SECOND QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #7
MAY 14, 2022
“THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM”

 

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1

 

"After these things”: At this point God had already called Abram away from all that was familiar, all that he knew, and all that his physical security and safety were found in. He was called out from his home, his family, and his social connections to something that was completely unknown. Keep in mind also, “after these things”, was also after God had promised to make him a great nation, to make his name great, to make him a blessing and to give to him and his seed a great land. It is after these things that the Lord came to Abram in a vision.

And God says, “Do not be afraid” for He knew exactly what was weighing heavy on Abram’s heart at that moment. Abram knew what God had promised and was trying to figure out if God already fulfilled that promise in the son of his servant Eliezer or if there would be another coming. And with this on his heart God says, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceeding great reward.”

Abram had the promise of the coming Christ and the new heaven and new earth already before him. And with all that God had already revealed to Abram God tells Abram that He Himself is his reward. Incredible! What more assurance could Abram have and what more could he want?

And what comes next is a dialog by Abram to God that seems odd and out of place. "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "You have given me no offspring; indeed, one born in my house is my heir!”

What do you mean “what will you give me”? I just said I would give you Myself. What more do you want? Oh, I see Abram, you can’t yet see how I will make this happen.

So, God gently tells Abram, no. The heir will come from you. Then He takes Abram outside and has him look up at the night sky, lit up with the innumerable stars in the heavens. God then gave Abram the most amazing object lesson. You can imagine what that sky looked like. So vast were the stars and so small and insignificant did Abram himself feel in comparison. That starry object lesson was simply an illustration of Revelation 7:9,10, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God Who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

And the Bible then describes Abram’s response: “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” Genesis 15:6. God simply said, no Abram I will give you an heir from you and then opened before his eyes the full scope of what this meant. Abram, at least for the moment, was blown away and his heart responded with the most resounding amen that has ever been expressed. And that belief, that faith, that embracing of the words of God to do exactly what they promise — was to Abram righteousness. That complete reliance upon the word of God, and expectation that the word of God would do exactly what it purposed to do, was the very faith that would bring the genuine article of righteousness to the very heart and life of Abram.

But even still it was not all perfectly clear to Abram and a request of further clarification was requested. It was a complete recognition by Abram that he did not have all the answers and he felt safe to ask the One Who did.

So, when God reminded Abram, "I am the LORD, Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” Abram was not hesitant to ask, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”

We already know ultimately that “God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on.” Acts 7:5. This of course was speaking of the physical land of earthly Canaan. Given this, either God’s promise was not sure or the physical land was not the reality that Abram looked for. In fact, we know the latter is true for we read, “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Hebrews 11:9

Abram understood the gospel and he understood that the promised land was not the earthly Canaan but the heavenly. And this reality for Abram makes even more sense when we see what illustration God gave Abram to assure him of the promise of the land.

God instructed Abram to gather five clean animals used for sacrifices, cutting them in two, and making a path with the animal halves on either side. This was a solemn covenant promise in which the one who passed between the pieces would say, “If I don’t do as I say, may what happened to these pieces happen to me”. And in vision Abram saw a smoking oven and a burning torch, representing the Lord himself, pass between the pieces that were divided and separated.

Here God was demonstrating, in a visual way, that He Himself would be divided and separated as He gave Himself as Savior of the world on behalf of mankind. And it was by virtue of this sacrifice that life and resurrection would be secured for all who by faith, like Abram, believe the One Who was giving the promise. And like it did for Abram, that faith would bring righteousness. And the promised land would come by virtue of that promised resurrection.

Even with the principle of righteousness by faith clearly set before Abram he, years later, would forsake the new covenant promise. Instead of trusting God to fulfill His promise, Abram chose to settle for an old covenant attempt at securing the promise in his own strength. Taking his eyes off the Promise Keeper, he takes Sarai’s handmaid, Hagar, and produces an offspring of the bondwoman—Ishmael. This was a profound mistake and illustrates exactly what happens when human reason intersects with the objects of God’s promise.

The object of God’s promise, in Abram’s case, was the heir. To the carnal eye, no heir was coming nor could be realistically seen to be coming in the foreseeable future. Abram and Sarai so reasoned and saw a way to help God out with His problem. Yet how shortsighted the whole thing was. God made the promise and God alone could perform it.

How often do we ourselves, instead of waiting for the Lord to do what He has promised, we become tired of waiting and try to do it for Him and thus will make failures every time.

This was the result of Abram and Sarai’s attempts with Hagar and Ishmael. And for this reason, Abram was given the sign of circumcision as a perpetual reminder to him and his descendants that righteousness comes only through the promise and power of God and not in our own attempts to make them a reality.

We can be certain that God alone can fulfill His promises and that they often will not be fulfilled until we fully realize that without Him comes nothing. And every time we fail it will only be because we have attempted to fulfill His desires for us in our own strength. This must and will fail every time. If there is a victory it will only come as a result of God Himself fulfilling His promises in us and for us. And when we, like Abram, come to fully realize and believe this we will find true success in every obstacle or difficulty we face. 1 Corinthians 10:12, 13 says, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

May we find this to be our experience in more complete and deeper ways as we cooperate with Him to hasten that day.

 

~Kelly Kinsley