"These [in Berea] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." - Acts 17:11
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(7) Then the LORD said to him, "I am the LORD, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own." (8) But Abram asked, "Sovereign LORD, how can I know that it will be mine?" (9) He answered, "Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon." (10) Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds. (11) Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off. (12) When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him. (13) The LORD said to him, "Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years. (14) But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them. (15) You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried. (16) It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished." (17) When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals.

Good News Bible copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society.

Sunset is the beginning of Nisan 14, and chronologically we are moving into the daylight portion of that day—Passover day. As daylight hits, Abraham asks God for evidence that He will follow through. Abraham receives the command to prepare a sacrifice and a prophecy regarding his family. Verse 12 shows the preparation of the sacrifice was during the daylight part of Nisan 14, because when we get to verse 12, the sacrifice has been prepared, and the sun was going down. That brings us up to the end of the 14th.

Many have wondered why Christ was sacrificed during the daylight portion of Nisan 14 in the afternoon rather than at the beginning, and seemingly more in alignment with Passover. Was not the Passover lamb slain at the beginning of Nisan 14, after ben ha arbayim began? Yes, it was. So people think because Christ was sacrificed sometime during the afternoon of the 14th that there is something wrong. The answer as to why He was sacrificed during the afternoon rather than at the beginning of the 14th appears here in Genesis 15: Even as the covenant of promise with Abraham was ratified by the sacrifice Abraham makes here, Christ's sacrifice provides the ratification of the New Covenant. Christ's sacrifice, by God's decree, had to align with the ratification of the covenant of promise with Abraham, not the Passover. The time of the crucifixion aligns exactly with Genesis 15.

Verse 12 specifically states "when the sun was going down." Therefore, this sacrifice in Genesis 15, like Christ's sacrifice, took place in the late afternoon. What happened at Christ's crucifixion? A great darkness occurred. In Genesis 15, a great darkness occurred to Abraham. In addition to that, a great horror fell upon him. Now what does that picture? There are two possibilities.

  1. Abraham was made by God to experience a very small taste of the horror that Christ had to face in His crucifixion and burial. God almost scared him to death by putting the fear in him.
  2. It could also be a precursor of the darkness and the earthquake that took place at Christ's crucifixion.

I prefer the first one, that Abraham, as the father of the faithful and the first covenantal ancestor of Jesus Christ, had to experience a bit of what God's Son in the flesh would have to go through 1,700 years later.

Something else appears here that is not so readily apparent at Christ's crucifixion: Abraham had to beat off vultures. When the fowls came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Vile birds are the Bible's symbol of demons. This gives the impression that, as Jesus was hanging on the cross, a great spiritual battle occurred during which the demons were taunting and persecuting Christ to induce Him to give up. Some of the psalms speak about everybody gawking at Him and taunting Him. It was not only human beings. We can understand it was demons as well, who were doing everything to break His courage and to break His spirit.

It says very clearly that God forsook Jesus. "Why have you forsaken me?" Christ asks, because now He was on His own completely and totally for the first time in His life. God made Abraham go through a little bit of that great horror and darkness. Maybe part of the horror that Abraham had to experience was the fear, perhaps, of being buried alive. We can speculate on such things, but it is included so that we will understand what Abraham went through and how it parallels what Christ endured—even to the exact days and times of the days as the events progressed.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

To learn more, see:
The Wavesheaf and the Selfsame Day



 

Topics:

Abraham's Beating off Vultures

Abrahamic Covenant

Ben Ha Arbayim

Bird as Symbol of Demon

Christ's Sacrifice

Crucifixion, Timing of

Demons Symbolized by Birds

Great Darkness

Great Horror experienced by Abraham

Nisan 14

Passover

Passover Lamb

Passover, Timing of

Selfsame Day

Vile Birds




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