READ: Genesis 15:7
CHALLENGE: Fully Trust in God
Vv7-8 – He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” 8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
Many times in this passage, “certainty” is discussed. The question is asked, “How can I know”? This is always the question, right? How can I be sure about God, salvation, heaven, answers to prayer, etc.
While we must embrace some uncertainty and even misfortune in this world, there are things we can know for sure.
Abraham specifically wants to know how he can know that the promises will come true. To be absolutely sure! This is what we want – certainty. That starts with certainty about the character of God.
We can know certain things because God does not lie or change. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
- God made the world on purpose. There is intentionality.
- God loves us. God is good and his love endures forever.
- God’s faithfulness is new every morning
- God keeps promises
- God works through prayer
- God saves from sins through Jesus and His death on the cross.
- God works all things together for our good.
Our universe is so precise that we know what time the sun will rise a thousand years from now. We know where and when the next total eclipse will occur. We know what the tides will be in the ocean. There are always 24 hours in a day. This points to a dependable God. Certainty.
We know that certain principles from God remain consistent. Pride comes before a fall. You reap what you sow. In every temptation, there’s a way out of that temptation. So, there are certain things that I can be certain about and that puts a foundation beneath me.
(trans.) So, how can we truly “know”. How can we be certain about God? God answers that question.
- LOOK BACK AT WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE FOR YOU
Abraham wants to know if God is going to be good on his promise. God points him back to what He has already done. I brought you out of Ur. When you wonder what God will do, think about what He’s already done.
Oftentimes, you would see the Psalms taking comfort by remembering all that God had done in history. He had delivered them from Egypt and parted the Red Sea. Passover was a reminder of God’s deliverance from the angel of death and their escape from enslavement to Pharaoh. Communion is also a reminder as we remember His death until he returns! What has God done!
- Remember the Great Things God Has Already Done for You
God tells Abraham, “I brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans”. You didn’t do it, I did. I brought you out of that mess. In other words, you would still be there if it weren’t for God. In tough times, it’s good to remind ourselves of where we’d still be if it weren’t for God pulling us out.
What chains have been broken? What harmful patterns have been undone? What misery have you been delivered from? What has God done for you? Has he answered a huge prayer? Has he provided a job at just the right time? Has he resolved a problem? Has he blessed you specifically in some way?
Perhaps you remember the pain of a hardship and see how God heard your prayers and delivered you. This gives you certainty as you face mountains in the present. When you’ve seen God do the nearly impossible, you know He can help in the present.
One time, the church was taking a special collection. I didn’t have any money except for $200 I had saved to buy a used freezer. I gave it away anyway. Right after that someone gave me a freezer for free. It was totally in line with what I was hoping to get so God provided. What did I learn for future days? I learned that God still provides.
I remember a day when I was supposed to speak at a Christian Camp to well over 100 teens. When my day came to speak, I was SO tired that I wondered how I’d be able to handle the pressure. God gave me the strength to speak and it went fine. Over the years I would always remember back to Camp Lamoka and remember that God gives the strength. What He has done he will continue to do!
You might have been stuck in sorrow from a broken relationship, loss, addiction, temptation, pornography, anger, depression, loneliness, hopelessness, poor health. And God reached in and pulled you out. Life can be like a knot that’s tough to untangle but God undid it!
Knowing God has already been there gives certainty as we face the future.
- Be Thankful for Where God Has You in the Present Moment
Right then Abraham was thriving in the land that God has promised. It was a new place. So, he was where he was because of God. He had experienced victory! Life was good because of God.
1 Samuel 7:12 – Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,[b] saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
God was helping him people so Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer! Up to this present moment, God has helped us! Ebenezer means the stone of help. And it was used for the lyrics in a famous hymn called, “Come Thou Fount”.
Here I raise my Ebenezer: Here by Thy great help I’ve come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand’ring from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.
Right now God could say, you’re in THIS land. It’s right here. You’re in THIS better place because of me. Are you somewhere better right now? Doesn’t that give you confidence in God?
- Know That God Has a Purpose for Your Life
God promised that he would take possession of the land! What’s the future look like? God was giving the land! I brought you out so that I can bring you to.
He’s already moved you from one place and that means that he has something in mind. God is not calling you out of something to leave you nowhere. He has a good future in mind.
Abraham’s life was not meant to get tangled up with the worldly city of Sodom like Lot did. God’s purpose for him was different. He would give him the land.
For my dad, God called him out of the car business and into ministry. It was a completely different area of living. He had a purpose for him to communicate the word. He didn’t give him a shop, he gave him a church. The disciples were called out of fishing to be fishers of men. God had a purpose for their lives.
Philippians 1:6 – being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God will complete the work that he is doing in you.
He brought Abraham out of Ur so that He could give Abraham the Promised Land. God’s intent is that Abraham gain possession of something so much better than what He left. And I appreciate that. Out of and on to!
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
What is God’s purpose for you? It’s not to be strung out on drugs or being non-productive. God is leading us to a better place. Be fruitful. Multiply. Subdue the world. You should be making a positive difference in the world. It’s out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. He wants good for your life!
Spiritually speaking, there’s a point in life where we were a dead battery and needed a jump. We’ve all been dead spiritually speaking and you need a divine jump. You’re stuck and you need God to pull you out. Remember?
- DO WHAT YOU KNOW TO DO
Vv 9-16 – So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
A dreadful darkness comes over him. God is about to reveal something to him. He was prepared to hear from God.
- Follow God’s Lead
God told him to cut animals in half. These would be animals fit for sacrificing. You cut them down the middle and lay them opposite of each other. Abraham does what He’s asked to do. Isn’t this life? When you don’t know what to do, do what you know you should be doing.
It’s never wrong to do the right thing! It all comes back to basics. Do the little things right. Cut up these animals and lay them out. OK.
What is God doing? While you’re waiting for God to show up in a certain area of your life, keep doing the right thing. Love your wife. Respect your husband. Forgive. Serve. Read your Bible. Pray. Abraham could become certain of God as he followed God. I believe you see a lot more of God when you’re following the Lord then when you’re not.
We can be certain that doing the right thing is the right thing. Trust God and do what you know he’s telling you to do. Like the disciples who were asked to cast their net on the other side of the boat. That made all of the difference.
- Chase Away the Vultures
Here’s Abraham doing everything right! But God doesn’t show up immediately and he waits all day. While he’s doing right and waiting, what happens? Vultures show up. God is about to do something amazing but there are vultures circling. He chases them away!
When you’re making sacrifices, vultures may show up. You’re sacrificing to serve and here comes the vultures of complaining and doubt. Don’t listen! You’re giving and the car breaks down – vulture! Discouragement. Don’t let it get you down.
You’re clean and here comes that vulture of temptation. You’ve got to get that away from you. He didn’t sit there and allow vultures to chow down on the sacrifice! He chased them away. He was still on the right path.
As the sun set, a dreadful darkness fell over him and he was sound asleep. God is about to reveal himself powerfully. But in that darkness, the light of God will stand out.
As I think of Abraham preparing the sacrifice and chasing away vultures. He’s ready to meet God. Are we ready for God to lead? Are we spiritually prepared? Our own spiritual preparations and reading the bible and praying and seeking God definitely brings about more certainty for living.
- Trust God to Have Our Best Interests at Heart
What does God want? To be trusted! He reveals the plan and it’s heavy. His descendants would possess the land 400 years down the road. They would be enslaved and mistreated. It won’t be easy. There is tough terrain between the giving of promise and the fulfillment.
Abraham could rest content that he would never possess the land but would be buried at a good old age. He would “go to his ancestors”. He could rest knowing that he would have descendants and they would own that land.
We learn here that God’s timing is not our own timing. God’s plan can include some valleys. We have to trust God in the valleys! What are our valleys? Relational difficulties. Trusting people. Battles. Financial hardships. Disappointments. Weariness. Health issues. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have a plan. We believe that good will come!
Don’t give up hope in the valley. Don’t allow not having what you want at the moment to break your certainty. We are certain that good will come! We know God’s faithfulness is new every morning.
God, you said good would come. I’m here chasing vultures! It will come!
I think of the time when Paul was imprisoned. That was a difficult place for him to be but he was there. He didn’t want to be in jail but God used it. We’re still reading and benefiting from the letters that he wrote from there.
Keep your hope alive. I know it’s hard but don’t give up hope. Continue in prayer so that God can see what you need to be doing. There’s dark stretches, but there is always hope! God is doing great things.
- HANG ON TO GOD’S PROMISES
Vv17-21 – When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
What about the description of God as a fire pot. Fire and blazing torch. It’s fairly intimidating to consider how God is depicted. The firepot was a furnace for refining metals like gold. It would burn off the impurities. He was a blazing torch and torches light the way! It’s an awesome description! Difference is that this furnace is moving.
When God appeared to Israel on the Mountain is was a burning fire. When God led Israel at night, it was a pillar of fire. Our God is called a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29 – Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Picture in your mind what this scene was like. The power and presence of God and there is fire. It’s powerful. Powerful in a way that we can scarcely comprehendGod is clearly well beyond. Greater. Awesome. Extraordinary. Unlike anything else. Undeniable. Ultra super-natural. The power…you can feel it in this description.
I love how he catches a glimpse of God and really this is all we need. Just a glimpse. A glimpse of God doing something! That would be enough to erase ALL doubts!
The purpose of God doing this is to make a covenant with Abraham. A covenant meaning that it’s a promise that is unbreakable. It’s a commitment. When you walk through the animals that were cut up you were saying, “May the same happen to me”.
The closest thing we have are wedding vows or contracts that we sign.
- God is Committed to Keep His Promises
Abraham cut up the animals and God walked through it. Typically both parties would walk through the animals signifying the high cost of not keeping their end up. God is the only one to go through.
God commits himself to fulfill His promises. He’s 100% backing His word. Whatever we’re into just needs a certain sense of commitment. What is our level of commitment to the Lord?
If we say that we’re going to be somewhere or do something, are we committed to it? I am building a raised bed and I ordered 25 asparagus crowns for it. There’s no turning back now. I’m committed. I’ve started a fence, have to see it through.
Work requires commitment. If you say you’re going to be there, you need to get up and be there every day. If you say you’re going to help out in a ministry, you need to stick with it for the time that you’ve committed. And don’t say you’re committed if you’re not actually committed.
God is committing Himself to a certain course of action.
- God’s Promises are Unconditional
Since God is the only one to walk through, it’s not conditioned upon anything else. God will fulfill the promise that he made no matter what.
Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We were not perfect, but God loves us anyway. I think of the love of God. It does not change. He loves us no matter what. He will also discipline us too.
When you’re a parent, that’s pretty much a one way relationship for quite a while. They are pure consumers. It doesn’t matter if my grandson decides to peel the trim off the one stand. Or hit me in the head with his rock. Or messes his diaper. Or throws Kix all over the kitchen floor. Or grab my shirt with his greasy spaghetti sauce fingers. He’s just SO cute. Nothing will stop me working for his best.
God will fulfill his promise. I hope that our love can be unconditional and that we don’t expect perfection. God’s promises are unconditional. God promises to save. God promises to reward. God promises to answer prayer. These things are unconditional for sure.
God will do what God says that He will do. The words of God are certain. These are things that we hold dear. There is truth.
What are your favorite promises in the Bible? God promises answers to prayer, peace, forgiveness, help, strength, and eternal life.
1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation[a] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[b] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
The promises of God help bring certainty to life. We can be sure of good.
Promises, obedience, look at what God already did.