Number the Stars - Genesis 15:1-21

1 Number the Stars Genesis 15:1-21 20210815 Converse with God, for his desire is for you, and your belief in him will yield a righteous reward! Introduc)on We are looking together at the life of Abram, whose name will be changed to Abraham in the coming weeks, and as we get to know Abram from the book of Genesis, we get to know more about the gracious nature of God Almighty. In this world – at the current Ime, we are facing many uncertainIes similar to what plagued Abram. Last week we learned about the banding together of kings, of rebellions, of sweeping raids and aLacks, and of Abram’s pursuit of his nephew Lot’s captors. In the uncertainIes of our current day, we have the newsfeeds pouring in informaIon about the Taliban sweeping across the hard-fought land of Afghanistan. Wild fires, tropical storms, earthquakes, and floods are in our awareness and usually added to every couple of days. The borders of our land are porous, the dollar doesn’t go nearly as far, the schools in our community teach less about reading, wriIng, and arithmeIc and more about ideology, and the response to the coronavirus is sIll all across the news. Just like in Abram’s Ime, as Sodom was described as a place where wicked men could be found and great sinners against the LORD, we have our modern equivalents. Sadly, these are many of our iconic ciIes which are becoming more and more known from their crime or for their social reconstrucIon efforts than for their cultural events, commerce, vibrance of life, and places of human flourishing. All of this added together is a distressing picture to say the least. Even if you are here today and are a ChrisIan, I’m sure you hear about all these challenges and you begin to quesIon, you doubt, you even become fearful of what is yet to come. I say that because these are the conversaIons I’m having with you and these are the thoughts I’m struggling with too. This tends to leave us trying to determine who we really belong to in this life. Doesn’t it? Even when it has been firmly decided, and walked in, even then it is not uncommon for doubt and fear to rob us of our assurance of belonging to the Sovereign LORD. But this is where we see today’s passage really shine a light upon the darkness of uncertainty. For we get to see what Abram does, we get to see what the LORD does, and in Genesis 15 we learn we are to: Converse with God, for his desire is for us, and our belief in him will yield a righteous reward. It most certainly did so for Abram. Together than, it is my hope that we can beLer understand how we can converse with God, whose desire is for us, and develop our faithful response to his promises as Abram did, and find we too can reap the reward of being called a friend of God (Jas 2:23). Converse With God (vv1-4) 1. To begin with conversing with God we have to understand friends that he wants to, he longs for, a conversaIon with us. He is a personable God. Just look how v1 begins. v1 “A"er these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield...”” a. The LORD iniIates this conversaIon with Abram. He comes to him in a vision. He says, “Fear not!” i. What is going on here in the first place? Let me remind you - a great victory has just been had by Abram over the kings who swept through the land – even carrying off Lot his nephew along with all the spoils of the land. ii. Then aber the great victory the king of Salem, Melchizedek, which means king of righteousness, who was also known a priest of God Most High blesses Abram (Gen 14:18-20). In this same period of Ime Abram strongly declares his dependence upon God Most Hight, Possessor of heaven and earth (Gen 14:23). iii. So why the “Fear not?” Because the LORD knows his own – just as he knows you and I, beloved. And no maLer what kind of a high we may be coming off of in this life – trusIng in God through it all the same we, like Abram are prone to have doubts to entertain fearful thoughts. 2 iv. Just picture yourself as Abram – here he is aber a great victory – all glory belongs to God and yet he is standing there in the flesh. It is his hide that those kings whom he walloped are going to be coming aber. This is similar to Elijah the prophet. He had a tremendous victory over the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel – the hand of the LORD was clearly and unmistakable at work – fire came down from heaven in a miraculous display of God’s endorsement of his prophet Elijah. And yet what do you think happens to Elijah? He gets scared – he is afraid when he is threatened by Jezebel and he runs for his life (1 Ki 18 & 19). v. We can be prone to fear as well. Doubt seems to be lurking in our minds at all Imes. Simple things. Am I doing right by the way I’m schooling my kids? I just don’t know. Should I take a stand at work on this or that issue? It may cost me my livelihood. Does God really want me to invest in my marriage? It seems so one sided. You may idenIfy with one of these or may have your own area of doubt. You are not alone. We all suffer from doubt in this life – not all at the same Ime praise the LORD so we can encourage each other as we go through Imes of doubt. And I want to encourage us all right now from what we see in the text. God is not dissuaded from having a relaIonship with us because of our doubts and fears. He is present and engaging and will oben even iniIates the conversaIon. Our duty is to converse with him – that is it. Converse with God. Engage with him. He is not too big or too busy or too powerful to hear from you. 1. This is what he does for Abram. Even assuring him that the victory he just had was indeed because of the LORD’s involvement. He was Abram’s shield and even without spoil even aber giving a tenth of it away, the LORD is also his reward. 2. This is our God – he knows us. He knows our heart – he knows us beLer than we even know ourselves. And he wants to converse with us in prayer, in the meditaIon of Scripture, through engaging with us through the preaching of his word, and his resourcefulness is not limited in how he may go about gelng our aLenIon. He just wants us to let him know what is bothering us so he can comfort us in that place. 2. This is what Abram does in the next few verses. He plainly tells the LORD what is truly bothering him. vv2-3 “But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I conDnue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”” a. He just had this huge running baLle, which ended in a great victory, and received a blessing bestowed upon him by Melchizedek – and yet what is he thinking about? I don’t have a child. I have no heir. Abram, which means “exalted father” is old, his wife is old, and he is childless. God has made him a promise that he will be made into a great naIon (Gen 12:2). b. Life is so oben like this. Others may be looking in and saying “bravo!” slapping you on the back for your latest “victory” which for us may be an academic achievement, or a project at work completed in a stellar manner, or for us parents something our kids are excelling at. i. On the inside we are thinking of something much more base. Like I’m afraid I can’t ___________ fill in the blank. Or I think I’m going to lose ___________ whatever might be precious to you (could be your name, reputaIon, business, family, child). ii. This is what God wants you to bring before him. To converse with him about in prayer – to seek what his word has to say about such things. 3. All through this chapter we have this back-and-forth dialogue between God Most High Possessor of Heaven and earth and Abram, the wandering man who has amassed much in the way of possessions but has no way of preserving his line. He is anxious about who his heir will be and this is where God meets him. 3 a. Saying in v4 “And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” i. This seems very plain – thus sayeth the LORD “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be you heir.” Church recognize though that as unbreakable as this word is as it is spoken by God; the LORD does more for Abram. Abram, at least here, needed more. Transi)on: You might be thinking what more could anybody need besides God’s very words spoken to them? Well, like any actual communicaIon what we need is for the way God communicates to us to be received in such a way were we can trust his promises. Which is where we will focus our aLenIon next. All throughout the passage is a conversaIon – but here in the next secIon much is given in the way of a provision for Abram and his offspring to be able to Trust God’s Promises. Trust God’s Promises (vv5-6) 1. This specific method of engaging Abram was what was needed for him to believe God. God takes this previous worshiper of the false god of the moon outside at night and has him look up at the night sky. v5 “…and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”” a. What would it be for you do you think? What specific method would God use to engage you? Do you have an area of doubt, something you are anxious about, you are conversing with the LORD and he shows you what? He shows you what - to get the response we love so much to read about in v6 that yields belief? i. Maybe you have already had an experience? When I was really young maybe 8 I had a simple, but profound, believe in God experience. I’ll never forget it. My mom had us out at the beach. Typical windy, overcast, cool day on the Oregon coast and we were there playing. My brothers, my sister, and at least one cousin but probably more. I was of course in my standard alre – head to toe camouflage. SomeIme during the morning’s play, I lost my camo hat in the sand dunes. My mom gathered us together and said we should pray to God that we might find it. We prayed and almost immediately it was found. God answered that prayer and my belief in him was strengthened. Simple, but profound. Next, we were about to leave and my cousin discovered he had lost his small pocket knife – the one his mom told him not to bring. So now we knew what to do and circled up and prayed again – within a few seconds of the prayer concluding the knife was recovered! ii. For us, simple, but profound in building our faith. What would it be for you do you think? What specific method would God use to engage you today? 2. For Abram – it was not earthward in a sea of sand but for him it was skyward that God had him look and the result was belief in the LORD. v6 “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” a. This is at the center, at the core, of our ChrisIanity. God told him what would happen and then showed him in a manner that he could plainly understand and his response was belief in the LORD. His response was belief in the LORD. NoIce, the LORD then took acIon, and credited it or counted it to him as righteousness. Amazing – he didn’t necessarily do anything, though he had by leaving Ur and by leaving Haran, by pursuing Lot, by making statements of faith and so forth. And Abram will do more in the chapters to come but he was deemed righteous here in our passage based on his belief in the LORD. i. One commentary I was studying in preparaIon for preaching this week put it this way. “Here first, the full importance of faith comes into view. Here also, first, the reckoning of righteousness corresponding therewith. From this point onward, both fundamental thoughts run through the holy scripture. The future of the Evangelical church was prepared on that night. It was the one peculiar blooming hour of all salvaIon by faith.” (Lange, Schaff, Lewis, & Gosman) 4 1. Faith and righteousness and their corresponding link. ii. As this commentator stated this couplet runs through the Scriptures. 1. Paul in Ro 4:1-5 “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was jusDfied by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gi" but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who jusDfies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,…” 2. Further down in the passage Ro 4:23-25 “But the words “it was counted to him” were not wriUen for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our jusDficaDon.” iii. Dear friends this is where we must conInue to return, to our faith in Jesus Christ. For the gospel, the good news, is that though we have nothing of value to bring, no maLer how good or how bad we may think we are – nothing can compare to the perfecIon of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lived the perfect sinless life in order to offer it in exchange for our life. We, like Abram, need only to believe in the work of Christ, and we will have his righteousness credited to us. This is what it means to be jusIfied by faith. We are made right before God based on what Christ has done for us because we could never do it. To think otherwise is to deny the good work of the Lord – of course we cannot – for we have the gib of eternal life only through the blood of Christ. 1. Ro 10:8-13 ““The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved...” Transi)on: This is what it means to trust in the promises of God. We converse with him and he communicates with us. He meets us where we are and communicates in such a way that we can respond to him. The remainder of the passage is a good reminder that though we believe, though we respond to God in faith, we, like Abram are oben leb in awe as we Watch God Take the Lead. Watching God Take the Lead (vv7-21) 1. I absolutely love how this passage unfolds. The conversaIon doesn’t stop when we get to the place where Abram believes the LORD. God conInues to give more to Abram and to his promised offspring. It may not readily jump out at us but the LORD begins what would be the preamble to a covenant. In the days of Abram, a sovereign ruler would oben make a covenant with a subordinate to work out their arrangement in a binding way. This is known as a Suzerain – vassal treaty. v7 “And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”” Here now is how it begins – the Suzerain or the superior in the relaIonship states since I have done such and such for you lets bind ourselves together by a treaty. This is the preamble if you will. Then the subordinate, in this case Abram says v8 “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” a. Do you see the back-and-forth aspect of the setup to the covenant? This was understood and again – God is so good to communicate with Abram in a way that he recognizes. Because if you think about it, God already gave his word to Abram – that was more than sufficient to seLle anything regarding a deal with God. He said it! He would do it! 5 i. But he gives more and does so in such a way that we can understand it beLer too as we study the treaty – grace upon grace conInues to be revealed in the book of Genesis as we are learning more about the Creator God. b. The back and forth I menIoned conInues – God tells Abram in v9 to set up the covenant elements. To take the animals, slaughter them and arrange them for the ceremony. 2. v10 “And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.” a. Here each carcass is arranged so the halves meet their neighbor and a pathway is made between them for the parIes to walk through. We read in Jeremiah 34:18-19 the significance of the arrangement. i. The gory aspects of the arrangement is meant to signify the binding nature of the agreement that is made. Basically, let it be done unto me as it was done to these animals if I transgress the covenant we have made together. b. Abram arranges it all, and waits, he does what is right in v11 when real life happens. For he drives away those vultures and birds of prey that descend upon the scene to undo what he has set up. Abram drives them away. He has arranged the covenant elements; he has protected it – and that is preLy much the extent of what Abram gets to do as the LORD works in his mysterious way as we get into the remaining verses of the chapter. 3. v12 “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.” Darkness is now present for the remainder of the chapter v17 reiterates that the sun had gone down. a. MaL 27:45-54 As Jesus hung upon the cross darkness fell over everything, the curtain in the temple was torn, the earth shook, and rocks split, and those present were willed with awe. b. Is 6:3-5 Isaiah was brought into the presence of the LORD where the foundaIons shook and Isaiah can do nothing other than cry out “Woe is me!” c. Even though everything was set for two parIes to commit themselves to the covenant the LORD takes over in a manner that is truly gracious. He takes the lead in a most obvious and helpful way as Abram is overcome by a dreadful and great darkness. d. vv13-16 “Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land...” i. The LORD graciously proclaims a prophecy about what is going to happen. ii. The LORD also reveals how his jusIce is reserved for the proper Ime, both for Egypt and for Canaan. 1. This puts Joshua’s conquest of the land in a more helpful perspecIve (one area oben criIcized by people I talk with about ChrisIanity) e. Words of tremendous significance in the metanarraIve of the Bible are spoken by the LORD and he conInues on from there to do even more. vv17-18b “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land...” i. Ex 13:21-22 The LORD went before them a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day led the Israelites in Exodus ii. Ex 19:18 Mount Sinai wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. Conclusion 6 This, my dear friends, is Almighty God at work. He is tender and merciful while being dreadful and downright earthshaking with his might. He knows you beLer than you know yourself and he wants a close relaIonship with you. He is never far away – he iniIated a conversaIon with Abram at the beginning of our passage. He welcomed Abram speaking plainly to him about his concerns. The LORD leads us in this manner – drawing us closer to him so that as he speaks through his word, we recognize it for the truth that it is – and we believe the Word of Life (1 Jn 1:1). Amazingly here at the end of the passage we see that it wasn’t Abram and the LORD who bound themselves to this covenant but rather it was our gracious Heavenly Father who bound himself to the covenant knowing that every human, prone to wandering, would be subjected to the severity of judgement due them for transgressing. So, the LORD took the lead, of course it was always his, and he bound himself to uphold the covenant to fulfill the promises made to further his plan of redempIon through Abram, to bring jusIce upon the iniquity of the Amorites and the naIon afflicIng Israel, and to give the land to Abram’s offspring. Abram conversed with God, he believed God’s promises, and he could do nothing other than watch God take the lead. This is why from this passage I urge you brother, I urge you sister, I urge you young and old to Converse with God, for his desire is for you, and your belief in him will yield a righteous reward.