TRUST THE PROMIS-ER
Opening Prayer
Thank You, God that I can be honest with You.
Read Genesis 15
The Lord’s Covenant With Abram
15 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] 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 who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] 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, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
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 for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 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 ancestors 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 Wadi[e] 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.”
Footnotes
- Genesis 15:1 Or sovereign
- Genesis 15:1 Or shield; / your reward will be very great
- Genesis 15:2 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
- Genesis 15:5 Or seed
- Genesis 15:18 Or river
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Are you always polite when you talk to God? Do you think it is ever appropriate to express anger or disappointment to Him?God must be delighted to answer Abram’s heartfelt questions about his offspring (1–6). Abram’s faith that God would keep His promises drove him to raise the issue – we may assume, not for the first time. If he had no faith, he would simply have dismissed God’s promise of a child as a fable and ‘moved on.’ But his faith in the promises insisted that he speak up and complain (2)!
And so we then read about this odd scene of divided animals with a smoking fire pot and torch passing between the pieces – it is a sign of a solemn covenant between God and Abram (9–21). A covenant is a promise with guarantees added. Jeremiah 34:18–20 describes a similar rite – assuring the observers that to break this covenant would open the covenant-maker to the same brutal fate as the sacrificed animals. God is telling Abram that even though it will take time, He will do as He says – since to do less would be to ‘un-God’ Himself. Believing the promise means trusting the Promis-er.
Apply
Are you waiting for God to answer your prayers? Do not be slow to explain your feelings to God. Listen keenly for His answer, and worship Him.
Closing prayer
Jesus, I am being real with You right now. Here are my feelings, my thoughts, my struggles. Meet me here…
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