‘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.” 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.......When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram’, Genesis 15 v 9 -11 & 17-18
Are there times when you find your faith wavering? You know about the goodness of the Lord, you have heard testimonies of his provision and you have even seen it manifest in your own life and yet there are still nagging thoughts at the back of your mind that just won’t go away. Can I keep expecting to see good days? Others have experienced pain and loss, someone you know is fighting a life threatening disease, some else has just lost their job. At times we can be surrounded by difficult situations or we can be facing trials of our own. If we’re not careful and we allow ourselves to dwell on these difficult circumstances without letting the Lord’s light shine into them, we will find that fear begins to creep into our hearts. This results in us starting to question and doubt whether the Lord will prove himself to be faithful one more time.
Abram was struggling with these same doubts. Although the Lord had given him a promise he still hadn’t seen it come to pass and he was starting to try and come up with his own solutions concerning the future. Firstly, the Lord assures him that he will have a son of his own. Next the Lord addresses his concerns over the land that he will inherit. In order to assure Abram of his commitment to him the Lord decides to make a covenant. This would have been a very normal part of life in the ancient Eastern world. So the Lord chose to communicate to Abram in a language that He understood plain and simply. It’s as if he was saying “ Let’s sign a contract and settle this once and for all.”Now most of us understand that a contract is an agreement between two parties where each of them commit to upholding their side of the deal. A covenant sealed in blood serves to show the serious nature of the agreement. The parties are saying “If I break this covenant , let this same bloodshed be poured out on me!”
What is special about this covenant is the part Abram plays. He kills and cuts the animals into two and waits to meet with the Lord so that as the custom dictates they will both pass between the pieces to seal the agreement. However we read that the Lord did not appear straight away as Abram had to drive away vultures from eating the flesh. Next we find Abram has fallen into a deep sleep and as he dreams the Lord shows him what the future holds. While Abram sleeps, a smoking pot and flaming torch appear and pass between the pieces. The smoking pot speaks of how the Lord reveals himself as a cloud in the wilderness and later on Mount Sinai, The torch reminds us of how the Lord revealed himself as the burning bush or the pillar of fire in the wilderness. The Lord is showing us that Abraham never signed the contract. As he slept the Lord went through. Therefore Abram could never break a contract that he had not even signed. God alone established the terms and then took on the responsibility of keeping them.
Today we can have this same assurance about our inheritance. We enter into the new covenant by faith in Jesus. We receive everything from the Lord, not by our works or effort but through the sacrifice of Jesus. The Lord ensured that there would be nothing that we could do that could eliminate us from walking into life eternal with our loving heavenly Father.
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Unshakeable Hope Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2021