Covenant of Faith
What do you believe in?
We care about our carbon footprint because we believe that what we do will make a difference
What about God? Do you believe God could /would use your life to make a difference in the life of someone else? Do you believe he is who he says he is , will do what he says he will do?
Jim Elliott (1927-1956)
Abram has just rescued his nephew, Lot, and his family from the hands of a band of terrorizing extortionists. He has collected all the plunder of the group he has defeated and while on his way home encounters Melchizedek, the king and priest of Salem, the city of peace. Melchizedek blesses and exhorts him that everything Abram has has come from God Most High’s hand and who has also defeated his enemies for him. Then Abram gave a tenth of everything to Melchizedek, a tithe of everything he had gained.
Abram then encounters the king of Sodom, the city where Lot had lived and who had been ransacked by Kedorlaomer and his band. The king of Sodom wanted to strike a deal with Abram, but Abram maintains his integrity and would have nothing to do with that and returned all the goods and people to their rightful owners.
Now we pick up in chapter 15. This is an important chapter
Genesis 15:1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
Did you ever sigh after reading those words… “I wish God would speak to you as plainly as he spoke to Abram?” Well lets consider this a little closer… from God’s first conversation with Abram when he was 75 until his death at age 175, there are eight recorded conversations between God and Abram, 8 times in a hundred years. With sometimes decades between the silences. Abram did not control the timing nor the subject of the conversations – they occurred when, where and how God desired them to occur.
What if you were to make a deal with Abram, “which would you prefer Abram? A brief conversation directly with God eight times in your life, during which God spoke about the things he wanted to talk about, or, a book that programmatically shows you what God is like reveals his plans and expectation? God has given us far more revelation and guidance about himself than Abram ever dreamed possible. I would take the Bible over the random thophanies anytime and I expect Abram would too.
Word = thoughts – sounds – things written Vision = ideas – sight –
Like a window – God is about to pull back the curtains and give Abram a glimpse of Himself. God speaks so we may know him, for His purposes.
"Do not be afraid, Abram.I am your shield, your very great reward."
This is what Melchizedek had just told Abram – that God Most High had deliver ed Abram’s enemies into his hand and everything Abram had was from God’s hand.
Abram had given up everything he had just gained to maintain his integrity and now God himself is going to BE his VERY GREAT REWARD.
2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
Abram’s saying “That’s all good, but I have a problem, and I am confused”. God has promised him a great nation…but he doesn’t even have a child, and he is getting older by the day. Time is clicking. Abram does not understand what is happening to him in his life. Life does not seem to be consistent with what God is saying.
Abram is greatly disappointed with God. Abram was at least honest with God.
Have you ever been greatly disappointed with God – things don’t seem to be working out. What happens when things don’t work out the way you think they should?
Abram was making plans according to what he knew, what he understood. It was customary for a childless couple to ‘adopt’ another person to be their heir, to look after them as they aged, to make sure they had a proper burial, to look after their namesake, to remember them. Abram was doing what he knew to do,
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
God did not leave him hanging…God responds to Abram. God does not chastise Abram for making plans according to what he knew, but God reiterates His promise to him. You will have an heir coming from your own body, a son.
This is new information. God has spoken directly to Abram 4 times now and this is the first time He tells him he will have a son. God has revealed his plan to Abram over time , from a nation (12:2) to offspring (12:7) to many offspring (13:16) to now an heir, a son (14:4)
God responded to Abrams frustration by taking him back to the the promise and giving him a physical picture to be a constant reminder – the stars in the sky – The night sky was the picture of the promise.
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
This is a short verse in this story that has given scholars a huge challenge. What is this saying, what is happening here. What does it mean that “Abram believed the Lord” This idea of ‘believing’ is much more than an intellectual exercise.
While it is translated into English, our English language struggles to capture what all is being said here. It also carries the idea of complete trust as a parent is trusted or believed in, it is firm, full of faith in, Abram placed his faith in the Lord and believed Him, he gave himself to God, as a child gives themselves to their parent. Abram Trusted God, He placed his trust in God.
Crediting and ‘righteousness’ are big theological concerns that if we apply a New Testament theology to it – it misrepresents what Abram is experiencing. Abram had no sense of sins that had separated him from God and that needed salvation that brought justification and applied righteousness to him. Abram was not separated from God – he was having a conversation with him and God was giving him an incredible promise.
In todays world we get very confused about what it not only what it means to believe something, but also how you actually do it. For us today, belief is to accept an idea. What makes this matter of belief and faith so difficult is because of something we hold very dear – opinion.
Opinion is an interesting phenomenon. In the Socratic dialogue, Plato shows us that opinion is the opposite of knowledge and is namely ignorance. We know what we know, but our opinions are clearly what we do not know although the are what we believe. Belief then is opinion and if opinion is ignorance, then belief is ignorance.
At this point most Christians begin to cringe and become defensive
But you see, Belief and Faith are not quite the same thing. Let me try to differentiate between the two, though the are often taken as synominous.
Where opinion implies a frank disclaimer of knowledge, a confession of ignorance. I can have opinions about a great number of things which I really have very little real knowedge about, and opinions can range from such mundane things as who should win the Academy Awards to is it better to take transit or drive to political matters of is the HST a good thing or bad to financial concerns of whether it is smart to buy a house or rent to political matters of the conflicts in the Middle East to issues of religion and tollorance of social concerns. We have many opinions on many things and we may feel very strongly about these matters but yet acknowledge we do not understand all that factors into the issue but yet we hold an opinion about them – and we believe in our position on the matter.
Belief conveys a position of greater confidence, where belief is an expression not for ignorance but for partial or imperfect knowledge. I may not know everything about a matter, but I am confident I have sufficient information to make a stand, to take a strong positon.
Faith however is a an expression which is much stronger and more confident than even belief.
Where belief is based on opinion, Faith is based on conviction
Faith is a claim to knowledge of a higher order of reality.
My opinion is a matter of important concern to me, you can reject it – and I can reject yours without bruising my ego – I still hold to what I believe and you can be wrong, but we can be friends.
Belief touches me more closely – It assures me that “honesty is the best policy” – most of the time and that above all I must be true to myself.
But faith, is the touchstone of our lives. Faith is the certainty – or near certainty – to which we refer the issues of life and death. These are the issues to which we are willing to pay a high price – to ultimate price to hold on to.
Faith – unlike other kinds of knowledge – is not a constant. You can not make faith into an equation or matrix of 3 easy steps. As Rabbi Chanan Brichto says:
“Faith is a light which blazes like a thousand suns – at some times, at others, it flickers dimly, casting shadows of changing shapes. But even when it is weak we struggle to brighten the flame – for it is the most precious of commodities. Man knows no blackness to match the darkness when that light has gone out. And no man who has ever seen it will rest happy until it is rekindled. And when it burns bright, all other lamps are feeble.”
Abram was neither after a ‘belief system’ Abram trusted God – His faith was full, intact, complete, not in knowledge but in God himself. And that was what impressed God about Abram. He did not simply believe. In taking God at his word, he embraced faith. It is not that he adopted a ‘faith system’- He simply had faith in God. God is always impressed with faith. We learn here what impresses God – Do you seek to impress God? Have Faith.
Our sacrifices of time, money, resources do not impress God unless they are motivated by faith. And it is our faith that impresses him not our sacrifices.
A student may complain to his teacher about getting a low grade on a paper inspite of all the time and hardwork they had put into the paper. Then the teacher is forced to explain that if time and effort were all that were required all students would be required to fill out were time sheet and he would give out grades accordingly, but frankly those are the basics that a teacher has every right to expect, that he student will put in the time and effort to LEARN and Learning is what is evaluated.
In the same way, God expects sacrifices, hard work, honesty, purity, integrity, but these are the basics. It is our faith that is most capable of impressing him. I am talking about the faith that God is who he says He is – faith in his attributes, faith that he can and will do what he says he will do, faith that he cares, that he is sovereign, FAITH THAT HE IS GOOD. And you are willing to stake your life on it. You don’t’ just believe; you live in faith.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
At this point God looks to Abram as righteous.
And God looked to Abram as RIGHT – right about who he was, he was looking at God, himself, life right.
This wasn’t Abrams opinion about God and life – it was his life
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."
Abram discovers …God was involved in his life long before he even knew he was. Abram went to Hebron with his father on his own, but God was directing his steps.
Prov 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps
8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
Abram has believed God about him bringing a son out of his old worn out body, but now “HOW will I know I will get this land?, I don’t get it?” He wants proof of his reward – he calls God to account Abram is trusting God – completely, but does God trust him?
We are impatient people – we think God owes us an explanation
But God is gracious…He is going to enter into a covenant with Abram to prove what He has just told him.
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.
This was a way that ancient people of that day enacted a covenant – they would take a sacrifice and they would split them
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."
God “Pulls back the curtains completely to Abram” and shows him what is to come. How many time have we said “I just wish I knew what God was doing”.
Knowing what lies ahead is not always pleasant.
When Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint began praying for the Auca Indians, it probably never occurred to them that their prayers would only be answered through the sacrifice of their husbands lives. Who would expect to pay such a price? Though God may not do things according to our expectations, we must always be prepared to acknowledge that God’s way si the best way.
Not only do God’s plans often involve difficulties that we do not expect, they often take a long time to unfold. If someone is in a hurry, it is easy for that person to grow impatient with God. Genesis shows us a God who is not in a hurry.
His plan is going to take 400 years, and Abram realizes what God is doing is much bigger than just his own life. But he is part of the grand story of Gods continual revelation of himself to all of creation, including the generations yet to come.
Abram now knows this is bigger than just himself.
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."
God takes complete responsibility for this covenant
In the ancient times, when two people were making a covenant, they would walk through the split sacrifice as a sign of the importance of what they were doing and a picture of what would happen to either one of them if they did not uphold the covenant, their life would be required.
But here God passes through the pieces alone, meaning he is making a unilateral, unconditional covenant, based on the fact that He has found Abram right before Him, because of Abram’s faith in God alone.
God establishes this covenant with Abram based on Abrams Belief in God – for who He is and that God will do what God says he will do – Abram trusts God – with his life, livelihood, everything.
Will we trust God, believe in Him; Will We take God at His word?
God’s covenant with Abram
o Great nation would come from Abram through his son
o Promise land for the nation though it would take a difficult 400 years
o Vision for a future that was beyond himself
Jesus came to this world – to all humanity – as God’s own son, born in a miraculous way, Jesus took complete responsibility for the covenant he establishes with us
John 6:29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
John 6:40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Rom 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.