Readings:
Genesis 12
Genesis 13
Genesis 14
Genesis 15
Sometimes verses jump out at me, and the inclusion of the cultures here caught my attention:
Genesis 15:11 NLT
Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
I enjoy Matthew Henry’s commentary on this verse:
“Abram, having prepared according to God’s appointment, now set himself to wait for the sign God might give him by these, like the prophet upon his watch-tower, Hab. 2:1. 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 (v. 11), 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.“
There is something interesting about the bird of prey swooping in, but Abram driving them away — if these were live creatures and not a carcass, we would see the acts of a shepherd. But these were dead, much like man dead in his sins — who must have a heavenly shepherd who brings a spiritual fire of life to promise and fulfill something wonderful and amazing.
Harold J. Ballinger 