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In the same vision, God in speaking to him also says, "I am God
that brought thee out of the region of the Chaldees, to give thee this
land to inherit it." And when Abram asked whereby he might know that
he should inherit it, God said to him, "Take me an heifer of three
years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three
years old, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon. And he took unto him
all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one
against another; but the birds divided he not. And the fowls came
down," as it is written, "on the carcasses, and Abram sat down by
them. But about the going down of the sun, great fear fell upon
Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He
said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude and shall
afflict them four hundred years: but the nation whom they shall serve
will I judge; and afterward shall they come out hither with great
substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; kept 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 when the sun
was setting, there was a flame, and a smoking furnace, and lamps of
fire, that passed through between those pieces. In that day the Lord
made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this
land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates: the
Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the
Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the
Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the
Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
All these things were said and done in a vision from God; but it
would take long, and would exceed the scope of this work, to treat of
them exactly in detail. It is enough that we should know that, after
it was said Abram believed in God, and it was counted to him for
righteousness, he did not fail in faith in saying, "Lord God,
whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" for the inheritance
of that land was promised to him. Now he does not say, How shall I
know, as if he did not yet believe; but he says, "Whereby shall I
know," meaning that some sign might be given by which he might know
the manner of those things which he had believed, just as it is not for
lack of faith the Virgin Mary says, "How shall this be, seeing I
know not a man?" for she inquired as to the way in which that should
take place which she was certain would come to pass. And when she
asked this, she was told, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." Here also, in
fine, a symbol was given, consisting of three animals, a heifer, a
she-goat, and a ram and two birds, a turtle-dove and pigeon, that
he might know that the things which he had not doubted should come to
pass were to happen in accordance with this symbol. Whether,
therefore, the heifer was a sign that the people should be put under
the law, the she-goat that the same people was to become sinful, the
ram that they should reign (and these animals are said to be of three
years old for this reason, that there are three remarkable divisions of
time, from Adam to Noah, and from him to Abraham, and from him to
David, who, on the rejection of Saul, was first established by the
will of the Lord in the kingdom of the Israelite nation: in this
third division, which extends from Abraham to David, that people
grew up as if passing through the third age of life), or whether they
had some other more suitable meaning, still I have no doubt whatever
that spiritual things were prefigured by them as well as by the
turtle-dove and pigeon. And it is said, "But the birds divided he
not," because carnal men are divided among themselves, but the
spiritual not at all, whether they seclude themselves from the busy
conversation of men, like the turtle-dove, or dwell among them, like
the pigeon; for both birds are simple and harmless, signifying that
even in the Israelite people, to which that land was to be given,
there would be individuals who were children of the promise, and heirs
of the kingdom that is to remain in eternal felicity. But the fowls
coming down on the divided carcasses represent nothing good, but the
spirits of this air, seeking some food for themselves in the division
of carnal men. But that Abraham sat down with them, signifies that
even amid these divisions of the carnal, true believers shall persevere
to the end. And that about the going down of the sun great fear fell
upon Abraham and a horror of great darkness, signifies that about the
end of this world believers shall be in great perturbation and
tribulation, of which the Lord said in the gospel, "For then shall
be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning."
But what is said to Abraham, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall
be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to
servitude, and shall afflict them 400 years," is most clearly a
prophecy about the people of Israel which was to be in servitude in
Egypt. Not that this people was to be in that servitude under the
oppressive Egyptians for 400 years, but it is foretold that this
should take place in the course of those 400 years. For as it is
written of Terah the father of Abraham, "And the days of Terah in
Haran were 205 years," not because they were all spent there, but
because they were completed there, so it is said here also, "And
they shall reduce them to servitude, and shall afflict them 400
years," for this reason, because that number was completed, not
because it was all spent in that affliction. The years are said to be
400 in round numbers, although they were a little more, whether you
reckon from this time, when these things were promised to Abraham, or
from the birth of Isaac, as the seed of Abraham, of which these
things are predicted. For, as we have already said above, from the
seventy-fifth year of Abraham, when the first promise was made to
him, down to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, there are reckoned
430 years, which the apostle thus mentions: "And this I say,
that the covenant confirmed by God, the law, which was made 430
years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect." So then these 430 years might be called 400, because
they are not much more, especially since part even of that number had
already gone by when these things were shown and said to Abraham in
vision, or when Isaac was born in his father's 100th year,
twenty-five years after the first promise, when of these 430 years
there now remained 405, which God was pleased to call 400. No
one will doubt that the other things which follow in the prophetic words
of God pertain to the people of Israel.
When it is added, "And when the sun was now setting there was a
flame, and lo, a smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, which passed
through between those pieces," this signifies that at the end of the
world the carnal shall be judged by fire. For just as the affliction
of the city of God, such as never was before, which is expected to
take place under Antichrist, was signified by Abraham's horror of
great darkness about the going down of the sun, that is, when the end
of the world draws nigh, so at the going down of the sun, that is, at
the very end of the world, there is signified by that fire the day of
judgment, which separates the carnal who are to be saved by fire from
those who are to be condemned in the fire. And then the covenant made
with Abraham particularly sets forth the land of Canaan, and names
eleven tribes in it from the river of Egypt even to the great river
Euphrates. It is not then from the great river of Egypt, that is,
the Nile, but from a small one which separates Egypt from
Palestine, where the city of Rhinocorura is.
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