April 17, 2023
Reading: Genesis 15
Focus: Genesis 15:6-7 – Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. 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”
Father God, I am so thankful for Your love and forgiveness. Thank You for the blessings You have given me. Thank You for this opportunity to share what I see in Your Word. Speak through me. Help me to hear what You want told. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Lot has been rescued and returned to his home in Sodom. When given a choice he chose where the grass seemed greener, not thinking of how sinful the city of Sodom was. Somehow, he just didn’t get it that Sodom was not the safest place to live. He was attracted to the profits that could be made. He never could see the consequences of his actions. And while he was not the strongest follower of God, the apostle Peter called him righteous (2 Peter 2:7-8). He just seemed to always follow the path of least resistance. But Abram loved him. He took Lot with him and been a father to him since his father died when he was younger.
Life settled down for Abram. He returned to his home under the trees of Mamre. And he still did not have a son. I often wonder what Abram and Sarai thought of the promise of descendants that could not be numbered. They had no son, or daughter for that matter. No children at all. My heart goes out to Sarai. She must have wanted children and suffered because she had not been able to give Abram a child. That is a very lonely feeling. I’m sure I’ve said it before but it’s like failing Womanhood 101. Somehow, you feel less that a woman when you can’t have children. It is a devastating emotion. I can’t imagine what she felt when Abram told her that God said they would have descendants without number. I can just hear her now, “Yeah, right.”
But God was constant in His promise to Abram. He had told him before and would repeat it several more times. Abram will have a son, of his own flesh and blood. You can’t be any clearer than that. But it seems that Abram still may have had his doubts. In Abram’s time, inheritance was designated by the patriarch, in this case, Abram. If there were no children, he could appoint a trusted friend or a favored servant in his household as his heir. Abram had no heirs, and so, as custom decreed, it would be Eliezer, his servant who would be his heir. Abram brought this up to God again, there under the trees of Mamre.
God visited him again in a vision. He told Abram that He was his Shield and Reward. Abram questioned the Lord. He asked what else could God give him since he had no child, no heir. His servant would be his heir. God made a statement. This statement held promise. The promise that He had been telling Abram all along. “. . . a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” Then God took him outside.
God wasn’t done yet. There was more for Abram to hear. God told him, again, that his offspring would be more than the stars that could be counted. This was the third time God spoke of Abram’s descendants. Abram still was having difficulty believing. This third time, as God took Abram out of his tent to look at the stars, God told him that if he could count the stars, he would know the number of his offspring. I guess that the third time is the charm because Abram believed. And God credited it to him as righteousness. Finally, Abram believed God and that belief set him right with God. I wonder how many times God had to tell some people something before they will believe it. If we are really listening to God’s voice, we should be able to hear what He says. Sometimes it may be a little hard to believe, but you should always make sure it conforms to what you know of God from the scripture. He is not going to ask you to do something that is wrong.
Abram still had questions. “How can I know that I will gain possession of it?” I can just see God kind of shaking His head. The Lord told him to prepare a sacrifice. A very specific sacrifice. We will see what these animals meant when they were sacrificed to God later in Exodus and Leviticus. Abram brought a heifer, a three-year-old goat and ram along with a dove and a young pigeon and prepared them as God directed. They were cut in two and each half was place across a pathway from the other, except for the birds, they were left whole. Then, Abram waited. Abram protected them all during the day from birds of prey.
We briefly touched on this type of sacrifice after Noah left the ark. This sacrifice is the verification of the covenant between Abram and his descendants and God. This covenant separated Abram and his descendants from the rest of the peoples on earth, making them a separate nation. From this nation would come the One who would redeem all mankind. God told Abram He would bless his descendants so that all families of the earth would be blessed. Note that God was very specific that this son would be Abram’s own flesh and blood.
Then, when night came, Abram fell asleep. As he slept, God gave Abram a very specific prophecy. For 400 years, Abram’s descendants would be in a country not their own and would become slaves. They will suffer but will be brought out to take the land that God promised them. Abram, however, would die in peace at a “good old age”. Then a flaming torch passed between the pieces of the sacrifices and God confirmed that covenant with Abram again, promising the land from Egypt to the river Euphrates to his descendants. Land which, at that particular time, had at least 10 other people groups living on it.
The prophecy was a grave one. Abram saw that the future of his descendants would be difficult. They would be slaves for over four hundred years in another country before they could even think of possessing the land that God had promised. But he also saw that the oppressors would be punished and his descendants would be delivered from slavery and leave “. . . with great possessions.” Four hundred years is a very long time. Generations would be born and die before they were delivered from slavery. It seemed rather bleak if you ask me. But God had promised that they would be freed and would come to Canaan to possess it as He promised.
As humans, we are slaves to our fallen nature. We are born with the inclination to sin. Plain and simple. We are given prophecies throughout the Old Testament that the promised One would free us of our fallen nature. I am not saying that we will never sin again, but that our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. We will be able to stand in the presence of God clothed in Jesus’ righteousness, if we have believed and accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross in our place. He suffered the separation from God so that we wouldn’t have to.
We may not be promised un-numbered descendants but it is up to each generation, to teach our children about God. Teach them that God does exist, in spite of the world trying to tell them that there is no God and that they are their own god. I know I am going back to the beginning here but we need to teach them that God created the world in six days and not millions of years. That life did not start by a random strike of lightning in a pool of goo. That mankind did not evolve from monkeys. I have to ask this: If you cannot believe that the first two chapters of the Bible are fact, exactly as written, how can you believe any of the rest of it?
We are responsible for the generations who will come after us. We will be held responsible for what we did and did not teach our children about God and Jesus. Even if we don’t have children, we are responsible for what is taught in our churches and schools. We cannot sit and let ‘someone else’ take care of the problem. We will stand before Almighty God and have to explain why our children went to hell because we did not teach them about God but let the world deceive them into false religions or even no religion at all.
We live in a world where everyone does what is right in their own eyes. In this world, righteousness is defined as what is moral or right. But often those morals are what is right in their own eyes not God’s eyes. The spiritual definition of righteousness is doing what is right in God’s eyes in our character, our conscience, our conduct and our word.
We may not be promised land where others live. But we have been promised a place in Heaven. That is our Promised Land. God made a covenant with us about two thousand years ago on a hill outside of Jerusalem. That covenant was confirmed by the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection three days later. There is nothing we can do on our own to make us righteous before God. We are fallen man and unrighteous before God. Only our belief in Jesus Christ will clothe us in His righteousness. Only then can we stand in the presence of the Living God.
Can you stand in the presence of God?
Father God, I am thankful for the blood of Jesus. I am thankful that through Him I can come into Your presence. I ask that You guide my words, my conscience and my conduct. Help me to do what is right in Your eyes. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Food for Thought
- Why do you think it took three times being told by God that he would have descendants that were uncountable for Abram to believe it?
- Did God have the right to give land that was occupied by others to Abram’s descendants? Why?
- Why do you think God was so patient with Abram’s questions?
- What does righteousness mean to you?
- How does your definition of righteousness compare to God’s definition?
