Jesus Christ in the Old Testament?

Continuing with a Bible study of Abraham:

(Genesis 15:1) After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abram; I am your shield, and your exceedingly great reward."

I love this!  I love the message, but I also love pondering the vision itself.  How does a spoken word come in a VISION, something that is visible, something that is seen?  When it is the Word of the Lord, Jesus Christ!  This is the same Jesus who hasn't appeared on the earth in a physical human form yet, but the One who has been in existence since the beginning, as told beautifully in John, chapter 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (v. 1-5)

Are those not the same words Jesus repeated throughout the New Testament?  "Fear not" anything, not even them who kill the body, because I (Jesus) am your salvation and your reward; My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is made perfect in weakness; I am your shield.  I just love seeing glimpses of Jesus Christ and God's plan from the beginning in the Old Testament!

(2) And Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" (3) And Abram said, "Behold, You have given to me no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is my heir."

God had already told Abram his seed would be as the dust of the earth, too numerous to be counted.  Abram's question here is, in a sense, "How will You accomplish it, seeing I go childless?"  Eliezer is, as the head steward of Abram's house, Abram's heir since he had no children.  How is this to be Abram's seed too numerous to count?  Abram has faith in His Lord, but he cannot understand how fulfillment of the promise can happen.

(4) And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who shall come forth out of your own body shall be your heir." (5) And He brought him forth abroad, and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your seed be." (6) And he believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him for righteousness.

God reiterated His promise to Abram, and assured him that his heir would be his own child.  And Abram believed "IN THE LORD", and it was counted to him for righteousness.  It is probably no accident that the scripture is worded this way.  We assume that Abram believed what God had told him, but it was more than that.  From Abram's seed would come the Messiah, the One who would be the righteousness for all who believed in Him as Lord and Savior, the spotless sacrifice for their sins.  THAT is where our faith must be!  Not in the thing that is promised, as will become evident in future studies, but in the LORD.

(7) And He said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give this land to inherit it."

"I am the LORD who brought you out of"...insert any personal place or situation here.  The significance here is that the Lord brought Abram out of a lost world to save him.  Giving the land to him is just a part of the promise; the most important part is the salvation that will come from the seed of Abraham, in the form of Jesus Christ.

(8) And he said, "Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?"

It sounds as if Abram is asking for a sign, but I don't think that is really what is meant here.  Once again, Abram just can't understand how the Lord will accomplish His promise.  We are told more than once that Abram believed God, so I don't believe he is asking for a sign to prove anything.  He already believes, but he also knows he is past the age (or more importantly, his wife is past the age) of bearing children, so he can't fathom it will happen in the natural way, so he wonders how he will know when it happens. 

(9) And He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

Abram may have been expecting a sign from heaven, but God begins by asking for obedience.  I believe this is no accident; obedience to God is paramount.  It continues to play a part throughout the process of bringing God's plan to fruition.  God asks for three-year-old animals.  Dr. John Gill points out that the early Levitical law required creatures of only a year old to be offered for sacrifice.  The significance of God's asking for three-year-old animals is that these animals were at their full growth and full strength, and nearest their greatest perfection. God must be served with the best we have.

(10) And he took all these to Him and divided them in the middle, and laid each piece against another, but the birds he did not divide.

There is a general consensus among the old commentaries that the division of the animals refers to a covenant between two parties.  Adam Clarke took it a step further showing incidents in history where the separation of the animals also was symbolic of what would happen to the offending party if it broke the covenant, to submit to the punishment of being cut asunder.  One such incident is when Xerxes ordered one of the sons of Pythius to be cut in two, and one half to be placed on each side of the way so that his army might pass through between them.  There are scriptures that seem to suggest punishments like this, as well:  The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, "The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill." (Daniel 2:5); And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:51); The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (Luke 12:46).

The birds are two without being divided.  There are varying ideas on what this represented with some along the lines of the fact that Abram's people would be torn asunder, but would afterward be rejoined.  Some scholars suggest that the animals chosen represented idolatrous nations, as sometimes in scripture those animals are used to describe such nations, as in "Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me." (Psalms 22:12); "The two-horned ram represents the kings of Media and Persia." (Daniel 8:20); and "And the rough goat is the king of Greece". (Daniel 8:21); and the Israelites are compared to doves.  I'm not sure that latter interpretation totally works for me, although there are often many truths found in prophecy, I can't deny.  However, since this is a covenant between God and Abram's descendants, I believe that the animals cut in two do represent the two parties, and the Israelites are indeed often "cut asunder" when they break their part of the covenant and follow after idols, but a remnant is always preserved whole.  Also one of the whole birds is a dove, which is often used to represent God's Holy Spirit.  Abram's descendants will be made whole again and will live through Jesus Christ.  I can't help but think of the dove descending upon Jesus after He was baptized: "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him." (Matthew 3:16)

(11) And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

I love what Matthew Henry writes about this verse: "While God's appearing to own His sacrifice was deferred, Abram continued waiting, and his expectations were raised by the delay; when the fowls came down upon the carcasses to prey upon them, as common and neglected things, Abram drove them away, believing that the vision would, at the end, speak, and not lie. Note, a very watchful eye must be kept upon our spiritual sacrifices, that nothing be suffered to prey upon them and render them unfit for God's acceptance. When vain thoughts, like these fowls, come down upon our sacrifices, we must drive them away, and not suffer them to lodge within us, but attend on God without distraction."  In a word - patience.  We must wait upon the Lord.  I love it!

(12) And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. (13) And He said to Abram, "Know certainly that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. (14) And also that nation whom they will serve, I will judge; and afterward they will come out with great substance. (15) And you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. (16) But in the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

As the sun was going down and Abram fell into a deep sleep, the Lord spoke in prophecy to him.  He told him that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and that they would have to serve and would be afflicted by that nation for four hundred years.  After that time God would punish the nation that enslaved them and they would come out with great riches.  But Abram would die in peace and not have to see the affliction of his descendants.  His descendants would return to this land in the fourth generation (four hundredth year), for then God would judge the iniquity of the Amorites in this land his descendants were to possess.

(17) And it came to pass, that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold (there appeared) a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

Surely the burning lamp represents God passing between those pieces cut in two, indicating He is a party to this covenant.  The smoking furnace may be the afflicted descendants of Abram.  John Wesley gives us a good analogy; they were in the furnace of affliction, their eyes so darkened by smoke that they could not see the end of their troubles.

(18) In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, (19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, (20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, (21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

Thus the Lord indicates this is a done deal.  He has given this land to Abram's descendants.  Before God had said He will give it to Abram; now He said He has given it, from the river in Egypt (probably the Nile) to the Euphrates, the land of the ten tribes named above.  This covenant is sealed and delivered; the possession of the land is as sure in due time, as if it were actually delivered to Abram's descendants now.