Genesis 15:1-21 God’s Covenant with Abram
“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall [d]go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
If you follow American college football, you have likely heard of a phenomenon called “the portal.” Previously, top college athletes recruited by one school typically remained at that school for their entire time of eligibility or transferred after one or two years. Now, thanks to the portal, athletes may begin a football season playing for one school and end the season by playing for an entirely different school. Coaches who have carefully recruited players to craft a team for a season may find themselves scrambling mid-season to field a team that can survive, let alone win games. Loyalty to one school has become an unknown thing, and performance on the sports field has now taken precedence over one’s education.
These days, loyalty and commitment to any cause have become rare birds. Volunteer fire companies and ambulance services scramble for sufficient staff to serve their territories while divorce rates continue to rises and even the marriage rate continues to plummet. Children are losing the security of the assurance that their parents are committed to the family for the long term.
In the midst of all this mess, God’s covenant with Abraham remains as a beacon of hope. In Abraham’s day, men would literally “cut covenant,” that is, they would slaughter animals, cut them in half, and then walk around and between the halves of the animals, swearing that if they were to break the covenant, they too should be slaughtered and cut in two just like those animals. This practice led to the expression “cutting covenant,” and such covenants were taken very seriously!
In the passage from Genesis, God cuts covenant with Abraham, but while Abraham falls silent in God’s presence, it is God who moves among the parts of the animals to swear His good Name as an assurance. God never goes back on His Word but always fulfills His promises. History has proven that God has fulfilled everything He promised to Abraham that night so long ago. Unlike the college athletes who enter the portal in search of more money and more advancement, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and unchanging.
As we prepare to enter a new year, we can trust that the God who has preserved us this far will continue to be with us and to guide us. We can trust God to work on our behalf, even when we don’t appreciate or understand what He is doing. Just as God sent Jesus in the fullness of time, so God continues to work in the fullness of time. Let us fall down before Him and worship Him, for He is the One who will lead us into this new year and perfect that which concerns us.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, we praise You and bless You, that You have sustained us thus far and that You will continue to keep us as we enter the new year. Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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