The Smoking Furnance and Burning Lamp

THE SMOKING FURNACE AND BURNING LAMP

(Genesis 15)

Taught by:  Carolyn Sissom

September 23, 2007

Friday night I had a dream in which Urim and Thummin was written out.  Underneath the title was a message of which I cannot tell you today what was written.  As I began to study Genesis Fifteen, the vision came back to me.  I knew the Urim had to do with the visitation of the Lord to Abram described in verse 17.

Whatever the time of visitation, there is One God, Son and Holy Ghost.

“And it came to pass, that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.  In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, “unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Urim:  Lights, God’s Holy fire, from a word that means a flame, something luminous, glorious, shining.

Thummin:  Perfections, from a word meaning to complete, accomplish make an end, come to the full, and be made perfect.

Let’s go back to verse one to explore what the Lord is speaking to us.  “After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram:  I am thy shield and thy excellent great reward.”  Interesting the Words of the Lord came to me in a vision when I was teaching on Abram the Conqueror.  This week the Words of the Lord came to me in a vision saying, “ Urim and Thummin”.  Amos also had this gift of seeing the Words.  Amos 1:1 “ The words of Amos….which he saw concerning Israel.”

This is the Lord’s covenant response to Abram’s obedience and steadfastness in smiting the kings of chapter 14.  God reveals Himself to His servant as His SHIELD (defense) and REWARD (Heb. 11: 25-26). 

All the promises of Abram had been received except the promise of an heir.  In the meantime, proper legal provision had been made by Abram.  The normal steps in that part of the world at that time would have been the adoption of a slave to become the heir.  His name is Eliezer.  We will run into Eliezer again in Chapter twenty-four as the servant who brings Rebekah unto Isaac.

Verse 4:  “And behold, the word of the Lord come unto him, saying, this shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir.  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said unto him, so shall your seed be.”

Note:  “nothing is revealed as to the mother’s identity!”

Verse 6 is a key verse:  “And he (Abram believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”  In order to believe the Word of the Lord, Abram submitted to the widening vision that the Lord was revealing.  Jehovah “brought him forth abroad”. (Out of his tent), thus moving him from limited tent vision to unlimited heavenly vision! (Eph. 5:14)  The Word of the Lord had addressed two areas of Abram’s life:

1. His Fear of – position and inheritance (God would defend him.)
2. His Fatherhood – posterity

The remainder of the chapter could be outlined as follows:

1. Abram asks for a sign. (8)
2. God asks for a sacrifice (9)
3. Abram obeys and submits the offerings. (10)
4. Abram separates the fowl and drives them away. (11)
5. Abram sleeps. (12)
6. God speaks (13-16)
7. God seals his promise
8. God sets His covenant (18-21)

Abram left Ur of the Chaldees by Faith, but here for the first time we see the Righteousness of God reckoned to him.  The faith that was counted as to righteousness was the faith that believed what God had said concerning the Promised Seed, which was Christ.

The Offerings here are a type of Jesus Christ, the sin-bearer:

1. “Take Me” – The Offering was for God.   (Verse 9)
2. The three animals used were tame and willing:

                   (a) Heifer – the freshness of his vigor.

                   (b) Goat – the aspect of the sin offering

                   (c) Ram – the animal of consecration and substitution.

      3.  The Birds told of the One from heaven.

      4.  The three years speak of His three years of willing service and then the             power of His resurrection that ratified the Covenant.

       5.   Death passed upon them all.

       6.   The dividing of the animals speaks of the Covenant of blood.

       7.   The driving away of the fowls speaks of the energy of faith standing against the powers of darkness. (Matt. 13:4, 19; Eph. 6:12)

Two Covenants sealed by the blood of the sacrifice, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp.

(1)    The Seed – Jesus Christ of Nazareth

(2)    The Land as described in the Word of God.

The smoking Furnace speaks of the Father

The burning Lamp speaks of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE SMOKING FURNACE

The Urim means light, God’s Holy Fire, a flame, something luminous, glorious, and shining.

Thummin – fullness to perfection.

Urim and Thummin will not function in a rebellious heart.  This is the Lord’s covenant and expression of the Light and the Glory of God in fullness of manifestation.  We have the full revelation of the word, of the heart and mind of God, in a people who have come into abiding union with Christ and are hidden away in the breastplate of judgment.

This visitation is Abram’s consent to God’s plans in history and of salvation of not only a nation but the world.  Abram’s seed inherited the land and the promise, but Abram never owned the land.  He later bought a small piece of land near Mamre by ordinary purchase.  The promise is,  he and his descendents will be given – not sold- a vast territory from the borders of Egypt to the river Euphrates.  There is a lengthy list of individual peoples to be conquered or disposed.  Not all of these are of the lineage of Ishmael, because Ishmael had not yet been born.

It was only in David’s reign that fulfillment came.  Scholars think the river in Egypt must be the Wadi-el-Arish not the Nile. 

When the Lord visited Israel through the Urim and Thummi during the priesthood of Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, and others, this was the Lord speaking in absolute truth and light.  This is the fire in Jeremiah’s bones.  “This is the Holy Ghost and Fire.   We must know the judgments of God’s fire in our hearts to purge us and cleanse us.  The Fire of God’s holy Presence, to consume all the chaff and dross in the House of God and to make us Holy!  To kindle the fire, Shekinah Fire in the Holy of Holies.  As priests of God we must come into His presence, and stand before Him—that this Holy fire might be ignited in our own hearts.  Once again God is raising up a people with Urim and Thummin in their hearts, who will live a pure and holy life and will speak a pure, clear Word in the midst of apostasy.” (Geo. H. Warnock – Crowned With Oil)