- Your name will be blessed
- I will give you the promised land
- I will give you numerous descendants
- All nations will be blessed through you
All four of these promises rely on the third one coming true. Abram and Sarai's name is cursed until they have children. And it doesn't matter if they get land if they don't have kids to inherit their land after they die. And there is no way that this couple can bless the nations if they have no children.
The beginning of the covenant coming true with Abram is having children. Yet, years after the promise has been made to Abram in Genesis 12, there are still no children. Sarai is still barren. And Abram is doubting. Wouldn't you? Let's read this passage together now:
1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He 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.”
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
The whole issue about this passage is whether Abram will trust God and, if in fact, God can be trusted. Will Abram continue to embrace God's call on his life. It's not a one time decision.
First off, Abram is looking at the present circumstances in comparison to the future promise of God and they aren't matching up. Sarai is still barren, and they are getting old. The time of child-bearing has kind of passed them, and there is still no kids. All of the promises God made to Abram are based on this first one coming true, that Abram will have a son. Yet...there is no son.
How many times does this happen to us? Our present circumstances do not match up with the promises God has in store with us for the future. We hear that we are to give our money to others and tithe to the church, yet, it our budget is tight already, and it doesn't seem that there is any way to go without that money. We are told to sacrifice our own interests and desires for others and we will be blessed by healthy relationships, yet, it seems like if I don't pay attention to my interests and needs no one will. But God is the master of bringing life to things that seem dead. Look how Abram's faith changes in vs. 8-21
9 So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river[d] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
Abram has stepped out in faith and believed God's word, that he will do what he says he will do. But there is still some doubt there, so God moves to affirm that God is able to be trusted. God commands Abram to get these animals and to do this weird thing with them. He tells him to cut them in half, put the halves across from each other, and God's presence walks in between these cut in half animals.
What the heck is going on?
This was an old tradition where two parties would make a deal, and as a commitment to this deal they made, they would cut animals in two and walk in between the halves of the animals, as a sign saying, "If I break this deal, do to me what we did to these animals." And when deals were made between two parties where one party was a king and the other was a peasant, only the peasant would have to walk through the animal halves, the king didn't have to make that kind of commitment. What happens in this story is the complete opposite. The King, God, is the only one that walks through the animals. God is saying that all of the responsibility of these promises he made to Abram coming true is laid upon him. All God asks of Abram is to just trust that God will make it happen.
God answers the question of whether or not he is worth trusting with an emphatic YES!!! What we will see throughout the rest of our study is if Abram is going to trust God. And as we read, the question remains pointed at us as well. Will we trust this God who can be trusted?
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