Genesis 15

Genesis 15

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

God’s Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, 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?”^[a] 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” ⁴ But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” ⁵ He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” ⁶ And he believed theLord; and the Lord^[b] reckoned it to him as righteousness.

⁷ Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you 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 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 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 upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. ¹³ Then the Lord^[c] said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed 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 yourself, you shall go to your ancestors 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, 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 descendants 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.”

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Believing the impossible.  Not knowing how or when or where, but believing that what God said is true and living with that certainty.  This is faith.  For Abram it was believing that God would grant him an heir, a child of his own.  Even though he was old.  Even though they had no homeland.  Even though they had been trying for decades with no success.  Abram believed God.  He believed that in only a few generations his descendants would possess the very country that he was now visiting.

Belief is not just mental assent.  It is not simply saying that something is a good theory.  There is an active component to belief.  I schedule meetings...lots of meetings...for tomorrow because I believe tomorrow will come.  I see the temperature is around zero so I dress appropriately.  God tells me that He loves me and will provide...and I wonder if He really means it this time.  How we act reveals what we truly believe.  If my lifestyle choices and patterns display that I am a loner, how can I say I believe in the value of community?

Abram believed God's wild promises.  He acted on them and God honored his faith.  I want to be more like that.