God's Covenant
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Have you ever heard of the word:
Covenant
What is a covenant?
A promise between God and people.
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”
5 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.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Today on this day we are going to see what this pact that God made with Abraham means. At the beginning of this story we see that Abraham is asking God "God, you say that you are going to give me something, but why are you going to reward me if I do not have children who can inherit what you have promised me." And this worried Abraham a lot. He wanted what God was going to give him, but he also wanted to share God's blessings with his family. And here at the beginning we see that God promises Abraham two things.
God promises Abraham something extraordinary that he and his family will be able to enjoy.
God promises him a family and offspring.
The incredible thing about all of this is what happens in verse 6. God promises these things to Abraham and then Abraham believes God. He puts his trust in God. Abraham's faith grows and what does God do?
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
The wonderful thing about the Bible is that the Bible can be applied to our lives. This means that these verses talk about how we should behave towards God, or how our attitude should be when God promises something.
When we believe in God and his promises, He considers us righteous.
Some of you will say: Luis, how does this apply to our lives? This is in the old testament. Well, I personally believe that the Bible is the word of God and that it is the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. I also believe that the bible is connected. This means that the old testament and the new testament are connected as well. This is amazing because God found a way to be able to connect and talk to all of his Children. This means that God left the Bible to communicate with each one of us. And it is the best way because God has arranged it that way. So we have to approach the Bible understanding that it is the word of God and that God has something to say through it.
Here we see how God gave Abraham a promise he believed, God called him righteous.
This is very beautiful because God has also promised something to each one of us who wants to participate in the blessing. This blessing and this inheritance we call salvation. Salvation is what Jesus has done for each of us through his death and resurrection. That is what we celebrate on this day. Through his death and resurrection anyone who wants to come to God can obtain eternal life. God saves us from hell and cleanses us from all sin. And that is the inheritance that God has for all his. That is the promise of our God. And he wants to share that gift with everyone. The bad thing is that many people will not want that gift, but if you do not know God, there is still time to know him and I hope that today you can know him.
But what does it mean to be counted righteous? Basically this means that in the eyes of God we have already been justified, but only if we do what Abraham did. Abraham believed God, and we also have to believe in Jesus.
One of my favorite Bible verses says:
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
God's Covenant (15:9-12, 17-18)
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.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
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—
In these verses we see the covenant that God has with Abraham. If we start to see how the pact is made it is very very interesting. God asks Abraham to bring him four different animals. And then Abraham cut three of the animals into pieces and put half on one side and then the other half on the other side. And what happens in this type of pact is that the blood of the three animals begins to drain into the center of the path that is made in the middle of the dead animals. And when a person in these times made a pact with someone else in this way, the two people had to walk through the middle of the animals and step on the blood that was in the center. But the two people had to pass through the middle.
This pact was a very symbolic pact because the two people were saying, if I don't fulfill my part of the pact I will pay with my blood. I'm going to die if I don't do my part. It is a big symbol because the pact is between who and who? The covenant we see here is between God and Abraham. Then the two of them are going to pass through the midst of the animals and they are going to step on the blood of the corpses and the two are going to say: “if I do not fulfill my part of the bargain, I am going to pay with my own blood.”
But if we notice in the verses that follow, God appears while Abraham is asleep. What we can also see is that God waited until Abraham was asleep before arriving. God appears as a torch and makes a covenant with Abraham. And if we realize God is the only one who passes through the midst of animals. If we don't agree when a pact is made, there have to be two people who make the pact but God is the only one who participates in the covenant.
God is saying something super important through this, God is saying: "Abraham, I promise that I will be your shield, I promise you a blessing so great that you will be able to share it with your family, and if I do not fulfill the part of my deal I will pay with my blood. But the deal is between you and me, so if you don't fulfill your part of the deal, I'm also going to pay with my blood.
If we realize what God is doing here, it is that he is showing us what the gospel is. Many people look at God and say, "I have to wait to be good enough to face God, or I have to do something to get to heaven." But God is telling you through these verses that salvation is all about him. It's about what God has done for you. The thing is, this covenant that God made with Abraham also applies to us. God knows that as people we cannot obtain salvation with our own efforts. God knows we're not going to complete our part of the bargain. And brothers, just as we constantly fail God, Abraham also failed God. If you remember correctly, Abraham did not wait and he anticipated God. God told him to wait to have his child with his wife Sarah, but instead of waiting he went ahead and had a child with someone else. Abraham didn't keep his part of the deal and we haven't been able to keep our part of the deal either.
As people we constantly fail when we lie, when we hurt our loved ones and friends, we fail God when we allow unedifying words to come out of our mouths. We fail God when we do not pray or read his word. You, like me, have failed God in some way. And God knows it and that is why God says to you: "I know that you have watered it, I know that you have failed, but I am going to pay the price for your sins, I do not want you to worry, I will pay and I I will fulfill my part and your part too." And brothers, in the Bible we have written when God paid the price.
Jesus paid the price for sin that day. It was night the same as when he made the pact with Abraham. The veil was torn, the veil is what used to separate humanity from God and only one person could approach God in the times before. But when the veil is torn in half, God is saying: "before only one person could come before my presence, now the whole world can come to me!" And God imparts his salvation to anyone who approaches and believes in him! When we believe in God, God looks at our faith and counts us as Righteous. The blood of Christ is what justifies us, the death of Christ is what justifies us, but also the resurrection of Jesus is what justifies us!
