Chapter 9. Genesis 15. Abram’s Vision.
THE Lord spoke to Abram in a vision to comfort and encourage him. God promised to do great and wonderful things for him at some future time, but not yet; for He was pleased first to try Abram’s faith and patience.
One night, God brought him out into the fields, and told him to look upwards. The stars were shining in the sky, and God told Abram to try to count them; but there were more, many more than Abram could number. Then God said, So shall thy children be. Abram had yet no children, but he believed God still. He felt sure that the Lord could and would do as He promised. He is an example of faith for us. God speaks to us in the Bible, which is His own word, and He makes many beautiful promises to His children, and we know that He will fulfill every one of them.
God promised Abram that He should inherit the land of Canaan; and He told him what would happen to his children when he himself was dead. Then God commanded Abram to take an heifer three years old, a goat three years old, and a ram three years old, a turtle dove and a young pigeon, to divide the three first in pieces and offer them in sacrifice, and when the birds came to devour the dead bodies of these animals, Abram drove them away. That same night, God spoke to Abram again, and told him that his children should go to a strange land, and be afflicted there; but that after four hundred years they should come out of that land with great riches. “And thou,” said God, “shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.”
And when the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, which passed between the pieces of the sacrifice which Abram had offered at God’s command.
What was the meaning of this? Perhaps the vision was meant to teach Abram what should happen to his children, in that strange land in which they were going. The smoking furnace might teach him that they would be afflicted; and the bright lamp, that they would be comforted. God often afflicts His people to teach them lessons which they could learn no other way; but He always comforts them too, and so we shall soon see, if the Lord wills, how He afflicted and comforted Abram’s children, the people of Israel in the land of Egypt. “But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” Lam. 3:32, 3332But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:32‑33).
ML 03/07/1909