How Far Will God Go?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last weekend on Saturday Larissa and I went over to Harrisburg to check out the Fire and Ice festival. Neither one of us were really interested in the ice sculptures, but we love food truck food and trying out new things, plus we haven’t really spent much time in Harrisburg, so we decided to go.
We walked around for a bit, grabbed some food, and even had some free s'mores. We looked at some sculptures and eventually found ourselves sitting and talking. Well, dinner came up in conversation and we wondered what we were going to do. I had sent Larissa a pizza recipe just about a year ago on Facebook messenger and we both wanted it again. So, I searched in our conversation the name of the lady who we were having over for dinner, and within a few minutes I had the recipe.
Chuckling at the ease, I said to Larissa, “I wonder if I could find the messages from when we first started dating.” I had my mission. I spent some time going back and back and back, and I finally found our first few messages to one another. It wasn’t too bad, casual talk, getting to know one another, but as I scrolled along the conversation became gradually more cringy as our written flirtation got more serious and obvious. I read through the conversations out loud and we laughed at each other.
Maybe it’s been a while since you thought about those first few conversations, I think all of us can remember seeing young adults or even teenagers when they first fall in love, or think they are in love.
When I was reading through our conversations all I could think about was two high school kids dating, and someone asking them, “What would you do for her/him?” If you’ve seen any movies with teenagers dating in it, or have ever had teenagers who have dated, you’ll know it can be pretty awkward. In most shows or movies the long haired teenager’s response usually goes something like this...
“I’d literally die for her...”
I laugh at this for two reasons. One, I probably answered that question with the same response at least once in my teenage years, and I laugh because it’s an extreme response.
I couldn’t help but think of all of this though when I was reading my Bible this week. I read over the Genesis text and got to Genesis 15:8. God has just promised to Abraham that he will protect him, that he’ll provide him with descendants as numerous as the stars, and finally that he’ll give him land to possess. It’s here, at the promise of land that Abraham says, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
When I read this I couldn’t help but think of a young girl saying to her boyfriend, “But, how should I know you actually love me?” To which the boy says, “I would literally die for you.” In the shows and movies she would then shriek, run into his arms, and the teenage audience would go “aww I hope this happens to me!”
But, nevertheless, Abraham’s question stuck out to me this week. “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
Abraham is being told a promise from God, and his response is, “okay, but how do I know you’ll actually make it happen?”
Issue in the Bible
Issue in the Bible
That’s the great question that Abraham asks. He wants proof, he wants to know how his problems are going to be addressed and solved. What’s fascinating to me here is that Abraham, known as Abram at this point, already knows quite a bit about God and His promises.
He’d have known about Noah and the flood, he’s already responded to God’s call to “go from your country” and has already been told he’d be made a great nation. Abraham had already been blessed by the priest Melchizedek...
But, when we open up Genesis chapter 15 we see what Abram’s deepest desire and request is. He asks, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless...”
He doesn’t request money, riches, women, fame…but an heir. Someone to be his namesake, to take all that he had when he would die. And, God says, “Look at the stars Abraham, that’s how numerous your descendants will be.” Abraham felt good about this, he believed the Lord.
But the Lord continues on and tells Abraham that he will possess “this land,” being Canaan. And, it’s at this point that Abraham say, “But how will I know? How will I know that I posses it? God, how far will you go to promise this to me?”
At this point, Abraham has a really deep question that he wants the answer to… “Can Yahweh, the Lord, be trusted?” That’s the question that is eating at Abraham. It may have seemed to him more of a possibility of having children than taking over Canaan. How is Abraham supposed to know that God does what is good for him?
Well, God doesn’t say “because I’m God and I said so.” He doesn’t say, “Why do you wonder, how dare you!” He doesn’t even directly Abraham’s question. He says, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Imagine asking God what in the world he is willing to do, what he will do to give you some assurance and he basically says, “My child, bring me a petting zoo.” But, no matter, Abraham does it. And I’ll touch on what God does here in a bit.
Issue in Life
Issue in Life
But, before I do, I have to say that there have been many moments in my life where I have wondered how God will pull through. Many moments where I have found myself asking, “Okay God, but how will I know without a doubt?”
This is a question that believers and non-believers alike ask. Believers ask because they want assurance, while non-believers ask because they want hard concrete evidence that God even exists. But, in either case, we want God to show up, to prove something to us.
We, just like Abraham, have moments where we wonder, “Can God actually be trusted?”
Think over you life, those moments where things were so incredibly hard, or over the moments where you knew how grand God’s promises were… I’m sure each of us have, at one point, thought, “but how will I know, God? How can I be sure?”
Solution in Bible
Solution in Bible
Well, God continues to answer Abraham’s question. So, Abraham brings God all of the animals he asked for and then does something quite bizarre. He cuts them all into two pieces, except for the birds, and lays each side opposite of one another.
Now, unless you are an ancient Near-Eastern person this seems pretty bizarre right...
Well, believe it or not, there is a purpose to this.
After Abraham does this we are told that the sun goes down, Abraham falls into a deep sleep, and a deep and terrifying darkness over comes him. God speaks to Abraham again and then we have verse 17
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
So, we have these animals creating an aisle, and Abraham sees a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between them.
[Explain picture]
Doesn’t this all just sound so strange? Well, allow me to elaborate.
What we are reading is how that culture agreed to terms in a covenant. Essentially, to walk between the slain animals is to say, “If I don’t hold up on my end of the deal, may something like this happen to me.”
Now, take notice here… where is Abraham during this? Is he walking through? No. He’s off to the side, witnessing this happen.
Okay, well who is walking through? A torch and a smoking fire pot. It’s like a weird version of Disney’s Fantasia is happening here in the Bible. But, verse 18 tells us that the Lord has now made a covenant with Abraham.
So, this means that it was God who walked through the animals.
The smoking fire pot and torch all allude to images of God we see later in Scripture.
Smoking oven = God as smoke
Pillar of Cloud in Exodus 13:21-22
21 The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
Smoke on Mount Sinai in Ex. 19:18
18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.
Burning Torch = God’s presence as fire
Again in Exodus 13:21-22
21 The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
Burning Bush in Exodus 3:4
4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
As Abraham wonders and questions how God is going to show him that what God says is going to happen, God creates a covenant with Abraham. A promise. And, through this act, we see God himself saying, “If I do not hold up my end of the deal, let my fate be worse than these animals.”
So, what does Abraham have to do here?
Well, Abraham never walks through the animals. He never seals the covenant deal. God does. Abraham watches as God signs the covenant deal for both of them, taking on the full responsibility. This is a unilateral deal. It shows us that the certainty of the covenant falls on God’s character, based on who God is. Not on Abraham. Thus, this covenant cannot fail.
Abraham asks God, “How can I be sure you’ll do this for me? How will I know?”
And God says, “I am willing to go as far as to destroy myself if I do not do what I have promised.”
How far is God willing to go? To the point of death. Of non existence. God says, I will destroy myself if I do not do what I have promised.
We laughed earlier at kids in love saying they would die for each other, asking each other how far they would go to prove their love… but in all seriousness God says “I love you so much that I am willing to die.” And where do we ultimately see this happen? The death of Christ on the cross.
Solution in Life
Solution in Life
You see, much like the covenant promise that God makes with Abraham, there isn’t a thing we had to do. We do not have to bear the weight of sin, we do not need to die under it. We do not have to strip away the chains by ourselves, and in fact, there isn’t a thing we CAN do.
We are saved solely by faith in Christ.
When we ask the questions, “How far are you willing to go for me, God? How do I know you love me?” we can find the answer right here in Scripture
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
God loves each of us so much that he was willing to die on the cross for you. To take on the weight of sin, the punishment that should have been ours. He loves us so much that he took on the chains of our sin so that we might be freed from it. He broke us from our bondage to sin, all through His Son!
In a sense, the Father walked through the broken and bloody body of Jesus to establish His covenant with us, and God signed it for both of us. We merely enter into the covenant by faith; we don’t make the covenant with God.
God has made the covenant for us, signed it for us, and is ready for us to say, “Yes, Lord, I accept.”
There isn’t a thing in this world that you can do to save yourself, because God has already done it for you.
If you are here this morning and you find yourself struggling with assurance, if you are here and you aren’t sure if you’ve accepted this covenant promise from God, or if you are here and you think you have to do SOMETHING to be saved… I’m here to tell you that Christ has already done it for you.
If you haven’t already, this is the day, this is the time to thank God for the gift he has given us. To thank Him for sending his Son Jesus Christ. If you are ready to thank Him, to accept this covenant promise, come pray with me.
But, I want all of us here to know that whenever we have moments where it feels like God is absent, or that God doesn’t care, or that God expects so much out of us… know that God has done it all for you. All we must do is have faith in his Son.
Amen.