Beraishis 15I – מעשה אבות סימן לבנים – The Events of the Forefathers were Analogous to What Would Occur to the Descendants

God took Avraham out of Ur Kasdim. According to tradition God saved Avraham from the fiery furnace that he was put into by Nimrod. (Ur means fire).

In advance of telling Avraham that his descendants will go to Egypt, an exile referred to in verse 17 of this chapter as “a smoking furnace and a flaming torch,” God mentions Avraham’s own rescue.

Once again we see מעשה אבות סימן לבנים The events of the forefathers would play out in the lives of their descendants. Avraham was thrown into a fiery furnace and his descendants, too, would be tested in the crucible of exile, the “burning furnace” that was Egypt.

Being taken out of the fire of Kasdim was a prototype of the Exodus from Egypt.

Beraishis 15:7
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