February 16, 2017
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Questions And God

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Opening Prayer

Holy God, overcome my fears with Your transforming Word. May Your Spirit break through any barriers within me.

Read Genesis 15

[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, “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 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 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 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.”

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20)

What God counts as righteousness is to trust his promises (6; see Rom. 4:3 and James 2:23)—but trust has its questions! Melchizedek praised God “who delivered your enemies into your hand” (14:20) and now God himself says, “I am your shield” (1)—but what is Abraham’s tone of voice as he questions and states present facts (2,3)? We see the wonder of how God relates with people: we can honestly tell God what we think (most evident in the book of Job and many psalms) and he responds! The primary biblical portrayal of God is not a ruler whose laws are to be obeyed but one who in love desires relationship. Some questions may arise from disbelief but others are because of faith, when we can’t understand what God is doing. Here God responds and Abraham accepts God’s reaffirmation of promise—with another question! Trusting God does not disallow, “How can I know?” (8). God in response provides a covenant ceremony. Treaty ceremonies with slaughtered animals are known in the ancient Near East whereby the parties solemnly commit themselves to a relationship (“May I be like these animals if I prove disloyal”). Here only God binds himself with an unconditional pledge. Many years will pass before the promised son, but Abraham has the ongoing memory of the ceremony. Our own journey of faith is sustained by God’s covenant ceremonies that he has established as visible participatory signs of his promise, the initiating ceremony of baptism and ongoing participation in the Lord’s Supper. As well, there are those personal experiences where in some special way we have known God’s provision. One person preparing for cross-cultural ministry blogs, “I write them here so that in the cold, dark nights of winter we can look back at them and remember that God has called us.”

Apply

Have you ever had to ask for reassurance (2–8)? Where in your life do you need God’s reassurance?

Closing prayer

Father God, I thank You for the times in my life when You have strengthened my faith and spoken clearly to me.

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