Title: COVENANT—GOD’S CUTTING-EDGE ASSURANCE

Focus: God secures his covenantal promise to Abram and his descendants as an everlasting or unchangeable promise, thus affirming Abram and us in our pilgrimage of faith.

Function: To move the congregation to root themselves in God’s covenantal promises, which is fulfilled in Christ and received by faith.

Text: Genesis 15:1-21; Romans 4:18-25

A number of years ago, my wife and I signed a pile of official papers in front of a notary public. The papers outlined our mortgage payment and obligations to the bank; and the papers signified that the property we bought is indeed ours. The notary public made it all official and legal. And thus the bank secured its loan with us, and we secured our house.

Those papers point to a business deal, a contract, an agreement between two parties—you could call it a covenant. Those papers point to obligations and responsibilities as well as privileges. If the bank or if my wife and I should fail to live up to the agreement, there will be lawyers and a court to settle the differences. In other words, there will be a price to pay, such as foreclosure or bankruptcy or some other unpleasant arrangement. That’s the way it is today.

In the days of Abram it was different, especially when it came to agreements or promises among rulers. Two kings, for example, would develop a treaty or agreement—a covenant—to do certain things: the one king may for instance agree to pay taxes to the other king; in return for the taxes or tribute the other king promises to provide military protection from enemies.

These kings would secure their covenant or agreement by cutting up a number of animals; dividing them into halves. The kings would then both walk in between the two halves of these cut-up animals. They would be walking through puddles of blood from these animals. Why? Well, in doing so, they were saying in essence: If one of us fails to keep his part of the covenant, the price to pay is the same as those animals paid: the one shall die by the sword.

In our days, we make contracts, business deals or covenants by way of legal procedures and documents. In the days of Abram, they cut up animals and signified to the community that promises are made and they are to be kept. If not, the price to pay is visible to all who see the cut-up halves of the animals that were sacrificed.

In Genesis 15 we notice that God secures his covenantal promise to Abram and his descendants as an unchanging, everlasting promise, thus affirming Abram and us in our pilgrimage of faith. In light of the Bible’s overall teaching, it becomes clear that God reminds us today to root ourselves in his covenantal promise, which is fulfilled in Christ and received by faith.

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Consider, first of all, the passage and its setting: It begins with “After this….” It is after Abram’s victory over the 4 kings mentioned in chapter 14, it is after Abram’s rescue mission of Lot and his household, it is after Abram received a blessing from Melchizek, and it is after Abram “dissed” the king of Sodom by accepting nothing that belongs to the Canaanites—their culture, their wealth, their ways, and their gods. It was after these things that “the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.”

That word of God comes to Abram at a critical time, where he is worried about his future. He has no sons to carry on his name; and he has no land in his possession. He is roaming around in a land where he separates himself from the Canaanites. Abram is vulnerable and frail and getting older by the day. It is at that critical point that God comes to Abram with some cutting-edge assurance—an unchangeable covenant.

Secondly, the inspired storyteller is very deliberate and subtle about God’s self-revelation to Abram and God’s cutting-edge assurance to Abram. For example, note the parallels of God’s self-revelation: (Vs. 1) “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Here God identifies himself as Abram’s richest possession or treasure for the present and the future. Now note (Vs.7) “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” Here God identifies himself as Abram’s guide from the past and Abram’s benefactor in the future. Verses 1 and 7, then, run parallel to each other. Pay attention to that.

There is another striking parallel: This is the first time in the Genesis narrative that we find Abram in dialogue with God. And that dialogue comes with a parallel. For example, in vs. 2 Abram responds to the Lord saying, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?...You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” In this first dialogue or response, then, we learn that Abram is fretting about his future, about offspring. He has no children of his own to secure his family name and future.

There is another issue, however. That issue comes out very clearly in the parallel dialogue or response found in vs. vs. 8. Listen: “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it (that is, the land)?” The storyteller uses these parallels to lay the issues before us: “What can you give me since I remain childless.” And “How can I know that I will inherit the land?”

Pay attention to how the inspired writer of this story tells the story. For these parallels and these two questions highlight the occasion for God coming to Abram in a vision and providing him with a cutting-edge assurance.

Thirdly, God’s self-revelation and cutting-edge assurance take place in two visions that seem to blur into one large panorama involving a night, a day and another night. In the first vision we notice that Abram is in his tent, at night, perhaps sleeping or laying awake fretting about his future—his lack of children and his lack of land. The text says that God “took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.”

God reassures Abram with a visual—the stars. These stars, Abram, underscore my promise to you. You shall have innumerable descendants. And then the text says: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Priceless! Abram can go back to bed again. And sleep. God’s stars and firmament now knock Abram over the head, so to speak, every night when Abram worries and frets about his future.

Then, it almost seems that God’s self-revelation to Abram in the first vision at night flows over seamlessly into another vision. That vision takes place during the day and in the following night.

For example, we notice that God addresses Abram’s other worry as well. God says: “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” Abram responds saying, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” And then we hear God giving Abram instructions—instructions that will lead to a cutting-edge assurance. Listen: “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and young pigeon”

We notice that in this vision and in this word of the Lord Abram seems to know exactly what’s going on. He obliges and proceeds to do what kings would do in his days: he slaughters the animals, he cuts them in two and arranges the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Abram is ready to enter into a cutting-edge, covenantal relationship with God. Abram is eager to enter into this arrangement with God. Abram is ready to do his part.

But God is not showing up. There is an ominous sign, however. Birds of prey show up; they come down on the carcasses, and Abram spends his energy on chasing them off. Where is God now? He told Abram to get ready for this covenant ceremony. But so far, it’s only Abram and birds of prey that are showing up.

Waiting for God can be tiresome. It’s getting dark; shooing away the vultures--like fighting devils and enemies who want to stop you from entering into a covenant relationship with God—is wearisome. Abram falls into a deep sleep. Then God shows up. Listen to the text: “…and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him (one of the many signs in the Bible signifying God’s presence).”

And then we notice that the Lord prophesies to Abram, making clear that his offspring would eventually inherit the land of Canaan, but not without having to fight the tyranny of the devil. The shadow of the sons of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob being in Egypt, oppressed by Pharaoh, led out of exile by Moses, into the desert for forty years and the shadow of the conquest of the promised land led by Joshua—that shadow appears in the Lord’s word and vision to Abram. And it’s clear that the possession of the land will be a matter for Abram’s offspring; Abram himself will live by faith and inherit the land by faith.

Now here is the “kicker”: God himself secures his covenantal promise to Abram and his descendants as an unchangeable, everlasting promise, thus affirming Abram and us in our pilgrimage of faith.

Don’t miss this. While Abram is in a deep sleep, passive, inactive, God walks between the halves of the carcasses. God himself, God alone, enters and secures the covenant promise. Listen: “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch (these are biblical signs of God’s presence) appeared and passes between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendents I give this land….”

In other words, God’s promise and relationship with Abram and his offspring--us included--is all a matter of grace. By grace, you have been saved, Abram, Isaac, Jacob; by grace you are in relationship with God, Moses, Joshua, David; by grace you live, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Daniel; by grace that culminates in Jesus Christ—the Seed of Abram—you are saved, Peter, James, John and Paul.

It is by grace, Nate, Ilene, Mary, Bea, and all of us who turn to Christ by faith—that we are saved; that we may inherit the promise of land, the promise of a new heaven and earth. It is by grace that God includes you and embraces us in his covenant. That’s the kicker. And that’s the good news!

While Abram is asleep, while we were dead in sins and trespasses, God made us alive in Christ. God-in Christ-shed his blood, offered himself as a sacrificial lamb that we may live.

Abram believed. And God credited it to him as righteousness. It’s still the same today. The just shall live by faith. And together with Abram and his offspring, believers in Christ who are made right with God through faith, shall inherit the promised new heavens and earth.

Abram sleeps; God works and secures his promise. Later, it’s 8-days-old Isaac who receives the promise by means of the sign of circumcision. As it was then, it is still the same: God saves; God promises; God assures us. Today, he does so with the water of baptism. While we slept in our parents’ arms, God placed his gracious promise on us.

While we struggle in our daily walk with Christ to let his light shine, to fight sin and the devil in so many different ways, God nurtures us with bread and wine. “I will lead you to the promised land.” “I will secure your life, your future with me.”

Thus it is that by securing his covenantal promise to Abram and to us today as an everlasting, unchangeable promise, God affirms us in our pilgrimage of faith today.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Now and always! Amen.