Genesis 15:1-5 Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
At first, when Abram and Sarai married, they expected Sarai would get pregnant quickly; after all, her sisters had had no problems bearing children. But now decades have passed. Abram and Sarai have moved from Haran, where they had a comfortable home, and are living in tents, never certain where their drinking water will come from or if the Canaanites will suddenly choose to attack them. And Sarai has stopped menstruating, a sure sign that this couple will remain childless. Now the same God who has called Abram to journey all the way to Canaan is promising that Abram will have countless descendants. Talk about a test of faith!
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Think about it. Here’s this old man who has moved twice, first from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and then on to Canaan. If Abram simply wants good grazing land, he can find it east of the Jordan River, for hundreds of years later the tribes of Reuben and Manasseh will settle that area because of the rich grazing. But Abram has passed right on through that area, crossing the Jordan River and moving up and out of the Jordan Valley, another place with rich grazing land. Only a man of great faith can continue to trust God rather than settling for security and comfort as his father Terah has done.
7-8 Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
Ah, now we’re getting to the point of the discussion. Abram has come all this way on faith; however, that faith is getting a bit shaky. Does God punish Abram for shaky faith? No. Instead, God does something so magnificent that the images have burned themselves into the brains of believers for thousands of years. Before we consider what God will do to reassure Abram, let’s consider all the times when our faith has been shaky. Remember that God has not punished us for our small faith. The same God who can preserve crushed reeds and injured birds has no problems preserving us as well. When Brother Andrew, the man who smuggled thousands of Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, was coming to the Lord, those advising him asked him if he was “willing to be made willing” to believe in Jesus. Andrew said yes, and Jesus showed himself to Andrew many times over. When we offer God even a fingernail’s breadth of faith, God will take that tiny faith and multiply it. That is what God is doing for Abram at this moment. And now God is going to graphically demonstrate to Abram just how serious He really is about this covenant.
9-21 The Lord told 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.” Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt[a] to the great Euphrates River—the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Why did Abram cut these animals in half? David Guzik in his Enduring Word Commentary gives us the answer: Abram knew exactly what to do with these animals. He understood that according to the custom of his time, God told him to get a contract ready for signing.
i. In those days, contracts were sometimes made by the sacrificial cutting of animals, with the split carcasses of the animals lying on the ground. The covenant was made when parties to the agreement walked through the animal parts together, repeating the terms of the covenant. The Lord made a covenant in Genesis 15:18 is literally, “the Lord cut a covenant.”
ii. Jeremiah 34:18-20 refers to this same practice of a covenant made by cutting animals and repeating the oath of the covenant as one walks through the animal parts.
iii. The symbolism was plain. First, this was a covenant so serious, it was sealed with blood. Second, if one were to break this covenant, let this same bloodshed be poured out on their animals and on them.
iv. When Abram had his doubts and wanted assurance from the Lord, God said to him clearly, “Let’s sign a contract and settle this once for all.”
Think about it! The Lord of the Universe, the Creator of all things, was making an agreement and promising that if He failed to keep His side of the bargain, all his animals would die. Essentially, God was placing the weight of all creation on one side of a scale while balancing it with His faithfulness. All Abram could do was to stand by as a silent witness, gasping as he watched that smoking firepot and that flaming torch move between the pieces of animal carcass. God was demonstrating His sincerity as graphically as possible. And all Abram could do was to believe.
Once more, we see God promising the land of Israel to Abram, whom He later renames as Abraham. And once more, the gift of Israel is a gift rooted in faith on Abraham’s part and assurance on God’s part. Sometimes people lacking Biblical knowledge hold all kinds of misconceptions about Israel, failing to realize that God has already promised Israel to Abraham’s descendants and has pledged His sacred honor to fulfill that promise.
As we consider God’s promises and His care for Israel, let us remember the thousands of years those promises have lasted. Ask God to open your heart and your mind to His perfect will for Israel.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, thank You that when You make promises, You never go back on them but fulfill them. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
Burunche's Blog 
Leave a comment