testimony the concept of a king and a priest was there introduced but because it is so unique and not literally a king or a priest we know it points to Jesus Christ if you're interested in that you can get the Zechariah tapes in chapter 6 and dig into that and we have a similar reference in Jeremiah 23 verses 5 and 6 and so forth and in Isaiah 9 chapter 6 chapter 9 verses 6 and 7 when we're addressing Christmas cards we'll come across Isaiah 9 for unto us a son is born for unto us a child is given his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace interesting the Prince of Peace a couple of last comments on the slaughter of the kings it is interesting that there were 4 plus 5 the Holy Spirit says and if you add Abraham's force that's 10 is there significance to a force of 10 I don't know I'll let you run with that it is interesting that Melchizedek shows up upon the return from the slaughter of the kings which I think is interesting and thus it's described in Hebrews if that's significant to you you can run with that okay a couple of interesting observations that I'll just leave with you to think about I find Abraham an interesting guy he has this army he has this army and it doesn't seem that he involves himself at all in the morality of Sodom I don't know if that's significant or not what do you think about that it's interesting to me that he left them alone he didn't impose his style on them and vice versa and I think that's awfully interesting I think it's awfully interesting how Daniel in Babylon didn't require the Babylonians to change their diet to conform to his ordination he simply sought permission from the captain of the guard that he and his three friends could eat a diet that conformed to their own beliefs didn't impose that on other people very interesting interesting concept of separation okay um we left we left Abraham right in the middle of this thing verse 21 chapter 14 verse 21 after he gives the tithes to Melchizedek verse 21 the king of Sodom said unto Abraham give me the persons and take the goods to thyself in other words you can keep the booty the bounty the spoils of this battle Abraham said to the king of Sodom I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord the most high God the possessor of the heaven and the earth that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe I will not fletch it and that I will not take anything that is thine lest thou should say I have made Abraham rich now Abraham is making reference here to the fact that he had previously sworn to the Lord that he would not take spoil personally and he's sticking by that he doesn't want to be in a position that this king later on can say he contributed to Abraham's success the only allowance that Abraham has saved only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men that went with me Aner Eshgal and Mamre let them take their portion he doesn't ascribe on them his standards they were his co-inhabitors of the area they joined him in this thing they took spoils let them keep their thing that's the style that's the deal that's the spoils of battle I don't want any because he swore to the Lord in the first place and there's a principle here he doesn't want to allow the heathen to boast now it's interesting he gives up the booty but there's a basic principle in scripture that you might well take to heart that is the Lord will never allow himself to be your debtor so he more than makes Abraham declined to have the booty what does God give Abraham instead the whole land shortly in chapter 15 the big deal is the whole land the whole land I think that's neat chapter 15 verse 1 after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision saying fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward now in that consolation comes a clue that we should not overlook Abraham succeeded slaughtering in this battle a major force of these five kings had he won the war not likely a group of 318 armed servants succeeded indeed in the skirmish that was effective at freeing Lot and his possessions and returning them to Sodom and Gomorrah does that mean that it's all over it's highly reasonable to assume that Abraham had offended the mob and he was nervous about it or I should say about what they have caused to be and I think we get that insight as we hear the Lord say to Abraham first thing the Lord says to Abraham fear not that implies that Abraham had caused to be afraid but the Lord said don't be afraid I am thy shield now I grant you that if you have the Lord's shield you don't have a lot to be afraid of no matter how many guys align with whomever but he says something else that's kind of neat he says I am thy great reward where does Abraham get the Lord that's pretty exciting now it's interesting that verse 2 will sound like we've changed the subject Abraham said Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus now you may you may wonder wait a minute wait a minute Abraham weren't you listening the Lord said hey I'm your exceeding reward and Abraham sounds like he's changing the subject okay Lord what will you give me seeing I don't have any children see to you and I it sounds like a change of subject but it isn't the Lord brought up the issue of inheritance right and the issue of inheritance is tied up with the issue of heirship or sonship okay and so it's interesting that as we talk about the great reward we hear Abraham talking about the fact he highlights to the Lord that he's childless and in fact in the absence of a child he is his inheritance would go to his eldest servant who whose name happens to be Eliezer now we're going to find out later on in chapter twenty four that Eliezer is going to go on an errand for Abraham two chapters earlier Abraham will offer his son Isaac and Abraham will obviously be in the model or the type of the father Isaac and the son and the father is offering his only son and we have a whole acting out of what happened at Calvary's cross but a couple of chapters later Eliezer sent on an errand to go get a bride for Isaac who is Eliezer a type of? the Holy Spirit just as Abraham is a type of the father Isaac a type of the son Eliezer turns out to be a type of the Holy Spirit couple of interesting things the name never appears there it always speaks of his eldest servant the word Eliezer does not appear in chapter twenty four the only way you know his name is Eliezer is to have done your homework and watch very carefully because here we're told what his name is and that gets particularly interesting when you discover the word Eliezer means comforter isn't that neat? it's also interesting that the Gentile bride is always introduced to the type of the Lord in these models in the Old Testament by an unnamed servant Rebecca is identified and brought into the story by Eliezer but he's described as simply the eldest servant and then in chapter twenty four she's brought to Isaac and marries him and so forth and we'll get to that of course when we develop that area but the point is Eliezer is not named in there he's an unnamed servant we get to Ruth and we all marvel at the book of Ruth how Ruth a Gentile a Moabitess is a type of the church and Boaz the kinsman redeemer by an act of marriage which restores the land to Naomi who's a type of Israel out of Bethlehem no less and Ruth is a Gentile bride taken to wife by Boaz how did Ruth first meet Boaz she's introduced to him by his eldest servant in the field isn't that interesting what's also interesting is is that whenever the story is modeled around so as to cause this to be a type of the relationship of the church and the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ that in the scripture the eldest servant is never named even in Genesis here he's not named even though we know what his name is he's not used in that portion of the story so that the type is perfect why because in John 14 Jesus Christ tells us something about the Holy Spirit he will never testify of himself isn't that wild isn't that fascinating that the Holy Spirit spoken of in John 14 is the guy who wrote this and even when he is in view as a type and is inescapably visible as a type he doesn't wear a name tag I think that's neat because he's compliant exactly with Jesus Christ highlighted in John 14 the comforter of the Holy Spirit the Father shall send in my name he shall teach you all things he shall teach us all things but he never bears witness of himself the issue is Jesus Christ not the Holy Spirit but he's an interesting interesting exciting person of the Godhead verse 3 Abraham said behold to me thou hast given no seed and lo one born in my house is mine heir you see in other words I don't have any seed but one born under my roof is my heir in other words this earth and behold the word of the Lord came unto him saying this shall not be thine heir but he that shall come forth out of thine own loins shall be thine heir and he brought forth he brought him forth abroad and said look now toward the heaven and count the stars if thou be able to number them and he said unto him so shall thy seed be and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness now very interesting passage most of us read this passage if you can count the stars so shall your seed be and we think it's the same kind of remark made earlier about the dust if you can number the dust then you can number your descendants it sounds like the same thing doesn't it wrong the word seed here is singular and what the Lord is telling to Abraham reckon recount recite the stars that's your seed that's who is your seed going to be am I making something up let's turn to Galatians 3 we covered this before but I'm assuming that little study we did on the Maseroth what we call the Zodiac is not necessarily familiar to everyone here listening so you might want to turn to Galatians Galatians 3 yeah thank you Galatians 3 now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made he said not to seeds as of many but as of one to thy and to thy seed which is Christ in other words Paul is telling incidentally he is referring to that chapter because he earlier makes reference he's drawing from chapter 15 in this whole discussion of Galatians 3 if you read Galatians 3 you'll discover that but his point here is is that in that passage in Galatians 15 the word seed is singular and it's not just an accident of language Paul himself is making the argument that what God is talking about isn't Abraham's offspring in some generic sense his offspring in a very specific sense namely Jesus Christ ok and the whole thrust of this argument is there now those of you that have not weren't with us that evening when we went through the constellations in terms of their pre Babel names or at least as we can gather from what studies we've done and the suggestion that God's whole plan for the redemption of the universe is chronicled in the stars and was told to Abraham and he was to recount it this is based on this in this passage you can get that tape and dig into that if that is of interest to you um verse 6 though says and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness the fact that he believed the Lord in general I don't think so but is that he believed the Lord with respect to a specific thing what his seed Abraham was justified by faith in Jesus Christ and we'll prove that to you before we're through with the story of Abraham when Abraham offered Isaac upon the hill Abraham knew he was acting out prophecy Romans chapter 4 and Galatians 3 deal with the subject and Hebrews 11 deal with the subject and and it says the scripture says that Abraham the gospel was preached before unto Abraham Abraham knew the gospel he knew he was acting out the the prophecy the offering of Isaac how do I know that because of the way he names the place when it's over the Lord shall provide Jehovah Jireh and the Jireh Shalom the Lord shall provide peace Jireh Shalom is the word from which we the derivative from which we get Jerusalem we'll get into that when we get to Genesis 22 but the specific thing the specific belief that justifies Abraham is his belief on the son it's his belief in Genesis 12 ah 15 not his belief in Genesis 12 it's relevant here ok we can just clean up a few loose ends here and and he said unto him I am the Lord God which brought thee out of the Ur of the Chaldeans to give thee this and to inherit it and he said Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it and he said unto him take me a heifer of three years old a she goat of three years old a ram of three years old a turtle dove and a young pigeon ok three large animals two small birds right and he took unto him all these divided them in the middle and laid each piece one against the other but the birds he divided not the fowls came down upon the carcasses and Abraham drove them away and when the sun was going down in other words this took a whole day a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and lo a horror a great darkness fell upon him now now let's finish the line that we were talking about and he said unto Abraham know of a surety that thy seed shall be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them that is these strangers 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 and thou shalt be buried in a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall come here again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full one of the conditions for them coming back is when the sin was complete of the Amorites for God to judge and it came to pass that when the sun went down it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river of Euphrates the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadimites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Gergesites and the Jebusites we'll see more of those when we get to the book of Joshua what is going on here there was a tradition of making a promise of taking an animal and splitting it by walking between by shedding that blood a covenant was committed and that's sort of what's going on here it's modeled after that an example of that is in Jeremiah chapter 34 verses 18 to 19 and other places in this particular case though it's a very strange kind of covenant because Abraham doesn't pass through the Lord does he has Abraham take a heifer of three years a she goat of three years a ram of three years all three of those in the book of Leviticus later obviously long afterward they're ordained to be typical of sacrifice the heifer and the she goat and the ram the she goat's the sin offering the ram is the substitute for consecration and the heifer also has to do with the cleansing and so all of these speak of death they're willing servants of man and they speak of Jesus Christ the book of Leviticus deals with these how old were they? three years how long was the Lord's ministry? three years this is prophetically whether Abraham realized this or not I can't tell I suspect he had far more insight than we may give him credit for because not all is recorded here we just have a prece of the thing but we have a heifer of three years this is spoken of in the book of Leviticus if you're interested in this thing you can use your study bibles and dig into that on your own in the book of Leviticus what the Lord does here is he separates them in the theory that the two of them go through if they're making a covenant between them Abraham doesn't the Lord goes through it's a unilateral covenant unconditional is there something Abraham can do to break it? no on whose faithfulness does it depend? on the Lord's now how does the Lord go through? he goes through in the form of two interesting things a smoking furnace from Jeremiah 11 verses 3 and 4 and other places a smoking furnace speaks of the wrath of God and a burning lamp what does the burning lamp speak of? his light his love his word 2 Samuel 22 verse 29 Psalm 119 verse 105 Isaiah 62 1 for those that want to take the tape and chase some of those down but you can do with any good concordance now another interesting thing is what kind of a sleep fell on Abraham? a deep sleep where do we find that phrase before? with Adam what came out of Adam in the deep sleep? Eve what is Eve a type of? the church a deep sleep did Adam die? was he born again? maybe is Abraham did he die and was he born again? maybe I'm speaking in a spiritual sense a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and I suspect the Holy Spirit would have you track back and take a look at the whole lesson that we went into with respect to Adam and Eve when Adam went into deep sleep and all of that so you might be drawn to that we also have an interesting thing here the covenant was for whose benefit? Abraham what did Abraham have to do with it? nothing except appropriate it he's going to have to you know wherever he walks that would be that would confirm it it isn't his until he takes it but does he do anything for it other than take it? no the Lord provides the whole thing we then have a prophecy the Lord gives them and there's seven items here that they will be strangers in a land that isn't theirs that they will serve those strangers that they'll be afflicted 400 years now incidentally if you go to Exodus 6 and Exodus 12 you'll discover that they're actually in Egypt 430 years but they're afflicted 400 years and it's interesting that's exactly what the Lord had predicted and if you were Moses in Egypt and you were a student of the book of Genesis of course you may not have written it then but you would have be aware of all of this okay now it also pointed out that God would judge this nation that they would serve yet when they left they would have great substance and yet while God says all of this he also highlights to Abram that as far as Abraham personally is concerned he's going to live to a good old age and die normally he's not going to be part of that whole thing he also says the seventh thing here that they will return in the fourth generation and if we turn to Exodus 6 verses 16 through 20 you'll discover that that when they go to Egypt under Joseph and all of that they go Levi goes the twelve tribes go the twelve sons of Jacob go to Egypt right Levi's among them Levi has a son by the name of Kohath who has a son by the name of Amram and Amram has two sons Moses and Aaron how many generations Levi Kohath Amram Moses and Aaron what generation came out the fourth generation isn't that neat amazing okay we finished chapter 15 there's another study that I would suggest to you it's always interesting I'll leave you just a few last loose ends it's always interesting to discover the first mention of something if you're interested in something in the book of Revelation you always go to that place where that idiom is first used in the scripture and it will unravel itself now you can take the first seven occasions of the word blood in the scripture and it will give you the whole story of redemption and so forth very interesting idea what's sometimes called by scholars the law of first mention there are a number of things that are first mentioned in this chapter we haven't had time to go into the word of the Lord came unto first place it appears in the scripture it occurs many times in the scripture this is the first time it appears this is the first place the word vision appears in the scripture this vision that Abraham has in his deep sleep as a result of the covenant the word fear not occurs 180 times in the scriptures it occurs first here the Lord spoken of as a shield is mentioned here for the first time his title is Adonai Yehovah this is the first time he's here the word believed counted and righteousness occurred for the first time right here in chapter 15 so if those are interesting to you they represent springboards from which you can launch on your own studies and we will continue next week then on a study of chapter 16 as we get into this whole business of the seed of Isaac Ishmael and that contrast and what that means climaxing our way to what to some chapters coming up that are the most exciting in the scripture I believe so we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday night God bless you this concludes the 13th study in the book of Genesis