If you are like me, then I suspect that you have times in
your life when you need assurance and re- assurance that you are indeed doing the
right thing or whether you are on the right road. Often we tend to become
anxious and fearful of the future in the light of present developments. Those
can be dangerous times, depending who we are listening to. The Bible always
directs us seek God and His Word. “If any
of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God” (James
1:5). In the Christian ministry I have often needed to ask the Lord for
assurance as to whether I was doing the right thing, and in doing so I have
needed to search His Word. The counsel of Christian friends and colleagues who
have drawn my attention to the Word of God in various matters has been
invaluable.
In the text before us we have a situation in which we find
Abram in such a position, and the situation arises as a result of the
happenings in Chapter 14 and even before that! Let’s take a step back and take
it from the beginning. We had met Abram in Chapter 12. He was a pagan man from
Ur in Mesopotamia. God, the true God and Creator of the Universe did the
unthinkable and spoke to him and revealed Himself to him. He said to Abram, “Leave your country and your family to go to a land which
I will show you.” We are not told how it was that the LORD spoke, but it
was such a powerful encounter that there was no doubt in Abram’s mind that the
LORD God had spoken.
Abram’s move to the Promised Land would, however, not be
without its challenges. We now must also remember that he is a descendant of
Adam, whose original sin has affected the spiritual DNA of his entire offspring. Abram leaves Ur, by God’s command and by His promise
of blessing, but he also leaves Ur as a fallen man, and it is going to show.
We see these two sides of Abram’s nature, portrayed in
Chapter 12. One side portrays the real
faith which he has in the God who has called him and who is going before him to
the Promised Land [2:1-9]. The other
side portrays his faithlessness, when upon arrival he faces a drought in
Canaan. Instead of trusting God to provide, he is moved by fear, anxiety, doubt and this causes him to
go to Egypt for help. There he encounters
even more severe challenges, when he almost loses his wife and even his
life [12:10-20]. Were it not for
God’s sovereign love and grace to Abram, he would have never escaped from
Egypt.
Chapters 13 and 14 are beautiful chapters as we see
Abram resolutely trusting in his God. He makes a good decision as to where he should live in
the promised land, while his nephew
Lot makes a disastrous decision, based on what his eyes
and his heart desire. He chooses to live close to the fallen world of Sodom.
When Lot is taken captive and carried away
by an invading army, Abram, full of faith rescues him with the help of
his God against an overwhelming army. This
remarkable victory does not go unrecognised, particularly by Melchizedek [1]
the king of (Jeru) Salem, one of the many kings of a city state in that area. In
the book of Hebrews we see that he prefigures the Lord Jesus Christ as a
prophet- priest-king. Melchizedek recognizes a kindred spirit in Abram, and
Abram does the same, as he pays homage to this king of Salem, in the giving of
a tithe of everything that he had.
Chapter 15 starts with these words, ”…after these things the Word of the
LORD came to Abram.” What
things? The reference is obviously to the
recent wars in Chapter 14. War has a
very unsettling effect on people, creating anxiety about the future. Am I
going to be safe here? Does my family have a future here? Abram’s greater concern however relates to his family’s future, with regard to his childless status: “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I
continue childless… behold you have given me no offspring…” [vv.2, 3]. There is as yet no physical
offspring to make this promise come true.
At this stage, the arrangement is for Eliezer of Damascus, a son born in
his home, whom he had adopted, to be the heir.
Abram in his mind has much
reason to be worried about the promise of God.
This is the first time in the Bible that the oft repeated and
majestic phrase is used, “the Word of the LORD came to Abram…”. When we are anxious the most reassuring voice
is the voice of the Father. And so, Abram need not fear! The God who is
faithful to His promises is directing Abram’s heart with certainty and
progressively, and while He does this, He is teaching Abram many lessons along
the way. God does not dump His purposes on
us all at one time. God is leading Abram, step by step. Our journey with God is
designed for one step at a time, and always accompanied by faith in the
promises of God. “Fear not Abram, I am
your shield; your reward shall be very great.” [v.1] And God comes to him with the reassurance
that His promise first given in Chapter
12 will stand. He will have his very
own son [v. 4] and through him
his offspring will be as numerous as the stars of the sky [v.5]. As a result of
this we read, “And he believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness” [v.6]. The first hurdle is overcome. By faith in the Word of God his anxiety is settled. The apostle Paul in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 explains and establishes the great doctrine of “justification
by faith alone” on this text.
In verse 7 we find the
second hurdle. God
also promised Abram that he would possess a land as his inheritance. [v.7] The recent conflict in the Jordan
valley has raised for him some serious
questions about his future. Again, Abram anxiously asks the LORD: “How am I to know that I will possess it?”
The answer comes by way of another strong
assurance from God.
God reminds him again, that He has brought him here
from Ur. [v.7]. God had brought him from that land of idols, from the
kingdom of darkness, so to speak, into
this place where he will bless him and his descendants. God cannot lie. He cannot go back on His
words, but Abram struggles, and the typical manifestations of our fallen nature
in such matters are, as already
indicated, doubt and anxiety. These are ultimately rooted in unbelief. We
do not trust God to be true. This is a typical sin associated with the fall.
There is very little difference between the doubts which the devil sows into the
mind of Eve, “Has God really said?” [Gen. 3:1] and the doubt that Abram
expresses here: “O Lord GOD, how am I to
know that I shall possess it?” The fact is that God has promised this to him
at the very beginning [Gen. 12:2,3] of his encounter with him.
O the grace and the patience of our God! Knowing his weakness, God is willing to bear with him and provide Abram with more assurance. He begins with these weighty words: “I am
the LORD.” [v.7] We hear these
words again in Exodus 6:2,6,8 and 20:2
in the context of the giving of
the 10 commandments, “I am the LORD your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the house of
slavery”. I Am is here. Do not
fear! God is about to establish a strong
bond, a covenant with Abram to provide Him with the needed assurance for
the future. Remember that Abram did not
have the full revelation that you and
I have,
living as people under the full revelation of the New Covenant by which
we have been made secure with God by the Holy Spirit through
the knowledge of Jesus’ death on
the cross, for us!
So, how did the assurance come? In a way which Abram would have understood! A
covenant!
God tells Abram to bring to him a three year old heifer, a
three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtledove and a young
pigeon [v.9]. Abram slaughters the animals and cuts them in half
(except the birds) and lays the pieces opposite to one another. This all is deeply significant. Blood is to be shed, depicting the
seriousness of this transaction! Only
clean, mature, animals were to be used
in this process, ranging from a heifer to a pigeon. The dove and the pigeon
were included because the sacrifices must be within the reach of all. But the cutting of the animal sacrifices is
particularly significant, because it underlies the symbolism of covenant. The Hebrew
idiom for making a covenant can be better translated as “cutting a covenant”. In the ancient Near East such
covenants were common, and the parties to
such a covenant would walk between the pieces
of carcass and say to each other , “As
it is to these animals , so it will be to me and to you if we break the terms
of this covenant.” Making a covenant
was the strongest form of assurance in the Ancient Near East. It was thought of
as unbreakable. And so here, God was
saying to Abram that by this act, He was absolutely committing Himself to
Abram’s future in terms of the land.
The unclean birds of
prey that wanted to come
down on the carcasses [v.11] are
pertinent reminders that the terms of
the covenant, and the people of the covenant are forever attacked by evil, unclean forces, and it is a
tiring battle to keep these away . Abram fell asleep, probably from exhaustion,
and a dreadful and great darkness fell on him. [v12] Many of God’s people, in their battle to remain faithful to
God in the midst of life’s trials have experienced the dark night of the soul, and again I remind you that it is only
the God who calls you, who keeps you in such times! But when you have come
through these times you will have found yourself to having been greatly
strengthened in your assurance by this experience.
In the midst of the darkness comes the prophetic assurance of
v. 13: “Know for certain…. God shows Abram a panorama of the history of his
descendants. He shows him that they
would have to endure a four hundred year exile. This points forward to the
times of the Exodus under Moses, when they had to suffer slavery in Egypt, and
when God was refining them and preparing
them for the Promised land. They would learn that by suffering they would
inherit the kingdom of God. But they would leave that land and when they left, God promised Abram that
they would come out with great possessions. Abram would not see that day. He would have
died years before in a good old age. Abram himself would not see that day, but
the fourth generation would, and they would come out of Egypt, as numerous as
sand on the seashore. And God
is doing so much more than our simple minds can fathom.
The Amorites, the
people of the land of Canaan in the
meantime would be piling up their sins and iniquities (Behold the patience of
God towards sinners!), and then Abram’s descendants would return under Joshua as God’s
instruments of wrath upon Canaan, and the land would be theirs.
Thank God then, that our days, that history , that the future are in His hands. There is nothing more reassuring than that !
SUMMARY
The 15th
Chapter of Genesis is a key chapter
in the Bible, containing key Bible doctrines :
·
Strong
emphasis on the doctrine of Assurance,
which is rooted in the promises of God. Twice in this chapter God answers Abram’s fundamental questions concerning his future.
·
Strong teaching on the nature of
justification by faith, a key doctrine in the Bible by which we are reminded that the faith by which we
are justified is possible ,
because of God’s prior working in our
life. Abram was called. That calling showed itself in a corresponding faith in God, which proved him to be a righteous and therefore a
justified man.
·
A strong reminder of the unbreakable
nature of the covenant. For the Christian the New Covenant
in Christ’s blood speaks of a
better covenant, since this covenant is sealed in the blood of the Son of God , who loved us
and who gave Himself for us.
·
A strong reminder that
our confidence in God is continuously assaulted and sometimes severely battered.
·
A strong reminder that history and future is in God’s hands. God tells
Abram accurately what must happen to his
people.
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