As we get to this part of the Genesis narrative, I want to lay out the context of this chapter before we delve into our main points. Abram had been promised twice already (12:1-3,7, 13:14-16) that he would be given children and lands that are beyond his wildest dreams [although he’s going to have a pretty wild dream shortly], for the sake of blessing the nations. Abram was an imperfect man, but when God spoke to him and called him, he listened and obeyed. When he sinned, which he did quite a bit (cf. ch. 13, 16, 21), yet after he was confronted, he repented and returned. It was not so with the Amorites, and by extension the other nations mentioned in v.19-21. The events of this chapter take place sometime between 1921 and 1896 B.C. The final defeat of the Amorites is mentioned in Joshua 10, which is around 1446 B.C. This means they had nearly 500 years to repent, and God longsuffered their iniquity until it was completed as we read in v.16. If we question God’s patience, let’s think about how long God endured their sins [which included child sacrifice] before pronouncing his judgment on them. But let’s not forget that God still saved from them those who believed in him: think of Uriah the Hittite; Rahab the prostitute – a Canaanite; Ruth the Moabite, from whose offspring the Christ himself came. Think also of the Temple later in Jerusalem: the largest part was the court of the gentiles, intended for the nations to see the God of Israel through their testimony and manner of living, receive the blessing God had promised through Abram, and come to the Temple to worship Yahweh. Think also of the new kingdom of our God where the gentiles from every tribe, tongue, people and nation will flock from the east and from the west to worship our God, and recline at the table with Abraham himself and feast on the marriage supper of the lamb (Matt 8:11).

Within this context, we come today to a passage that begins to reveal to us the Abrahamic covenant. The covenant in this chapter focuses on Abram’s son to be born and the land to be possessed. Soon enough, in ch.17, we will see the promise reaffirmed and the covenant reinforced by a physical sign, extending it to Abram’s descendants and to the nations, which Paul reminds us in Galatians is fulfilled in Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ, who is the savior of not only one son, one land, or one nation, but the whole world. He is our prophet, our priest, and our king, the author of our faith, the promise giver, the covenant keeper. And we will see all these playing out in the passage today: how faith believes the unseen promise; how Abram fulfills prophetic and priestly roles; and how Yahweh the promise giver is the covenant keeper.

FAITH BELIEVES THE UNSEEN PROMISE

Faith is no small thing in the life of Abram. He heard the voice of God, and listened to it in obedience, leaving everything behind and going to a land he did not know (Gen 12). By faith, he separated from Lot and let him pick the best land for himself (Gen 13). By faith, he went with a few men after 5 kings and defeated them. By faith, he received the blessing from Melchizedek but refused the false promise of the king of Sodom (Gen 14). By faith, he received the promises of God and believed when God told him: fear not, Abram, I am your shield. It was definitely reassuring to hear this, soon after coming back from defeating the kings of the East, and settling back as a nomad. God was comforting him with this promise. In fact, from here on, shield will become a very common designation of God toward his people, particularly mentioned within the psalms. The word may also mean that God is our sovereign, our protector, our king; that he himself is ours. And he gives good gifts. After Abram declined the backhanded offer of the king of Sodom, the ESV translation correctly tells us that God is promising Abram a great reward, which Abram believed. He was at least 75 years old when he started to receive the promises, an age where most of us would be tired taking a short trip let alone uproot everything and move on camelback a thousand miles. He was also a sinner; at 75 years, he was probably quite set in his ways. In fact, he seems to repeat the same patterns of sin in ch.13, 16 and 21. He was a sinner like every human being and every one of us here today is. It was not his works that justified him. He believed God, and it was counted to him – ascribed to him – as righteousness. The word righteousness here does not mean the same righteousness and justification as received through Christ, but that when Abram accepted the promises of God, God accepted his obedience despite his imperfection. God indeed specializes in using broken vessels for his purposes and his glory; he alone is able to remove iniquity and ascribe righteousness. This is such an important concept that Paul dedicates all of Romans 4 to flesh this idea out. Abram was old: as good as dead; no child to inherit him; his wife old and barren; his possessions destined to go to his chief servant; living in a tent; having been all over the Near East by now; just returned from war; recently separated from his nephew… He was already promised an offspring more than the dust of the earth, and here he is promised an offspring more than the stars of heaven. None of it had yet materialized. Add to it that later in the dream, he is promised that his offspring will be sojourners, slaves, and afflicted for over 400 years before they are delivered. In the darkness of the night and the dread of the dream, some of these promises do not seem bright. But faith accepts the promises of God and looks forward to the eternal city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God (Heb 11:10).

Brothers and sisters: faith is not always glamorous; the promises of God are not always prosperity and good health. Our God delights in our welfare and is disposed toward our good. But the Bible often reminds us that trials are promised to his children. Suffering is not glamorous, but I believe in the community of faith we can endure the crucible of suffering as a refining tool bringing us nearer to the one who is ready to intercede for us and give us grace and mercy in our times of need (Heb 4:16). The testing of our faith produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:3-5).

Believing what is unseen while suffering what seems interminable is hard, and it is a lot harder to suffer alone. So praise be to God that we do not have to do that alone, but we can be the tangible presence of God in one another’s lives in a credible gospel community, where living out our faith and the testing of our faith can be leveraged as tool for gospel proclamation to a world that is suffering alone, in darkness, away from the hope of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world.

Abram believed God. He took notice of him; he agreed with him on who he said he is and what he said he will do; and committed his own self to trusting him with all his being. These 3 components of faith are essential: without one of them, there is no true faith. If you are sick and I prescribe you an antibiotic, you can take notice of it but do nothing else; you won’t be healed. You can take notice of it, and agree with me that it is a good thing and it will do what it says it will do; but if you just stop there, you won’t be healed. But if you take notice of it, and agree with me on its purpose, and then put your trust, accept, and take it, then you will be healed. Real faith takes notice of God, agrees that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him, and trusts in him for life, breath and everything. That is true faith that will inherit the unseen promises of God.

PROPHETIC AND PRIESTLY ROLES

We have seen Abram so far act in faith, but also show good virtues and portray excellent characteristics. He has been marked by obedience. He was a man of peace. He filled a kingly role in his fight against evil and his defense of the innocent and the helpless. He gave freely and generously to God. He refused to be rewarded for his good deeds by declining the spoils of war. Abram demonstrated kingly characteristics. In today’s passage, we will see him demonstrate prophetic and priestly roles.

The prophetic characteristic is seen in how God speaks to Abram, like a man to his friend, revealing to him his promises and his purposes, then giving him visions and a dream [the first times there are recorded in the Bible]. When we hear Abram’s questions in v.2 and 8, we should not see them as sneers or doubts, but as signs of nearness and trust between Abram as a prophetic figure and God as a prophesy giver, conversing about details of prophesies that are written here within the life of Abram as evidence for the Jewish readers hundreds of years later, and also for us today, that God had declared these things through the mouth of his servant Abram, so that we may believe the One who has revealed these things to his people. The questions and the answers reveal prophetically tremendous details about God’s plan in place and in time that make it impossible to falsify. Abram had received the promises for a son and for a land through which the nations will be blessed. In this chapter, Abram’s questions only focus on the first two, understandably so, since the promises for his own son and his own land had not yet materialized, let alone promises for all the nations of the earth to be blessed through him; but soon enough (Ch. 17) he will be reminded of this very important part of the promises which is for the nations of the earth to be blessed through Abram’s offspring, the one Paul identifies to the Galatian church as the Messiah himself (Gal 3:16).

What could that mean to us today who have God’s final revelation in his word and in his son Jesus? When God is showing us something we do not fully understand, we should look in the word to discern what is true; we should ask the Spirit for insight; but after that it is also ok [maybe even should or must] to ask clarifying questions, to seek counsel from a trusted believer, or even to bring it to the community of faith. And the Lord can use us as evidences of his presence in one another’s life by offering clarity that is in line with his word. And if we have doubting questions, I think it is even more important to bring these to our trusted brothers and sisters, elders and ministers, for learning and edification, for clarity and peace, for understanding and the removal of anxiety, fear, or isolation. This is true for adults and kids, seasoned believers and new disciples.

The priestly characteristic is found in verse 11. I’ll explain the details of this event more in the last point of the sermon. But what Abram did here is protect the sacrifice by carrying a priestly role of protecting the place where God will manifest himself. Earlier in Genesis, Adam and Eve took on priestly roles when they were commanded to know the land, work it, name the living beings, and protect the garden they were put in by obeying the statutes of God. The garden was the place where God manifested himself. But we know the story: they failed miserably in their priestly roles when they did not protect God’s creation which had been entrusted to them, as they submitted themselves to the devil, plucking the fruit not meant to be eaten, and thus not protecting the tree that they were supposed to. They had been entrusted as stewards over the garden, the place where God made his dwelling and his presence among his people. What did they do? They desecrated it.

In Jeremiah 34:18-20, we see a reference to covenant making like the one we will study in a moment. But we see there again a curse resulting from the failure to do the priestly task.

[…] the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts — the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

Those who had made covenants had broken them and those who had made promises had not kept them. The rest of the passage tells us how their repentance was short-lived and their commitments fluid. So God curses them by telling them that those who did not keep the covenant will be made like the animals they cut in half, for in failing to keep the covenant, they had abandoned their priestly roles and led the people away from God toward evil and unrighteousness.

But Abram here strives in his priestly role as he drives away scavengers from the sacrifice. He protects the holy place. He fights the ravenous wolves. And so should we brothers and sisters. For in the new covenant with Christ and the new kingdom that has been inaugurated by Jesus, we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). We believe in the priesthood of all believers, where each one of us has been entrusted with knowing one another deeply and intimately in the body of Christ, protecting one another from our own sin and from sin being done to us all, feeding one another with the truth of the word of God, leading one another in the way of Jesus, in the light of the gospel, in the path of righteousness, in the hope that does not put us to shame. Shall we not as believers in Jesus and priests of God Most High speak words of hope, encouragement, conviction, and strength? Shall we not avoid quenching a burning wick or breaking a bruised reed? Shall we not be representatives of our faithful High Priest and give one another love, care, protection, hope, mercy and grace in our times of need? Let us follow in Abram’s footsteps who fulfilled here his priestly role and strived to protect the place where the Lord will shortly make his presence known.

THE PROMISE GIVER IS THE COVENANT KEEPER

God had already declared his promises on 2 occasions to Abram, in ch.12 and 13. He repeats the promise a third time in this chapter, both regarding a son and a land to possess, and then he affirms the promise by ratifying a covenant. God announces himself with a formula that sounds all too frequent in our Bibles every time he is about to announce something to his people: I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldean (later on: brought you out of Egypt; out from slavery; out of the northern country; out of exile). The announcement is solemn, and meant to remind us that God is sovereign. It is then followed by setting the stage for a practice that was very common in the ancient near east: when 2 people wanted to make a covenant, they would sacrifice animals cutting them in half and setting them opposite one another so that a path is made in between. And then the 2 signatories of the covenant make solemn oaths and walk between the animals, calling a curse upon themselves: If I were to revoke the covenant, may it be done to me like it was done to these animals. That is the curse God invokes on the faithless in Jeremiah 34.

In Gen 2:21, God sends a deep sleep on Adam, then gives him Eve and through that the marriage covenant. Likewise here, God brings about a deep sleep upon Abram as God himself ratifies the covenant unilaterally. The smoking fire pot and the flaming torch are a theophany, a representation of God’s presence, similar to the pillar of cloud and fire in Exodus 13 representing the presence of God as the leader and savior of his people.

But see with me what happens here: The Lord does not ask Abram to walk between the carcasses. Only he passes in the middle of the animals, dead and cut, laid on either side of the path, with their blood soiling the ground in the middle, the very blood that Yahweh will walk over, bloodying his feet. Abram does not. God’s covenant does not depend on human faithfulness, nor is it threatened by our faithlessness. His promises are not about to be thwarted by the latest transgression. His covenant is not about to be broken by the pride of man, the foolishness of sin, or the vacuousness of deconstruction. He knows it’s in our nature as humans that we are unable to keep our end of the covenant. His promise, his word, his covenant stand on him alone, for he is the faithful One: he will surely do it.

This does not diminish our responsibility. To the contrary: it magnifies it! Because we must understand what God has done for us; because we are facing a holy, sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing God who declares his presence in our midst and his covenant to us, saying: If I go back on my promise to you, may I be cut in half, cursed, torn apart, torn asunder, cut down, destroyed, if I am not found faithful to my covenant with you. I am your shield. Your reward will be great. With an eternal promise I have made my covenant with you; with enduring faithfulness I declared my plan for you; with an everlasting love I have loved you; that’s why I endured my faithfulness toward you. Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name; you are mine.

Heavens may fall and the earth be destroyed but his word stands forever; his promises are sure; his covenant secure. When God made a covenant with his people, he did something no human being could do or would have even considered doing. In the usual blood covenant, each party was responsible for keeping only his side of the deal. But when God made the covenant with Abram, he promised to keep both sides of the agreement, basically saying: “If this covenant is broken, Abram, for whatever reason—for my unfaithfulness or yours—I will pay the price. If you or your descendants, for whom we are making this covenant, fail to keep it, I will pay the price in blood.” And at that moment, the Father pronounced the death sentence on his son Jesus.

You see, nearly 2000 years after this covenant was made; which happens to be 2000 years ago, seeing our faithlessness yet loving us beyond comprehension, vindicating the Father’s plan, keeping the promise and upholding the covenant in an act of amazing, wondrous, selfless love: he was cut down, beaten, flogged, wounded, torn, tortured, murdered, despised, rejected, his blood poured out, his body broken; he had no beauty that we may desire him, no comeliness that we may behold, no majesty that we should look at him; he had no faithful priestly figures around him to chase away the ravenous wolves who ravaged him or to fight the bulls that surrounded him; he was a man of sorrows who did not turn his back on his covenant when we turned our back on him, who did not curse us as we should have been like the faithless in Jeremiah 34, who did not cut us down when that’s all we deserved, who did not abandon us to the darkness of our sin, but took our curse upon himself, received the wrath of God that we all should have fallen under in just condemnation, taking the curse upon himself, and he kept his promise and upheld the covenant by his own precious blood, bringing a new kingdom, a new city whose designer and builder is God, a new tree for the healing of the nations, a new Jerusalem – a city of peace – where all the nations of the earth, the offspring of Abraham, the children of God, can come and worship our Prophet, our Priest, our King who lives forever, whose kingdom has no end.

*****

He was wounded so that we may be healed. He was broken so that we may be made whole. He was cut down so that we may be built up. He died so that we may live.

He lived; he suffered; he died. He lives again eternally keeping the promise and the covenant.

Are we ready to believe in him and strive to keep our end of the covenant in faith and in holiness? Trusting that he who did not spare his own son but gave him up (cursed him and cut him up) for us all: do we trust him to graciously, with him, give us all things? Does our faith settle merely for the material blessing, looking at his hands, awaiting what is to be given? Or does it look for blessing in the face of God himself, believing him to be our shield and our great reward? The One who lives forever, the promise giver, the covenant keeper, our redeemer who is faithful, our Lord Jesus leveraged his power and his own life for the sake of blessing you to become his holy nation; are you willing to leverage your power and your own life, your land and your offspring, to extend his blessing to all nations? Friends: he is worthy and he is faithful.

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How Many Covenants Did God Make with Abraham? An Essay By T. D. Alexander https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/how-many-covenants-abraham/

God’s Kingdom Through God’s Covenants A Concise Biblical Theology Peter J. Gentry And Stephen J. Wellum (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015).