Can you think of a time when someone made you a promise? Perhaps it was a verbal promise or maybe it came more formally as a contract in writing such as in the purchase of property. When people enter into marriage, there is usually an exchange of rings, a sign or promise of love and commitment to each other. In court people put their hand on the Bible and promise to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! As children we used to have particular things we did and said as we made promises. One that stands out in my mind was the 'pinky promise' where you would link pinkies with your friend while making a covenant with them. These were serious agreements indeed!
Continuing on from yesterday, Abram's conversation with God reminds him that he could trust in the faithfulness of the One who had already brought him safely from his home to a new place:
"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." But Abram said, "Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" 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." 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. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 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. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 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— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.""
Genesis 15:7-21 NIV
This wasn't the first time that God told Abram about the land that was his. God was restating the promise he had already given but using some special visual aides to help Abram remember!
Of course Abram wanted to know, 'how can I know that I will gain possession of it?' I guess I can see why he asked this as other people were living in the land at the time and he had nothing in writing to say it was his, no title deed! God patiently reassured him by saying that He would make a contract with him.
At that time, contracts were made by sacrificially cutting animals and leaving the split carcasses on the ground. Generally a covenant was made when each party to the agreement, walked between the animal parts. They did this together, signifying the agreement was sealed and it carried great weight because it was made by the shedding of blood.
While the whole ceremony seems very strange to us, this would have been something that was very familiar to Abram, part of the customs of the day. It spoke clearly to Abram of God's seriousness in giving him the land. Abram waited for God to come and walk between the animal parts with him and eventually he fell into a kind of sleep. During this sleep, he dreamed or received a vision and God revealed some details of the future of his descendants. There are things that would have been difficult for Abram to take in and accept, like the slavery and affliction his offspring would endure. However, eventually they would return to their land and would have great possessions.
When it was dark, Abram witnessed an amazing sight! God used a smoking pot and a burning torch to represent himself in sealing the covenant. The cloud of smoke was going to be seen in the future as God made his presence known to his people in the time of Moses! The fire of the torch was also going to be symbolic in the future! We will encounter them soon as we continue to read through God's Word.
The fact that God walked through reminded Abram that this covenant was not based on who he was or anything that he would do, it was all about who God was and what He could do! In a similar way, the New Covenant God makes with mankind in the New Testament is all His doing, there is nothing we can add! God sent Jesus to die for our sins on the Cross. He rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, preparing a place for us to dwell forever! The New Covenant is in Jesus' blood, all we need to do is just believe and receive!
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for the covenant You established with Abram —the contract was sealed and it could not be broken! Thank You for the way You meet us where we are —just as You did with Abram, you hear our concerns, our doubts, our fears and speak to us. You love us and are so patient with us! We thank You for all the promises You have made in Your Word. Thank You that You have made a new covenant with us with the blood of the Lamb, Your Son Jesus.
"For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant." Hebrews 9:15 NIV
Thank You that we live under this new covenant, this new promise and just as you kept Your promise to Abram, we can definitely count on Your faithfulness!
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:4-5 NIV
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.
"For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see."
Psalms 36:9 NLT
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Light and Life for Today
SpiritualA daily devotional for your time alone with God. In an increasingly dark world, more than ever, we need to look beyond what we can see, past our present circumstances. In order to see the light and experience life as our Heavenly Father intended, I...
