The Abrahamic Covenant - Part II

The Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15

Well, this morning we continue on in Genesis chapter 15,.

Which we aim to complete.

As we prepare for chapter 16 next week. This is the second part of our consideration of the Abrahamic Covenant. Last week, we tried to lay the groundwork and give the bigger picture in which this covenant is given to us.

And so we talked about the covenants of common grace. And again, that common grace doesn't speak to the quality of grace as though there were different levels or different shades of God's grace, but rather the scope, the quantity of it, the common grace covenants, God's creational covenant with Adam, and then also God's renewal of that covenant, the recreation covenant, as it were, with Noah.

So we looked at the Adamic Covenant and the Noahic Covenant, and we said these are common grace covenants because they're covenants with respect to all humanity. Covenants with respect to all of creation.

Beginning in chapter 12, we saw the promise given to Abram when God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to a land that He would show him, a land in which He would make Abram the father of the promised seed and the father of many nations, that He would bless Abram and make Abram a blessing to the families of the earth.

That promise has now taken the form of the covenant in chapter 15, and the covenant is not reestablished, it's not reinstituted, and it's certainly not a different covenant when we get to chapter 17. So the Abrahamic Covenant is Genesis 15.

That is the covenant that God makes with Abram. What we have in chapter 17 is further elaboration or further understanding of that covenant and more conditions that God attaches to that covenant, and when we get to chapter 17, we'll unfold the second half of covenant theology.

We'll consider the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant. So that's just a big picture of where we are, where we've been, and this morning, we want to take a step further into the Abrahamic Covenant.

God's Special Grace Through Abram and the Promised Seed

With Abram, God begins, not a covenant of common grace, but special grace, grace to a select people, a redemption that is promised to the people of God. This is now the unfolding purpose of God for the rest of the storyline of Scripture.

All of the cosmos is upheld with the creational covenant and its renewal under Noah, and yet within that covenantal framework, God has chosen Abram to make him a blessing to the families of the earth, and that blessing will come through the seed of Abram, the promised seed, which is Jesus Christ.

This major step forward is building all off of the promise that God gave to the woman in Genesis 3 .15, which we also spoke about last week. And this promise was given to the woman.

In the wake of the fall.

Remember how that deep horror, that deep darkness, that deep slumber, all the same language in Hebrew, fell upon Adam when God fashioned His bride from His side. And of course, that bride deceived the man.

And she ate, being deceived by the serpent. They both transgressed. And through Adam, Romans 5, sin entered the world. And through sin, death entered the world. But Genesis 3 .15 establishes the redemptive movement of God, this promise of a seed that will come and undo the destruction of the fall.

It will crush the head of the serpent and bring man and woman, though fallen, into a state of grace, into redemption, into a promised land, a paradise that will never be lost. And so we're reminded of this plot line from the seed of the woman in Genesis 3, down through Noah, down through the lineage of the faithful, through Abram,.

And then beyond.

Jesus Christ as the Promised Messiah

And that's very significant that when we think of Jesus, when we think of Jesus Christ, we understand all of the entailments of what it means for Him to be the Messiah, the Anointed One, which is what Christ means.

Christ is not the family name of Jesus. Mary Christ, Joseph Christ, James Christ.

It's a title.

It's a messianic title. The Anointed One. I have a professor, Dr. Schnabel, who will never use the word Christ. He always says Jesus Messiah. He only ever says Messiah because he doesn't want to lose sight of this.

That when you said Christ in the ancient mindset, especially to a Jewish audience, they had one understanding of what that meant. And it was messianic. It was the messianic King. And when you talk about Jesus being the long-awaited Messiah, you're taking with that all of God's history of redemption.

The promise He gave to the woman. The covenant that He made with Abram. Genesis 15 is embedded within what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. And so we must never lose sight of that. Let me just reinforce that before we actually dig through these verses.

God had promised from the very beginning that He would send a seed that would save His people. That promised seed, as we find out, will be the seed that comes through Abram. Many thousands of years later, an angel comes in the fullness of time and announces the arrival of this long-awaited promised seed.

The serpent-crushing seed. And when the angel announces that, Mary, the recipient of this favor, the most blessed among women, responds with what church history calls the Magnificat. Mary's song, which we have in Luke 1.

And the fingerprints of God's covenant with Abram are all over her song. Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant.

Behold, henceforth all generations will call Me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is His name. His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm.

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones. Boy, that sounds a lot like Genesis 11.

He's exalted the lowly.

That sounds a lot like Genesis 12. He's filled the hungry with good things. The rich He has sent away empty. He's helped His servant Israel in remembrance. That's covenantal language. You remember a covenant.

In remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

And then even more.

A few verses later, when Zacharias gives this utterance, this prophecy, and he says, blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.

That's the Davidic covenant.

As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets who have been since the world began. Lamech the prophet. Noah the prophet. That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers to remember His holy covenant.

The oath which He swore to our father Abraham.

So when we think of Jesus,.

We must think of God's covenant with Abraham. When we think of what it means for Jesus to come, even the initial people that would be a part of His arrival, even Zacharias and Mary, cannot think of this outside of the framework of the Abrahamic covenant.

The promise that God made to Abraham. When we read about God's grace to Abraham, when we read about God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, we are truly reading about the person and the work of Jesus the Messiah.

God's Assurance to Abram

Notice how our passage begins. We're beginning here in verse 7 and 8. God says to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. Now, just right there you'll notice off the bat language that sounds somewhat familiar.

We have shades of Exodus here in Genesis 15, 7, don't we? Exodus 20, the prologue to God giving the law to Israel. I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. Well, here we have I am the God who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, this calling of God that prefaces the commitment he puts upon his people, the promise he gives to his people.

He says to Abraham, I'm the God who called you. I'm giving you this land to inherit it. Now, that Exodus theme is so tightly interwoven, it will take up the rest of Genesis. There'll be all of these themes that point us toward Exodus.

Look at Abraham's response. Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? That, to me, is so striking that that is Abraham's response, especially considering where we've been and what, according to the narrative, seems to be just the previous night.

It seems that everything we have in chapter 15 takes place between maybe the end of a day into a night and then the whole next day. And that makes Abraham's response to me so surprising. Remember how chapter 15 began with Abraham looking for comfort, looking for assurance.

He was afraid.

Wrestling with Doubt and the Comfort of Assurance

And this is the experience of Christians, isn't it? We seek from time to time, very often we seek comfort. We want to know, like Abraham wants to know, that God is with us. We want to know, we want to have the comfort that God is for us.

We want to know that God is not against us.

We want to know that God has not been removed from us. We're looking for that comfort of assurance. Is there a meaning to where I am and what I'm doing, God?

Am I really Yours?

Do You have me where You want me? Are Your promises sure? Will they unfold in my life? Is it true that You're a deliverer? Is it true that You provide a way to escape? Is it true that You will continue this work that You've begun in my life?

We look for the comfort of assurance.

God has already given a pledge at the very head of chapter 15.

What does He say in response? Abram, I am your shield. Your reward will be abundant. But then, even there, what we would want to take as a token of comfort, as a token of assurance, it doesn't lead that way with Abram, does it?

How does he respond?

How can this be?

You have given me no children. The heir of my house is Eliezer. One born in my house. In other words, he takes what was meant to be this comforting promise of God, and he's still wrestling with this doubt.

That wasn't enough.

And so he lodges his complaint against the Lord. He's being very honest about his doubts and his fears. This discouragement he has. A sense that he's being deprived. Remember that even after this great victory, and as the adrenaline settles, his nephew leaves him again and goes back to the edge of Sodom.

The thrill of victory had now paled into discontentment.

Well, now what?

And so what does God do in the wake of that complaint, in the wake of that discouragement that Abram is facing? Abram comes to him being honest. It's not enough, Lord.

He comforts Abram again.

He gives him a sure promise. No, surely a child will come from your own body.

And then he takes him out of those sheltered ceilings,.

This sort of living room where he's staring at his feet, in a pit of despair, and God says, get out of this place. And he takes him outside to look at the night sky. And as we said when we considered these verses, God wasn't just saying, oh, look at all the stars.

You can't count them right. That's what your descendants are going to be. It was much more than that. He's saying what he said to Job, in effect.

Who are you, Abram?

Who are you?

Did you cast the constellations in the night sky? Look at the starry panoply above you. Where did this come from? Did it not come from the power of my spoken word? Out of nothing? Can not the Creator of heaven and earth do anything and everything that he wills?

Abram, your seed will come forth from your body.

Look up. Look around you.

Who are you worshiping? Who are you serving? Who are you walking after? Who are you seeking?

Who has called you?

My promise is sure. Now again, not long after, from my understanding of the narrative, the very next day, Abram again comes to this place where God gives him this pledge, this token of comfort.

And what does he say in verse 8?

Lord God, how shall I know?

Do you see this response of how will I know? Yes, but how do I know? Yes, but I'm discouraged. I'm doubting. I'm wrestling to see how this will be true. I know what you've said.

I know what you've been revealing,.

But it's not what I see.

It's not how I feel, Lord.

How will I know that I will inherit?

He's looking for a sign of confirmation. Just like Gideon looks for a sign of confirmation. Just like many of God's people,.

Kings and prophets,.

Look for signs of confirmation. Lord God, give me a sign.

That this will be so.

Notice that Abram is struggling with the apparent reality. Notice that I say, very importantly,.

Apparent.

It's not the reality. It's the apparent reality.

It's not the reality.

In terms of what is really going on in God's purpose, which is sure. It's just the reality to Abram's eyes, from Abram's position. The apparent reality. Abram is struggling with the apparent reality of what he sees and how he feels over against what God has promised.

Does that sound familiar to anyone? How often do we struggle with the apparent reality of what we can see.

And of how we feel.

Over against the promise of God? Not only is this familiar to our Christian walk, it's instructive. What did we say Abram was according to Romans 4? In this very passage, because he believed God,.

He had faith in God, and God credited that.

To him as righteousness. He's the father of those who have faith. He's the ancestor of faith. In a chapter where he doubts.

God at each turn. How is this the father of faith? But notice how instructive this is,.

That our understanding of what is faith that justifies has to look something like this,.

And thank God it does.

Look something like this, doesn't it? Once more we see this grace of God who invites us to be honest with what he already knows,.

To come with him.

Out of our apparent,.

Misconstrued,.

Myopic,.

Minute,.

Selfish point of view full of fears and troubles, and he invites us to be honest with that. Like a little toddler who just doesn't understand anything about how the world works or what a day is supposed.

To be like.

And the parent very patiently and lovingly knows exactly how they're feeling and why they're feeling that way and invites them to come.

So they can talk it out.

God invites us to wrestle with him as we're being humbled. We don't do this defiantly. We do this meekly.

We do this with a sort of.

Trembling position.

We're humbled first because we're feeling overwhelmed and we're coming to grips with the reality that we're struggling and it's hard to admit that to yourself. And it's even harder to admit that to God.

How do you go to the one who demands faith.

And say,.

I have no faith to give? And so first we come to him because we're humbled.

By the sense of stress.

Or struggle,.

Dryness,.

Coldness.

But then we leave.

Even more humbled.

Why?

Because we've met with him.

In his grace.

And just like he does.

With Abram,.

At each turn of doubt God brings more comfort, more assurance, more presence. And so we leave even more humbled not because of the stress but because of the mercy.

The Importance of Honesty Before God

So much trouble in the Christian life.

Begins with the fact.

That we're not honest to God.

About what we're seeing and how we're feeling. And if you're not honest to God, you're defiantly deceiving yourself.

You're not being honest.

With yourself. And sadly,.

The way we're wired,.

You're defiantly deceiving.

Everyone else around you.

It begins with being honest to God about who you are, where you are, what you see, and how you feel.

And if you're unwilling to do that,.

You're unwilling to even be honest with yourself. You won't even allow the thought to enter your mind.

About where you truly are,.

The state you're truly in. You just won't even go there. And so when other inquiring minds and other people come to you.

And look at you.

And they have that little glint.

In their eye,.

A little glint of concern,.

And it's more concern.

Than you have for yourself,.

Red flag. You're not being honest.

With yourself. It's a scary place to be when someone else has more concern for your soul than you do.

But what are we called to do?

We do what Abram does here. Abram is fulfilling 1 Peter 5 -7. You cast your cares on him.

Because he cares for you.

Abram has this boldness that is amazing to me. That he's literally casting his doubt and his fear.

And his anxiety,.

All of that could be translated as the word care.

In 1 Peter 5.

He's casting that all on the Lord because he truly knows.

That God cares for him. So he can be honest to God because he knows, if he's sure of anything, it's that God is love and God is merciful and God is patient and God does not quench a smoking flax. He doesn't break a bruised reed.

He's merciful. And so what do we do with our anxieties and our struggles and our pains and our discouragements and our coldness? We're honest to God. We bring these to God, Lord. This is how it looks to me now.

I know it's wrong, but I don't feel that. I just feel this way right now. I feel frigid.

I feel dry.

I feel distant.

I feel like a sham.

I feel like a joke. I feel like a fool.

The only times I feel close to you are the times I feel afraid.

About the state I'm in.

I don't feel your love.

I don't feel your light. I don't feel your grace.

I don't feel your warmth.

You give God that honesty so that he can come in his grace.

And minister to you.

And it may be that the way he ministers to you is helping you to be honest to others so that they can minister to you as his extension, as his instruments. This is how God strengthens.

The faith of his people.

I cannot help but be struck that the preface to God's unconditional covenant with Abram is Abram's doubt. Isn't that beautiful? That God pledges, as we'll see, in the fullness of what this covenant is, he pledges, as it were,.

The cross to Abram.

To answer his doubt. That's very instructive to us.

As Christians.

I was speaking just last Sunday evening. I was preaching at Emmanuel Chapel and there was a young man that stuck around after the service. The sermon was on unpardonable sin. You know, what is the unpardonable sin?

Apparently this young man had often struggled with it.

Through many years.

Is that something that I've committed? Is it something I'm capable of committing? How would I know if I've committed it? And so we had a long conversation.

About what is faith and what is doubt.

And he was very astute.

Oh, whatever is not of faith.

Is sin.

Unbelief is a sin that we must repent of. But here we are in Genesis 15 and we see doubt right next to faith.

What's the relationship.

Between doubt and faith?

Doesn't that stand out to us?

The Life of Faith: Valleys and Hilltops

How much is this life of faith.

A successive journey.

With abundant blessings, joyful splendors, but also trials and painful doubts? And the point that I think we see here with Abram in Genesis 15 is that the life of faith.

As a whole,.

For the father of faith, is not only counted from the times he exercised faith,.

But it's the whole thing.

It's the valleys and the hilltops. It's the life of faith that comprises the times that unbelief is shaking and then it's made firm and it becomes strong.

And resolute.

And it's sanctified. This is what encompasses.

The life of faith. We know this to be true as Christians by experience.

Every Christian.

At one point or another comes to the place of that trembling father worried about his child because the disciples could not heal. And we say,.

Lord, I believe,.

But help my unbelief.

I'm conscious of both.

Because of indwelling sin,.

I will always be.

In one shade or another, at one variance or another,.

An unbeliever.

Until Christ returns and I look upon Him and I'm made like Him, there will be some aspect of my life or my mind or my heart.

Or my walk.

Where there is unbelief. I love what Spurgeon says. While men have no faith, they are unconscious.

Of their unbelief.

If you're worried, if you're worried that you don't have faith,.

You probably have faith.

If you're worried.

They don't have enough faith,.

You probably have faith. While men have no faith, they are unconscious.

Of their unbelief,.

But as soon as they get.

A little faith,.

Then they begin to be conscious.

Of the greatness.

Of their unbelief.

When the blind man.

Gets a little light into his eyes, he perceives something of the blackness, of the darkness in which he has been living. Even the smallest measure of faith is needed to discover the greatest measure of unbelief.

We as Christians do not like to learn that apart from Christ we can do nothing.

But that is a lesson.

That God likes to teach us over and over again because we have this constant daily need to be reminded of His promise and encouraged by His promise and to find His power in the midst of His promise.

And so we're reminded at those very times.

Of unbelief and doubt.

That He is a God.

Who's able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we ever ask or think or pray. And we see that with Abram.

God doesn't just come.

When the moments that we believe.

And answer is faith.

And then otherwise remains distance. If anything,.

My reading of the Scriptures.

Is the times when His people are doubting and struggling that He is most present. That's why He's a shield. And so we trust in the midst of doubt. We trust in the midst of fear because God becomes present.

He gives us the assurance. He gives us the pledge.

Of what He's done.

He shows us what He's like. He's proven to us.

Again and again.

That's the wisdom of that great line from the hymn Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him. Oh, if only I could trust Him like that hymn writer. That hymn writer probably had this perfect trust.

For the last 30 years.

Of their life. Never doubted one time. Was never discouraged. Full of peace and contentment. Writing hymns all day long. Singing of my Savior all day long. If only I had trust like that. What does the hymn writer say?

How I've proved Him over and over and over. I keep doubting and I keep from that doubt trusting and I keep proving that He's trustworthy over and over and over again. Oh, for grace to trust Him more.

That's the position.

Of the hymn writer.

The Covenant Ceremony and Sacrifice

Notice next,.

We move into this ceremony, this covenant ceremony. So we move from Abram, from this place of doubt. I think almost coaxing out, Lord, I want a sign. I want confirmation.

I want to see You.

I want to see something, Lord.

Do something.

Please, like Moses,.

Just show me. Your glory.

And Abram gets that request. Genesis 15, beginning in verse 9. He said to him, Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

Then he brought all these to him.

And cut them in two,.

Down the middle,.

And placed each piece opposite the other. But he did not cut the birds in two.

And when the vultures came down.

On the carcasses, Abram drove them away. So we've already seen throughout our time in Genesis the significance of sacrifice. When our first parents fell in the garden, they realized they were naked. In other words, there's this sort of understanding that they were fully exposed now.

Fully vulnerable. And that nakedness became a picture of their guilt and their shame. The need for a covering, which is atonement language. The atonement is the cover. And so throughout the rest of Scripture, atonement is a covering, a garment.

That's why we can talk about God's righteousness being a clothing for His people. Covering their guilt and their shame that stems from their rebellion against God. God covered them Himself in Genesis 3 with animal skins.

So, reading between the lines, God Himself makes the first sacrifice in Scripture. God Himself kills animals in order to provide skins to cover the fallen man and woman. This is part of His grace toward fallen men.