Abraham & Family: God's Covenantal Grace

This week, we turn to generations after the flood. Noah has died. God has scattered the people from Babel to disperse all over the face of the earth. The genealogy carries us down to a man born in the ancient city of Ur, living with his childless wife Sarai, and his cousin Lot, in the land of Haran.

This man Abram stands at a turning point in the Biblical narrative, for this man Abram is the man God chooses to become the father of the promise He made to Adam and Eve way back in Genesis 3. Through Adam and Eve, God promises an offspring who will bruise the head of the snake who deceived them. Now, through Abram, God promises to make a great nation numbering like the dust of the ground and the stars of the sky, through whom every family on earth will be blessed. This promise finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and the many multitudes who choose to entrust their lives to Him. Yet in Genesis 15, Abram is still in a place where this end cannot be fully seen.

Indeed, Abram cannot fully see much of where God is leading him, in calling him to leave his home and family in Haran to go to a place he does not know (Heb. 11:8), nor can he see how God will accomplish things that are impossible to all human reason (Gen. 15:1-6). His wife Sarai cannot give birth, after all -- so how can he become the father of a nation if he has no children? How can the world be blessed through his descendants, if he has no descendants to speak of?

The author of Hebrews writes, "now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation" (Heb. 11:1). The odds are stacked against him, but when Abram expresses his concerns and confusion, God responds, once again, with His promise to bring all things to fruition by the working of His power. Abram chooses to believe that God can bring His Word about, despite the impossibility he and his wife seem to face as a childless couple who are well advanced in years, and far beyond child-bearing age.

Abram believes God, and this would be enough -- but in His sovereign grace, God provides Abram with a sign of complete certainty that He will do just as He has said. This moment is the focus of this week's illustration.

Genesis 15:18 writes, "when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between [the animals Abram had brought for the LORD]. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram."

It was practice within ancient times to enact a binding contract by splitting the carcasses of animals in half, laying them out opposite sides of each other, and passing between them, while both agreeing parties spoke the covenant to one another. The symbolism of this practice is that one might become like the slaughtered animals if they dare break the contract.

Knowing this practice, then, one might assume both Abram and God would pass between the animals in Genesis 15, agreeing to the covenant together, and calling curses upon themselves if they dare break the terms laid out between them. However, what we see instead is Abram completely asleep, while God passes through the sacrifice alone, speaking His promise to His servant. There is no expectation placed on Abram's head to do anything to make this covenant come about. The sole instigator is God, and God alone holds Himself responsible and under a curse if He does not bring the promise to light.

And God's promises are certain; there is no uncertainty left. Abram's wife will bear a son, and that son will be the first of many descendants, as numerous as the stars. These descendants will become the people of Israel, and from this nation, the whole world will be blessed through Jesus Christ -- a descendant of Abraham, and the Son of God. And just as God counted Abram's faith as righteousness, He will count everyone who puts their faith in Jesus as righteous before Him, and adopted into the spiritual family Abram was promised so many years ago (Rom. 4).