He Has Done It!

We have escaped!

(Genesis 15:1-21, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 2, 2014)

[15:1] After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” [2] But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” [3] And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” [4] And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” [5] And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” [6] And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Abram believed the promises of God, and the Lord credited to him the righteousness that would come from one of his distant descendants. The Lord would give Abram as many descendants as the stars in the heavens. God would see to it that He Himself would be both Abram's shield and his very great reward.

[7] And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” [8] But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” [9] He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” [10] And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. [11] And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
[12] As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. [13] Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [14] But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [15] As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. [16] And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
[17] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. [18] On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, [19] the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, [20] the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, [21] the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

God “cut” a covenant with Abram in order to demonstrate the certainty of His promise to His friend who was looking for assurance in a hopeless situation. Like the great kings of Abram's day, God set up a covenant renewal ceremony with Abram. Normally the weaker party in the covenant would be forced to walk through the cut up beasts as a vivid reminder to him of what would happen to him if he did not keep the obligations placed upon him by the more powerful ruler. In this case, it was our great God who walked through the pieces as miniature symbols.

The Lord had a plan that would continue for centuries after Abram's body rested in the grave. He knew about events that involved not only the Jews but also the Egyptians and the nations that once inhabited the land of Canaan. In fact He had plans for His Son to face the curse of the covenant, to be “cut” for our sake, so that God's salvation would reach all the nations.

Put the Word to Work: The Lord has done it! We have escaped through the righteousness and blood of the Son of God. This covenant ceremony was a further unveiling of the content of our hope. The Substitute who would secure our salvation would not only be the offspring of a woman; He would be God Himself. Passages like this strengthen faith in God and His Word.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 124:7 – We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!

Gospel Reading—Matthew 15:21-28 – The faith of a Canaanite woman