“Standing On the Promises: Part 1” (Genesis 15:1-6)

Introduction: Zig-Zag Graphs

Curiosity got the best of me this week: I logged onto my retirement account to see where it stood after a few weeks of downturn in the stock market. You can imagine that I wasn’t too pleased with what I saw. I saw a graph that was pointing down, not up. I switched the view from current to one month, then to one year, and finally to the life of the account. The zig-zag pattern of the graphs eased my panic. There have been many seasons and series of ups and downs over the years, which is why financial gurus tell us not to pay too close attention, less we panic.

Likewise, When we look back at the lives of the heroes of our faith, we should avoid judgment when their faith takes a downturn. When I step back from my own faith account, I see a similar zig-zag graph. How about you?

The graph of Abram’s faith is a zig-zag line. It soars when he hears God’s word and leaves Ur, traveling west across the Fertile Crescent and down its side, south into Canaan. It spikes higher when Abram travels the land, building altars and calling on the name of the Lord. But the graph dives dramatically in his disastrous trip to Egypt. After Egypt, it gently rises when he returns to Canaan repentant and rises more in his generous faith-based dealings with Lot. Then in chapter 14 the faith-graph once more sweeps upward with his courageous rescue of Lot from the kings of the east and his continual faithfulness as he is blessed by Melchizedek, gives him gifts, and refuses to keep the plunder of the eastern kings. At this point, the graph of Abram’s faith is an example to the entire world.

But now, in the aftermath of victory, Abram’s great heart slows and spasms with doubt and fear. This is not uncommon to human experience following strenuous victories. Elijah suffered similar effects after his victory over the priests of Baal at Mt. Carmel, even fleeing to the wilderness and asking God, “just let me die” (cf. 1 Kings 18, 19). Abram was tired, fearful, and despondent. Humanly speaking, Abram had reasons to fear reprisals from the eastern coalition of kings. Bigger armies might return.

Abram also had plenty of time for reflection —his great victory had not brought him any nearer God’s promised inheritance. Long ago when he first responded to God’s call, Sarah was barren (cf. 11:30). Their journey had begun in barrenness, but with hope in God’s promise. But the thousand-mile journey, the sojourn in Canaan, the fiasco in Egypt, the return to Canaan, and the victory over the kings were all carried out under the shadow of barrenness, emptiness. Our vision of an empty nest includes a full nest of kids, not a perpetual emptiness, a life and marriage without them. Though Abram has just had a mountaintop experience, back down in the valley, the emptiness, the hopelessness of Sarah’s barren womb persisted.

Think about it: Abram’s servants had children. We can imagine how Abram and Sarah felt when other men’s and women’s children clung to their garments. Abram was a father-figure to other men’s children. Likely, Abram wondered, “So what if everybody knows my name from the Nile to the Euphrates? So what if I’m rich? What difference does it make if I have no children?” Restless, dark doubt gripped his faltering heart. Fearless Abram feared.

I’m guessing everyone in this room has been there, right? If only we could maintain a steady line of upward trajectory in our faith journey. But just as it’s a fact of life that there are bull and bear markets in economics, there are similar patterns of bull and bear “markets” in our faith journey: a variety of challenges, failures, crises, and losses, mixed with joys, victories, and blessings that, because we are human, sometimes result in volatile swings of faith intensity. 

This is why I find a huge lift of encouragement in all of these Genesis stories, which mark the beginnings of faith in the human race. Our heroes of the faith were just as human as we are. Abram was no less impacted by life than you and I. So today, I want to encourage you. Whatever challenge or crisis or defeat or uncertainty you’re facing today, there is one thing that is certain: we can stand on God’s promises no matter what. Our faith does not depend on us; our faith depends on God.

Let’s dig in to the passage in Genesis 15, and through the main points of the story, I’ll explain what I mean.

The Main Points

It is human nature to suffer doubt in silence. Seriously, who wants to go public with doubt? Especially for those of us who are serious about our relationship with Jesus, we’re not too proud of ourselves when doubt creeps in. We, like the man in the gospels who asked Jesus for healing, we want to cry out: “Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.” But what will God think of us if we say that? And we certainly don’t pray that prayer out loud for anyone to hear. We’d rather keep quiet about it and suffer in silence.

Well, guess what: we don’t really suffer doubt in silence. God knows what’s going on in our hearts. In the silence of our doubt, God speaks. Abram may have suffered his doubts in silence too, but God broke the silence with incredible encouragement. The Bible allows us to eaves drop on Abram’s conversation with God; this is what we hear:

God’s promises are supernatural and enduring (15:1-5).

The close connection with the preceding text suggests the immediacy of God’s response: “After these events the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision” (v. 1a). Not a dream, but a vision. Visions in Scripture are for the purpose of communicating the word of God. Abram had a vision in the night, but what he saw was not as important as what he heard: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great” (v. 1).

Isn’t that super? Don’t you worry about a thing, Abram. Those powerful eastern kings are no match for my power. And Sarah’s barrenness? That is beside the point. I am your shield. I will provide. The “I” is emphatic. In other words, no one or nothing else can serve as your shield. No one other than Me can provide an heir. Awesome words of encouragement in Abram’s zig-zag faith. And if you will pause your panicked worry, you’ll hear similar words breaking the silence of your doubt. Don’t you worry about a thing …

He promises protection and provision.

The divine greeting (“Do not be afraid”) that broke the silence may have shook Abram. It likely would do the same to us, because in that moment we are reminded that God knows all. I can imagine that Abram shivered in the nakedness of his exposed unbelief. This is a surprising aspect of God’s grace. It exposes our vulnerabilities which arouses a deep longing for God.

Next Abram, whose foes now extended from the Euphrates to the Nile, heard God say, “I am your shield” against every enemy. Students of God’s Word are reminded of similar promises in Scripture. For example, the promise that David clung to, fleeing King Saul’s pursuit, in Psalm 3:3. “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.”

Abram’s refusal to have any share of the plunder he secured from the four kings was the reference point of God’s next word: “Your reward will be very great.” Not just “great”, but “very great.” All Abram got for his labors was God. That’s all! But that’s more than enough. God was teaching Abram to be satisfied with him alone. This demonstrates, of course, what God desires to give us as we submit to the disciplines of a life of faith. He teaches us to be satisfied with him as enough—our all in all. He is our Protector. He is our Provider. He is really all we need.

Perhaps—I’m not entirely sure, but perhaps—this is why God allows us to go through troubled times, times when the finances are short, times when our physical health wanes, times when we experience loss, so that we remember that it is not the job, or the bank account, or the human relationship, or our abilities and skills that protect and provide. He alone is our shield. He alone provides mana in the desert. Christ alone is our identity and our security.

Yet, we sometimes struggle to believe it, and though we hear God’s encouraging voice break the silence, like Abram, we respond with a, “But God …” Abram did. And here’s what we learn …

He works with our impatience.

Verse 2 is the first time we hear Abram speak to God, his first dialogue. And here’s what Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And he continued his complaint, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir’ ” (vv. 2, 3). Abram was unhappy, and we can understand why. After all, he was an old man already. Years had flown by since the original promise. What is interesting to me is that God listened. He was very patient with Abram. He didn’t cut him off and put His big hand over Abram’s mouth. He patiently listened as Abram voiced his doubts.

Again, we’ve been there ourselves. We just can’t seem to grasp the reality that God does not operate by our timetable.

Yes, Abram was unhappy and impatient, but notice that he was careful to address God as “Lord,” which emphasized that God was Master and he was the servant. Abram did not allow his distress and doubt to compromise his respect and reverence for God. Yet his skepticism in the light of the divine promise of “shield” and “very great reward” led him to an apparent conclusion that God’s promise was not effective, so that a household servant like Eliezer would be his heir. Such adoption was common where he came from when parents were not able to produce their own offspring. I can hear Abram speaking under his breath: “It is what it is.”

Here’s another zig in Abram’s faith. Or is it a zag? 

We might as well shout out loud what we’re saying under our breath when we’re talking with God. He hears it. There is not the slightest whisper, much less thought, that God doesn’t hear. But He never speaks under His breath. Instead, God gives us a clear word that challenges our doubt and skepticism. Graciously, lovingly, mercifully …

He redirects our doubts. 

Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” (v. 4) What tone is in your voice when you read that sentence? Because we get impatient with people who just don’t get it, the tone in our head might reflect an attitude of disgust. Don’t read those words with contempt or impatience. Read them like a caring parent. God is not impatient with Abram; He is speaking tenderly and lovingly to his servant whose faith is stumbling right now. It doesn’t bother God at all to repeat what He’s said before.

Three times previously God had promised Abram a multitude of descendants—initially when he called him in Ur (12:2), then in Canaan at Shechem where he built an altar (12:7), and last from the highest spot in central Palestine as Abram was surveying the promised land in every direction (13:14–16). But now God is saying something brand new; He’s giving Abram a new insight, an unveiling of His profound and incomprehensible plan. A son from his own body would be his heir! The heir would be his biological son. Surely, Abram was rocked and captivated by this new insight from God.

This brings to my mind something that I want us to consider: the significance of God’s Word and prayer in our lives. In my many years of pastoring God’s people, I have discovered a pattern that is not always the case but very often is: doubt, despair, skepticism of God’s goodness, impatience with God’s promise—very often these are the symptoms of a Wordless and prayerless life. When we neglect to saturate our hearts and minds with God’s Word, when we treat prayer like something we do before we eat a meal, something like washing our hands, we will eventually feel detached from God. Notice that in these moments of stumbling faith and Abram’s impatience, it was God’s reassuring Word that broke through Abram’s doubt. 

God spoke again, but this time with a visual. He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous” (5). Can you imagine what that meant to Abram?

You know, God could have said, “I’ve had enough of this guy. I keep telling him over and over of my plans for him, big plans. The sky’s the limit. Blessing after blessing. An innumerable nation of descendants. But all he can see is a barren wife and his own wrinkled skin. I think I’ll move on.” But that’s not God; not with Abram and not with you.

Who will agree with me? God never gives up on us. Who else besides me has experienced God’s undaunted grace and mercy? All we need to do is just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and God will direct our eyes to the truth of who He is.

Standing under God’s spectacular canopy of stars, Abram believed. And right there, in that moment, we see the primary truth in God’s Word, summarized in twelve simple words: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (v. 6). What a message! What good news in the dark night of the soul!

2. God credits faith in His promises as righteousness (15:6).

What was happening here? Though Abram did not speak, Scripture does: “Abram believed” (v. 6a.). The Hebrew sense is that he believed and continued believing the Lord. Griffith Thomas observes, “The original Hebrew for believed comes from a root word from which we derive our word, Amen, and we might paraphrase it by saying that “Abraham said Amen to the Lord.” Amen in Scripture never means a petition or request (‘May it be so’), but is always a strong assertion of faith: It will be so, or It is so, as if what has been promised is a present reality. Gazing into the starry night, Abraham was convinced that what God promised will be so, it was as good as done.

How did Abram get here? How did his faith rise so high? Certainly it was not because he suddenly felt more powerful or spiritual. How then? It’s very simple: He simply rested on God’s promise. In this moment God’s word was not simply a theory about how things might turn out, but “the voice around which his whole life is organized” (Brueggemann). God’s promise was something he could stand on. 

Ultimately his fresh faith can only be attributed to God. His faith was not a human achievement or the result of his moral will. It came from God. It’s similar to Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16. You remember the story. Jesus asked the disciples, “What are people saying about me? Who do they say I am?” After a few responses, which exposed a tragic misunderstanding, Jesus asked them, “And what about you; who do you say I am?” I’ve often wondered how long the silence before Peter’s answer. Or was his response immediate, a flash of insight? “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” How had Peter come to this? The answer to that question is in Jesus’ next words.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 16

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. (v. 17).

In the same way Abram moved from protest to confession by the power of God. The same is true for us. Take a closer look at the upward swings of your faith-graph, and you will see God’s powerful persuasion in your life. As the Apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 2:8-9

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

… you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

Though we have more to cover in this story, I think this is a good place to stop for today. I intended to keep going to the end of the chapter, but let’s put our bookmark here and return to it next week.

Here’s what we’ve learned so far. This is not in your notes or on a slide, so listen carefully:

God breaks into our doubts, patiently and lovingly, with words of assurance, comfort, and encouragement.

God is pleased to remind us that His promises are supernatural and enduring. He works with our impatience and redirects our doubt so that it blossoms into growing faith.

Salvation and faith itself are gifts of God’s grace. When we are willing, in spite of human doubt and skepticism, to say, “All right, God, I believe; I say ‘Amen,’ what you say is as good as done,” God makes a deposit in our spiritual bank account: righteousness. The zig-zag line in the graph of our faith swings upward; and that means we are in good standing with God, because we are standing on His promise.