The Gospel in Genesis
-
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
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, “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 for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 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 ancestors 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 Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates
To set the scene, Abram has been given this promise, this covenant that God was going to give him a land and God was going to give him a people. And that the people would come from his own offspring. We find that in Genesis Chapter 12 Abraham. It is my prayer that this difficult passage will speak to us about the Good News. I pay that through it we can hear God’s word and God’s voice to us today - teach us Holy Spirit.
Three ‘HOW’ questions from our bible readings today….
1. How - how can I know this is going to happen?
2. How - How can I know for sure (v8)?
3. How - how does this affect you and me?
How can I know this is going to happen
Abram has been given this promise, this covenant that God was going to give him a land and God was going to give him a people. And that the people would come from his own offspring.
Three 3 chapters later Abe says ‘Lord all I've got is nothing, all I've got is words and how can I know this is going to happen, how could this possibly be as I'm 75 says. He's been promised that from his own self (between him and Sarai) will be the answer to this promise – his own offspring. Abe points out to God that this guy Eliesar, and he is just a relative - he's going to get everything. Abram is basically saying to God all I have is nothing but words - so how can I trust you with just your word.
This is a real lesson for us if we're waiting for something or we're asking for something and you think that it is of God and it's just promises that you have, words.
This is a covenant that God has made with Abraham and Abe is asking ‘How can I depend on this word, and know that it will be fulfilled.’
God's response was to take him outside, make Abe a bit of a ‘star gazer.’
You can do it here in Devon - we've got dark skies here and where I'm from on the Isle of Wight we have dark skies as well. You can look up and ponder and think there must be a divine almighty creator God.
I think that's what God was doing with Abraham here - saying the person that you're challenging and saying ‘can I trust your promise, can speak and all that happens in the skies. When we are asking that kind of prayer ourselves or something we're longing for maybe we can go outside here and look up at the sky at night and say how can I doubt when I can look up there and see that a word from you in creation brings all that to pass.
I think that's the effect it was having Abraham. It made him stargazer but it was also answering his same question. God can do anything to keep his promise.
How can I know for sure?
In Genesis 15:8 of the reading, ‘How can I know for sure, how can I know?’
It is another HOW question and in reply God gives Abram a really strange instruction.
Read it yourself Genesis 15:9-16 the part of the reading we left out. God says take a heifer a goat, a ram a dove and a pigeon this is I want you just slaughter them put in two just ring the next of the birds slaughter the beasts in half arrange them in rows of two. So there is half of a heifer, half a ram, half a goat, slaughtered and arranged in two pieces and then a pigeon and a dove on each side.
I'm not going to expound all of that because I have not got a clue why all those things were picked and why they had to be arranged like that. But what happened after that which is Genesis 15:17 when we came in to the reading - this Brazier came down – a smoking Brazier and a flaming torch. Commentaries teach us that this is the spirit of the Lord, the presence of the Lord that came down.
Just like the pillar of fire by night led the children through the desert during the night and the cloud by day. Experimental here that is that so spirit the Lord comes done and says walked across I didn't say anything he just went between those carcasses and we believe that for God is saying to everyone is this – ‘My promise is so sure and if it's not true you can treat me like these carcass. My immortality can be mortal and you can treat me as I am slain if I don't keep my. God says that is how much means to me. God was saying I will not let my side of the bargain.
But guess what – a covenant between two people could be broken by either one of the two parties. As we all know and as we all know we are incapable of being perfect we leave left our side and sort of the children of Israel left outside of their side of the bargain did mention thing in this picture I really want to get is normally in a promise or covenant like that the two parties would walk between gardens is say effectively may we be struck down like this but in this passage here Abraham is not invited to walk between this God himself and God alone walked down these two images of carnage which is the first feeling in this promise saying to everyone I will keep my promise if you don't keep yours I will take her's see what I'm having with this I believe abraham's saying forward to that day when Jesus would come and be the first for us so none of us could be that pure enough to say Lord I would never let you do it upset it for sure but we will let him down we have God centre sons name is Jesus and he lived perfect life he died the sinner's death and it's referred to in this gospel in genesis 15 this is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ he so could was so committed to us being in covenant with him that he would glasses that he would keep us that he would make a great nation of believing people keep our side of the covenant bye I'm going himself to send his phone son Jesus to be the one to take our curse.
That's why Paul in Galatians 3 alludes a lot to the cure he took upon himself for us.
How does this affect you and me?
Here is our last HOW question - how does this affect you and me? A third HOW question.
Well we have this amazing verse 6 right in the middle of our passage. Abraham believed and trusted in God’s word and it was credited to him as righteousness.
For those who are here in 2025 we too can believe and trust in His word and it is ‘credited to us as righteousness.’ And another thing, apart from being children of the living God, it says he had a friendship with God. So we are family and friends of the living God
It is in this passage in Genesis 15 that we learn that God made sure the covenant is not broken because God keeps both sides of the covenant. He know that we were unable to do it. The question for us is to ask, do I really trust God’s word and promises as I read it. Is he really that close, does he know me that personally?
I believe with all my heart, he knows you through and through, better than you know your own self. And he has provided a way for us to be seen as righteous. It is not my purity, it is Christ’s righteousness that God sees when he looks at me.
Cover Photo Jason Swain Photography https://jasonswain.co.uk/
