WHERE THERE’S
SMOKE
“On
the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram...” Genesis 15:18.
Introduction
I remember working as a
plumber in a house in Toronto, Canada. I’d just finished what I thought was a
beautiful repair job on a pipe in an awkward place. I’d had the old blow-torch
going as I soldered a pipe to another pipe buried in a wall. I was admiring
what I thought was a neat job when I saw smoke! Oh, oh! You know the old
saying, Where there’s smoke there’s fire! I shudder to think what would
have happened if I hadn’t noticed the smoke. I could have burned down the whole
house with everyone in it.
Have you ever noticed that
the fire-brigade never seems to teach their people to check to see if the
door’s open before the break it down? When
I was a technical college learning how to be a plumber our instructor used to
say: “Always make sure that the flame never leaves the end of your torch!” Apparently the flame had left the end
of my torch and run up the pipe inside the wall. It had set fire to some wood-shavings inside the wall of the
woman’s house in which I was working The
“fierys” managed to put the fire out. But what a mess when it was all over. They had to smash big holes
in the bathroom wall to find the fire to put it out.
Adam and Eve, as it were,
started a fire in the Garden of Eden. Adam
kindled the fiery-anger of God as he brought sin and evil into God’s beautiful
creation. He broke the Covenant
of Works that God had placed him under.
And God pouring out fire and brimstone on places like Sodom and
Gomorrah, according to
Scripture, are examples of how much God hates sin and evil. However, we are thankful that God has
provided sinners an escape from His fiery wrath. We escape through faith in Jesus Christ who rescues us from the
wrath to come. But His rescue
plan is not like a bunch of firemen smashing holes in walls. No! Christ’s plan to put the fire out
is much more carefully planned. And
it was all executed with perfect timing and surgical precision. This plan we call The Covenant of
Grace. The whole Bible is
the revelation of this Covenant. And
in Genesis 15 we see the Lord ratify His covenant with Abram the father of all
believers.
The
general gist of what we’re looking at in the following may be summed up as
follows, The
Covenant of Grace is God’s plan to rescue His people from the fire. First we’ll put ourselves in Abram’s
shoes and consider the covenant from his perspective. Then we’ll put our own shoes back on and consider the covenant as
it stands today. Let’s consider this
under two heads, first The Little Picture and then The Big
Picture.
The Little Picture
We need to look at the content of Genesis 15
through the eyes of Abram. If we’re to understand anything of this passage we
need to try to see things the way he saw things So let’s for the moment observe things as did Abram living circa 2,000
BC.
Take note that he didn’t
have a New Testament. He didn’t even have an Old Testament. God spoke to him directly in a vision
(Genesis 15:1) and then a dream (15:12).
Therefore, take note that everything that transpired in Genesis 15 took
place in a vision and a dream.
As the Lord communicated
with Abram and Abram with the Lord the subject of offspring and land arose
again. The Lord had already
promised Abram offspring and land. So
what we see before us is the ratification of this promise. In other words, the Lord in this
covenant-cutting ceremony was binding Himself by His Word to Abram. He was confirming, i.e., giving Abram
confirmation of His promise of offspring and land. However, if you look at the way the Lord chose to do it, you’d be excused for thinking there
was whole lot more to it than that, what,
with bits of dead animals not to mention the smoking oven and burning torch. Like
they say, Where there’s smoke there’s fire! So, what’s really going on
here? Well, in Genesis 15:1 the LORD told Abram He was his shield and his
exceedingly great reward. And in Genesis 15:6 we see that Abram
believed in his shield and his exceedingly great reward. For that is who the Lord revealed Himself to be to Abram.
Notice in Genesis 15:1 that
the Lord also said to Abram, “Do
not be afraid.” From those words we might anticipate what the Lord was
going to do a little later. For
in Genesis 15:12 we’re told that “horror
and great darkness feel upon him” – i.e., upon Abram.
So let’s make sure we’re all
looking at the same thing here. There’s
Abram sitting on an armchair or whatever on his own somewhere. Then he starts to have this vision. The closest any of us will ever come
to a vision is perhaps a vivid daydream.
Remember when you were off fishing or riding a horse when really you were sitting at your
desk staring at the blackboard in school. Well, Abram’s vision would be nothing
like that. All his senses would have been heightened. He got to converse with the Lord and the Lord showed him things. The Lord took him outside and showed
him the stars in heaven.
Abram also got to carve up a
cow, a ram and a goat and place them strategically. He placed one half of the other opposite the other. He placed a pigeon on one side and a
dove on the other. He even got
to chase some vultures away from the carcasses. All of this took place in a vision. Then a deep sleep fell upon him along with horror and darkness. It was the type of darkness you could
plunge a knife into – right up to the hilt! It was a scary darkness; the kind of darkness that gives you the
creeps; the kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck bristle with
terror. But the Lord has already
said to Abram. “Do not be afraid,
Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
Then we’re told in Genesis
15:17 that the sun had gone down. It was dark. And behold, “A smoking
oven and a burning torch passed between the pieces.” This is what Abram
saw. This was the revelation that God burned into his heart. Abram personally witnessed the Lord
make a covenant with him. This
covenant is the Covenant of Grace and is still in force today.
Just before we move on to
our second heading let me quote some words of Louis Berkhof. Louis Berkhof is a
well-respected Reformed Theologian. He
says,
The Bible teaches that
there is but a single gospel by which men can be saved. And because the gospel
is nothing but the revelation of the covenant of grace, it follows that there
is also but one covenant. The gospel was already heard in material promise,
Gen. 3:15, was preached unto Abraham, Gal. 3:8, and may not be supplanted by any
Judaistic gospel, Gal. 1:8,9.[1]
Let’s hang onto his line, “The Gospel is nothing but the revelation of
the Covenant of Grace.” Therefore this covenant-making ceremony must be
full of the Gospel! Abraham has already heard and had already believed in the
Gospel. For in Genesis 15:6 we’re told that Abram has received through faith
the righteousness he needs to save him from the fires of hell. For, he has
believed in the Lord who is his shield and his exceedingly great reward.
He has been justified, i.e.,
declared righteous, which is evidenced by his faith in the Lord. He believes in
the Lord – the Lord who rescues us by His Gospel. The Lord rescues us as a
fire-man might rescue someone from a burning building, someone who is about to
be engulfed in the flames!
The Big Picture
Now, again, let’s be
reminded that Abram didn’t have a copy of the New Testament under his arm. He
didn’t have a copy of the Apostle’s Creed or the Westminster Confession of Faith.
However, by the same token, the Bible tells us that Abram heard the Gospel, (cf. Galatians 3:8). So he wasn’t some
Neanderthal. He wasn’t some Evolutionist’s cave-man! Abram had a true
knowledge of God revealed to him. He had the righteousness of God
revealed to him. And he had the holiness of God revealed to him. And
all these things were revealed to him by the Lord Himself!
How can we say this? Because
Abram heard and believed in the Gospel. And by believing in the Gospel
Abram was embracing the true knowledge of God, His righteousness and His
holiness, i.e., the things Adam lost in the Fall. In short, God was at work in
Abram’s heart. God was busy reforming Abram back into the true image and
likeness of God. For the Covenant of Grace, i.e., the Gospel, is the true Knowledge
of God, His Righteousness and Holiness. So Abram would be seeing and
understanding much more than todays’ Christian credits him.
So, let’s consider what Abram would be seeing and
understanding. What was Abram doing while the Lord was confirming
his covenant with him? Well, keep in mind that this was, first off, taking
place in a vision. Then the vision intensified into a dream as
Abram went into a deep sleep which fell upon him. The deep sleep and the
darkness that fell upon him were supernatural.
It was the Lord who came
seeking Abram. It was the Lord who had called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
Genesis 15:7. It was the Lord who had come to him in this vision. He’d come now
to confirm the covenant or Gospel He had already revealed to Abram. Abram was already
believing in the Gospel. He was trusting in the Lord as his shield – his
exceedingly great reward. So far, Abram, would have had the same basic
knowledge of God stated in our own Westminster Confession of Faith. Westminster
Confession of Faith chapter 7 under the head “God’s Covenant with Man” states,
The distance between God
and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience
unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as
their blessedness and REWARD, but by some voluntary condescension
on God’s part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.[2]
God has condescended to
reveal Himself in His covenant to Abram. So Abram would have understood
something of the great humility of God. For he saw Almighty God humble Himself
to talk to him and show him His covenant. And also, as he waited for the Lord,
he would have contemplated the meaning of the carcasses. They were graphic
pictures of sin and death.
These were the very types of
animals that were to be used in the future sacrificial system. These were
“clean” animals. Even Noah, years before this event, knew about clean birds and
animals. How did Abram know he was supposed to cut them in half? Well, that’s
how you cut a covenant in those days. The same ceremony was still going on in
Jeremiah the Prophet’s day, “And I will
give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the
words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two
and passed between the parts of it–the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem,
the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the
parts of the calf–I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the
hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the
birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth.” Jeremiah 34:18-19.
Abram had to drive away the
vultures from the carcasses. He knew that those dead animals were there instead
of him. He could see that God would accept a substitute sacrifice on his
behalf. But he knew that that substitute would need to be worth more than a
cow, a ram, goat, a dove and a pigeon! He knew that his substitute sin offering
would need to be a man – a special man. There was coming a time when the Lord
would say to Abram, “Take your son,
your ONLY son Isaac, whom you love … and offer him as a burnt offering”
Genesis 22:2.
So Abram knew that the blood
of goats and heifers and sheep wouldn’t satisfy the justice of God. He knew
that these things were just picture symbols of the real thing; just as in the
future Moses would sprinkle the blood of the everlasting covenant on the
people; just as we today sprinkle the blood of the everlasting covenant
symbolized in water baptism. But Abram knew his substitute needed to be a man
righteous in the eyes of God. He knew he needed to be child from heaven, a
child from God Himself – a child of promise, even the conditional promise – a
child of the covenant. He knew his substitute needed to be his exceedingly
great reward – the blessing of the covenant; the One who would shield him from
all his enemies; the One who would cover his sins against the fiery wrath of
God – against death itself.
And yet what a terrible
dilemma the Lord placed Abram in – IF – IF... if He had promised him
descendants as numerous as the stars – destined for the fires of hell! But
Abram knew, as we shall see as we follow his life, that God’s love is a
covenantal love. He knew according to His covenant, God would save him and his
whole house. Just as the Lord saved Noah and his whole house, so the Lord would
save Abram and his whole house to which you and I today belong. For, as Peter
says in Acts 2:38, “For the promise is
to you and to your children, and to all who afar off, as many as the Lord our
God will call.” And the condition of the Covenant is that we believe in
the Lord and His Covenant, i.e., the Gospel. Abram, we’re told in Romans 4:11,
is the father of all who will believe – in the Gospel.
So Abram sat there
contemplating death as he looked at the blood and the carcasses. And as the sun
had set and horror and great darkness fell upon him he would have tasted
something of the terrors of hell. For hell is in outer darkness as the Lord
informs us in Matthew 8:12. But hell is more than that. It’s the place where
the burning wrath of God abides forever on those who do not believe in the same
Lord in whom Abram believed, John 3:36.
But Abram didn’t have to
worry about hell, for he believed in the Lord. The Lord who had already told
him he’d be buried at a good old age. He’d been told that he’d go to his
fathers in peace – not in torment, Genesis 15:15. But what a terrible and
awesome sight it must have been for Abram to see the Lord appear as a smoking
furnace and a burning torch! How he must have sensed the holiness and the righteousness
of God in this sight. For Abram saw God reveal Himself as a consuming fire!
Hebrews 12:29 says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”
We take it that the
sacrificed animals were consumed as the Lord passed between the pieces, consumed
by the same righteous holiness which consumes, burns up, all sin in its path!
As the holiness and righteousness of God was manifested to Abram, he would have
been acutely aware of his own unholy unrighteousness. However, as the torch and
the pitcher meant victory for Gideon’s army over the enemies of the Lord, so
the smoking oven and torch meant victory for Abram over sin and the last enemy which
is death. For here Abram could see clearly that the Lord was rescuing him from
his sins, from sin and death. Here he could see that this covenant was
completely and utterly a covenant of grace.
God had condescended to
make, i.e., to cut, a covenant with him to save him and his faithful house from
the consuming justice of God. Abram could see the Gospel, the good news of his
salvation as he fixed his eyes upon the Lord.
How is it with you dear reader? Is the Gospel just some billowing smoke to you? Have
you at least noticed the smoke? Remember, where there’s smoke there’s fire!
Our God is a consuming fire,
but His Covenant of Grace is our shield. For the Gospel reveals the One who is
our shield, One who is our exceedingly great reward. However, the Covenant is
the thing that stops our whole house burning down, for the Gospel deflects the
wrath of God from Abram and his whole house to which we belong. It is as it
were the blood painted on the lintel that protected Israel from the destroying
angel at Passover in Egypt.
The Covenant the Lord cut
with Abram signified what happens to unrepentant covenant breakers. They are to
be consumed by the fiery wrath of God. Jesus received the fiery wrath of God as
it was poured out upon Him on the cross, but not as a covenant breaker, but for
covenant breakers such as us. For, He perfectly kept the Covenant by which we
are condemned, i.e., the Covenant of Works (as revealed to pre-Fall Adam).
Jesus, as the Second Adam
and the Last Man, kept the Covenant of Works as our representative, and even
unto death He perfectly did the will of the Father. However, since the Covenant
of Grace is from everlasting, God justice was satisfied by the death of Christ
our substitute. Therefore, He was consumed by the fiery wrath of God not for
His own sin but for the sins of His people a people as numerous as the stars! “For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life” John 3:16.
Jesus asked for our
forgiveness and He said He was going to prepare a place for us. For in His
Father’s house there are many mansions. It’s a land of milk and honey. It’s a
place with no sin, pain, crying, sorrow or death, (Revelation 21:4). It’s a
place in which righteousness dwells.
The Lord kept Abram waiting
as Abram sat contemplating the meaning of what he was witnessing. He pondered
the dead carcasses, torn in half. He pondered their poured out blood. As Jesus
ate the Passover Lamb with His disciples He took bread, gave thanks and broke
it. With the cross waiting for Him outside the door, He said, “Take, eat; this is MY body
broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper saying,
‘This is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of Me.”
The Lord says to Christ as
recorded by His Prophet Isaiah, “I will
preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth.” Isaiah
49:8. Make no mistake, our covenant is IN Christ. Nay,
God’s covenant with Abram and us IS Christ! Christ our
covenant hung on a cross between two divided places. He hung between the two
places that were torn apart by Adam’s sin, heaven and earth. And He hung
on the cross between a divided humanity, i.e., an unrepentant thief on one side
and a repentant thief of the other, one destined for pangs in the utter darkness
and the black fires of hell and the other for bliss and light in Paradise.
As He hung there
contemplating what it all meant supernatural darkness fell upon Him and over
the whole land and the sun was darkened, Luke 23:44-45. Horror and great
darkness fell upon Him as, and like Abram, God kept Him waiting. He experienced
the utter darkness of hell, “My God, My
God why have You forsaken Me?” Then the fiery wrath of God consumed Him,
“My heart is like wax; it has melted
within Me.” Then, when His work was finished, a deep sleep fell upon
Him, even the sleep of death. Then, by the Spirit, Christ entered into the Holy
of Holies with His own blood, Hebrews 9:14. This was signified by the curtain
of separation in the Temple, being cut or torn in two, Mark 15:38. The tearing
in half of that veil means that we are reconciled to God by Christ’s blood. It
means that we are no longer separated from God, that we are now joined together
again. The Apostle says, “[He] was
delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our
justification” Romans 4:25.
The Gospel declares that you
must believe in the Lord to be saved from your sins. Therefore you must believe
in the same Lord in whom Abram believed. Jesus Christ was his shield, his exceedingly
great reward, for He is the sum and substance of the Gospel. For in Him and His
Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, Romans 1:17. Jesus says that Abraham
rejoiced to see His day, and saw it and was glad, John 8:56.
Along with Abram Jesus
rescues all who by God’s grace call on Him. He delivers us from the wrath to
come (1 Thessalonians 1:10), and believe the Scriptures when they tell us about
wrath to come. Abram shooed the birds of prey away from the carcasses as he
waited patiently for the Lord to come. Then the Lord appeared as a smoking oven
and a burning torch. The Lord is coming in like manner again. But let us not
grow impatient. For “The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering
toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance” 2 Peter 3:9. And the verses following say, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements
will melt with a fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will
be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner
of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and
hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be
dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.”
Our God is indeed a consuming
fire. And He’s going to purge the whole universe of unrighteousness. He’ll do
this as He comes which is when He comes to confirm His covenant with the world,
even the cosmos! He’ll separate the sheep from the goats. As the pillar of
smoke and fire separated His people from the Egyptians, so the Son of God will
stand between His own people and those who belong to the world. A river of fire
separate them, even a lake of fire, into which the devil and his followers will
be thrown.
Our God is a just God He
punishes iniquity. But praise be to His name, He is also merciful! The smoking
oven and the burning torch must have been a terrifying sight on a dreadfully
dark night. However, the Good News is that it was simply the LORD’s way of
showing Abram that sometime in the future He was going to cauterize the gaping,
festering wound of our sin. It was a picture of what He was going to do to His
only begotten Son Jesus Christ at Calvary. This is what was being confirmed to
Abram, as we see recorded here in Genesis chapter fifteen.
It was Abram who shed the
blood of these animals. God accepted his sacrifice. It was Christ who shed His
own blood. God accepted His sacrifice. Therefore the LORD, Abram’s shield, his
exceedingly great reward, kept His covenant He had cut with Abram. He kept it
unto death, even His own death upon a cross.
Conclusion
If you’ve read this and all
you’ve seen is a bit of smoke, then remember: Where there’s smoke there’s fire! Just pray that it’s the fire of
the Gospel that’s burning in your heart. But don’t call on the fire-brigade to
come and put it out. Call on the Lord Jesus Christ to come and set your whole
house on fire. Call on Him to come and set your whole street on fire. Call on
Him to set your whole country on fire. Call on Him to set the whole world
ablaze with His glorious Gospel of Grace!
Father we give You thanks
that You have revealed Your Covenant of Grace to us, Abram’s children. We thank
You that You spared His household, to which we belong, from the fires of hell.
Kindle in us anew, a fiery zeal for the advancement of Your kingdom, that Your
kingdom would come, that Your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
May the Gospel light up the
darkness of our hearts and may You make, as the Psalmist says, “Your minister’s
a flame of fire”. May each of us be consumed, not by Your justice (for that is
hell), but rather may each of us be consumed by Your burning love for sinners
such as us. In the Mediator of the Covenant’s name, even Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.
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