This is the beginning of the covenant God made with Abraham and that Paul wrote of in Galatians 3. The entire chapter of Genesis 15 is of a special covenant containing promises that God made with Abraham to provide him with an heir and descendants from his own house, and inheritance of the land.
One of the interesting things, at least to me anyway, is to note God's foresight in all of this. Remember, this was before Abraham had any heir at all. We are talking about when he was somewhere shortly after the age of 75 and before Isaac was born. That is a long time before the children of Israel came out of Egypt. God's foresight included some form of discipline for Abraham's descendants that was going to last for 400 years—before the beginning of fulfillment of at least part of what God had in mind here.
You will notice a difference between the 430 years mentioned in Exodus 12 and the 430 years mentioned in Galatians 3, and the 400 years that is mentioned here. Now nobody—and I mean nobody—has been able to know exactly what event began the 400 years, because nobody has zeroed in on an event and it is not written in the Bible, as far as we know.
Researchers have come to the conclusion that the 400 years is simply intended to be an approximation of the 430 years. They back this up with the mention of the four generations in verse 16. Those generations appear to be Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Moses. Since those people lived a great deal longer than we do, the researchers say that God assigned roughly approximately 100 years to each generation. By this, Abraham, in faith, would understand that at some time in that fourth generation would come the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy that God made.
We need to understand so we get a bigger grasp on things here because this covenant is awesome. We need to understand that God is inaugurating a much, much larger plan, beginning with Abraham and then continuing through Isaac, who was a type of the Promised Seed, then Jacob and his twelve children (thirteen counting Dinah), Joseph and going down into Egypt, the famine that began while Joseph was there forcing Jacob to go down into Egypt where Israel grew into millions of people, and out of that millions of people God raised up Moses through whom would come the freeing of Israel from their captivity.
Brethren, that was just the first step of the fulfillment of the promises that are contained in this covenant God made with Abraham.
The events of Genesis 15 are a very significant starting point. The events of Exodus 12 and 13 carry those events to its first major, major fulfillment. I said "major, major," because when Isaac was born, that was the first step in the fulfillment of these promises.
The events of Genesis 12 and 13 are the next major step in the fulfillment of this covenant that God is making with Abraham in Genesis 15. What is happening here is that God is, with Abraham and this covenant, formally beginning His spiritual purpose. However, that will be preceded by forming Abraham's physical descendants into a physical nation which God will use for His purposes, and from whom God will draw the bulk of those who are going to be in the first resurrection. We can see it is beginning to step out and include us.
The real beginnings of the Old Testament Church were not at Sinai, but in the land of inheritance where Abraham pitched his tent. Eventually what Stephen gets around to is the New Testament Church, but on his way there he has to establish what he calls "the congregation in the wilderness." So where does the establishment of "the Church in the wilderness" begin? He goes back to Abraham, not to Mount Sinai. That is the foundation. The foundation of God's spiritual purpose is the covenant with Abraham, not what happened at Sinai or anytime after that. The real formal beginning (if we can put it that way) was that seemingly simple ceremony we see in Genesis 15.
It's interesting to notice something here—and that is God's foresight. And, I might add here, also His plan. Remember that Abraham didn't have a child yet. But already God is planning a discipline that He is going to put the descendants of Abraham [through], in which they would be subject to others. But also planned was their release from that subjugation, the destruction of the Amorites under Joshua, and the inheritance of the Land. What God is showing is that the events of the exodus were part of a much larger plan, which God inaugurated through Abraham and then continued through Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. So let's go to chapter 17, where the real covenant was made with Abram.
And from that small beginning (beginning with Abraham and Sarah) came Isaac and Rebecca, and then Jacob and his wives and children, the selling of Joseph into Egypt. Then the famine drove Jacob down into Egypt along with all of his relatives (75 of them), where they grew into a sizable nation—subjugated by the Egyptians. That is, a nation of about 2 ½ million people. Then came the raising up of Moses, the destruction of Egypt culminating in the slaying of the firstborn on the 14th of the first month. And then the climax—the children of Israel leaving Egypt 430 years to the day that God entered into the covenant with Abraham!
On that very day Abraham, Ishmael, and all the males of Abraham's household were circumcised, and thus they received the sign of the covenant. The covenant that was made at Mt. Sinai was essentially the same covenant as that entered into by God and Abraham, but expanded to include the entire nation (that is, all the descendants of Abraham). And added to it, then, were civil and ceremonial laws necessary for administering the covenant to the whole nation. That makes the 15th of Nisan (or, if you prefer, Abib) a very significant date.
I think, in collating these verses from these various translations, that Israel was to keep The Night To Be Much Observed, at least in part, as a night of watching—of watchful vigil—in order to commemorate the reason they were able to leave Egypt so easily. The reason that they were able to leave Egypt so easily was because God was watching over them as His plan unfolded. If you put together Genesis 15 with the story in Exodus, you can begin to see how God was watching over them. He had this plan. Their being in Egypt as a slave people was a discipline for them so that, when they would come out of there, they would be prepared to go through the wilderness—and then prepared for taking over the land. That was God's plan, and so God watched over it to bring it to its completion. But it's not done yet, because you are a part of that plan now. Remember that we saw in Genesis 17 that now it has eternal consequences, and it is still in operation. This is a big day that we are celebrating here.
I do not think we need to read any further. That is far enough there. So God made a covenant with Abram, and I want you to notice two things here. In verse 12, "And when the sun was going down. . ." And then verse 17, " And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp. . ."
Brethren, when did Israel leave Egypt? They went out of Egypt when the sun went down! Exactly 430 years to the day after the covenant was made! We were discussing this yesterday and Richard said that knowing God, they probably went out of Egypt right at the very second to 430 years. We will be conservative and say it was right to the minute. I do not know.
Nobody holds God back from what He wants to do. He says in Isaiah, "My counsel shall stand." This is why the prophecies ring with such a positive assurance. No puny man or angel, or mighty army of angels, or all the nations of men can stop Him from acting on what He purposes to do. Really brethren, under the best of circumstances, we are saved in spite of ourselves anyway.
There is also some evidence in the original Hebrew pictograph that the word “fiery,” on occasion is connected to the fire of a sacrifice.
With this in mind, both of these words appear in a place directly attached to the events of the daylight hours of the 14th day of the first month into the night to be much observed after sunset on the 15th.
When a covenant is made, and the sacrificial animal’s parts are separated, the two parties of the covenant each go through the midst of the parts as affirmation of binding of the covenant.
But here we see the burning torch representing God Himself, guaranteeing the binding covenant for both parties.
Brethren, this is the truth we remember today and tonight and the real torch of freedom, who is Jesus Christ.
This is the beginning of the promise we just read of there in Deuteronomy 1:8, but that promise is gradually expanded to include more.
Instead of just being a vague promise of land, now we have some dimensions that are set, and those dimensions go all the way from the River Nile to the River Euphrates. I am not going to go through the whole promise as it has expanded from time to time, but we are going to jump all the way to Romans 4 and update this into New Testament, New Covenant times.
The promises expanded out of the land of Palestine from between the two great rivers, the River Nile and the River Euphrates, and now we find Abraham is going to inherit the entire world. It gets even greater than that because we find in the book of Hebrews:
That is greatly expanded now, is it not? And that is what we are going to see, here. The promise to Abraham and to his seed is gradually expanded from what Abraham could see. We see it expanded from the River of Egypt (the Nile river), to the River Euphrates. Now we are talking about something that is several hundred miles square; a considerably larger piece of land.
