“God’s Covenant with Abram” (Genesis 15) | 6/21/20
Genesis 15 | 6/21/20 | Will DuVal
This morning we’re picking up where we left off in our series through the book of Genesis. In ch.12 we met one of the most important figures in the OT, indeed, the whole BIBLE, Father Abram, whom God CALLED to leave his family and his home in the land of Ur, and God CHOSE him to be 3 things: 1) the father of a “great nation”, 2) the inheritor of the Promised Land of Canaan, and 3) a BLESSING to all peoples. We noted that despite initially following God in faith, almost immediately AFTER, in the very same chapter, Abram’s faith FAILED when times got tough and a famine came, and I stressed that the same is true for ALL of us; we are ALL in trouble if God’s calling on our lives is ultimately dependent on OUR faithfulness to Him. Instead, we need a BETTER Abram, who remains faithful despite our faithLESS-ness.
And this morning we’re gonna see more of the same: God REAFFIRMS two of those promises to Abram - Keep in mind: God forms his covenant with Abram over the course of THREE separate encounters, he first made these promises back in ch.12, he confirms them today in ch.15, and he’ll RE-confirm them AGAIN in ch.17 - why? Because after every ONE of the exchanges, Abram messes up. He sells his wife to Pharaoh… he sleeps with her servant Hagar... he sells his wife out AGAIN to Abimelech. And here too, in ch.15, even AS God is repeating His promises, Abram doubts them, but God - in His patience and loving faithfulness - REFUSES to give up on Abram, and instead offers him further PROOF of his promises by CONFIRMING his word to Abram. And then finally, God calls Abram to respond to both promises.
But more than ANYTHING, what I want us to see AGAIN this morning, is how all of this points ahead to Jesus. Remember, Jesus was the greatest OT interpreter who ever EXISTED! And he’s already uncovered the mystery for us, the secret message lying behind EVERY passage of the OT: Luke 24:27, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to [his disciples] in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Jesus claimed that All of Scripture points to him. So if we don’t see that, in God’s covenant with Abram here, 2,000 years before Christ was even BORN, if we FAIL to see our need for and the foreshadowing of the new and BETTER covenant and covenant-KEEPER to come, then we will miss the point of Genesis 15 entirely.
So would you stand with me... read: Genesis chs 15:
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue[a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son[b] shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 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.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give[c] this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
This is the word of the Lord (LET’S PRAY...)
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First promise, vv1-6 - OFFSPRING. Offspring, the “O” in your bulletins...
God actually FIRST promises him, in v1, protection - “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield” - but he also reiterates his promise of BLESSING - “your reward shall be very great”. And Abram takes it upon himself to clarify this promised blessing:
v2: But “God, what will you give me, for I continue[a] childless”. The blessing he anticipates and LONGS for, is a child. He says, in effect, “God, I KNOW you’ve made me a wealthy man - that was the sermon on chs.13-14 - “God, you can reward me with all the riches you WANT, but if you don’t give me a child, it’ll all be for naught.” Because as it stands right NOW, when I die (remember, Abram is 85 years old), all of my inheritance is going to go to “Eliezer of Damascus”. The “heir of my house”, “a member of my household”. The meaning of the Hebrew is difficult to discern. But Eliezer is LIKELY either Abram’s head servant of his household, or an adopted child, this was a common practice in the Ancient Near East amongst the wealthy, they would ADOPT, in order to have someone to take care of them in their old age, not to mention, to enjoy a sense of FAMILY with. So it’s possible that Abram has ALREADY proved his doubt of God’s promise of a biological child, by adopting Eliezer.
But regardless, what’s SIGNIFICANT here to note, is that this is the very first time that Abram actually SPEAKS to God. Up til this point, God has been speaking, and Abram simply obeys. Or FAILS to. But these are Abram’s first words, and he uses them to QUESTION God. To DOUBT God’s promise. God’s already promised him a multitude of descendants THREE times now - in ch12, v2; in ch12, v7; and in ch13, v14 - God’s GOOD promise to Abram, of a child, is CLEAR.
But Abram’s response is, “Yeah God, but…”.
And friends, can’t we ALL relate. God’s promise is clear: “I work ALL things together for your good” - Romans 8:28. But what’s our response? “Yeah God, but... CORONAVIRUS?!” “Yeah God, but we just lost the house we were under contract with. I just lost my job.” My parent. My child, another miscarriage. Friends, these are REAL losses. That deserve REAL grief. But let’s also remember 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - that we do “not grieve like those who have no hope.” Because we really CAN trust in the promises of our God. Proverbs 30, v5 - “God keeps EVERY promise he makes” - Amen?
But even when, like Abram, we doubt, God remains faithful. And God CONFIRMS his promise to Abram, in vv4-5. He says, “Abram, go outside, look up, and I want you to count the stars.” This is PRE-light pollution. Astronomers tell us there are ~5,000 stars visible to the naked human eye. And even though the earth blocks half of them out, that still leaves a few thousand stars - pretty tough to count. But God uses really big numbers in the Bible simply to make the point that you shouldn’t even BOTHER trying to count. Like when Jesus says, “forgive someone 7x70 times”. The point isn’t that 490 is the exact right number of times to forgive, and if you mess up that 491st time… No. It BETTER not be. Cuz I used up my 490 chances YEARS ago with my wife… No, the point is, you can’t even keep count. God makes that even MORE clear to Abram in ch22: “I will surely multiply your offspring… as the sand that is on the seashore.” (v17) Good luck counting THAT. Actually, I did find an estimate online: 7.5 x 1018 grains of sand, or seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains. So just to REALLY drive the point home, in a way that can’t even be APPROXIMATED, God says to Abram back in ch13: “ I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust, then your offspring can be counted.” How would you go about even TRYING to count DUST?! And God says, “Exactly”. Give up.
So God has promised, Abram has doubted, and God has confirmed. But now comes the REAL question: how will Abram respond. Will he PERSIST in his doubt? Or will he trust in God’s covenant? And v6 gives us the answer:
“And Abram believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
Abram believed. He BELIEVED. He didn’t believe perfectly. His belief won’t keep him from sleeping with Hagar in the very next chapter - he will continue to have his moments of unbelief. Like the father of the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9 who confesses to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And praise God, friends, that even our being saved by grace through faith - Ephesians 2:8 - does not require PERFECT faith of US. Unwavering faith. As if faith itself was just another “work” that we have to muster up enough faith, in order to save ourselves. In that case, NONE of us would be truly saved, even by FAITH. Because we don’t have enough of it! Instead, the rest of that beautiful gospel verse assures us that we have been “saved by grace through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”. It’s not just that God’s GRACE - his unmerited favor; his provision of JESUS - is a gift; Scripture says that even our FAITH IN his grace, our trust and BELIEF in Jesus, is ITSELF a gift. We see this on display in the very first recorded profession of faith in Christ in history, Peter’s confession in Matthew ch.16: Jesus asked, “who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (vv15-17) Friends: do you know the ONLY reason you believe in Jesus today is because God has called you to himself and opened your blind eyes to see. Even your faith does not TRULY come from you; it BETTER not, cuz if my salvation rests on MY imperfect faith, I’m in trouble. It is a “gift from God. NOT by works, lest anyone should boast.”
And this faith, this GIVEN faith, God “counted”, or “credited”, or “reckoned”, or some translations even say “imputed”, the Hebrew verb is hasab; they all mean the same thing: God looks at faith, and instead SEES righteousness. Listen, we could spend all MORNING just on this one verse. But here’s the synopsis: Psalm 37 assures us that “Transgressors shall be altogether destroyed… [but] The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord” (vv38-39). Now, that’s bad news for you and me, because Romans 3:10 warns us that “None is righteous, no, not one”. We are ALL transgressors, waiting to be altogether destroyed... UNLESS, God chooses to look at FAITH, faith that HE gives, and see the righteousness of CHRIST instead.
Ahhh, I wanna say more but we gotta keep moving…
God’s Second Promise is: LAND. That’s the “L” in your bulletin. LAND
V7: “God said to Abram, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.””
This is a MAJOR theme all throughout the Bible: LAND; We could tell the whole story of the Bible through the motif of “LAND”.
-Genesis 1: God CREATED land.
-Genesis 2: He created SPECIAL land, a garden, for his most special creation - humans. And he told us to FILL the land, and care for it.
-But instead, Genesis 3: we violated God’s only “No Trespassing” sign, and subsequently, we were EVICTED from the land.
-Then God flooded the land, Noah waited for the land to reappear.
-And now God is covenanting to Abram a PROMISED Land. A new special land, for his new special people.
-But he will WARN them, again in Psalm 37, to “Turn away from evil and do good… [For] The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.” (vv27-29)
-And God reiterates that to his people, especially through the prophets, and their warnings, like Amos’, who we read just last week: “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, says the Lord… [or ELSE,] I will send you into exile,””. Kicked out of the land.
-And that’s exactly what happens to them. And for centuries, God’s people anticipated a coming RULER like King DAVID, who would take BACK their land, from Assyria, from Babylon, from Greece, from Rome.
-And they tried to crown Jesus king, but he said, “My kingdom is NOT of this world”; I’ve got a BETTER piece of real estate to offer you; “In my Father’s house, there are many rooms…”
-But TWO of the 3 Abrahamic religions missed the memo, and were willing to settle for SO MUCH LESS than what Jesus came to offer us; and Jews and Muslims have been fighting over the same piece of land ever since.
-But we Christians know that our hope, our HOME is not in this world, Philippians 3: “our citizenship is in HEAVEN”, and WE await a BETTER land, a NEW Jerusalem, that HEAVENLY city, where there will be no more death nor tears nor pain - but ALL things will be made NEW. Amen?!
That’s the BIBLE in a nutshell for you! LAND is REALLY important in the Bible. But how does Abram respond here to God’s promise of this “holy land”?
V8: “But Abram said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”” Abram doubts, once again. His response is reminiscent of Moses’, when HE is called to go back to Egypt to set God’s people free, and he responds,
“Yeah God, but... how will they KNOW it’s you who has sent me?” And God says, “I’ll work miracles.”
So Moses says, “Yeah God, but... I don’t TALK so good.” And God says, “I’ll talk for you.”
So Moses says, “Yeah God, but... I don’t WANT to go.” And God says, “Ahhh, there it is.”
And once again, friends: I can’t help but wonder how many of US this morning are saying to the promises of God, “Yeah God, but…”. And not just the promises we LIKE. Moses didn’t WANT to go back to Egypt. I’m not so sure Abram wanted to leave the comforts of Ur, for this foreign land, that oh by the way HE wasn’t even ever going to possess, his hypothetical OFFSPRING would, one day… eventually possess it.
If we struggle with God’s promises that we LIKE - “To work all things together for my good”, how much MORE SO God’s promise that “in this world, you will have trouble”. Jesus’ promise that “if the world hated me, it will hate you also.” Anyone else guilty of responding to that promise with “Yeah God, but…”?!
“Jesus - I want to follow you AND be liked.”
“Jesus - I want to follow you AND be comfortable.”
If God really wanted EVERYONE to follow him, he’d be so much better off promising us health, wealth and happiness in THIS life, Cuz we’re such short-term, instantaneous gratification-seeking creatures, aren’t we?! God has promised us ALL the riches of eternal life with HIM in Paradise, forever... but we’d settle for a little cash. A nicer house. A bigger plot of LAND. God promises Abram “LAND” here, and his response is essentially, “Yeah God, but… how do I KNOW you’ll give it to me? Can I get some EARNEST money? Can I at least SEE the land first? I wanna make sure it’s actually better than the land I gave up back in Ur.” Abram doubts God.
But once again, God in his MERCY, confirms this second promise, in V9: He tells Abram “Bring me a cow, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a young pigeon” ...Cut them in half, and lay each half over against the other.” What’s going on here? Kent Hughes explains:
“This custom was common in Abram’s Mesopotamian homeland; when two parties [blessed] a promise or covenant, they would kill a donkey, divide it in two, and arrange the halves so that the covenanting parties could walk between the sundered body of the animal. The ceremony dramatized a self-imposed curse should either of the covenanting parties break the pledge. The sense was: “If I break my word, may I become like this severed animal!”” (228)
Now, KIDS, let me talk to y’all for a minute. Every Sunday is family Sunday these days, and I love it. Because what’s more KID-friendly than cutting cows and goats in half and walking through their entrails. So kids, here’s the deal: how many of y’all have ever made a PROMISE with someone? Now, if it’s a SERIOUS promise, what do you do, to make sure that BOTH of you understand just how serious this promise really is? You might make a PINKY promise, right? Because nothing says, “I mean BUSINESS!” like the pinky finger.
Some of you might instead “Cross your heart…” Do kids still say, “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye”? You know that one? Now we’re getting a little more violent. “Stick a needle in my eye”, if I break this promise.
Well if you think THAT threat sounds bad, kids, just imagine saying to God: “If I break THIS promise, God, cut me in HALF like this animal!”
I mentioned, back in my sermon on divorce when we preached through the Gospel of Mark: I wonder if we’d have a lot fewer divorces if we raised the stakes of the covenant again. I’m officiating Aly Smith and Ryan Gibson’s wedding this coming fall, and guys: I just want you to know, the offer is on the table - if y’all want me to cut an animal in half to symbolize how serious you guys take this commitment, I’m game if you are.
But God doesn’t just confirm his promise symbolically, he also reiterates the covenant in WORD again too, v13: “the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.” God prophesies Israel’s enslavement in Egypt, that won’t occur for another 200 some odd years, when they will LOSE their Promised Land, but then, v16, they will return to it after 4 centuries, or “four generations”, by the lifespan of that day. And don’t miss this MASSIVELY important explanation for WHY they will be enslaved for 400 years, v16: “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
In other words, when you and I read our Bibles, and we AGONIZE over how God could command the utter annihilation of the Canaanites and Amorites in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, Judges… just keep in mind that the Israelites had a much different take on it; the theological problem THEY were wrestling with wasn’t God’s JUDGMENT of these wicked, idolatrous, pagan nations - that made SENSE to them - God is a God of justice; how could he NOT punish people who sacrificed their own children to false, demon gods?! No, the Israelites’ question was how could God be so PATIENT with these people? Why would God allow his OWN people - the Israelites - to be enslaved for 400 years while he continually tried to reach out to these godless nations, to give them chance after chance to repent?
Because Exodus 34: the Lord is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” BUT… BUT - know this, you Canaanites, you Amorites, you 21st c. secular AMERICANS, who have forsaken God - he is ALSO a God “who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex 34:6-7). He IS a God of justice too. So the apostle Paul warns us in Romans 2: Don’t “presume on the riches of [God’s] patience”; it is meant to lead you to REPENTANCE (v4). But mark this down: God’s patience WILL one day run out, for ALL who will NOT repent.
Like the Israelites, we too might look around at our OWN society, in an age where in a single WEEK, a major U.S. city votes to get rid of its entire police force, a section of another major U.S. city secedes from the United States and creates its own anarchist state, the Supreme Court paves the way for the criminalization of all gender distinctions, and say, “How long, O Lord, will you be PATIENT?!” But Donald Grey Barnhouse reminds us that, “If the iniquity of our nation had been full a hundred years ago, none of us would have been born!” So we bless God for his patience! (Hughes, 231)
So God PROMISES the land, Abram doubts, God confirms the promise, and then he calls Abram to RESPOND. But here’s where things get REALLY interesting in this story. Because we need to note one little detail that the text slipped in there in verse 12 that we skipped over a moment ago: “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.” So Abram is actually UNCONSCIOUS as God is prophesying to him in vv13-16. And then WHILE HE’S STILL ASLEEP, watch what God does in v17: “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.”
Now, I promise we’re almost done, but don’t miss this: the Ancient Near Eastern CUSTOM was when you cut a covenant, BOTH parties walked through the animal’s blood path. But who passes between the animal pieces here? “A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch”.
Hughes explains (232): “This is a theophany, a visual manifestation of God! [God will show up to] Moses… similarly… in the burning bush - Exodus 3:2. Israel would see it at Sinai… “The LORD descended on the mountain in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln” - Exodus 19:18. Israel saw it again in the pillar of cloud by day and the cloud of fire by night - Exodus 13:21. [So this smoking fire pot and flaming torch here] symbolized God’s unapproachable holiness.”
And here’s the point, friends: Abram SLEEPS through the whole thing! Why? Because if the covenant depends on ABRAM’S faithfulness, he is in big, big trouble. I already spoiled the rest of his story for you: he messes up after all THREE of God’s confirmations of the covenant. Talk about patience; God gives Abram three chances to get it right. But eventually God just makes it clear here, that “MY covenant promises do NOT depend on YOUR faithfulness, Abram; I am the only party walking through the blood path here.”
And friends, I’m not going to take the time to walk US through all the passages of Scripture that I’ve listed there for you at the bottom of your bulletin; I strongly encourage you to do so on your own. But here’s the long and short of it:
God is offering another promise to you and me this morning. Better than offspring. Better than land. He is offering us CHRIST. His own Son. That’s the “C” in your bulletin: CHRIST.
He is the Promised One, whom the prophets foretold: Jeremiah 31 - “they shall all know me… declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”.
But like Abram, we doubted the promise. And not just doubted, but REJECTED. Matthew 21: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”. Isaiah 53: “He was despised and rejected by men… But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities”. In our sin, we hated Jesus so much we nailed him to a CROSS. Yet, in HIS redemptive mercy, God took even THAT - even the greatest evil in all of human history - and flipped it on its head to use it as the very MEANS by which He would accomplish the salvation of all who would trust in Christ for eternal life.
And Jesus’ RESURRECTION was the confirmation of the promise; the receipt that proved that the check that Christ wrote to pay the penalty for our sins had CLEARED. The proof that the same power that rose JESUS from the dead - Romans 8:11 - now lives IN you and has raised YOU to new life, ETERNAL life, in him, as well.
Friends: this is the NEW covenant. The BETTER covenant. Forged FOR us by a better covenant-KEEPER. While you were yet a sinner, DEAD in your sin, asleep as it were, Jesus Christ walked through the blood path to confirm the promise that you and I could never live up to. And he didn’t just walk THROUGH it, He CREATED it - it was His OWN blood! HE was the “lamb led to the slaughter”, for your sake. HE is your atoning sacrifice, who paid the debt we owed God, but in our sin, could NEVER hope to repay.
But here’s the thing, as much as this new covenant, like Abram’s, really is unilateral: God’s promise to you and me of salvation in Christ DOES NOT rest on our faithfulness to JESUS, but rather, on His faithfulness to US… Do not miss this: at the same time, God really does CALL us, He REQUIRES us, to respond.
“Abram believed, and God counted it to him as righteousness.”
“By grace, YOU TOO can be saved, through FAITH.”
The promises of a covenant must either be received, or rejected. Which will YOU choose, today? Let’s pray...