Bible Study, Part 15

Creation of Light (אוֹר)
By Gustave Doré

Genesis, Chapter 15 |
Sunday – October 4, 2026

Now we may concern ourselves more with Abram (אַבְרָם) and his covenant with Yahweh (יהוה), as we are moving further and further into the story of the Book of Genesis (בְּרֵאשִׁית). I have attempted in previous parts to build up a certain expectation, but I also do not wish to reveal too much beforehand, and here in Chapter 15 much of what I have written about in the previous parts will make more sense, at least to a certain degree. This is why I regard it as useful and important to read the Bible and any book with a certain prudent expectation for the future, but again prudent and not overt, as being too overt will likely lead you down the wrong path, a hidden valley really, which would not be useful here in particular.

    This is the 15th part of this "Bible Study series", and as usual I must implore you to read each previous part of this series in a chronological order before you read this part, as each part of this series constitutes a link in a chain, a chain of meaning, and while it would be the individualistic thing to do, to only read one part or the parts you "prefer", doing so in this context means that you will miss out on a very important matters, but since this decision is wholly up to you, I can only warn you against foolish actions. Of course, if you decide against my advice, then you are on your own, and any misunderstandings will be your own fault. Because I still would like to encourage you to read this series in its entirety, I will link to the first post in this series and the previous post immediately adjacent to this post in this series: part 1 and part 14. I should say that this praxis should do you good in general, and even when you read the Bible from a Christian point of view, where it is praxis to start with the New Testament; if you start with the New Testament, it would seem to be a good idea to read the New Testament still in a chronological order, if you seek to understand Jesus, Yeshua (ישוע).

    My soft rules for this series will continue to apply, and that means that I will continue to refer to God (the Creator) as Yahweh, because the Old Testament—the Tanakh (תָּנָ״ךְ) and more specifically the Torah (תּוֹרָה)*—represents a covenant between the Jews, the Hebrews, and Yahweh, and in Hebrew tradition it is common practise to refer to the God of the Old Testament as Yahweh; there are other naming conventions such as Jehovah (יהוה) and Adonai (אֲדֹנָי), but these are mostly used for ceremonial purposes that, for obvious reasons, should not apply to this post or to this series. Notice as well that the Hebrew spelling for Jehovah is the same as it is for Yahweh, meaning that there is a practice of simply pronouncing Yahweh as Jehovah in many Hebrew quarters, rather than this being an attempt to express a different name or title for the God in the Old Testament. Because most scholars agree that Yahweh is the more correct term, name, for the God in the Old Testament, I have considered it more appropriate to refer to this God only as Yahweh, but again disputes exists among certain scholars and other people, but since this series is about studying the Bible, I will not partake in this dispute within the purview of this study. All I will say is this: I refer only to God in the Bible with the title God whenever I study the New Testament, for this delineation is important and must be made, mostly to clearly separate the lineage of the Old Testament from the lineage of the New Testament, and to preserve the characteristics of Judaism and Christendom, read "Genesis, Chapter 1". Because I only refer to God in the Old Testament as Yahweh, it will be necessary for me to substitute the words "God" and "The Lord" with Yahweh, whenever I should quite some passage from the Bible, and this will be indicated by the usage of two brackets, [Yahweh]; this would depend on the publication of the Bible being used, an issue that I will deal with below. Sometimes I may also substitute other words, typically neologisms without a clear equivalent in Hebrew, really political terms, and a term that I have sometimes substituted is "humankind"; instead of using "humankind" I may substitute this term for "mankind", which will be indicated with: [mankind]. Any substitution of a quotation will always be indicated with two brackets. It may also happen that I will allow some passages to not be included in my quotation of the Bible, and this will always be indicated with three dots inside two brackets, [...], indicating that there are passages missing. Typically these passages provide little use for the purposes of this study; this does not mean that such passages are not important in another context, but the purpose of this study is not to be a recitation of the Bible. If you seek to only recite the Bible, then you should simply read the Bible instead of reading this series.

    Due to the fact that I rely on a certain publication of the Bible, namely the Catholic New Revised Standard (NRSV-CE), the aforementioned substitution is necessary. This particular publication of the Bible is not necessarily more accurate than any other publication of the Bible. I rely on this publication of the Bible only when I quote the Bible, as I still rely on other publications of the Bible parallel with this publication when I study the Bible. The main reason for using this publication of the Bible has more to do with holding true to a certain level of doctrinal fidelity, as many other publications of the Bible have been written with a certain political slant. The fact that the English in the NRSV-CE is modern English is also useful whenever I quote the Bible. However, there may come a point when I should move on to a different publiciation of the Bible, and if that happens, I will make that clear at that time. If you rely on a different publication of the Bible, then read each verse of each chapter carefully as many subtle differences can be invoked due to the varied language used across different publications of the Bible.‡

    Yet again, before we can proceed with the study at hand: if you have complaints about anything that I have written and asserted, then you are free to post them in the comment section below this post. I have received a few complaints so far on the official email attached to this page (etherealinsight@protonmail.com), but my policy is to only handle complaints in the comment section, as I have largely reserved other channels of communication for discussions of a more private nature, such as readers sending forward letters containing privileged information, etc. What this means is that I am unlikely to respond to an email complaint as I simply do not have time to handle them, nor do I have time to connect each complaint to each relevant post; simply using the comment section is the best and most straightforward option. This is not a hard rule, but it is a recommendation if you actually want me to respond; I also call on you to refrain from using offensive words in your comments. I should also mention again, that it is my intention of creating a separate page that will take care of all of the possible confusions and other important information to be considered in this study; that page is still not finished, and when it is finished I will simply link each post to that page in order that can skip having to reiterate all of this information in each of these posts, as I mentioned above.

✠ [Yahweh's] Covenant with Abram ✠
Genesis 15:1 – 6:

After these things the word of [Yahweh] came to Abram in a vision, 'Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.' But Abram said, 'O [Yahweh], what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?' And Abram said, 'You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.' But the word of [Yahweh] came to him, 'This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.' He brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' And he believed [Yahweh]; and [Yahweh] reckoned it to him as righteousness.

The Vision Directing Abram (אַבְרָם)
to Count the Stars

Now, Abram, later Abraham (אַבְרָם), heard the voice of Yahweh telling him that he will become a great patriarch, the father of many nations,§ and that he should count the stars in the sky, and this is true, as we may see today. Notice as well that Yahweh tells Abram to not be afraid, to not fear, and in this case to not fear for the future, because Yahweh will guide Abram to the righteous path, something that was considered very important in the times of Abram. And yes, we must here note that Abram wonders if his rightful heir is to be his slave, and from a modern point of view, this sentiment, that a slave should become the heir of a great man, would perhaps not be considered so strange, but in the times of Abram, around 4000 years ago, this would have been considered an aberration and something quite unnatural, read "Does Tribe Matter?", and so we are forced to consider the historical context of these actions and of these questions. I suppose to that it should still hold true that most people would prefer for their offspring to continue forward their legacy, and this sentiment would have been no different in the times of Abram, and when we refer to people as slaves in the Bible, we must understand that the fate of these people, the slaves, would have been quite horrific outside of slavery, and so slavery functioned in this context as an institution meant to preserve the lives of people without a proper place in society, read "Hierarchy", and while most modern people consider slavery to be quite reprehensible, you, as a modern man, must still attempt to put yourself into the context of the bronze age Near East, and preferably you would do this with as little prejudice, caused by the mutations of normative ethics, as possible.

    Besides these aforementioned points, Abram was destined for greatness, for he had been elected by Yahweh, God Almighty over human power, and by this time Abrams age had started to show, but this is an issue that we will return to later.

Genesis 15:7 – 11:

Then he said to him, 'I am [Yahweh] who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.' But he said, 'O [Yahweh], how am I to know that I shall possess it?' He said to him, 'Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.' He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

This passage may also seem rather strange and even upsetting to most modern people, but again this is due to the fact that most modern people have no proper understanding of history; most modern people have very little to no sense of deep history, and besides, 4000 years ago is fairly recent when we consider most of human history.‖

    Regardless of the details and regardless of modern assumptions in relation to the Bible and the actions of Abram, this is these passages are perhaps the most signal foundations of the nation of Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל), here we may consider Israel from both a modern point of view and from an organic point of view, Israel being essentially of two aspects: the higher aspect being the primordial nation with Abraham (Abram) as its patriarch, and the lesser aspect being the modern counterfeit of the nation-state of Israel. Of course, like any other modern nation-state, the leadership in charge of Israel do not tarry in their proclamations that the State of Israel is somehow the same Israel as the organic nation of Israel, a nation that would eventually become dispersed throughout the world, but more on this later. This dualism of two Israels, one exterior and one interior, does also function as reminders of the necessary dualism involved with any aspect that truly descends from higher principles, and in this case one may construed that Israel, the organic nation, represents the light in the world, and Israel the counterfeit represents the shadow in the world, read "Qualification". It should also be noted that this dualism is imprinted on the animal sacrifices that Abram brought, with the exception of the birds, mainly because birds have two wings that represent in themselves this dualism.

Genesis 15:12 – 16:

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then [Yahweh] said to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.'

This is a profoundly important passage of the Bible as well, as we are here dealing with the future, the future of the Israeli nation, and the future of the Amorites (אֱמֹרִי). On the point of the Amorites, it must be understood that their judgment cannot yet come, because Yahweh extends time, in order for them to improve their ways. Of course, this passage is also telling us about the next book of the Torah, the Book of Exodus (שְׁמוֹת), and as we shall see when the time is right, this will happen, and the commands of Yahweh will be proven right. Of course, it also worthy of note that this passages explicitly states, or rather Yawheh is explicit, that the Jews will be oppressed in the land that is not theirs, where they are alien, and while this was only supposed to last for 400 years, the memory of Abraham is still lingering in the world, read also "Duty or Call?".

Genesis 15:17 – 21:

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day [Yahweh] made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'

We may now conclude that the sacred covenant between Abram and Yahweh has been consummated, and from this point onwards the blood of future generations was necessarily consecrated in this covenant, history was now destent, and from this point onwards everything else had to proceed, from higher to lower, from sacred to secular, until the dawn of our own age, yet the memory of Abraham still persists in the world, and as long as there will be a world, there will always be a Jew. Will there be peace in the Near East? Now, we may not live peacefully in the contradiction of the ancient world and the new world, something has to buckle, and as the past continues to haunt us, even though the echoes of past generations tend to be washed out by the commotion of the modern world, a decision has to be made: either you follow the example of Abram, or you must go down to the pit. Now, the pit will become more clear in upcoming parts.

    You have reached the end of this part of the Bible, or rather my examination of the Bible. For more on this series, follow the label "Bible Study series". If you are interested in me, read my "About me" page and my "Who Am I?" post.

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – October 4, 2026.

Footnote(s)

* This is an issue that I keep returning to, and if you seek to understand this covenant more you should read this part and my posts: "Yahweh Elohim" and "Proof of the Name of Yahweh". This issue will not be considered in dispute here.

† Here I am referring to the Torah (תּוֹרָה) primarily because the Book of Genesis (בְּרֵאשִׁית) is the first part of the Torah. Again, the Torah consists of the first five books of the Bible and is perhaps considered by many scholars to be the most important part of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh (תָּנָ״ךְ).

‡ For more on this, read my posts "Notes on Reading", "Navigating the Informational Landscape", and "The News Cycle". These posts deal with the importance of language and how language is manipulated in order to create a virtual image of the world colored in various political shades, in order to affect your perception of the world – in other words propaganda.

§ Continue to note that the term "nation" is used and understood differently in an ancient context from how this term is understood today. For more on this, read "My Views on the Nation-State", "What is Patriotism?", and "The Problem with Nationalism".

‖ This point can always be clarified, but such a clarification is not within the purview of the present study. In the meantime I direct you to my posts: "The End of History", "Hyperborea", and "The Great North". The facts of profane science need not be dismissed, but they should be understood in a greater context, read also "Knowledge". Another fitting post that also broaches upon this subject is "The Archean Eon", although to a much lesser extent.