Note how Abram’s relationship with God grows throughout these chapters. What parallels can you apply to your own life?
Consider what Abram’s obedience to God meant, and understand. Although we know Abram as a spiritual giant, he was not so when he first obeyed God. At best, God was probably known to him as the God of his father, for in Genesis 31:53 Terah’s descendants knew God as “the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, and the God of their father.” It was not until he reached the heart of the Promised Land, Bethel, that Abram “called upon the name of the Lord,” according to verse 12:8. Based on what history tells us about his home and some hints from events in the lives of Terah’s descendants (refer to Genesis 31:19), we can assume that Abram observed at least in part the worship practices of his culture of origin in Ur: he worshipped many false gods, of whom God Almighty was not one. He enjoyed relative luxury living in Ur, a great city with all the comforts civilization had to offer. He traded all that for a promise from an unknown God and life in tents as a sojourner living in a place he didn’t belong, in an age where might made right. What a foolish move! God’s people today often hear the same from the culture around them.
Abram was not a saint, as the detour to Egypt shows. Egypt (the greatest civilization in the known world in Abram’s day) became a problem for Abram and his descendants. It represented to them the best man’s efforts had to offer in the way of security and luxury. It symbolizes life outside of the land of promise, living not by faith in God but by faith in man. We should be able to identify with that today, for our culture offers us the same temptation that Egypt was to God’s chosen people of that day.
Isn’t it interesting that God demonstrated a greater ability to take care of Abram than Abram’s ability to take care of himself? Hopefully this strengthens our faith in God’s ability to take care of us, so that we’re less inclined to rely on our own efforts or run to the security our culture offers us in times of trial. Abram’s own efforts to protect himself were not lovely, were they? Are our efforts any lovelier? The exercise of faith is what made Abram a hero.
Chapter 15 makes little sense to us, but it is a very important chapter in the Bible. The chapter tells about the covenant God made with Abram. Covenant isn’t something with which we are very familiar, so it bears some explanation. A covenant is a promise. What is special about a covenant is that both parties make a promise, which means each party receives a promise. The most common example of covenants made today is marriage vows.
Remember, God had already made promises to Abram when He called him to move to Canaan. In chapter 12 He promised Abram that He would make his name great, and that He would make Abram a blessing to all the families on earth. In chapter 13 He promised to give to Abram and to his descendents forever the land on which he was standing, and that He would make Abram’s descendents innumerable. In chapter 15, make note of the promises God made to Abram. Consider what you know about God’s fulfillment of those promises. Has God been faithful to Abram?
When God gives Abram the vision, Abram sort of lets God off the hook, because it’s obvious that Abram isn’t going to father any children. Do you ever find yourself doing that? God insisted that Abram’s plan for working out God’s promise to him wasn’t what God intended at all, and of course God’s intention was much higher than Abram’s expectation. Let Abram serve as a reminder to us that God’s ways are indeed higher than our ways, and we don’t have to let God off the hook with regard to His promises. He is able to fulfill them in ways beyond what we could imagine!
Verse six tells us that Abram believed God, and God acknowledged that. Then in verse eight, Abram asks how he can know that God will fulfill His promise to him. So did Abram truly believe God, or not? Jesus encountered a similar situation in the man to whom He promised a miracle of casting out an unclean spirit, if the man would believe. The man’s response was “Lord I believe; help my unbelief!” Can you relate to that? Faith must start out with a choice to believe. If I insist on having proof in order to trust in a promise, my resulting belief isn’t faith; rather, it’s sight. It doesn’t take faith to believe in something you can see. So faith must start out with a choice to believe. Sometimes that choice feels like a great leap. In those times, faith may not feel real, because we may not be truly convinced. Does that make such faith less real? Not at all; in fact, it may be more real, because such faith truly exercises faith! The young man receiving Jesus’ promise, and Abram in Genesis 15 were both choosing to put their trust in God, and then asking for His help in feeling convinced. That is how faith works.
Did God get angry with Abram for asking for help to believe, after having acknowledged Abram’s belief, and even crediting it to him as righteousness? No! The animals he was instructed to bring to God were not punishment. Rather, they were to solemnize God’s promise. It was God’s giving His most solemn word to Abram in this matter. This covenant ceremony was very meaningful to Abram. In his culture, agreements were not formalized by writing them down and signing the contract, as ours are today. They were formalized in a covenant ceremony much like this one. They laid out animals like God instructed Abram to do, and both parties passed between the halves of the animals, conveying their solemn acknowledgement that if they didn’t keep the promise they were making, the same would happen to them as what they had done to the animals. That’s what the flaming torch meant: God was passing between the animal parts laid out on the ground, showing His sincerity in keeping His promises to Abram. He promised that if what He had promised was not fulfilled, He would be broken, His blood shed, like these animals. This was very moving to Abram. What a gift from God! Will God help us in our unbelief if we choose to place our trust in Him? Yes! Hebrews 11:6 says He rewards those who diligently seek Him in faith.
Notice that Abram didn’t make a promise, and didn’t pass between the pieces of animals. Was God not interested in Abram’s part of this covenant? It seems like Abram’s belief was a small thing for God to receive in this bargain. Was He offering Abram relationship with Him cheaply? More about the covenant between God and Abram is in tomorrow’s reading.
By the way, did God ever have to be broken, did He ever have to shed His blood because His promises were not fulfilled? The promises were obviously fulfilled, and yet God was broken…. More about that in the Gospels.