Part 2 - He believed God (Genesis 15)
In the previous study, we looked at Abram’s obedience to God' voice in setting off with his family and heading towards somewhere new at God's direction: Canaan. (Genesis 12:1) We saw that, when God gives an instruction, we should do what He says; not adding to it or subtracting from it because, in obedience to the detail, comes the full blessing of God. When Abram took Lot with him, he also took the trouble that Lot would bring. However, we also saw God’s faithfulness to Abram. Lot chose cities of the well-watered plain in which to live – a choice that any of us might have made in similar circumstances – and left the stony uplands to his uncle Abram. As Lot settled down to what he expected to be a life of ease, war broke out and the kings from the East captured everything and everybody in Lot’s ‘paradise’ - including Lot himself. Abram heard about it, pursued the raiders and recaptured all that had been stolen. Returning to the land, Abram paid a tithe (10%) of his gain from the skirmish to Melchizedek, the King of Salem (Jerusalem), who was a priest of the God of Highest Heaven. He then returned the rest (minus that due to his allies) to the king of Sodom. Abram refused to take anything for himself. (Genesis 14:22-24)
Verse one says ‘After this...’ After what? After Abram had given away all the plunder and kept nothing for himself. After he had affirmed that it was God on Whom he relied. After this, God appeared to Abram in a vision and said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward’. God said this so clearly, unequivocally, that, in Abram’s mind, there was absolutely no doubt. The matter was settled. But he did have a few questions about how these things would be worked out in his life. He accepted God's promise to make him the founder of 'a great nation' (Genesis 12:2); he knew that God had promised him and his children the land of Canaan (Genesis 13:15); he also knew that God had promised that his offspring would be 'like the dust of the earth' (Genesis 13:16) and he had acted upon the word that God had given him. He had walked the length and breadth of the land, but there was one problem: everything seemed to hinge upon him (Abram) having a child and he was currently childless.
God of the impossible
So he spoke to God about it. It was God who had made the promise, so it was God who was capable of fulfilling the promise. Abram knew that, legally, whilst he remained without an heir, Eliezer his servant would inherit his vast wealth. Abraham was saying: ‘O Lord God, I believe you but here is the problem… You have promised me all of these things for my descendants, but I don’t actually have any at the moment. My wife is old – past child-bearing age - and I am nine years older. As things now stand, You cannot fulfill Your promise, so it will have to be a miracle.’
If you have a problem after you have heard from God and the promised solution does not appear to be happening, why don’t you talk to God? It’s His promise, and so it will be His solution. Do it now, today!
God did not keep Abram waiting long for His reply. ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ Then to underline to him that this solution was an all-encompassing one – the Big One – God took him outside his tent and said: 'Look up there; count the stars,’ (and I love this touch) ‘if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be!' Is that sufficient, Abram? The wonderful thing about God’s solution to a problem is that He fixes it, not temporarily, but for ever!
On a clear night, go outside and look up into the sky. Now try to count the stars – if indeed you are able! That was the answer to Abram’s request. God is saying to you: ‘My answer is not only sufficient, but it is according to the riches of heaven’. Philippians 4:19 states: ‘My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’ To whom do you look to fulfil your needs?
Abram believed God and He credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6) When Abram believed God, it wasn’t just the promise that he received, it was: ‘God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!’ (Ephesians 3:20 - The Message version). It was eternal life, eternal fellowship with God, strength for his weakness, supply for his poverty, faith for his unbelief. If God can do that for Abram, can He not also do it for us? And God reiterated His promise to Abram to give him the land and allow him to take possession of it. Abram is now in a relationship with God and can ask Him anything – so he does!
God makes a covenant with Abram (Genesis 15:8-21)
‘How can I know that I shall take possession of it?’ God knows our hearts and knows when we have faith in Him, but also understands that we like to know what is going on and what to expect. So God entered into a covenant with Abram: a legally-binding contract, known then as a 'blood covenant'. It was initiated by God himself but Abram willingly accepts his part in it and his commitment to it. At God's direction, Abram collects appropriate animals and birds (possibly to represent all his descendants) then cuts them in half and makes space for the participants in the covenant to walk between the halves.
Straight away, some birds of prey descend to snatch away whatever they can. Whenever we set out to walk with God in any matter, the first thing to happen is that Satan tries to steal whatever we have committed to do. But Abram was having none of it (and neither should we). Just as Abram drove away the birds of prey, so we should stand our ground on God's word and promises and not let the Enemy destroy our promised blessing.
Just as it begins to grow dark, God speaks to Abram. Even as spiritual darkness begins to settle over Abram, God speaks to him of the future: of four hundred years of slavery in Egypt to come, followed by an exodus and a return to the promised land – ‘promised’ because, as we have seen, God had promised it to Abram and his descendants. God even shared with Abram the fact that the Egyptians would be punished (Exodus 12:1-30) and that the Israelites would come out of Egypt with great possessions. (Exodus 12:31-36) God wants to speak to us about our future if we will only let Him!
Finally, God Himself shows up to ratify the covenant with Abram. The fire of heaven Himself comes down and walks between the pieces of the sacrifice. The terms of the unbreakable covenant were that the entire land would be given to Abram’s descendants, from the river Nile to the river Euphrates. This is why Israel today is reluctant to give away part of its land to the Palestinians in the interests of ‘peace’.
Jumping the gun (Exodus 16)
The only question now left in Abram’s mind was: ‘How will God's promise come to pass?’ Abram & Sarai decided that they would have to work it out for themselves. Sarai reasoned that Hagar, her maid, could have the child and she and Abram would then adopt it. From a rational and cultural standpoint, this was a perfectly sensible thing to do, but they never consulted God about it. They recognized the mistake as soon as Ishmael was conceived. Have you ever done that? God’s promise jumps off the page at you, then you try to make it all happen yourself. But our ways are not God's ways and it never works. It always ‘ends in tears’.
Their solution looked good at first but the problem was that Hagar despised Sarai and, in return, Sarai ill-treated Hagar. Human solutions bring human problems because God is not in them. Abram effectively shrugged his shoulders at Sarai saying: ‘It was your idea; you fix the problem’ (Genesis 16:6) Hagar literally ran away from the problem but, even in all the mess, God was with her. She too met with God and was delivered by Him. God blessed her, but there was a price to pay. Ishmael became the founder of all the Arab nations, but God warned that he would be: ‘a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against every man… and he will live in defiance of all his brothers’. (Genesis 16:12) The real solution – God's own solution – was to be another fourteen years in coming. Abram & Sarai must have thought that they had blown it. How could God ever deal with them again?
God's solution
One day, 'El Shaddai' (the 'all-sufficient One') appeared to Abram. He had not heard from God since before the birth of Ishmael but this new encounter was to be a life-changing experience for him. ‘Walk before me and be blameless’ is God’s demand. 'Stop trying to do things in your own strength and rely on me', says God. He then changes Abram’s name to Abraham. Everyone had known him as 'Abram', meaning ‘high father’, but now he would be known as 'Abraham' means ‘father of many nations’. God also changed Sarai’s name to 'Sarah' - princess.
God’s part of the covenant is to be:
- everlasting;
- between God and Abraham (and Abraham’s descendants);
- for the generations to come.
God will:
- Be Abraham’s God;
- Give the entire land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to Abraham and his descendants after him;
- Be God to all of Abraham's descendants.
Abraham’s part of the covenant is:
- for him and all his male descendants to be circumcised.
(Every new-born male must be circumcised when he is eight days old. Any uncircumcised male will have broken God’s covenant and will be cut off from his people.)
God also blessed Sarah and promised that she would be the mother of many nations and that kings would be among her descendants. Incredibly, at the age of eighty-nine, she was told that she would have a son within twelve months and, through him, the covenant with Abraham would be established. Abraham laughed at the impossibility of this situation and was reluctant to give up Ishmael as a potential solution. But God spoke severely to him and spelled it out in simple words. He told Abraham that his son (Sarah's child) was to be called 'Isaac' (meaning ‘laughter’). What does it take for us to believe God? Dare we take Him at His word?
God had a reason for the changes of name. Whenever they spoke to each other, they would be bringing God's promises to mind, foreshadowing what was to come. Perhaps Sarah would call Abraham for his evening meal, going out into the fields and calling: ‘"Father of many nations"! Your meal is ready!’ And he would reply: ‘Coming, "Princess"’! Every time they called Isaac in the future, they would be reminded of their lack of faith and how they had laughed at the utter impossibility of it all! (Romans 4:17)
A promise fulfilled (Genesis 21)
At the appointed time, Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son whom he named Isaac. After all the difficulty of holding on to the promise, here was the answer. I don’t suppose there would have been a son more doted-on or protected in all the world. The time comes, however, when the results of our own handiwork have to give way to the work and blessings of God in our lives. For Abraham, this meant expelling Ishmael and his mother Hagar. This time, he did not shirk his responsibility but discussed it with God and God assured him that He would take care of Ishmael because he was Abraham’s own son. Ishmael and Hagar were expelled from the household and sent on their way into the desert. God did indeed look after them, supernaturally providing for them on their way. They eventually settled in the desert of Paran where Ishmael became an archer and Hagar found him a wife from Egypt. In due course, God fulfilled His promise to make of Ishmael a great nation, but entirely separate from Isaac and his descendants.
An unthinkable sacrifice (Genesis 22:1-19)
Abraham now had his promised son. His faith in God had been credited to him as righteousness and he treasured the memory of a night under the stars, laying in the dust of the earth, such that, wherever he looked, he would always see the glory of God and His fulfilled promises. Then, one day, God spoke to him and said: 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love - Isaac - and go to Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burned offering on a mountain that I will show you'.
By now, Abraham had learned something about God. He knew that, humanly speaking, this would be the end: the end of the Abrahamic line and the end of God's promise to him. But we read that, ‘Early the next morning they set off’. We can only guess at what went through Abraham’s mind. What might we have done in the same circumstances? But Abraham had learned enough to know that God did things with a purpose in mind. Abraham now considered himself to be God’s friend, one to whom God spoke, and the one to whom God had promised earthly descendants through Isaac. So, when the time came to part from the servants, Abraham was able to say with confidence: 'stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ When Isaac asked where the sacrifice was, Abraham was able to say: ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ What a faith journey that was!
Isaac was probably in his early twenties at this stage, so he would have had to agree to being bound as the sacrifice and laid on the altar, and he too must have believed that God would provide. But God took Abraham to the very last second before He intervened and provided a substitute – a ram. (Genesis 22:10) Abraham showed that he was prepared to go to the absolute end in his obedience to God and would have sacrificed Isaac, in the expectation that God could always raise him back to life. (Hebrews 11:19) What an amazing picture this is for us of God's willingness to offer His own Son as a sacrifice - and His ability indeed to raise Him back to life.
Mount Moriah, where Abraham took Isaac, is the same mountain on which Jerusalem is built. It is where the plague was stopped in the time of David (at the threshing floor of Araunah - 2 Samuel 24:15-25) and where the first temple was subsequently built by Solomon (2 Chronicles 3). The promise that God made to Abraham, because of his obedience in not withholding his precious son, was to result in incredible blessings - for the people of Israel, yes but, ultimately, to people of every nation and tongue under heaven.
Abraham’s final act (as recorded in Genesis) was to instruct his chief servant not to get a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites, but to go back to Abraham’s own relatives and find a wife for him there. We cannot mix God’s word or His work with human ideas or practices. (2 Corinthians 6:15-17) God will provide the ways and the means to do things His way and blessings can only be received if we are obedient to His way. How much do we want what God has for us, above what we want for ourselves? Will we do what God wants in order to draw others back from the edge of the abyss - an eternity separated from God?
Abraham died at the age of one hundred and seventy-five: a good old age and full of years. What a life! What an incredible way to live: in close proximity and friendship with God Himself. But he never saw the fulfillment of God’s promise to him - the reconciliation of mankind and the free availability of salvation. God wants us all to have that closeness of relationship and, because of Jesus' own sacrifice on the cross, we know the way to find it. We must choose for ourselves whom we follow, not because of our heritage or culture but through our own free choice. Are we following Christ wholeheartedly or half-heartedly?
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