11.22.08
“CUTTING A COVENANT”
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Gen 15:6-21 NIV
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, “O 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 your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 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 fathers 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 river 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.”
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These days, when you want to be serious about an agreement; you sign a contract. But the ancient way of binding people to their word was to cut a covenant. Like in this story, the custom was for animals are hewn in half; with a pathway made between the halves. As each party then walks through the split halves, making unconditional promises as well as declaring the punishment they call upon whichever party might break the covenant…i.e. to end up like the split animals before them.
But this passage reveals that it is God who comes, in the form of the smoking firepot and walk through the pathway of pieces. It is God who initiates, mediates, and consummates the covenant. It is He who is willing to take upon Himself the punishment; even for Abraham’s unfaithfulness.
For God had seen Abraham’s heart. Immediately before this passage, Abraham passes another test. Abraham (unlike Lot), refuses to inter-mesh himself with the King of Sodom; passing up great wealth in light of a pure heart before God. Following this test, God comes to him and declares that He would be given a multitude of sons, and the whole land. In confirming God’s promise, He cuts this covenant with Abraham.
We who look to Abraham as our “father” in faith also experience the same. For God in Christ has walked through the pathway of pieces, taking on the punishment that is due to us on his very own self. In return, we are given the land; the inheritance of the very Kingdom of God.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, imagine a path of hacked animal halves strewn before you. The very stench of violent death threatening to reveal your faithlessness. Now imagine the smoking pot walking that path alone; in your stead. Will you glory in the unspeakable grace of God? That Christ would take upon our just punishment; even the righteous wrath of God for our sin on His very self?
- Imagine all the broken promises, and all the broken laws that we’ve littered the path of our life’s journey with? If you are besieged by the guilt, punishment, and power of any sin, will you take them to the cross where God cut a covenant on your behalf? Pray for healing and transformation.
- The new covenant in Christ is more than a solution for past faithlessness, it is a means by which we grow in faithfulness. Will you ask for the grace to pay tribute to God rather than the “King of Sodom” in all your ways today?
11.21.08
“REPEATED TESTING”
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Gen 13:5-13 NIV
5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”
10 Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
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When God wants to work something in us, he is profoundly persistent. Recalling yesterday’s passage, confronted by famine Abram chose poorly to go to Egypt, i.e. to walk by sight and not by faith. This time around, a quarrel between Abram & Lot’s herdsmen over limited grazing land sets up another test.
Abram is in the position of power, and could have easily divvied up the land to his advantage. But faith in the God who is able to en-thrive him irrespective of circumstances enables him to offer the choice of land to his nephew Lot. Presumably, Lot’s gaze is seduced by the fertile land near the wicked and doomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But his careless choice reveals a heart that is gravitating toward that cultural center. The rest of his story amounts to a tragic cascade of compromise, where his integrity and his legacy are shredded. Despite divine intervention, Lot is barely able to disentangle himself and his daughters from the city before judgment. Languishing in a cave, he ends up birthing two sons/nations born of incestuous compromise.
Abram on the other hand seemed to have learned his lesson from the last go around. Rather than putting his trust in the green plains around Sodom, he puts his trust in the God who has promised to bless Him. Immediately following this, God tells him to now to “lift up his eyes” to survey all the land that God would give him and his offspring. Despite grazing on substandard ground, Abram’s flock, family, and faith continue to thrive; a testament to the God who tests and proves hearts.
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, will you take time to reflect on the persistence of God. Why is he so tenacious? Why won’t he just let Abram off the hook, but puts him through rounds of tests? Will you thank Him that He is this persistent with you; with us?
- Imagine that you are privvy to the scene where Abram and Lot part paths. To the East, you see swaths of green; teeming life in the shadow of the twin cities of Ancient Near East sin, Sodom & Gomorrah. To the West, you see lonely, rocky ground. What must it have taken for Abram to avert his gaze, and let Lot choose first? Will you ask for a growing measure of this kind of faith?
- Will you look at your life choices with spiritual eyes? Are you choosing your path out of faith, or sight? Will you ask God for clarity to see the consequences of the choices before you? Will you hear God’s promise to give you all the land, i.e. the Kingdom of God as you walk by faith and not by sight?
11.15.08
“PROVISION & PROMISES”
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Gen 22:13-14 NIV
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
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Matt 6:25-33 NIV
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
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The practice of trusting in God is one of the simplest, and yet sometimes the most difficult things to do. Abraham had erred repeatedly earlier in his life, pragmatically going down to Egypt rather than trusting God to provide during a famine. Yet eventually, God is able to develop such a trust relationship with Abraham, that he would be willing to make the long trek to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering; because He knew somehow God was trustworthy.
The very name , The LORD will Provide (Yahweh Yirah) speaks of God’s unshaking character; that he has already seen the need, and made provisions far in advance. For before we were born, He had already seen our need for atonement and adoption, and on that very mountain God sacrificed His son, His only beloved son to provide a vicarious substitute.
As we make groundmaking decisions, we cannot help but be aware of the practical and pragmatic. But trust in God’s faithful promise of provision must be the trump card which wins the hand. If He provided His Son, would he really skimp on the rest?
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REFLECTION/RESPONSE
- This morning, will you step into Abraham’s shoes as he is told by the God to travel to a mountain of His choosing and offer up his son Isaac? What must he have been thinking…feeling? What “possessed” him to set out with Isaac early the very next morning?
- Now imagine a perspective where God is calling Abraham to a dramatic choice. Knowing what you know of God, is there any chance that the ram wouldn’t have been there on time? Considering all that we’ll need to follow through on our dramatic choice, will you imagine all the heavenly storehouses already full and designated for those very provisions?
- If there is anything that is causing worry or fear to gnaw at your soul; will you first name them, then replace them with meditations on God’s name/character (Yahweh Yirah), and His promises of provision?
