The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
The verse begins the list of the peoples then holding the land appointed for Abraham's family, naming the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites among the nations his descendants would dispossess and inherit. The promise is distinct and specific about territory, fixing the bounds of earthly Canaan from the river Euphrates to the border of Egypt to be possessed in the fourth generation. It belongs to God's covenant with Abraham, ratified by dividing a sacrifice with a burning lamp passing between the pieces as a solemn sign after the ancient manner of covenant-making. Its possession was delayed because the seed must sojourn afflicted in a strange land for four hundred years in Egypt until the iniquity of the Amorites was full. That Canaan possession begun at the Exodus and reached in extent in the days of Solomon proved the covenant, yet it typifies nothing less than the whole earth restored and inherited by Abraham and those who are Christ's.
Covenant Promise of Land
Genesis 15:19 begins the list of the peoples holding the land designed for Abraham's family, naming the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites among the nations his descendants would dispossess and inherit, some of whom were stronger than the Hebrews. The naming shows the land could not be possessed until the iniquity of the Amorites its inhabitants was full that they should be thrust out before them, and the family must go down into brief prosperity followed by long and terrible oppression before deliverance and possession. The covenant promise that his descendants would possess the land was later fulfilled.
The promise is distinct and specific about territory, fixing the boundaries of earthly Canaan from the river Euphrates unto the border of Egypt and making clear it would be possessed in the fourth generation. The people were preserved by miracle through forty years in the wilderness and then entered and began to possess it, but transgression restrained its full working until the days of Solomon, when the foretold extent was reached.
The verse belongs to God's covenant with Abraham, ratified by dividing a sacrifice into pieces, with a burning lamp passing between the parts as a solemn sign that covenant-breakers would deserve the same fate. This illustrates the ancient method of making a covenant by means of dead victims.
In the covenant scene Abraham did his part by killing the sacrifice and dividing the pieces and then waiting through the day for God's promised sign and coming. While waiting he drove away the fowls that came to devour the sacrifice, and the sign came at sunset when it was dark. At evening he suffered the agonies of the Egyptian bondage, and received God's coming when it was dark. It shows that true faith does its part and then waits upon God's time, laying hold not of appearance but of the Word of God.
The horror of great darkness and the smoking furnace seen in the same vision foreshadowed the iron furnace and the bitter servitude of Egypt. The darkness did not mean that Abraham had lost God's favor, for God was present with him amid the great darkness, repeating the promise. That promise and communion strengthened him for trial.
The promise included a foretold delay before possession: for four hundred years the seed would be pilgrims and wanderers in the promised land as in a strange country and in Egyptian bondage and slavery, with affliction, oppression, trials and sorrow, and would return in the fourth generation. This was because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. At the end of that time God would judge the merciless slave-owners and bring the seed into the promised land. Abraham's offering of Isaac taught that death and resurrection would also precede their inheritance.
The wait in Egypt was overruled for good as a temporary refuge and place of waiting during that delay. Famine and God's overruling of Joseph's hardships brought Jacob's family there. There they could become numerous enough to fill the land, while the iniquity of the Amorites had time to reach its appointed limit before God drove them out. Oppression eventually made Israel willing to leave for Canaan.
Fulfillment and Larger Hope
The promise drew near to fulfillment at the Exodus from Egypt, when the people preserved by miracle through forty years in the wilderness entered the Promised Land and began to possess it. Their transgressions restrained the full working of God, so that the foretold extent from the river Euphrates unto the border of Egypt was not reached until the days of Solomon. The covenant promise that the descendants would possess the land was later fulfilled when Israel took possession, fulfilling what was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That fulfillment proves the covenant under which the patriarchs lived, who were called to be pilgrims and strangers in a strange land while the special promise was made and confirmed to them.
The promise was not fulfilled during Abraham's lifetime but was reserved for the future inheritance of the redeemed. The land was to be peaceably possessed after its enemies had been driven out or destroyed. The faithful will enjoy the promised inheritance in its full, future rest, associated with the future deliverance of God's people from their enemies.
The promised land of Canaan, later given to and possessed by the children of Israel, represents and typifies the earth, the dominion or kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world and the final rest yet remaining to the people of God. The promise included that for four hundred years the seed would be pilgrims and wanderers in the promised land as in a strange country and in Egyptian bondage and slavery, that God would judge the merciless slave-owners and bring the seed into the promised land, and that this promise included the world restored to its Eden beauty by the power of God. Nothing less than possession of the whole earth, inherited by the meek and by those who are Christ's as Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise that Abraham should be heir of the world, will fulfill the promise.
The Canaan promise to Abraham's literal seed was fulfilled when Israel took possession of the land, while the promise of the whole world is for Abraham and his spiritual children by faith. The promises have a wider meaning than inheritance by literal descendants, for they concern the spiritual seed and the covenant's promise is received through faith. That Abrahamic covenant is included in the everlasting new covenant in Christ, whose promise is life, salvation, and the kingdom through Jesus Christ.
Genesis 15, with Genesis 16, Genesis 17, and Genesis 21:1-21, is where the subject of the two covenants begins and must be studied, because the two covenants began in the family of Abraham with Hagar the bondwoman and her son and Sarah the freewoman and her son. Hagar represents the covenant from Mount Sinai and Sarah represents the other covenant. The verse is part of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the fathers, and Israel's deliverance from Egypt was salvation, redemption, and recreation by Christ the Creator, the only possible opportunity for Israel to enter into and receive the benefits of that covenant.
The principles underlying the deliverance and the covenant were old, and the everlasting covenant was re-established with Israel at Sinai with added special statutes, judgments, and the enlarged, centralized typical sacrificial system given because the promised Seed the Redeemer was to come through Israel. The verse belongs to Genesis 12 to 26, which records God's providential dealings with the family of Abraham, the chosen progenitor of the Seed, continuing the story of God's dealing with the Seed. It belongs to the covenant stage of Abraham's life, which follows his call, his sojourn in Egypt, and his whole experience with Lot, and comes before circumcision, the Hagar experience of doubting God, Sodom, Isaac, and the closing scenes and death of his life.
The account displays God's overruling providences while Abraham came only gradually to fullness of faith through repeated lessons of sojourn and trials, pressing the question whether readers are children of Abraham. True faith does its part by killing the sacrifice and dividing the pieces and then waits upon God's time, driving away the fowls that come to devour the sacrifice, suffering the agonies of the Egyptian bondage, and laying hold not of appearance but of the Word of God until God comes when it is dark. Abraham's later attempt to secure by his own means what God had promised shows weakness and temporary lack of faith. His descendants would endure affliction, oppression, trials, and sorrow before possessing the promised land, and his offering of Isaac taught that death and resurrection would also precede their inheritance.
The promise of possessing the land made it Israel's lawful inheritance. Its recovery also served to punish Canaanite idolatry and to establish worship of the one true God.
The verse begins the list of the peoples then holding the land appointed for Abraham's family, naming the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites among the nations his descendants would dispossess and inherit. The promise is distinct and specific about territory, fixing the bounds of earthly Canaan from the river Euphrates to the border of Egypt to be possessed in the fourth generation. It belongs to God's covenant with Abraham, ratified by dividing a sacrifice with a burning lamp passing between the pieces as a solemn sign after the ancient manner of covenant-making. Its possession was delayed because the seed must sojourn afflicted in a strange land for four hundred years in Egypt until the iniquity of the Amorites was full. That Canaan possession begun at the Exodus and reached in extent in the days of Solomon proved the covenant, yet it typifies nothing less than the whole earth restored and inherited by Abraham and those who are Christ's.
Covenant Promise of Land
Genesis 15:19 begins the list of the peoples holding the land designed for Abraham's family, naming the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites among the nations his descendants would dispossess and inherit, some of whom were stronger than the Hebrews. The naming shows the land could not be possessed until the iniquity of the Amorites its inhabitants was full that they should be thrust out before them, and the family must go down into brief prosperity followed by long and terrible oppression before deliverance and possession. The covenant promise that his descendants would possess the land was later fulfilled.
The promise is distinct and specific about territory, fixing the boundaries of earthly Canaan from the river Euphrates unto the border of Egypt and making clear it would be possessed in the fourth generation. The people were preserved by miracle through forty years in the wilderness and then entered and began to possess it, but transgression restrained its full working until the days of Solomon, when the foretold extent was reached.
The verse belongs to God's covenant with Abraham, ratified by dividing a sacrifice into pieces, with a burning lamp passing between the parts as a solemn sign that covenant-breakers would deserve the same fate. This illustrates the ancient method of making a covenant by means of dead victims.
In the covenant scene Abraham did his part by killing the sacrifice and dividing the pieces and then waiting through the day for God's promised sign and coming. While waiting he drove away the fowls that came to devour the sacrifice, and the sign came at sunset when it was dark. At evening he suffered the agonies of the Egyptian bondage, and received God's coming when it was dark. It shows that true faith does its part and then waits upon God's time, laying hold not of appearance but of the Word of God.
The horror of great darkness and the smoking furnace seen in the same vision foreshadowed the iron furnace and the bitter servitude of Egypt. The darkness did not mean that Abraham had lost God's favor, for God was present with him amid the great darkness, repeating the promise. That promise and communion strengthened him for trial.
The promise included a foretold delay before possession: for four hundred years the seed would be pilgrims and wanderers in the promised land as in a strange country and in Egyptian bondage and slavery, with affliction, oppression, trials and sorrow, and would return in the fourth generation. This was because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. At the end of that time God would judge the merciless slave-owners and bring the seed into the promised land. Abraham's offering of Isaac taught that death and resurrection would also precede their inheritance.
The wait in Egypt was overruled for good as a temporary refuge and place of waiting during that delay. Famine and God's overruling of Joseph's hardships brought Jacob's family there. There they could become numerous enough to fill the land, while the iniquity of the Amorites had time to reach its appointed limit before God drove them out. Oppression eventually made Israel willing to leave for Canaan.
Fulfillment and Larger Hope
The promise drew near to fulfillment at the Exodus from Egypt, when the people preserved by miracle through forty years in the wilderness entered the Promised Land and began to possess it. Their transgressions restrained the full working of God, so that the foretold extent from the river Euphrates unto the border of Egypt was not reached until the days of Solomon. The covenant promise that the descendants would possess the land was later fulfilled when Israel took possession, fulfilling what was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That fulfillment proves the covenant under which the patriarchs lived, who were called to be pilgrims and strangers in a strange land while the special promise was made and confirmed to them.
The promise was not fulfilled during Abraham's lifetime but was reserved for the future inheritance of the redeemed. The land was to be peaceably possessed after its enemies had been driven out or destroyed. The faithful will enjoy the promised inheritance in its full, future rest, associated with the future deliverance of God's people from their enemies.
The promised land of Canaan, later given to and possessed by the children of Israel, represents and typifies the earth, the dominion or kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world and the final rest yet remaining to the people of God. The promise included that for four hundred years the seed would be pilgrims and wanderers in the promised land as in a strange country and in Egyptian bondage and slavery, that God would judge the merciless slave-owners and bring the seed into the promised land, and that this promise included the world restored to its Eden beauty by the power of God. Nothing less than possession of the whole earth, inherited by the meek and by those who are Christ's as Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise that Abraham should be heir of the world, will fulfill the promise.
The Canaan promise to Abraham's literal seed was fulfilled when Israel took possession of the land, while the promise of the whole world is for Abraham and his spiritual children by faith. The promises have a wider meaning than inheritance by literal descendants, for they concern the spiritual seed and the covenant's promise is received through faith. That Abrahamic covenant is included in the everlasting new covenant in Christ, whose promise is life, salvation, and the kingdom through Jesus Christ.
Genesis 15, with Genesis 16, Genesis 17, and Genesis 21:1-21, is where the subject of the two covenants begins and must be studied, because the two covenants began in the family of Abraham with Hagar the bondwoman and her son and Sarah the freewoman and her son. Hagar represents the covenant from Mount Sinai and Sarah represents the other covenant. The verse is part of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the fathers, and Israel's deliverance from Egypt was salvation, redemption, and recreation by Christ the Creator, the only possible opportunity for Israel to enter into and receive the benefits of that covenant.
The principles underlying the deliverance and the covenant were old, and the everlasting covenant was re-established with Israel at Sinai with added special statutes, judgments, and the enlarged, centralized typical sacrificial system given because the promised Seed the Redeemer was to come through Israel. The verse belongs to Genesis 12 to 26, which records God's providential dealings with the family of Abraham, the chosen progenitor of the Seed, continuing the story of God's dealing with the Seed. It belongs to the covenant stage of Abraham's life, which follows his call, his sojourn in Egypt, and his whole experience with Lot, and comes before circumcision, the Hagar experience of doubting God, Sodom, Isaac, and the closing scenes and death of his life.
The account displays God's overruling providences while Abraham came only gradually to fullness of faith through repeated lessons of sojourn and trials, pressing the question whether readers are children of Abraham. True faith does its part by killing the sacrifice and dividing the pieces and then waits upon God's time, driving away the fowls that come to devour the sacrifice, suffering the agonies of the Egyptian bondage, and laying hold not of appearance but of the Word of God until God comes when it is dark. Abraham's later attempt to secure by his own means what God had promised shows weakness and temporary lack of faith. His descendants would endure affliction, oppression, trials, and sorrow before possessing the promised land, and his offering of Isaac taught that death and resurrection would also precede their inheritance.
The promise of possessing the land made it Israel's lawful inheritance. Its recovery also served to punish Canaanite idolatry and to establish worship of the one true God.