Children of the Promise

⁜ Prayer ⁜

Intro

So we are now in the midst of our Foundations of the People of God series! Last week we began in the first two chapters of Genesis, and considered how Scripture reveals to us that we are children of the Father, that we are not left alone in this world, but are called - in quite a counter-cultural way - to live as his children. We also explored how the story of Scripture offers us a different way of viewing the world, that we are not self-determining, but live under God's rule, and that truth is not relative, but is offered clearly to us in the Scriptures. We also saw that we are called to live in such a way that our whole lives become worship of and obedience to our heavenly Father.

Now today, we find ourselves much farther along in the Bible. Yeah, we've jumped over many chapters, which contain a lot of important stories! For instance, in Gen. chptr. 3 we have the story of our first parent's Fall. And then, in chptr. 4-8 we see humanity spin more and more out of control, sin running rampant to such a degree that God destroys most of his creation with a great flood. Then we see in chptr. 11 the story of the tower of Babel, and how humanity's pride there leads to God humbling the people and causing them to be unable to understand each other.

That is a lot of material to skip over! Right!?

Well, I promise you that I am not skipping those important stories because they are hard truths that I want to ignore. Actually we are going to return to those themes this upcoming summer as we consider the problems of the Fall and sin, and how we are born into a broken world, filled with broken relationships, and apart from Jesus are absolutely incapable of living in right relationship with God, because of how badly sin had damaged us. So we will get there!

But as a sort of preface we do need to note that Adam and Eve's sin, which lead to all of us being born into sin, and is the cause of all the brokenness you and I see in our world, demands that something be done. We all know, deep down that things in this world are not the way they ought to be. But what are we to do?

Well, the answer in short is that we cannot do anything! There is nothing that we can do to fix this world, or ourselves. It is entirely out of our power. So Paul, quoting Ps. 14 & 53 in Rom. 3:10, 12, writes: "There is no one righteous, not even one.... All have turned away... there is no one who does good, not even one." And we see that laid out quite starkly - over and over again - the chapters that come before our readings today.

So the question comes up: is there any hope? And that is where I want us to begin our year together! In the midst of so much darkness, turmoil, and brokenness throughout human history, the Scriptures tell us that we don't need to be stuck in a sense of hopelessness. There is a way forward. And that way has been provided by our Father! The way forward is grounded here, in these readings from Gen. 12 & 15, where we discover the promise God makes to us, his children. And so I have titled today's sermons, "Children of the Promise." For that is what we are.

So now, turn with me to today's reading, and let us see what God says to us there.

The Call

After our whirlwind tour through the beginning of Genesis we come to this point where we see God speak to one man. From out of all the people on the earth at that time, God chose one. And what does he say to that person? "Leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" (Gen. 12:1).

This is a strange way to begin a promise! We do not expect to hear a promise prefaced with a command to leave everything! Why does this need to happen?

Well, remember how we just summarized everything that happens between Gen. 3-11. That is why God tells Abraham to go, and to go to the land that God will show him. He must leave everything he knows and is comfortable with.

That means everything! God doesn't leave options open for Abraham. He must leave his country - the land that he knows and loves. Imagine that, he grew up there, and almost certainly his whole family history is tied there. We need to step back and really imagine this. We live in a time when people uproot themselves and move all the time - oftentimes moving not just down the street, but halfway across the country or around the world! But in Bible times this command would be radical. - unless one was a nomad, people did not move out of their country unless something bad was happening - think war or some natural disaster such as a famine.

But this command is made even more radical by what follows! Not only must he leave his country, but he must leave his people and his father's household! Again, we have a hard time imagining how shocking this must have sounded to Abraham! Today, people do this all the time! But in Biblical times, this was crazy - it meant social suicide, and not only social suicide but perhaps even physical death. Yes! That is how serious this command is, and how insane it must have sounded.

God is telling Abraham to leave the entire support structure that people relied on. Without the support of his people and family, Abraham was opening himself up to an uncertain future, without any human protection to ensure that he would not die at the hands of bandits or be forced to become someone's slave. But God doesn't leave Abraham with any options. He simply tells Abraham to leave. And in commanding this, God knows exactly what he is doing. God is already forming Abraham. He is going to learn to trust solely in God and - as Ronald Youngblood comments on this passage - "to begin a pilgrimage with God to a world of God's making."

Now isn't this what each of us need too! In our culture, we are told to make every preparation necessary... to protect ourselves against every possible catastrophe or discomfort - whether that be economic, health, or social disaster. We set ourselves up with contingencies... just in case everything falls apart.

Of course, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We should be wise so that we can ensure that we and our families will have a firm future! But we also need to ensure that we don't fall into the subtle trap of thinking: "If only we can ensure that our this-worldly situation is guaranteed to be safe and comfortable, then everything will be fine!" Why is that a trap? Because we envision ourselves as self-sufficient! We can come to think that we can determine the course of our lives, and to bolster ourselves against every possible disaster!

But that is not the case! Just look at Job! He had everything, and yet, everything was taken away from him!

So a lesson we learn in reading God's call to Abraham is that we need to ultimately rest our hope in God alone. Sure, we can make plans, and set up our retirement plans, and have insurance. But let us not rest our hope in those, as if they are what will save us. Even they can fail. But the Bible tells us that God is always with and watching over us, even when he calls us into the unknown- just as he did Abraham!

And how do we know that God will ensure that we shall walk securely, even along the roughest path? Because of his promise! That is what sustained Abraham!

The Promise

So we see that God does not simply leave Abraham with a command. Immediately after telling Abraham to go, God tells Abraham how richly he is going to bless him. Immediately after God calls Abraham to leave everything God says in ch. 12 vv. 2-3:

“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

What a promise! Yes, Abraham could have stayed and had the security of his family, people, and land... but can all of that cannot come even close to what God promises Abraham here?

Absolutely not!

Let us look at exactly what God promises. In the verses we just read from Gen. 12:2-3 we find not just a promise but seven promises:

1. I will make you into a great nation.

2. I will bless you.

3. I will make your name great.

4. You will be a blessing.

5. I will bless those who bless you.

6. Whoever curses you I will curse.

7. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Why seven promises? Because 7 is the number of perfection in Hebrew thought. This is grounded in the the fact that God created all that is in six days, and then issued the Sabbath on the seventh day - the holiest of days. So whenever we see the number 7 appear in the Scriptures, we should immediately think of the words: holiness and completeness!

So here too we should consider the promises as both holy and complete. They are holy because they come from God! They find their grounding in him. And they are complete because they come from God who will do what he promises.

But these promises are complete in another way too! In them, God shows not only that he is going to focus on blessing Abraham... but that through Abraham he is going to do wondrous things for the sake of the whole world! Let us take a closer look!

The first three promises are made with Abraham directly:

1. I will make you into a great nation.

2. I will bless you.

3. I will make your name great.

But then, the next four focus outward!

4. You will be a blessing.

5. I will bless those who bless you.

6. Whoever curses you I will curse.

7. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

These are some important details to examine. First, we see God make specific promises to Abraham. And notice how these relate directly to the uncertainty that Abraham must have felt knowing that he was being called away from the safety of everything he knew.

First, he is going to be made into a great nation! This promise shows to Abraham that God is going to protect him! He is not going to be allowed to be harmed in anyway that this promise would not be fulfilled... he will be made not only great, but a great nation - that is a whole nation of people would come into existence through him!

But then, God follows this with the promise that he will bless Abraham! That is, God will pour his grace upon Abraham to sustain him through all the difficulties of his journeys. But even more, God is going to bless Abraham with the grace to remain faithful to him and to obey him.

And finally, and this is really icing on the cake, God says: I will make your name great!

I think these verses should make us consider carefully how gracious God is! This is exactly how richly our Father cares for us. Yes, God calls each of us out of those places that are comfortable! Doesn't he?! For each of us it will be different. But, just as God made abundant promises to Abraham, so he does to us. God does not leave us alone in the journey of our lives. He is with us, and he will sustain us. As Dr. Kenneth Gangel notes on this passage: "when God calls us to personal sacrifice, he compensates by great promises of blessing."

But now let us focus on the final four promises God makes to Abraham. And these focus outward, towards the world. And here, God shows that what he is going to do in Abraham's life is not meant to be only for Abraham's good!

No, God plans to bless the whole world through Abraham. So, God starts in v. 2: "You will be a blessing." This is why God continues at the end of v. 3 saying: "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you!" So the very blessing that God pronounces upon Abraham, is not a blessing that he is to hold onto for himself or his family. No, God says that the blessings he will pour upon Abraham are meant to overflow - pouring out from this man and his family, out into the world. God's intention is to heal this broken world through his promises to Abraham.

That is why between saying "You will be a blessing" and "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" God also offers the promise and warning, saying: "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse." This is how seriously God takes both his promises and our response to them! In noting that people can bless or curse Abraham (and his family) we see that there is a level of human responsibility, even in the midst of God's electing grace. So God makes his offer of grace to all peoples through the Abraham and his line, but those who reject it are offered a fair warning here.

But let us return to the central promise here. And that, is - as I just said moments ago - that God shows his intention to heal this broken world through his promises to Abraham. Now God says that he is going to do this in a particular way. What is that?

Well, he says in v. 3: "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Now the Hebrew here can also be translated to say "in you." And I would suggest that is a better translation. Now that may sound strange right? How can people be blessed in another person? But, not only is God saying here that Abraham will be an instrument through which God will work, but God is speaking here in the language of covenant! That is, God is saying in these promises that he is establishing not just a promise that can be changed at any time. No, God is speaking in the language of legal contract in which he binds Abraham and himself together in an unchanging and new relationship. So, the ESV Study Bible rightly notes that in saying that "all peoples on earth will be blessed in [Abraham]," God is

...designating Abraham as the covenantal representative for a people. [For] to be “in” some person... is to be a member of that people for whom that person is the representative.

So we seen now, what God's response to the brokenness of this world is! And this is incredibly important as we continue our theme of considering how the Bible is telling us a different story about who we are! Unlike our culture which says that we must accept the world as it is, and indeed embrace it as it is - with all its sin and confusion - the Bible says something different. It tells us right here in we are reading in Gen. chapters 12 and 15 today, that God has set about making a way for us out of the mess that we are in! And he begins with a great promise to Abraham!

But this is not where God leaves us! Is it? He does not simply say to us that Abraham is our hope! And really, he cannot be our ultimate hope. For no mere human can ultimately save us from the mess that we are in! No, Abraham is actually the beginning of a long... long story that finds its culmination in the one who can and does fix our brokenness. And who is that? JESUS!

God's promises to Abraham still stand! This is why Matthew's Gospel opens in its first verse (1:1) with the following words: "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham"! Jesus is the one in which the promise to Abraham, and through him, to all of us is firmly grounded. And really, Jesus is the one who is promised to us in the promise to Abraham. That is how God planned to fulfill his promise to Abraham that: "all peoples on earth will be blessed in you" ... by which we can understand God to be saying: "in your descendent, Jesus Christ."

The Guarantee

But we should note that God does not simply make a promise to Abraham. That is why I included Genesis chptr. 15 in our readings today. Here we see just how serious God is in making this covenant promise.

First, we see here that Abraham really struggles in faith, wondering just how God is going to fulfill his promises. So he says in 15:2-3

“Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

And here I would note that we should be encouraged! Yes, even Abraham, whom the book of Hebrews holds up as one of the great examples of faith (in Chpr. 11), struggled in faith! But look how he struggles! He doesn't walk away from God, instead - he turns to pray and pours his heart out to God! I hope that each of us here, can be encouraged in that. It is okay to struggle with your faith, and the many difficult questions that can arise around faith. The solution though is not to stay there in the uncertainty and struggle, but to pray as Abraham does! And we can do so because we have a God, who is not distant, but is ever present and longs to hear our prayers and respond to us!

But now, look at what God does in response to Abraham's prayer and struggle.

First, in chptr. 15, v. 5 God reaffirms his promise to Abraham: "He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”" In other words, God says: I will fulfill my promise with such an overabundance that you will not be able to count all the blessings!

But then, God goes even further. So we see in chptr. 15, vv. 9-21, a rather crazy sounding scene! God tells abraham to take a heifer, a goat, a rame, a dove, and a young pigeon - and to cut all of them in half (except for the birds) and arrange the halves opposite of each other.

...and then Abraham waits. ...until the sun begins to set.

Then God makes another promise in v. 13-16, wherein he tells Abraham in detail what the next four-hundred years of his family life shall look like. And what a history God tells! It includes mistreatment and enslavement, but then a turn of fortune wherein Abraham's family with achieve wealth and peace and the possession of the land that was currently owned by ten different peoples!

We should note that that is only four hundred years of history! And we know that God's promise wasn't just for 400 years, it actually entails thousands of years of history - and really it stretches on till the end of time!

But it is what happens in the midst of God making all of these promises that is really astounding! This is where God does something that should make our jaws drop. And what is that?

vv. 17-18 tell us that: "When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram...".

Now why is this so amazing? Biblical scholarship is helpful here in helping us understand what is going on here. The Bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament shares the following information about what is happening in this passage:

[Ancient treaties from around this time] use such a ritual for placing a curse on any violation of the treaty. ... Walking through this sacrificial pathway [with the animals laid out on either side] could be seen as a symbolic action enacting both the covenant’s promise of land and a curse on the one who violates the promise.

In other words, God is saying through this action: let me be like these animals - slaughtered, dismembered, and strewn about - if I do not remain faithful to this covenant I make with you Abraham! How amazing is that! That is how seriously God takes his promises!

This is why we can trust our God. We see right here just how seriously he takes the promises he makes to us. We can trust him, because he calls a curse upon himself if he should ever not keep his word of promise to us.

But consider this too. Not only did God call this curse down upon himself! But he actually takes upon himself the curse that we all bear as the inheritors of Adam and Eve's sin. This too is important.

Notice in our reading today that Abraham does not walk between these divided animals. ONLY GOD DOES THAT. And we see here that God is telling us something very important. Not only does he call a curse upon himself, but he also lays all the weight of the covenant he has just made upon himself.

That point is incredibly important for us to consider. Why? Because as Paul tells us in Romans 5:6-11 we are are powerless and unable to save ourselves. God knows this, and so, rather than telling us that we need to fix the terrible situation that we have gotten ourselves into, he will take the responsibility upon himself to fix it.

And how does he ultimately do that... it is, once again, as Matthew shows us at the beginning of his Gospel, done through "Jesus the Messiah... the son of Abraham!" He is the one in whom all the promises made in the Bible are fulfilled. He is the one who bears the curse of death and destruction for us, so that we do not need to suffer ultimate death and destruction which were our inheritance due to the Fall and original sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God's ultimate promise to us!

So Paul writes in his First Letter to the Thessalonians 5:9-10: "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that ...we may live together with him."

Conclusion

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope that as we consider the Scriptures laid before us today, that each one of you finds deep comfort in considering what God is saying to us here. Just as last week we saw that we are not left alone in this world, but that we have a Father who wills that each one of us exist, that he has created us for community, and that we are called to a life of worship and obedience to him which render our lives full of significance. So too today, we continue to see God's wonderful care for us, as he makes promises not only to Abraham, but to all of us in Abraham.

He proves this in this passage today, just how seriously he takes these promises. And if you ever doubt that God's promises are for you, I encourage you to break open your Bible and consider what God has said to us in the pages of the inspired Word.

The Christian path is not an easy one - yes, Jesus tells us that we must take up our cross and follow after him (Mt. 16:24). This means that we are called to a life of holiness, giving up every sin by which we impede our relationship with God. But even in the midst of that call to die to sin, we find God's promise as he gives us grace to overcome every sin and ever obstacle that stands between us and living lives that glorify our God.

God's our Father's promise to us is that he frees us to live lives of holiness, and that he is already at work in transforming us and the world around us, through Jesus's redemptive death on the Cross, and by the presence of the Holy Spirit applying that grace to us. We are not bound by the brokenness of this world. This world and the stories we are told about who we are, do not determine us.

Who we are is not defined by our brokenness and sin - and how those warp the way God designed us to live.

NO! We are defined by God as his children. We are defined by the promises that God makes to us! We are defined by his grace in our lives, which is poured out upon us in an over-abundance we cannot even imagine! Who we are is found in the promise God made to Abraham and fulfilled in his Son Jesus the Christ.

This is why Scripture over and over calls us children of God and heirs of the promises God has made. So Paul says in Gal. 3:29: "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And again, in Gal. 4:7 he says: "you are no longer a slave, but God's child." And finally, in Ephesians we are told what the great mystery of our faith is; namely, "that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel... and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus" (3:6).

It is in response to passages such as these that our Heidelberg Catechism opens with words of hope that have been dearly loved by generations of faithful Christians:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

In short, we are children of the promise! So, brothers and sisters, let us cling to that comfort with great joy. And let us also be ready to share that hope and joy with our neighbors, for that missionary effort is also intended by God when he says that through Abraham and his family "all peoples on earth will be blessed!" But we'll dive into that during my next sermon!

⁜ Let us Pray ⁜