Connecting Scriptures:  Psalm 3:3, 28:7, 84:11, 86:17, 91:14, 106:31, Romans 1:17, 4:9-12, 16-25, Hebrews 11:12

So far, God has come and spoken variations of the covenant we read today to Abram a couple of times.  If we remember before, each time was for a vital purpose.  Initially, the promise to bless and enlarge Abram was what got him moving in the right direction to Canaan.  Then, in chapter 13, it is repeated after Lot takes his share of the family farm and moves near Sodom.  As if to say—nothing has changed about this promise I am making, even if the shape of your family does.  Today is deeper still.  We covered with Noah how there are times when God is merciful to give a sign along with the covenant.  This time, it is Abram who asks for a sign from God to help his belief.  

“O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…”.  Can you hear his fear?  I don’t think this is a doubt of God’s promise (only verses before we see how he believed and it was counted to him as righteousness), I just think Abram is a man who needs a little boost over the vale to see what God sees.  Then God shows him the stars above, vast and beautiful without the light pollution we deal with in our time.  I bet it looked milky and marvelous.  God knew the number of stars, and every name.  It was these He chose to use as a symbol of the abundance and steadfastness of his promise to give Abram generations upon generations of descendants.  “O Lord God, how am I to know…”.  It was not wrong for Abram to ask this, because he was asking in faith.  The state of our hearts before God matter, when we are asking and needing help with the next step of belief, we must, well, believe.  “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”  (Hebrews 11:6).  

What God does next may seem unusual to us, but it would have been very familiar to Abram and his time.  To make a blood covenant with another person was a serious business.  It involved taking an animal, and cutting it in half, much like the text describes, and then for both parties to walk between the two halves.  It was an oath that declared—if either of us breaks this covenant, may we be like these pieces of sacrifice.  It was “cross my heart and hope to die” to the 100th power.  Notice who “walks” between these sacrifices.  Only God.  This was a unilateral covenant upheld by God alone.  Only He was strong enough to keep every promise of lineage and land.  There were also some hard things included in the covenant.  God alludes to Abram how his people would be “sojourners in a land that is not theirs”—this wold be the Exodus.  But, even though it would not appear they were people of promise, this covenant would still stand.  God had every intention of brining them to the land that Abram was standing on in that moment.  It was just a matter of time. 

Questions for Reflection:

1.  How does Abrams’s questioning God in faith compare to Mary’s in Luke 1:34? 

2.  What does it mean or show about God that He would display the covenant to Abram in a way tray He would understand?

3.  What is the difference between needing a sign for proof, and needing one for faith?