Abraham and Melchizedek — G.W. North

I took this in the morning meeting, one Sunday, and if I happen to repeat some of the things I said then, I suppose it's because the word of God changes not, praise his name. And we don't have to apologize for it.

I wonder why some of you people have been coming to listen to me preach anyway for about twelve years. I must have repeated myself very, very, very often. You don't seem to have got tired of it. Amen.

This blessed truth is inexhaustible. This chapter, Genesis 15, quite easily divides into two at verse 7 and then, of course, verse 8. We're going to look at it together in a moment or two. We'll take it in its two sections because it is so obviously in two sections.

Abraham’s Victory and the Shield of God

I want to refresh your memory that last week we left Abraham there in the presence of Melchizedek and Sodom and the wonderful transaction that took place between that dear man's soul, Melchizedek, and his strong stand against Sodom.

Those of you who take the notes will find out that they're constructed rather differently from the course our Bible study took last week. That's because I did them and I got fresh light on them, I suppose.

This is the wonder of God's Word. But Abraham was refusing to have anything to do with Sodom. He wouldn't take a crop. And, you will remember that he had come back from the warfare with Kedol Aomer and those other kings, and he'd come back the absolute victor, and it would be wonderful to him to hear Melchizedek say, God has given thine enemies into thy hand.

What a blessed thing. He held his enemies in his hand. That's a tremendous place to be. God wants us all to be there. But he only held his enemies in his hand because the other hand was lifted up to Almighty God, the possessor of heaven and earth.

He was in right relationship with everybody on the earth at that moment, so far as he knew. Even in relationship with his enemies, you should always have them in your hand. You shouldn't be in their hands.

Because he was in that blessed right relationship with God through this great Melchizedek. His heart relationship was right with the Lord. And, in the beginning of the fifteenth chapter, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

Now, bless the Lord, it was wonderful, even though he had had the confirmation that his enemies were in his hand. It was a wonderful thing when the Lord came to him and said, Now, it's all right, Abram, I'm going to be your shield.

You can just settle down now, get all about warfare and all the trouble. You can just settle down and concentrate upon me. I haven't brought you out of the Calvary to be constantly badgered and troubled about fights and wars and I don't know what.

I want you to concentrate upon me. I'm going to be everything to you, Abram. He's not quite saying that, but this is the way that God is revealing himself to Abram. And in this chapter, this is the big thing.

We're going to discover things about God and his methods. Because as I've already told you, God raised up this man, Abram, so that he could make himself known unto men. You know that finally that was so, because it was through Abram that the seed, Jesus Christ came, through whom he made himself known to men much more wonderfully.

And we begin to see God's deliberate unfolding of himself to Abram and what a discovery this man made of God ere the story of him closes. And in the chapter tonight, we're going to see some of the precious things.

You see, God could begin to reveal himself to this man and it's precisely because people aren't in the position that this man was in that they don't have God revealing himself to them. They don't know God because they're not in the position that Abram was in when God just began to say, now Abram, I've got you where I want you and now I want you to know something about me.

And it's a glorious thing when God does that. He looked into this man's heart. He knew him through and through. Does that comfort your heart to know that God knows you through and through? You're not wanting to run away and hide because of that, are you?

If so, there's something wrong with it, there's some sin in it. The thought that God sees and knows me through and through is either very comforting or very frightening and here's this man and God knows him.

But he doesn't know God. He's built an altar really to an unknown God every time he's built an altar. All the heathen do that and Abram started off as a heathen. Now he's getting to know the Lord and what a wonderful process it is.

God looking at him says, Abram, I'm your shield. I am your exceeding great reward. Do you know why? Because Abram was worthy of an exceeding great reward. He'd been put through a test. Now the blessings of God's dealings with us in grace is this, that when he puts us through the test for something which afterwards will forever seem to us as a thing of naught, God will load his riches upon us and heap upon us the great abundance of his grace in reward.

God is so easily satisfied if only we saw it. God is so easily pleased. He's a father. Every father is most easily pleased. I ought to know I'm a father. A father is as easily pleased as anything. All he wants is obedience.

That's right. It's all a father wants. He's as pleased as anything if he can get that. He doesn't expect big things otherwise than that. But if you get that, that's what he wants. He'll provide the rest if he can, of course.

There are limitations to human parents. But with God, he's delighted. Abram has come through a test and he says, exceeding great rewards for you now, Abram. My! And you know, if Abram had been an ordinary man, of course he was an ordinary man, but I mean he was an extraordinary ordinary man, as all men of faith are.

They're only ordinary men, but they're extraordinary ordinary men, see? And he'd come through this thing. He'd come back with all the spoil. He'd come back with the plunder that he'd taken back from this army and he'd given it all away.

Do you know, beloved, there wasn't a scrap of materialism in Abram. Not a scrap. He gave a tenth to God and then he gave the other nine tenths away. He gave God the tithe as a token that God had all. That's all the tithe is for.

It's only a token. Don't you think you've given God a lot if you've given him two shims out of the pound, will you? It's only a token. You haven't given God anything, really, not if you've done that. It's a token.

That's all it is. That everything's yours, Lord. And then he did with the rest what everybody who loves God should do. If you love your God, you see that you love your brother also, so he loved his brother a lot.

And he gave the rest back to Sodom and said, here, you can live on this all along. I don't want anything of this. It's all God's. I've given God the token to show it's his. And now here's the rest. It's not mine at all.

I don't know if you look on the rest of those eighteen shillings like that, after you've given God two shillings. I wonder if you do. It's not mine at all. And God comes back to Abram and he says, now Abram, I'm your exceeding great reward.

Faith’s Reward Is God Himself

And Abram says, oh, what will you give me? I don't want anything, Lord. I don't want anything. Abram was a dead honest man. That's the reality of Abram. Now listen, beloved, if faith makes a man anything, listen, it isn't just that it makes him able to perform miracles.

The Egyptians in Egypt did that. It is that it makes him straight, simple, honest, like God himself. That's the glory of faith. Most people want faith for the wrong reasons. That's why they don't get it.

Faith made this man like the Lord God himself. He says, I don't want anything, Lord. He wasn't a materialist. Bless him. He was content with the blessings of God. He was a rich man. But I never knew a rich man who didn't want to get richer.

A normal man. But not so Abram. Riches were the favours of God to him. They became just tokens of the blessings. And that's all they were. He regarded the others as tokens that he gave to God. He was a man that was freed from possessions, blessed be God.

He was freed from possessions in that sense. A man's life consisted not in the abundance of the things he possesses, says the Lord Jesus Christ. And how true it is. But you will also remember that that other Sunday morning, I made this remark that most of us don't hear what God says.

We hear what we think he says. Even so. You see, Abram says, Lord, what will you give me? I suppose he got so used to God coming and saying, now Abram, I'm going to give you this. And Abram, I'm going to give you that.

And Abram, I'm going to give you that. And he thought, sure, God had come to give him something. You see, God is such a wonderful giver. Have you got into the habit of thinking about God like that? He not only forgives, he gives.

And that's a very, very wonderful thing. He's always giving. But he said, Lord, what are you going to give me? Now, God hadn't come and said he was going to give you anything. He'd only come and said, I am.

That's right. Not what I'm going to give you is your reward, but I am your reward. Faith's reward is not receiving fulfillments of promises. Faith's reward is God himself. That's right. A tremendous thing to realize.

I am thy exceeding great reward. Abram, will you settle down and be happy with me? Abram, will you be content with me? Abram, will you take me as your reward? Oh, bless the Lord. If he'd offered him all the stars in heaven, he couldn't have offered him anything more.

And yet Abraham had a dear wish in the bottom of his heart. And moreover, he had the word of God that had gone before about it too. And so he brings this to the Lord. And it's as though he says, Lord, all right, if you're my exceeding great reward, will you interpret this in terms of the promises that you've made before to me?

Will you bring your great promises, which I believe and accept, will you bring them into something solid and real? Now, faith isn't impertinent when it does that. Faith is that wonderful ability to know God along certain lines, the lines that he has laid down himself in promises, and bring them into reality in the life.

That's very, very wonderful. Faith is not just something which says, Oh, yes, I believe, I believe, all very nebulous and sort of fanciful. And if I offer, I'll take it. But faith says, Oh, Lord, let's see how he goes.

What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

That's it. He said, It seems to me, Lord, that everybody in my house, they all have children. And me, not me, Lot, he had some, and he's left me. Now, Eliezer, he's got his son. I haven't got a chick or a child.

Lord, you've promised me this. And there's nothing else you can give me, Lord, that will be a substitute for this. Nothing else. Nothing else in the world. This is all I want. Only want your promise fulfilled.

Now that's a blessed place to be in. But, beloved, there comes a time when we put God to the test, if you like to put it this way, but God says right now, the moment's come. The moment's come. I'm going to put you to the test, too.

Now, this is a principle in the way that God deals with heart. He lays down his word. He makes his promises. And then he brings us to a place where he puts us on the spot. And he says, now, all this is thine, if thou wilt.

You remember the devil tried that stunt, too. He said, took it to Jesus. He said, all this is thine, if thou wilt do this. It's the same with God. You see, the devil's so artful. He knows the line along which to cut.

He's a great psychologist, this Satan. And so, God puts, he comes in verse 5 and he says, look now, he brings Abraham out of his tent. Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them.

And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be mine. He hadn't got, as I say, a chicken or a child. And God brings him out. And his old eyes look up to the skies. And God says, now, you count those stars, Abraham.

They are more than the hairs of his head and of his old white beard, doubtless. And he says, your seed is going to be like that. Now, beloved, when God does appear to your heart, and he does talk to you, and you talk to him, and God says, I am.

And then you start praying to the Lord. And he brings you to what he wants to bring you to. Abraham, it's like this in our transactions with God. He felt he was bringing God to what he wanted. But in reality, isn't God wonderful?

He was bringing Abraham to what he wanted. You can't fathom God. You can't begin to teach God anything. You can't begin to point out his ways. It's wonderful how he does it. And he has here Abraham looking up to the stars.

And I suppose if the devil had come along and he said, well, you're stargazing, Abraham. You're dreaming. And all the temptations that could have come into that man's heart there, but he was standing there with God.

And it was God that had told him to look at the stars. It was God that had told him to count the stars, if he could. It was God that said, thy seed are going to be like that. And do you know, he believed him.

He believed him. Would you have done? Verse 6, and he didn't just believe God, he believed in the Lord. Amen. Now, notice something here, beloved. This is absolutely vital. He believed in the Lord. He didn't just believe what God said.

Now, before this, you will find that he believed the Lord. What God said, obviously. God said, leave her, the cow of these, Abraham. Go on to that, and he just believed it. He left home, and he went out on the word of God.

But this time, he's believing in the Lord. That's something far vast. In other words, as he looked out into that sky, that night, and God was talking to him, he believed that there was absolutely impossible on the human level.

It was something that the devil would come and play ducks and drakes with any human mind on as many children as there are stars in the sky. But, you see, beloved, he was on the ground that could defeat the devil or anything.

He was on the ground of God. He moved out of himself. In himself, it was impossible. He'd lived long enough with Sarai to know it was impossible. But he believed in the Lord, the same God that had created those stars and hung them in the sky and moved them round in their orbits.

And the millions of stars that he just couldn't see, he kept them all in their place. The God who created that and done that was the God that was making the promises to him that out of his bowels should come forth sea.

And he believed God. It wasn't out of Abraham. He believed in God. That's the tremendous. He believed in God. Hallelujah. So God said, look, I don't know what this Abraham. Where did it all come from?

Same God. Do you know, God is wonderful. I want you to notice a principle here. When God is indicting the heathen for not knowing him in Romans chapter 1, you must read Romans chapter 1, God brings his indictment against the heathen.

The heathen that have never heard the gospel. The heathen that have never been educated. The heathen who don't know anything about Shakespeare. Never heard of him. If you went out and say, who's he? Never heard of him.

He says, he's holding the heathen responsible for two things. And the two things he's holding all heathen responsible for, why no heathen should be an idol worshipper or worship a trunk of a tree. Or anything.

Because by the things which he has made, the heavens declare the glory of God. And those heathen know that a tree trunk couldn't make that sun or those stars. And God holds them responsible for that. And they'll have to answer for that in the day of judgment.

They won't have to answer for the things that you've got to answer for. But they'll have to answer for that. Keep it clear, God's very fair. And now when God deals with this erstwhile heathen, who never knew Shakespeare either, or knew about him, wonderful old Abraham.

He deals with him on the basis of the same thing. He takes him on to this level. He doesn't take him on the basis of, my son was slain at Calvary for you, because he never knew Jesus, or never knew about him.

But he takes him on the basis of those stars up there. See the ground God always moves in. The Bible is consistent. It testifies to its own consistency all the way through. It's a wonderful book. And he believed in the Lord.

And the Lord reckoned it to him, so we're told, or counted it to him for righteousness. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Oh beloved, here's the ground for all our gospel preaching. People come together in our gospel meetings.

They sit down there. They may know themselves to be dreadful sinners. They may know that for 10, 20, 30, 40 years of their life they've lived as though God didn't exist and pleased themselves, hooted perhaps at religion, and I don't know what.

We know the whole gamut of it. And you can preach the gospel to those men and those women sitting in their seats. And they say, righteousness? I've got no righteousness. If I'm an honest man, I've broken all the Ten Commandments.

I've got to be honest about that. Well now, here's our gospel. Then when you'll believe in Jesus Christ, God will reckon that act of faith as righteousness to you. And who says God isn't a good God if he'll do that?

It's a wonderful thing. That act of faith is my first step in righteousness. Blessed be the name of the Lord, for I'll be the biggest blackguard that's ever walked in two sheets. Now isn't this merciful?

Isn't it wonderful? Here's the ground of the gospel. Here's God revealing himself. Here's God opening his heart to mankind. The fairness or unfairness of it doesn't enter into this. It is God who thunders if he pleases, says the hymn.

So he does. And he comes. And this is how he presents his wonderful truth. It was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, and in God's eyes he was as pure as you were the day you were first washed in Jesus' blood.

Righteous. Isn't it a marvellous thing? You see how God makes provisions for people before they heard about the Christian gospel? He reckoned it to him for righteousness. If he'd have lived in this era, Abraham would have been told to believe in the precious blood of Jesus.

But he didn't. He lived in that. And God moved in the love of his heart to reveal himself to this man. But it had to be faith and believing in God. I believe in your moral integrity, Lord. I believe in your faithfulness.

I believe in your power. I believe in your word. And God reckoned that to him for righteousness. Praise the Lord. Now then, let's go on, shall we? And he said unto him, verse 7, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it.

Inheriting God’s Promises Through Faith

You know, every verse is pregnant with meaning. I'm sorry I'm such a long-winded preacher. But God shouldn't have written such a wonderful book and I wouldn't have been such a long-winded preacher. This verse is the prototype of all the wonderful self-commitments of God.

It's the prototype of all the great promises in the Bible that are scattered through where God is committing himself. For instance, you can hear this coming out again. Listen. I have brought thee out of the land of Egypt to bring thee into the land of Canaan.

That's right. Here it is. It's here. I brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land. My praise God. Here is the unfolding of the grace of God in a fuller degree. I'm doing this. I'm doing it.

Now, beloved, here is the basis for every man's venture of faith. God shifts me out of my own self altogether. He shifts me all the time onto himself. It isn't what I can do. It's what he has done. I have brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land.

And I'm going to give it thee and nothing's going to stop me. That's a tremendous thing, you see. I'm going to do it. I'm not coming cap in hand to ask anybody by your permission or if you'll agree I'll do this.

I have brought you out of the Ur of the Chaldees. I am going to give thee this land. Then he now noticed this next bit. To inherit it. Now, it's quite another thing. There are lots of people that God has kept his promise to them.

I've brought thee out of some Ur of the Chaldees, some sink of iniquity, some hole of sin. I've brought thee out of that to give thee this. But it's another thing whether they've inherited it. God has given this great salvation in Jesus Christ.

God has done it. God has brought many a person out of the world and out of their sin and out of their past. But lo, behold them. They don't seem to have passed into everything that God has provided. It isn't that God hasn't given it but that they failed to inherit it.

Now, immediately, beloved, this is the key to the next section. As I have already said, the chapter divides here. It was on this word, inherit. It wasn't on God. Abraham had made up his mind. He decided about that.

He walked out with God. He was his shield, his exceeding great reward. He says, I'm going to bring forth your seed. You're going to have seed, Abraham, like the stars of heaven for multitude. And Abraham was settled on that.

He had no doubt. He was out of Ur of the Chaldees. He was in the land of possession. But oh, there was one thing that Abraham was very shaky about despite the fact that he was a man of faith and it was this, himself.

How could I know that I shall inherit it? That's your next verse. He took up this word, inherit. He got his eyes on God, alright. He said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? Now, Lord, it's alright getting my eyes on the stars.

It's alright getting my eyes on Thee. That's fine. I believe you, Lord. You know I believe you. But oh, this self, this poor, weak Abraham. Now, if we'd have looked at Abraham, we'd have said, my, mighty Abraham.

He's the greatest man on the earth. But there isn't a great man in the earth, beloved, not one this day, but that knows that in himself lies all his handicaps and all the preventions. They don't lie in the devil.

You've got your enemies in your hand. They don't lie in the terrain. They don't lie in the impossibility of this or that or the other. They lie in me. All the bars to my succeeding in this great life of faith are in myself.

They're not in the book. They're not in God. They're not in the devil. Hallelujah, the devil's a defeated person. But when God sets his heart on you and me, beloved, now then, how can I know, oh, Lord, I?

Lord, if only you knew me in this old world, of course you do know me. I wonder you ever chose me. I wonder you ever spoke to me. I wonder you ever made any promises to me. I'm... Me? How can I know that I should inherit it?

Well, how can you know? Now, notice what he said. He said he wanted to know. Now we're going to see God's method. How God made him know. Hallelujah. Amen. God doesn't want us to be in the realm of just believism.

He wants us to be in the realm of know-itis. Down here. He wants us to know. To really know. We'll see how God made him know. That's a wonderful thing. Now, notice this. That all this is in grace. We'll read this next portion of the chapter and we shall see how it works.

God said, your two next words are the key. Take me. He didn't say, no, Abraham, go out and get yourself something. You do this and get yourself this and get yourself that. Get yourself the other. He says, Abraham, listen.

You want to know how you could inherit? Take me. Get your eyes on me again, Abraham. Get your eyes off yourself. Take me. Now, you be my hands now. You do this for me. This is as though I'm doing it, Abraham.

All right. Take me and Hepha, three years old. Shego, three years old. Ram, three years old. A turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst. He split them right down the breastbone and laid each piece one against another but the birds divided he not.

When the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abraham, Know of a surety.

Here's your word. Know again. This is the thing. God is imparting knowledge. We'll show you how God imparts knowledge in a moment, I believe, from Scripture. Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge and afterwards shall they come out with great substance and thou should go to thy fathers in peace.

Thou shalt be buried in a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces and in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river now notice the extent of the gift from the river of Egypt that's the Nile unto the great river the river Euphrates that's where Ur was situated the Kenites and the Kenizites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizites and the Rephaims and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Gentiles.

God’s Covenant and the Judgment of Nations

Now just a brief note about that this isn't our line I don't want to stop on this but the line I want to make is this beloved and if this is the beginning of the great prophecies in the Bible the great promises of God where he promised to Abraham and his seed that tract of country it belongs to them and no other nation has a right to it and God will yet give that strip of country to Israel.

Alright that's all I want to say about it it was never fulfilled in the lifetime of any of Abraham's seed and it's when the Lord comes back again and he deals with this world in judgment and in justice and he divides the nation.

And he will give that strip of country yet to the seed of Abraham there I want to leave it. That's not our particular line in our study not the prophetical line. But I want you to notice these tremendous things notice the justice of God in verse 16 when Abraham was in this deep sleep that we read about God gave him this great prophecy about his seed that the seed was going to be a stranger in a land that is not theirs that is they were going down to Egypt.

This all took place in Exodus. They were going down to Egypt and they were going to serve the Egyptians. And they were there for 400 years. And that nation that is Egypt whom they serve will I judge an Exodus.

And the first 12 chapters of Exodus are the record of it God's judgment upon Egypt. And afterwards shall they come out with great substance. That's right which we know they did. And from the substance that they brought out of Egypt they sacrificed to God built their tabernacle and did all sorts of things.

And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Now I want you to notice the principle of judgment justice here and judgment in God's dealings.

God's revealing his character now to us in the scripture. You will remember that in a few chapters time when we read on we shall find how God came down and judged Sodom and Gomorrah. You know how God rained down fire from heaven upon those two wicked cities from which one of the vilest sins on the earth known in the calendar of crime suddenly takes its name today.

And God judged those cities. Now you'll notice when God always judges he gives you his principle of judgment here when the sin of that thing is full. Verse 16 God would not judge the Amorites that were in the land.

As you noticed in verse 21 the Amorites were in the land then but God would not judge them then even though he was making promises to Abraham he couldn't make promises to Abraham in righteousness and act in unrighteousness to judge a person or a nation or the world because he's going to judge the world one day without their iniquity being full.

And they come right for judgment. In 400 years time the Amorites came to the place that Sodom and Gomorrah had already reached. In 400 years time Egypt had come to the place that Sodom and Gomorrah had already reached.

And so he judged Egypt and brought his people out. He brought his people to Canaan and he judged the Amorites. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah when sin was right to be judged. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

In making promises to one man. He doesn't pass over moral rectitude and honest justice in dealing with all men and glory to his name. I make these points in passing. I don't wish to stay upon them. I want to get down to this great covenant of grace.

For here is God's first covenant that he makes with Abraham. He makes another one with Abraham later on in the 17th chapter a great chapter. But he makes this great covenant with Abraham. And it's a covenant of grace.

Because Abraham is wanting to know how he's going. To inherit this land. It's a tremendous thing.

I don't doubt your promises Lord. I don't doubt what you say.

But how can I how can I know. This is a tremendous thing. He says alright go and get me these animals. And out goes Abraham with and collects these animals and these birds. He cleaves them down the middle as I've already said.

And if you want to know the scriptural method of making a covenant read Jeremiah 34 18 and 19 when you get home don't do it now Jeremiah 34 18 and 19 and you will find that this method of covenant making was the one that God employed here that is that the animals were cleft down the middle down the breast bone and then they were laid piece to piece with enough space in between for the two people who were making the covenant to walk between the two pieces.

And they made their covenant in blood. They made their covenant in sacrifice. They gave their word their bond unto the death. And they this is what happened. But now listen I want you to see that God didn't say to Abraham now take yourself.

He didn't say now take us. He said take me. He didn't say. We are going to make a covenant about this. Abraham praise God. Hallelujah. He said I'm going to make a covenant about this. What I'm going to do.

I'm going to bring you into my covenant. That's right. That's a tremendous thing. This is all of grace. This is why salvation is possible. This is the great realm grace and faith. We are all brought into God's covenant in grace.

Hallelujah. This acceptance of full responsibility on the part of God who not only accepts the responsibility for being God to me but accepts the responsibility on me too that I can be the kind of person that God wants me to be.

It's only grace that will make me able to inherit the promises of God. It's only his marvelous loving kindness to me. It's only him coming down to me. He doesn't make great demands of me. He's text himself to the Ottomans to Calvary that you and I might enter in on this great invitation of God.

So now listen God's going to make this man know it. And when God makes a person know it he just doesn't come and talk into the conscious mind. Bless God. This is how he did it. When the fowls came down verse 11 Abraham drove them away.

This is God's sacrifice. I'm not allowing anything to interfere with this. And you will remember that the fowls of the air in the New Testament stand for the devil. That's right. Jesus interpreted what the fowls of the air stood for.

That's right. You read the parable of the cellar Jesus interpreted. And if you like Abraham if you like kept the devil off kept the devil's smutty hands off. This praise God by the Lord's grace. And then just at the crucial time when sunset came and the fowls of the air couldn't come anymore.