SERMON: An Abrahamic Adventus

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. Story of Abraham begins in a place where life kind of made sense. Ur of the Chaldeans was not a wandering camp on the edge of civilization.

It wasn't a backwoods II sort of place. Actually. It was a thriving bustling metropolis in the ancient world. It was a it was a place baked With the Sun yes, but it had temples rising confidently into the sky it had industry.

It had trade routes humming with traffic and promise. It was a place with family land established gods familiar rhythms and a future that could be easily predicted and Abram belong there. He knew the roads.

He knew the seasons. He knew what life was going to be like. Probably thought that there was nothing at all that was going to interrupt the Hum and drum of everyday life and er and yet God did interrupt it.

Not with Abraham's plan. But with the command and not even with a map but with just the summons God spoke into the middle of his life and he told him to leave everything that he had behind all of the Metropolitan blessings and and life that he had accumulated and to walk into the midst of uncertainty.

To leave his country to leave his relatives to leave his father's home and to walk towards the land that the Lord God would show him.

Later.

No destination was named on that day. No timeline was offered the promise was naked of any details and heavy with consequences. It was To say the least an act of faith. God said to him I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you and in you all of the families of the earth to be blessed. He said that before Abraham had any children and Abraham at this time known as Abram for his part he obeyed. But obedience could not have felt heroic in that moment.

It must have felt even a little bit disorienting. Every mile away from her was a mile deeper into the uncertainty. Every step into the wilderness carried him further away from what he knew and closer to what he could not have known.

What he could not see with his own eyes. He gathered up his household He loaded his animals and he began the long walk into the future that existed only in the mind of God because he had never seen.

It.

They reached the land, but they did not receive it. Abram walked up and down the valleys in the hills. He built altars to God there. He worshipped this God there, but he owned nothing there. He lived in tents like a nomadic wanderer going from place to place.

Observing the land that God had promised him but not yet having the deed. The land was real but the possession of it remained distant. The promise was inheritance, but the reality was sojourner. And in that space between what God had said and what Abraham could see and taste and touch with his own mind.

And that in the gap between those two realities is where Abraham was called to have great faith and Not just for a little time either. Years passed seasons turned calendars flipped and His tent remained quiet.

He was promised that he was gonna have a child who was gonna end up blessing the entire world. And Sarai at the time known as Sarai later to become known as Sarah. Her body aged beneath the weight of years.

Never tasting the promise at least not in a time that Abraham could have even considered. Each year passed without a child which made the future feel more and more and more remote more theoretical and even more painful.

God had spoken. Yes. But nothing was changing in Abraham's life. And when God finally did speak again, Abraham could no longer keep the ache inside of his bones. He said Oh Lord God What will you give me?

Since I remain childless because that's kind of the point. The promise is dependent upon at least one child if you're gonna have children That bless the world that take over the world. This was an honest question from Abraham it was the voice of a man who had been waiting decades at this point.

To see any sign whatsoever that the promises of God were gonna come true. And I want you to notice how Abraham answered he took him outside and he lifted up his eyes towards heaven and He said Abraham look at the sky.

Count the stars if you were able to so shall your descendants be. This is the first time Abraham's heard from God in years and Now God is asking him in his old age to look at the sky. By the way, the sky in the Middle East you can see more stars than you can hear in the Western world.

Maybe it's pollution. Maybe it's whatever else. Maybe there's not that many streetlights. I've been in the Middle East There's a lot of stars. It's disorienting to count them. I read this verse in Iraq and thought hey I want to see if I can try to count the stars you can't you lose track of where you're at in the sky and you start over and over and over again and That's just what you can see with the naked eye.

The text tells us however that Abraham when this was told to him he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. But that belief did not expedite the timeline of God's plan. Abram went back into his tent.

Sarah. I was still barren. Stars remained distant and the waiting continued. Eventually Abraham asks another question after he waits another long period of time God. How can I know for sure that you're really gonna do this?

Since nothing has happened in a decade since the last time I talked to you and then God answered at that point with blood. Animals were brought in front of God the animals were cut in half the pieces were laid one side to the other forming a kind of corridor of blood and death.

Vultures were circling the Sun began to set darkness fell heavy and thick and you may think this is weird. Yeah, it is weird to us but in the ancient world in those times if you were a great and mighty king and you wanted to make a Promise of fidelity to a lower peasant person you would cut the animals in half and you would you would cut them asymmetrically down the middle and you would divide them and lay them on either side and you would say Walk through those animals with me.

And if I fail to take care of you, and if you fail to give me all of your allegiance. Then may we be ripped apart just like these animals. That was the ceremony. This was a ceremony that was Somewhat common it was over.

It was a little dramatic. It was very bloody. It was a visceral picture of what would happen if you broke your promise that you'd be ripped apart. But right in the middle of this scene something truly spectacular happens.

The Bible says that God put Abram or put yeah put Abram into a deep sleep. Instead of making Abram walk through the severed animal parts with God God wakes Adam up from this deep sleep and shows him that he alone is the one who walked through it.

That he alone was going to be the one who would uphold the covenant that he alone was going to be the one to take the punishments if the punishments were dealt out and I think it's probably one of the greatest pictures of the gospel and all of the Bible.

Where the smoke and fire pot walk through these severed bodies and Abraham wakes up still with the sleepy in his eye gasping at the Sign that he just saw in front of him. It's a strange and it's very peculiar scene.

There's nothing like it anywhere else in the Bible but I think that it will show us one of the most beautiful glimpses of the gospel as we look into. What this Abrahamic Covenant is now you'll remember in the last couple weeks.

We've been talking about what are the covenants the Adamic Covenant and the Noahic Covenant now? We're at the Abrahamic Covenant and what I want us to see here today through Abraham's Covenant. Is that it's unique and yet it's also the same and what I want us to see is is that Abraham waits years and years and years and years.

Before he finally is granted a child after this cutting ceremony. There's another cutting ceremony. This one a little closer to Abraham's body when he's cut through circumcision and still no child. Later God shows up again has a meal with Abraham still no child at this point Sarah is incredulous and she laughs.

God calls her out on it but it was 20-something years of promises made and no promises being delivered and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And what I want you to see here today is That this is the exact same scene that we're all rehearsing right now in this season called advent.

Like Abraham we're waiting for the miraculous child to be born. We're waiting on Christmas morning for the birth of Christ and We're waiting for the hope that's being promised to Abraham as we will see as we continue.

So if you will turn with me actually I like last week don't turn with me because I'm gonna read a lot of different verses. I'm gonna read verses that are kind of all over the place that described the Abrahamic Covenant.

We're gonna walk through the Abrahamic Covenant together. I'm gonna show how this covenant relates to Advent and Christmas and then at the end. I Pray that it will be of a great encouragement to you. So I will begin with Genesis 12 1 through 3.

This is where the Abrahamic Covenant begins now the Lord said to Abram go forth from your country and your relatives and your father's house to the land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and so shall and So you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the ones who curses you I will curse.

And in you all of the families of the earth we blessed. He has no son here. Genesis 15 1 through 6. After these things that the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying do not fear Abram I'm a shield to you.

Your reward shall be very great. And Abraham said Oh Lord God what will you give me since I'm childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said since you have given no offspring to me one born in my house is my heir.

Then behold the word of the Lord came to him saying this man shall not be your heir. But one who will come forth from your own body He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said now look to the heavens and count the stars if you were able to count them.

And he Said to him so shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Later in that same chapter It came about when the Sun had said that it was very dark and behold there appeared a smoking Oven and oven and a flaming torch which passed between the pieces.

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your descendants I Have given this land forever from the River of Egypt as far as the Great River the River Euphrates. That's that's probably a funny passage to Abram to your descendants.

You have to keep going. Genesis 17 1 through 8. Now when Abraham was 99 years old The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I Will establish my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly.

Abram fell on his face and this was not because he was 99 years old and lost his cane. Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying asked for me behold My covenant is with you and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

No longer shall your name be called Abram. But your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you father of a multitude of nations and I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come forth from you and I will Establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant.

To be God to you and to your descendants after you I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings and all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God real quick as we continue.

Have you ever met someone who told you like a a Pretty big promise and then when it didn't come true. They amped it up. And then I know it's gonna be even better than that this time. It's gonna have this and it's gonna have this and you're like, oh my goodness.

Oh, you don't only you can only do that a couple times. Before you're like I've seen no proof of anything and all you're doing is ratcheting it up. Abraham could have been that way. But he believes God he believes the character of this God and God is counting it and crediting it to Abram as righteousness later on in that chapter verse 10 and 11.

This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you every male among you shall be circumcised. There are no males yet. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you and.

Then shortly after this a year later after Genesis 18 the Son is born. Genesis 22 is sort of the ending chapter of the Development of the Abrahamic Covenant. Verses 17 through 18 says this indeed the child has been born at this point.

I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore and Your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

Because you have obeyed my voice. Let's pray Lord. We thank you Lord we thank you that we know that Abraham who was an idol worshiper in her. Who was called out of that great city in order to live in a land of sojourning?

To be told promises that he would never see to be given even a roadmap for what the end of the world would look like and he would never even see the first glimmer of how it would come to be and Yet Lord, he believed.

Lord we thank you for the faith of Abraham. Lord we thank you that the spirit that you provided unto our our father Abraham to help him believe. And Lord, we thank you that we now as Christians are Inheritors of the great promises that you gave to Abraham through your son Jesus Christ.

Lord help us to see how all of these things come together today in Jesus name. Amen. If Christmas for you begins in Bethlehem, then you are arriving at the scene a little too late. The Nativity does not just happen out of thin air.

It rises up out of a very long and deliberate history a history that God himself authored and paced and guarded that Unfolds itself all throughout the Old Testament and in this way the child in the manger is the visible Arrival of a promise that was spoken centuries earlier to Abraham a man who stood beneath the stars and was told to count them and he could not to understand Advent rightly to understand Christmas rightly we must not see Christmas as or the incarnation as God's intrusion into a world as a rescue plan Where God is reacting only to the sin of man, but we must also see it as the culmination of thousands of years of history and promises where God has been.

Telling his people to wait patiently for the coming of this child and the Abrahamic Covenant matters to us when it comes to Christmas because Adam was given the world and lost it. Noah was regiven the world and could not preserve it.

But in Abraham, we are seeing that God is doing something altogether different. He is being given the world by a future promise of a future son who will succeed where all of his ancestors failed. Abraham is given the world by promise a Promise that God refuses to hurry up in bringing to fulfillment.

A Promise that God advances not through immediacy, but by centuries upon centuries upon centuries of patience in Order to teach his people to live faithfully in the promises of God in order to teach his people to live between the promise and the fulfillment.

And that is the hope of Advent. And That's the hope that we wait in today. Having been promised the whole world in Christ and yet living in a world that is not fully surrendered to him. We wait. We wait as well for the promises of God to be true and to find their yes and amen in the future when the entire world is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the water covers the sea.

Sander recently told me that he thinks that that's my favorite verse because I say it all the time. Maybe he's right. But it's true. The world will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea and you and I we wait and we participate until it comes to be.

Like Abraham, we're promised a future that we're not gonna live long enough to see in full like Abraham. We've been given a land that we are not going to fully possess. And like Abraham God is teaching us his people how to live by faith and not by sight how to look at a world around us that is still broken and to Cling to God's promises instead of what we see.

Remember Abraham was promised a child and he didn't see that child for decades. And yet he held to the promises of God you and I've been told that Christ rules the world and yet we see so much sin and brokenness will we.

Root our faith in.

What we see or Will we root our faith in what God has promised? That is what Abraham shows us. That is why Abraham matters this Christmas. That is why the Abrahamic Covenant means so much to us. Because it teaches us how to wait even when we don't see the fulfillment coming.

Now in order to understand this even more deeply I want us to do a couple things today. I Want us to look at Abraham's Covenant and I want us to see how Abraham is an Adam 3 .0. Yes last week. We saw how Noah was a type of Adam and a type of Christ this week We're gonna see how Abraham is another type of Adam.

He's an Adam 3 .0. He's a reboot. But we're also going to see as we look through the seven conditions of the Abrahamic Covenant. Because every covenant has seven different conditions to it. What we're going to see as a true child of Abraham is coming.

Just like a true child is going to be born to Eve just like Jesus is going to be the true ark on which we are saved. Abraham's seed Will be the one who saves the world and we'll see all of those things.

So let's start with how Adam or how Abraham is an Adam 3 .0. I Love this stuff. I nerd out on this stuff. I hope you do too because this is my this some of my favorite things I'm like, oh for instance Adam was formed out of the dust of the ground, right.

And He was appointed Covenant head over humanity. While Abraham was called out of the dusty city of Ur and he was appointed head over a new people. In both cases both men contributed nothing. Their origination proceeded forth from the mouth of God.

Both men were called out of the dust and Then created a new by the breath of God. Adam was taken out of the dust and he was placed into a garden paradise teeming with life and fruitfulness. Abraham was taken out of the dusty city of Ur and he was placed into a land flowing with milk and honey which you don't have to be a scholar of poetry to realize that he's being brought into a garden land if The land is flowing with milk and honey and it's teeming with all kinds of life.

It's a new garden. Adam walked among the trees of the Garden of Eden and God speaks with him among the trees. Abraham walks among the trees at the Oaks of Mamre and God speaks to him at the trees. Adam received the command to be blameless before the Lord.

Abraham receives the command to walk blamelessly before God. Adam was blessed so that his family could spread out and take over the entire world from Eden to the entire earth. Abraham is blessed in Genesis 12 and the promises that his family would bless the entire world and every family on earth.

Adam was warned that his disobedience would bring death upon him and his household. Abraham was warned that covenant breaking would lead him and his people to be cut off. Covenant headship Still carries household consequences.

Adam was commanded to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Abraham has promised descendants like the dust and the stars. If you're fruitful and you multiply and you spread out to the ends of the earth.

Your progeny will be like the sand of the seashore. He is being promised the same things as Adam. Adam was given dominion over the entire world and God charged him to rule over it. Abraham is to promise dominion over the nations.

Did you notice that it says that Kings are gonna come from Abraham. Rulers are gonna come from Abraham? Abraham is being promised dominion over the entire earth to rule over it subdue it and make it obey.

God.

This one's fun. Adam is put into a deep sleep. Remember the best moment of his life. He has this great sleep and then God crafts from his side a bride and he wakes up and he sees this beautiful bride That God had cut him to make in.

That cutting ceremony that I talked about earlier where the animals were cut in two. Do you know the word that's used for Abraham when he's put into a deep sleep? It's the exact same word that's used of Adam when Adam is put into a deep sleep.

So Abraham in a sense is being Decreated for a moment so that from his own body He will see the redemption that comes to him through the cutting and through the blood. It's the exact same thing that happens to Adam.

Adam was wedded to a woman made of his own flesh. Abraham was wedded to a woman after his own bloodline and All of this is not just rep Repetition for the sake of repetition. This is what covenant theologians call covenant recapitulations.

Because it's one covenant being administered by different men. Who look alike talk alike think alike and have on similar a lot of similar things happening to them. Because God is trying to show us that the covenant can only be held by one man Jesus Christ and all of the other covenant heads, although they are similar.

They all fail in the same ways. The first Adam fail and He lost the world. The second Adam 2 .0 named Noah Also fell and the world became polluted again. The third reboot with this Adam 3 .0 named Abraham also fails and also falls short and Also does not deserve the grand promises that God gives him.

The point is simple in this God is not in heaven choosing men because he thinks I think one of them might succeed. I Think if Abrahams got a good shot It's it's not like fantasy football where he's like, yeah, he's gonna bring me the trophy this year.

He's not Christian McCaffrey. The point is simple. God is picking these men because they cannot succeed but what they will succeed in is they will point to the need for a Savior and They will point to the need that we need a better covenant head.

And as you noticed here Adam and Abraham look a lot alike on purpose. Because both of them are going to point forward to the same man. And if they both point forward to the same man, they're gonna share a lot of salamit similarities.

Now let's look at the seven aspects of the covenant. Covenant headship. Adam was the head of his covenant. Abraham is not merely a participant in his covenant. He's the head of it for instance. Oh, and I think this is also fascinating Adams that covenant head over all the world, right?

Worlds destroyed Noah. Noah's the head now over all the world. But then this curious thing happens. Where Abraham is promised that he's going to be the head and All the families of the earth are going to be blessed.

He's also the head over the entire world. Except his covenant is going to take a long time to play out. Because his covenant is going to expand into enemy territory. His covenant is going to expand into places with people who hate God and eventually over time Abraham is going to have a family That fills the entire world with the glory of God.

So in that sense Abraham is entrusted with the future of the world and scripture presents Abraham as the representative man through whom the blessings of the covenant are gonna flow to all of the families on earth, which is an Incredible thing to promise a childless man.

To all the nations to all the Kings to all the people's blessings are gonna flow through the line of Abraham. Who has no line? The fact that Abraham believed it must have been the spirit of God helping him because that's just not no human would believe this and In this sense the Abrahamic Covenant is God's plans to rescue the entire earth.

Through the covenant headship of Abraham. So every covenant has a head. The Abrahamic Covenant has a head just like Adam. He's the head of this covenant. The second aspect of a covenant is the stipulations and conditions that are involved in the covenant.

Whenever God establishes a covenant head He gives him stipulations that he must follow if he follows the stipulations He'll be blessed if he disobeys the stipulations He'll be cursed. But this covenant is weird and it's unique and it's strange and it's different.

This covenant challenges covenant theologians because it works in Weird ways compared to the other covenant. What I mean by that is That God promises to bless Abraham.

Before.

He gives him his stipulations. God promises I will bless you and anyone who blesses you. I will bless anyone who curses you. I will curse. He tells him that before he's told him to do anything.

And.

Then and then God has this strange cutting ceremony where these dead animals are laying there and only God walks through. And God is saying to Abraham Yeah, I am gonna bless you. Yeah, I am gonna make the entire world bless through you.

I'm gonna do all of that and hey sleepyhead. I'm not even gonna have you walk through the animals with me. I'm gonna do it without you, which means that Abraham can't fail. It means that the covenant that God promised to Abraham must come true because it's not based off his obedience.

Cuz he didn't walk through.

If he didn't walk through the animals Then his obedience is not on the chopping block for whether or not the covenant succeeds or fails. That's what God's doing with Abraham. He puts him to sleep and then God says may I be ripped apart if this covenant does not come true.

Which is unbelievable.

Later in Genesis 15 right after right after the ceremony happens. God says to Abraham now. I want you to walk blameless before me Abraham. I want you to be sinless.

And you're like Okay.

Like I know how this works. God I can't do that but oh guess what Abraham. I'm not gonna hold your sin against you because I'm the one who'll be ripped apart if the covenant doesn't come true. I want you to be sinless.

I want you to be righteous when you walk blamelessly before me, but you're not going to. I know. You're not. That's why I put you to sleep. That's why I walked through because I'm gonna be the one who makes sure this covenant succeeds.

Not you. It's incredible the blessings that God promises Abraham are incredible as well. They're basically you could divide them into three things. So God has told him the stipulations. I want you to be blameless.

But oh, by the way, I'm not gonna hold it against you if you're not. Which is astounding. Then he promises Abraham three things that he's gonna give them. He's gonna give him a seed. You should remember that from Genesis 3 15.

The woman's seed is gonna crush the head of the serpent. You have a continuation now of the seed promise. God's gonna give Abraham a seed. God's gonna give Abraham a land and God's gonna give Abraham the nations.

And these blessings Remember are not rewards for Abraham's obedience. These blessings are promises that God is going to give to him on the basis of God's obedience on the basis of God's Love on the basis of God's grace not Abraham's Perfections.

And the order of these things actually matters, I think God begins with a seed because everything depends on it. He's talking to a childless man. I'm gonna bless you with a seed. It's hard to have Kings come from your line.

If you don't have a seed you get what I'm saying. So the order matters. The promise of a seed presses directly into Abraham's barrenness and challenges every Presupposition that this man thought he knew.

So he's promising a miracle birth. He's promising the miraculous Abraham was commanded to be fruitful in a womb that was already dead. Abraham is promised that he's going to be fruitful in a body that was already past the age of childbearing.

The blessing is not Abraham try harder. The blessing is not keep going Abraham. Maybe it'll happen. The blessing is if I don't show up and do a miracle you won't have this. I think it's one of the reasons why God made Abraham wait so long so that Abraham couldn't get credit and So that Sarah couldn't get credit.

The waiting here is intentional. The seed is gonna come but the seeds not gonna come through Abraham's timetable and through Abraham's effort. It's gonna be through God and God alone. The blessing is delayed.

But the blessing is not denied and the blessing actually gets deeper and richer and more beautiful the longer that God makes him wait because in that it Magnifies the glory of God. A hundred-year-old man and a nine-year-old woman are having a baby.

When does that happen? Maybe on the National Enquirer, but that's really not real. I hope I did not just bust someone's bubble. From the seed promise God moves to the land. It naturally follows if you're gonna have a bunch of seed if you're gonna have a bunch of children.

You're gonna need a place to put them. You're gonna need some zip code strung together. That's going to be a place for them to live. So God promises Abraham a place Where the seed is gonna dwell and flourish.

Yet Abraham never possesses the land outright. You'll notice at least not in his lifetime. He walks in it. He surgeons in it. He digs some wells there and then after he's dead the Philistines plug them up because they're like who's this guy who just decided to?

Dig wells in my backyard. He even has to buy the cave that his wife is buried in and Mac Pila because he doesn't own the land. But if this God Could give him a child. It's easy for God to give him the land.

Excuse me. Finally God promises something even more incredible. He doesn't just promise him a land. He promises him the nation's. So if I were to say to you that that this promise includes the nation's you would think what?

The entire world.

The nation's means all of them. It doesn't mean some assortment of them. God is promising him the nation's blessings that are gonna stretch further and longer than Abraham could possibly even Conceive he's gonna have princes and princesses and Kings and Queens who are gonna come from his line this is what God is saying and then even says that the entire world is gonna come under the blessing of God through this man named Abraham, which is bananas.

Here you have God promising a man whose disobedience can't be counted against him. And who's in the fact that he doesn't even have a child yet it's not gonna be counted against him is gonna own the entire world and his people are gonna own the entire world and his people are going to be blessed by God and gonna spread out into every square Inch of the world and Abraham believed it.

I don't mean to put yourself in Abraham's shoes for a second right, you have a few bad seasons at work and you and I are like Maybe God abandoned me. Like our kids don't listen for a couple weeks and we're like Lord if I have found favor in your sight, will you please?

Will you please bring me home? Like how quickly are we to just give up. After weeks and this man went decades with the biggest promises that have ever been given with no material ability to be able to do it.

Abraham you're gonna have billions of offspring. I don't have one. Abraham kings and queens are gonna come from you. I don't even own this the man I'm standing on. But because I know you God I know that you can do the ridiculous and to Abraham that was ridiculous.

The fact that he only asks a few clarifying questions in a 25 year span is astounding. I Would be on my knees every day asking the most ridiculous whiny Tear-jerking questions. God. Why have you forsaken me and you would too?

But because he believed God it was credited to him as righteousness and he never saw it happen with his own eyes. He died before an ounce of that land. Sorry. He owned the cave. This wife was buried in that's all he owned when he died.

The blessings that God promises him are absolutely astounding and he believes them. There's also curses promised in this covenant. Curses for disobedience. Now like all covenants there are curses and their curses if you don't obey.

But we've already said the curses don't apply to Abraham because Abraham wasn't invited into them. So the curses apply to someone else in Genesis 15. God brings Abraham to this moment where he gets to watch the gospel unfold before his very eyes.

He watches animals split in half. He watches God walking through the middle and he says and God says Abraham. This is how serious I am. Abraham says, how can I know God says go to sleep? Splits the animals walks through them.

Abraham wakes up and God says this is how serious I am. Do you know what that means? God is saying that may I be ripped apart if I don't do what I told you I'm gonna do and what does that point to? At the hill of Calvary in order for these promises to come true.