Dr. Dean Alley PhD: All right, Chaplain Dean Alley. I had a moment. I hope you're doing well. It's Wednesday. Congratulations. Excuse me, you're halfway there, folks. So just to get into chapter 15 of Genesis, always rich with details about what we're doing as we walk line by line, precept by precept, looking at the Scripture and scripture being king, let's just talk about a couple things, okay? So when we look at chapter 15, and it says, let me see if I can find it. Yeah, so it's the patriarchal period, right? Patriarchs are fathers of. So Abraham is a father of people, so that's where I get patriarch. That period is around 2000 BC. The animal cutting that we will see is part of the covenant ceremony that is a near eastern land transfer right. So this this thing is would be would be very much understood in that time frame and it in in in in to in for in I'm sorry, antiquity. Sorry about Thinking of sin, and then I'm thinking about the old stuff. So, anyways, God alone passes through it. He binds himself. the four hundred delay, four hundred year delay, and the Amorite iniquity or the sins show measured historical justice. So the stated boundaries match the later ideal extent and the future millennial reign of Israel. future millennial reign, where they'll be judged by God and by Jesus actually. And then what we learn is They have not accepted. They've rejected him all through the Old Testaments, even the old and the New Testament. Now that's not every single Jew. There's always remnants. there's Messianic Jews that believe that there is a Jesus. a full Orthodox Jew today cannot properly without a temple have his sins atoned for with an animal without a temple. So they're not even following. Some of the requirements there. So I'm sure they're frustrated and they can't wait to get that third temple and they got it ready to go. But so it's important as we think about this and and and go through what is this covenant going to be? What is God trying to do with this nation of Israel? Now God got and I get this question all the time: why did God choose Israel? Well, he says it. He says, I chose you. Because you are not a great nation, you are a small nation. And he wanted to use them as an example to bring the seed. So right now we're talking about the Abrahamic seed with what? The future seed is Christ. Through the lineage. And the actual seed will start through Isaac. That's where we'll see it. Not not Abraham is Isaac's son, but really picks up speed when Isaac has the you know, Jacob and and Ishmael, which was that's another conversation we'll talk to down the road. But so when we start thinking about this particular set of promises or Abraham's promise son, let's let me just start going right into it a little bit and saying, So after these things, and you say, Well well, Chaplain Dean, what is these things? Well, if you would just scoot down here where it says number four. Then behold the word of the Lord came to him saying This man will not be your heir but one who will come forth from your own body and he shall be your heir. So what you'll find is that's the answer that God will give him. So so Abraham, this is kind of Lord came to Abraham, he's giving him a vision, right? And he's he is the patriarch at this point and he says he says do not fear abraham i am a shield to you and your reward shall be very great and we're gonna learn about this as we go through each one of these chapters so that was the first two right there so when I think about those first two These first two pieces here says, after these things, the word of the Lord and the vision came. we see that L-O-R-D capitalized in the first verse is is is certainly talking about all caps Jehovah. Okay. And then when we look at the second verse, it's got a lowercase, Lord, right? So he he comes in with a lowercase when we see the L only. It's usually meaning Adon and Adonai or Master, right? And Adon means master in Hebrew. So Lord not L O R D marks the master servant relationship, okay? Let me give you something to think about. So Exodus four ten says Moses speaks to the Lord, L-O-R-D capped, which is Jehovah. But addresses him as Lord, lowercase, capital L, lowercase, Lord, master, and calls himself what? A servant in this verse. So we compare another verse to what we just read, scripture with scripture, and then Isaiah 6, 1, 5, and 8. Isaiah sees the Lord, capital L, lowercase Lord, master. So he's calling him master on the throne. Then Eloard large caps of hosts, so he's talking about Jehovah, which is God. And he answers as a servant he says here I am. H here am I, send me, is what he says in that in those verses. It's the same route to maybe a husband and a wife. It's given that kind of in Genesis 18 twelve, it has that same root of servant, master, here I am type thing. So in the New Testament, Christ is master and we are all what the servants. Ephesians six, eight and nine tells us that. And Colossians 4 1 says it. So Genesis 15, again, this is going to start talking about his faith. So let's go to verse 3. Said, and Abram, see he hasn't been called Abraham yet. He hasn't got that title yet. He hasn't got there yet. Abram is still what he's being called. And he says And Abram said, or behold, look, since you have given no offspring, so he he is basically saying to God, Literally, I don't have a seed. And it's a big deal in the Middle East about having male seeds. The women, not so much. I know that. I lived there almost a year. So it's all about the the men, the lineage. trust me, all all the folks that are pushing for this type of culture to coming to America. I gotta I gotta tell you that you will not change four thousand years of history because you say so and they're gonna assimilate to everything you want in the United States. That's not gonna happen. Trust me. You will assimilate to them. That's the way it'll be. And as we continue to act like we're doing everybody a favor and we're nice and they'll take care of us. I'm gonna I'm just gonna tell you there is probably fifteen to twenty percent of the all Muslims That are radicalized. And if you're a woman, you have no rights. If you are of an alternate lifestyle, you will not be on the planet once they find out. they'll throw you off a building. They'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll kill you. I mean, they are that hard pressed with Sharia law. And you say, Well, well that's not gonna happen. This is the United States and we're gonna get these protections, folks. Listen to me. Listen to me when I tell you that number one, I've learned over the years not to trust them. Why? Because you turn your back on they'll try to kill you. Why do I say that? It happened to me. In their country. There were the nicest people you met in front of you. But as soon as you turn your back, they try to get everything you had, and they would kill you for it. So Abram, since you have given no offspring, so he's saying basically pretty pretty staunchy, I think, says You've given me no offspring, Lord Jehovah. The one born in my house is is my heir. So he's he's giving you the sense that is he's gonna Eliezer is his servant, he's his head servant, and he would be the one that would automatically take over the heir of Abraham. Then behold, or look, when God when the word of the Lord came to him. So when the Lord heard him say that, saying, This man will not be your heir. So he emphatically comes back and says, Eliezer will not be your heir to the promised seed. And but the one who will come forth from your body, your own body. And he's given us the inner parts. He's basically telling us he's talking about Isaac, folks. Isaac is going to bring forth that seed. and he shall be your heir. Now you gotta remember he's not ha I mean he's a he's an old guy. He's not used to I mean he's up there in age and he's at a point where he's getting frustrated and that's there's a sin nature there where he takes which we'll learn, we ta he takes Ha Hagar the the the the servant of his wife Sarai and basically tells them have have a child with them. And that was not uncommon in those y those those areas because they will mass populate because of their Culture. So four thousand years ago they had as many kids as they can. What do you think they try to do today? Same thing. They overpopulate for the reasons of mass by numbers. And that's how you're seeing in Europe and different places and just just by sheer numbers they're taking over in some cases. So we know Isaac's coming, he shall be the heir, right? So verse five. And he took him outside and said, Now he said, Look. So God takes him, he says, Look towards the heavens, and he tells them, He says, Count the stars if you're able to count them. And you know, and I know a star, a luminous I mean, you cannot count all the stars in heaven. You can't. so that gives you the sense, you know, a a human person can't count every single star. So You'd say, Well, that's a little exaggeration, that's a hyperbole, but he's giving you the magnitude of your seed, Abraham, all the stars. And he uses other characters in Genesis to bring that point to to to focus. And he says, Look towards the heavens and he says, and he said, So shall your s your descendants, Abraham, your seed, will be. And he's he's he's saying, You're gonna you're gonna be the father of this nation. Now, I told you the reason he chose Israel. They're not you you say, Well, they're just you know, they're supposed to be no. That's the tr that is the people that God chose to bring the seed. Bring Jesus through for you and me and he chose Israel. Doesn't make Israel any great nation or anything like that in special secret sauce and all that. It's a chosen nation and he chose them because they were so the smallest, but also to prove that he will take the smallest and make him the greatest. He does that all through the Bible with you see it with miracles, right? Or he you know, he uses the least of the person to bring forth his his message. And what we see here is where his descendants are coming. So people don't get twisted or upset or swung on this whole Israel thing. and everybody gets so so distanced from it. I mean Israel is chosen to bring the seed of Christ through the seed that comes all the way through to the New Testament. Okay. And he shows us how we do that through genealogy, and we see that as we go through Genesis. Genesis meaning the beginning. So that's where we get that sense. People today want to turn today's society, front page news. and say, look what they're doing in the Gaza Strip and then they automatically go back four thousand years and start saying applying two thousand twenty six into two thousand B C. That's taking your culture, your your s your situation, which is totally out of context, and pouring it into this time frame. So I see it all the time. People people are are are anti Semitic and all this other stuff. I don't know where that comes from. I don't, I don't. And I mean they're a nation, they're they're gonna protect themselves, they're gonna do the things that they need to do as a nation, and they're the chosen people to bring the seed through, and that's that's it. And they will be judged because they have not believed on him, and that'll come in the future and we'll see that. So and he wasn't able to count me and he said, So shall your descendants be. And let's see here. And he said to him, let's see if we can't even pull that up now. Then he what? Abraham believed in the Lord, L-O-R-D, our Father in heaven, Jehovah, and it and he reckoned. What does reckon mean? Reckon means that he he it's imputed, it's given, it's it's in a point where we find that He reckoned it given to him. So he didn't earn it, he gave it to him. six. So he believed, who believed? Abraham. He believed. And what does it say? He was it was reckoned to unto him as righteousness. And he said to him, Abraham, I am the Lord who brought you out of the out of Ur, which you're gonna hear that theme Egypt eventually. Now this goes back to Genesis eleven, if you remember, he brings him out of Ur, tells him to get up and leave out of Ur of Chaldees, which is is kinda like Babylon, if that makes any sense. it's an old ancient Mesopotamian city. The Chaldees is just a ethnic group that he was with. I believe Abraham was Syrian. That's just my two cents. and it was it it was record to him as to righteousness, believed, i.e. believed what he heard. you know. So what is what is Romans 1017 says? So faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. So he hears and he believed and was counted or imputed on him. And the righteousness. it's it's an emphatic article here. He is it's given to him. He it's as righteousness, because he believed concerning Christ, because it is the most righteous. It's it's righteousness which was negative or non imp imputed of any type of sin. So that's where we pick up that that righteousness by and he said he took he took him out of the land of or or or out of Ur of Chaldeez to give you this land and possess it. You say or it inherit it. What is he talking about? He's talking about Canaan. He's gonna give him Canaan and that's gonna be where he's gonna be going. And we see that. I think if you followed me along a little bit in the previous one, we talked about it. And then he says to give to you to possess. So hear me when I say this. He says it in 15, Genesis 15:7, to give, to give you this land, which is Canaan, to possess it, inherit it. That Changes the dispute of whose land it is. Are you with me? So you have the Palestinian group, the Arab nation say that no no no, that's that's that's not that's not i i Israel, it's not theirs, and that's incorrect. And we see this in this just reading this right here. and then he says to the Lord, he says, Lord, God, how may I know that I will possess it? And that's a question. So he starts asking a question. He says to him, who's this this is God again, bring me a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Okay? And this is nine, right? So This is going to be an offering. You can see it coming. Then he brought all these to him, and this is their culture, is to cut them into two. That is the to be in the midst of that. They cut that in two, and he laid each half on one side, but it did not cut the birds. So the birds were too small to cut, but he did the big animals, he cut them in two. And what we'll find here is he's going to He'll he'll he'll walk through this. in a minute. We're gonna talk about how he does it. But it's when he says number nine, he's he we're going back to he says, so to him, bring me or take me to him. This is gonna be the the the part where he is going to say an offering. This is gonna be an offering and it's gonna be the heifer. And that's the primary thing. So Verse eleven says the per birds of the prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abraham drove them out. Now starts a now. This is a new line here. Now. Okay, Abram. This is now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And behold, terror and great darkness fell on him. So he he a terror when I say so terror in the sense of just terror. extremely dark. so he is putting him to sleep so that he should have no part in it. Why did he put him as he didn't want him awake to be part of that covenant, which was going to be unconditional in which God was the only one of the contracting party. So by having him asleep, Abraham is not part of that covenant. It's gonna be assumed by It'll be assumed by God that that covenant is through that basically it's not going to be anything that's going to come on him and it's not going to be it'll be an uncon unconditional covenant given to him, right? So God said to Abram after he's fallen asleep, Now as certain that your descendants will be strangers in the land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. What is he talking about? He's talking about Egypt, folks. He's talking about in thirteen, he's talking about where y they're going to be enslaved. 14 says, But I will also judge the nation. And when we think about that's the Egyptians, he's going to judge them. And when I think about who they will serve afterwards, they will come out with many possessions. Many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. So he's he's giving him a forecast, prophecy here of himself. You will live to be a right old age. And he's basically telling him this. And then he goes on to say in sixteen, then the what the fourth generation, okay. So the fourth generation is they will return here. So four hundred years, right? A hundred years per generation. By the iniquities of the Amorites is not yet complete. So he was not yet to judge the Amorites or the Canaanites yet. They weren't it wasn't complete yet. So they had to be four hundred years or or four generations, as we read here. and he says, On that day the Lord made a covenant covenant with Abraham, saying to your descendants, I have given you this land from the river of Egypt. two, which is essentially the Book of Egypt, which it's between Negev, Israel, and then the Sinai Peninsula. It's kinda in there. It's mentioned probably several times in the Old Testament. But Egypt as far as a great river, which is Euphrates, so from the Euphrates all the way to to essentially the river in Egypt. As far as the Great River and the River Euphrates. So he's giving him the boundaries. And that is essentially let me see if I can pull See if I can pull this up. Give you some some sense of direction here. This is I need stretch it out. Let's see if I can stretch it out. Okay. So he's here is the Brook of E i right here. Let's do this, let me show ya. I I like to be a visual guy, right? So let's pull that window. I'm gonna share this with me. Hopefully you can see it. So here we go. Here's the brook of Egypt. You can see me right here, right? Euphrates is way down here. Look how far that is. I'm gonna blow it up for you. But this is Euphrates and the Tigris, right here. I know it well. I was there. here is let's see if it gives us the name. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't on these maps. Okay, I can't get it, but basically, That's the Euphrates right here. See the Euphrates? See? All the way to the Euphrates River, all the way to the brook of Egypt. And that Euphrates goes all the way up. Let me put bring it down for you a little bit. So you get a sense. See it is Euphrates. Still talking Euphrates now. Euphrates, Euphrates. Try to here we go. Alright, so Euphrates is going all the way. See how the Euphrates is? See this whole thing right here? All the way down here, and then all the way over to the brook. So they are getting all of this land. All of this land is what he's promised to And that's what I wanted to show you. so anyways, so he gives it to It's gonna be theirs. He's gonna live to be a right ripe old age. it came about when the sun had set, it was very dark, behold, there was a smoking oven and a flaming torch, which passed between the pieces, right? And on this day the Lord God made a covenant with Abram and he said to your descendants I give i I've given this land we just looked at the parameters from the river Egypt all the way to the great river of Euphrates and then the Canaanite which the Canaanites are basically let's see, I think they're from Canaanites constituted non-Israel group. They're they were not Israel groups. Well, let's see, they were Cain's descendants. They were from Cain the Canaanites makes sense. Cain, Canaanites, that was their descendant. and then the Kesazites, another Edom, and these are going to be the ones that and then the Ketamites. So those three set of people are the groups that will be addressed in Canaan as well. So we know that they were not and then the Hittites. So the Hittites are part of this. Sorry. And then the Pezzerites and the Refums. Which are the giants and generally follow the nations. Then last it says the An Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Giggershites and the Sherbr Jebersit. He just labelled that land of people that are inhabitant as the ones that he's gonna give. To Israel, to Abraham. So it's important as we we break through this and we look at this, folks, that chapter fifteen is full of rich history here of what's going on here. There's a lot going on. We've unpacked it here. I I look at it from a doctoral standpoint. Lord Jehovah or or Yahweh is the covenant name, and Lord Adonai is. Danye is matt the master, which is justification by faith alone, right? He was justified. I've been having a scratchy throat. Israel is earthly, the church is heavenly. The land covenant is unconditional and still stands today. Okay? So don't listen to CNN when they tell you that that's the Arab nations and it's all theirs. Romans 4 5 says, justified by faith plus nothing. And dust versus the stars. the dust is Israel. I'm giving you a imagery of symbolism. So the dust is Israel, God's earthly people. Genesis 15, 5. The stars are the heavenly people, which is the church that's connected to the same faith. And Israel remains Israel. So we don't we don't take a we're temporarily. The church age is where we are today, and it's gonna come back to Israel. And we're grafted in. Remember, we've had that conversation that we are grafted into Abraham's seed because of our belief, because we believed and we are the church or the bride of Christ or the body of the Christ. So the dust is Israel, thirteen sixteen, fifteen five, the stars, what we just talked about. That's us the church connected only by the same faith. And Israel remains Israel. And then the Israel's deed. God confirms this land transfer by doing a covenant. And it was a covenant that He provided. So God swears to Abraham, the promise does not rest on human strength in aging. The childless man, Declared righteous before God. The same God waited for centuries, and the Canaanites, wicked keeps every word and spoken. Then the prophecy. Sorry, guys, my dog's trying to get in my lap. the prophecy basically the four hundred years we talked about, we talked about the boundaries from where it's at. then we look at the application here. We call him master as his servant. we rest in his justification of faith alone, adding works void grace. So if you start working for something, it's not a gift. It's not a faith belief. My attributes will automatically come as a Christian as a result of your belief system. So it keeps Israel so it keeps Israel and church distinction. Okay. There's two different things there. There's no such thing as what most people will say. I think the Catholic Catholic Church they'll say today that we replace Israel or the covenant theology I think of Reformation would say we we replace Israel and that's not the case. And just hold to the promise as it's settled. Lasting peace comes only when the master He's front and center. Folks, Japlain Dean Alley, sorry about this. I've got a terrible, terrible scratchy throat, and I'm gonna sign off here. I hope this was a blessing. If you have any questions, please let me know. And you take care. God bless. Bye-bye.