Rest Assured

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and [God] credited [Abram’s belief] to him as righteousness.”

This is the key verse in Abram’s life, the key verse in Genesis, possibly the key verse in the entire OT.

It shows the sufficiency of faith, the centrality of faith; faith justifies, that is righteousness—right standing with God—comes by faith in Him.

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

There was so much in the first 6 verses of Genesis 15 that we took one sermon to discuss it all. Truth be told, I could preach a dozen sermons on those verses, but we’ve got some ground to cover.

The Bible is so rich. It’s true, every word. It’s been preserved for us so that we can know the LORD. Faith comes through hearing the message about God—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

As we continue through Genesis 15, we pick up in verse 7. The dialogue between the LORD and Abram continues.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), turn with me and follow along as we read from God’s Holy Word.

Genesis 15:7–11 NIV

7 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?” 9 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.

In the first 6 verses of this chapter—what we covered last week—the LORD God provided Abram with something Abram absolutely couldn’t come up with on his own: The LORD credited to Abram righteousness.

Abram’s belief was counted to Abram as righteousness. This, from the LORD.

Here, after having credited righteousness to him, the LORD gives Abram assurance.

As if righteousness wasn’t enough, verse 7 begins with the phrase: “He also said to him...”

The LORD is providing Abram with something else only He can give.

The LORD Provides Assurance

There’s something significant in what the LORD says here to Abram.

Genesis 15:7 NIV

7 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.”

The LORD pronounces His name and His mighty acts, ensuring Abram knows His identity, His proved reliability, and His continuing work in and through His servant.

The LORD’s faithfulness is the rock on which Abram could rely, the rock on which Abram can stand. The LORD’s faithfulness is the anchor for Abram’s soul.

All Abram had to remember in moments of struggle and doubt were the many times and many ways the LORD had proved His faithfulness.

Same for us.

It’s good and necessary for us to frequently recall the works of the LORD, and, in light of what He has done, move forward in faith—not a blind faith, but a faith in the LORD and His faithfulness.

There’s a deep assurance here, remembering the faithfulness of the LORD.

What’s more, God makes Himself known to Abram by His personal name: “I am the LORD.”

Notice it’s all capital letters. L-O-R-D. This is the personal name of God: Yahweh. Anytime you see the word LORD in all capital letters, it’s Yahweh. The name connected with the verb “to be” is explained in Exodus 3:14 as ‘I AM’.

The LORD Yahweh is the source of all life, the unchanging one, the controller of man’s destiny, the source of salvation. This Yahweh is God Most High, the maker of heaven and earth; the Creator and Possessor of all things. He is the One speaking to Abram.

That’s assurance. And this is precisely what Abram needs. Abram asks, not out of doubt, but seeking assurance:

Genesis 15:8 NIV

8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

Again with the faithful, reverential start to his question, Abram address God as Adonai Yahweh—Sovereign LORD, LORD God. And Abram asks Him, “How can I know?”

“Well, because I, the LORD Yahweh, just told you, dummy.”

That’s not at all what the LORD says. The LORD doesn’t dismiss Abram’s question, doesn’t tell him to buzz off, doesn’t tell him to quit worrying about it. The LORD doesn’t berate Abram.

The LORD, for the sake of assurance, tells Abram to go grab five animals. Naturally!

Haddon Robinson once said what we all probably think from time to time: “The Old Testament is a strange place, and strange things happen there.”

We don’t understand what’s going on here exactly (and there’s about 200 scholarly opinions about what this could be).

We don’t understand this entirely, but Abram seems to know exactly what Yahweh is up to.

The LORD Yahweh tells Abram to “bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

And Abram seems to know exactly what to do with them without being told (if he was told, it’s not recorded here for us).

Abram hacks the large animals down the middle but doesn’t cut up the birds. He doesn’t have to be told what to do with these animals; he knew what they were for—the LORD Yahweh was going to put a covenant in place.

Abram already had promises, but covenant is more.

Dale Ralph Davis writes:

“Covenant is what God does when He gets formal about a promise. Covenant is the wrapper God puts around His promise to help you believe it.

Imagine going into a grocery store that had no wrappers on its canned goods…at each aisle there is a clerk who knows and will point out to you what it is you want—but the canned vegetables, fruit, soups, etc. are just there in all their silvery and naked tinny glory. You want Del Monte french cut green beans. So the clerk points out to you the shelf and the group of cans.

Now, that would work, I suppose, and, incidentally, create jobs. But you wouldn’t care for it. And that’s because you feel more sure of what you’re getting if you can see the red, green, and blue label on the can with the proper picture of green beans. The wrapper really helps.”

“Covenant is the wrapper God puts around His promise to help you believe it.”

The main point here is what this tells us about God. All for the sake of Abram’s assurance, God goes to the trouble of entering into a covenant.

The LORD is willing to go to great lengths to help His people go on believing His promises. He “stoops down and puts ‘handles’ on His promises,” so that our shaky hands don’t have to struggle so much to hold on.

The LORD Yahweh will see to Abram’s assurance. To Abram’s question— “How can I know?” —the LORD says, in essence, “Let’s see if a covenant will help you believe.”

Genesis 15:12–16 NIV

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.”

Look back at verse 8, to Abram’s question there:

Genesis 15:8 NIV

8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

“How can I know…?”

Now look at verse 13:

Genesis 15:13 NIV

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.

Abram’s longing for assurance is met with the faithful LORD Yahweh’s absolute certainty.

“How can I know?”

“Know for certain...” followed by the omniscient, all-knowing God telling Abram what’s going to take place over the next 1,000 years or so.

Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain...”

That line really struck me as I was reading this week. What assurance there!

The Sovereign LORD of the universe, the Faithful LORD God is telling Abram—and by extension, us—that we can know for certain what He says is not a possibility or something with a strong likelihood of happening, but it is absolutely certain.

Absolute certainty evades most of us. There’s no ‘absolutely certain’ investment. There’s no ‘absolute certainty’ in the deer stand, in the classroom, at your job, on the field or the court.

Absolute certainty is rarely found.

On occasion, Meghann will have a moment of extreme doubt. I can see it on her face before she says anything. It happens most often when we’re driving away from the house:

“I don’t think I unplugged my hair straightener...”

“Well, do you think you did?”

“I did. I’m sure I did...”

We had this conversation just a couple days ago:

“I don’t think I unplugged my straightener…no, I did, I did.”

I asked, “You’re sure?”

She replied, “I’m sure I think I did.”

“I’m sure I think I did?! What’s that mean?!”

Needless to say, I turned the car around to go home and check. There was no absolute about her certainty.

In grand measure here for Abram, and throughout the Word of God preserved for us, the LORD provides assurance to His people. Absolute assurance.

What God says is true, absolutely.

What God has promised will come to pass, for absolute certain.

God has and will always come through for us, God’s salvation is sure, our home with Him assured, absolutely.

Jesus asked His disciples:

John 14:2 NIV

2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

The implied answer is, “Of course not!”

Jesus, the eternal Son of God, wouldn’t have said anything untrue. Ever!

We can find assurance in the LORD, in what He has said, in what He has promised, in who He is—faithful, sovereign, true.

We find assurance in Him—our salvation is secure; He holds His people in the palm of His hand and nothing, no one, no thing can ever separate us from Him.

The LORD Provides Assurance to Abram. The LORD wants Abram to rest in that assurance, all the while giving him further information.

Rest Assured: the LORD is in No Hurry

This may not feel like assurance, but, trust me, it is.

If you are as impatient as I am, you’ll start to wonder why God isn’t doing what He said He would. You may start to wonder if God is even able to bring about all He’s promised.

We need to be reminded of the certainty of His promises while, at the same time realizing He doesn’t work on our schedule or timeline.

This clarity can, and often does, further assure me when I remember the LORD isn’t on my instantaneous/ microwave/ right-now schedule, but that He absolutely will do what He has said.

The LORD reveals to the deep-sleeping Abram that it’s going to be a long time before the promise is fulfilled. In verse 13, He mentions 400 years. In verse 16, Yahweh talks about the fourth generation (so a generation is roughly 100 years).

Abram’s offspring will be sojourners and slaves in a land that doesn’t belong to them. But there’s more...

In the terms of the covenant, it’s about 1,000 years before the Jebusites (mentioned in Gen 15:21) are vanquished and cleared out of Jerusalem—something that doesn’t happen until David is king.

In all of our childish “are we there yet?” thinking, this might cause us to despair. But if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we’ll recognize all the promise provided in the waiting:

It’s going to take a long time, but in that time-frame, the LORD is with His people, working and providing for them.

It’s going to take a long time, but think about how many descendants of Abram and Sarai there’ll be in 1,000 years time—like stars in the sky, grains of sand on the shore.

It’s going to take a long time, but God is faithful. He’ll do it.

Friends, God is not rushed. He’s not in a panic. He is very much unlike us, and that’s an enormous comfort. God is not beholden human calendars or clocks.

Rest assured: God is in no hurry.

Genesis 15:17–21 NIV

17 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 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.”

Rest Assured: the LORD is Committed and Steadfast

Remember how Abram has hacked up the animals (not the birds) and separated the halves? After that, Abram’s in a deep sleep.

What’s said is apparently said to Abram in a dream or a vision—all the talk about the future and what’s going to take place over the next 1,000 or so years.

But back to the pieces of the animals…now a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

“The OT is a strange place and strange things happen there.”

There is no end to the viewpoints on the meaning of this strange ceremony. As far as I can tell, there’s only one other OT parallel to this. It’s found in Jeremiah 34.

The incident in Jeremiah 34 is much later than Abraham, but it’s very similar to what happens in Genesis 15.

The Babylonians were fighting Jerusalem. Given the dire situation, some of Judah’s men had given their Hebrew slaves their freedom. Their thinking may have been: “If Jerusalem goes under, what good are slaves going to do us anyway?”

But the men of Judah didn’t just give their slaves their freedom; they entered into a covenant over it.

They hacked a calf in two and passed between the two halves. By enacting that strange ceremony, they were saying, “If I prove unfaithful to the promise I have made, may what happened to this calf happen to me.”

Well, the Babylonians took a coffee break or something, temporarily lifting the seige on Jerusalem.

So the Judahites started to think they’d messed up by giving their slaves their freedom. So they re-enslaved them in blatant violation of the covenant they struck.

The LORD Yahweh steps in and says HE will make sure they feel the weight of the covenant curse— “I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts…I will deliver [them] into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them.”

The making of a covenant is a serious deal. So serious, the LORD makes the Judahites pay for breaking the covenant they had made with their slaves.

That’s Jeremiah 34. The same LORD makes a covenant Himself in Genesis 15.

See verse 17? The LORD Yahweh is the One passing between the parts. The smoking firepot and the flaming torch represent the LORD Yahweh, as fire often does in the Bible.

Remember, Abram is out—drooling on his pillow. Abram’s in a deep sleep; he is a non-participant here.

The LORD Himself takes on the curse of the covenant. What He’s saying is, “If I am unfaithful to my promise to you (see Genesis 15:7), may I be cut in two and destroyed as these animals have been.”

That’s how serious the LORD is—committed and steadfast, as faithful as they come. He’s the definition of faithfulness.

The LORD “cut this covenant” with Abram, clarifying and adding gravity to the same promise He had already given, just in more elaborate form.

What does this covenant depict? The LORD Yahweh as the One who is faithful to the death.

Some think this conclusion is a theological absurdity. And, well, I can see why they think that.

Think about it: God—the Creator and Possessor of all, the Sovereign of the Universe, the LORD of lords and King of kings—God is saying He Himself is going to take the curse of the covenant if He doesn’t keep His Word?!?!

Yep! That’s what He’s saying. He’s that committed to His word. He’s steadfast and faithful, absolutely He is.

By cutting this covenant with Abram, the LORD is seeking to give Abram a picture of His steadfastness that will grab hold of Abram and leave a lasting impression.

Genesis 15 packs a punch, a remarkable revelation for us: God Himself is willing to suffer the curse of the covenant.

What seems absurd to many seems like the gospel to me:

Galatians 3:13 NIV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

God was never false to His promise. Never. The LORD Yahweh never broke His covenant obligation. Never.

But we have. We’ve broken the covenant. We have not kept His law; we’ve stomped all over it.

And so the curse of the covenant rests on our shoulders. We all deserve the punishment. The curse is ours to bear.

The marvel—the absolute wonder of it all—is that God not only willingly puts Himself under a curse should He break the covenant (Genesis 15), but that in the person of Jesus, God’s own Son, the LORD takes our curse upon Himself and suffers the curse for us (Galatians 3).

Jesus is willingly destroyed for our covenant-breaking.

For Jesus, as one old, 18th Century Scottish preacher put it, “it was damnation—and damnation taken lovingly.”

Genesis 15 shows you a God—faithful to the death, committed to His people, and steadfast in His resolve to save.

Genesis 15 shows you a God who is willing to suffer the curse for Abram and, ultimately, for us.

Rest assured, brothers and sisters, there’s no greater love than that.

Jesus took the curse you and I deserve, and willingly.

If you belong to Him by faith, you can rest assured in His steadfast love and faithfulness.

Maybe you haven’t placed your faith in Him. Let today be the day that you surrender your life to Jesus. Find rest for your soul. Find hope to replace any doubt.

Find in Jesus the deep and absolute assurance that only the Sovereign LORD can provide.