Firm in His Faithfulness

Written by Jacob Hussain, Students Intern

At our November Student Central, Jacob shared with us from Genesis 15, reminding us of how we can stand firm in God’s faithfulness. Take a read of the passage and then the blog post below to hear a consolidated version of the wisdom Jacob shared.

Genesis 15 is quite an unusual passage. It features a bunch of promises God makes to Abram, a few humbling reminders of Abram’s humanity, and a ritual that – let’s face it – is just a bit weird. Though an oft-overlooked passage, however, Genesis 15 contains some of the most profound and important divine truths found in Scripture, and is a sobering reminder of how the Gospel message is woven into the fabric of all Scripture, New Testament and Old.

But first, some context. Genesis 14 tells of an ancient conflict, in which a number of kingdoms ally together to attack the kingdoms of Salem and Sodom. Having stolen a number of resources and people from these kingdoms, Abram discovers that among that captured is his nephew Lot. So, Abram gathers a force of around three hundred soldiers and reclaims all that was taken, rescuing Lot in the process. Upon returning all this, the King of Sodom urges Abram to just return his people, permitting Abram to keep the riches and goods for himself. Abram turns down this offer, lest anyone say, ‘The King of Sodom made Abram rich.’

Genesis 15 opens with a vision, in which God identifies Himself as Abram’s ‘reward.’ It’s not beyond reason to assume Abram was a little disappointed with having turned down the King of Sodom’s offer – after all, he was only one ‘Yes, please!’ away from being an incredibly rich man. Yet God describes Himself as Abram’s reward. In other words, God says to Abram that He is enough, Abram’s payment at the end of his faithfulness. Everything else on top of that is a blessing – an added bonus.

Then God makes two promises to Abram. One is a reiteration of that promised to Abram in Genesis 12:2-3, namely that he will be blessed with many descendants of his own, and Abram accepts it without question. But the second is a somewhat larger promise – God promises that Abram will take possession of a large area of land. And Abram’s response to this is all too relatable:

‘How can I know this will happen?’

Abram desires reassurance that God’s promise will come about. And at this moment, it would be utterly unsurprising for God to rebuke Abram. After all God has done, after all He has shown that He is capable of, Abram still questions His ability to make good on His promises? It seems pretty crazy, pretty…human.

But instead of rebuking him, God calls Abram to prepare this ritual, involving the gathering and halving of various animal sacrifices, laying them on the ground roughly a footpath’s distance away from each other. This is an unusual ritual, one which doesn’t occur anywhere else in Scripture. But, with a vague reference in Jeremiah 34:18, and some extra-biblical sources (thank goodness for those!), the ritual is explained as a way of making covenant between two people.

Basically, two parties would walk between the animal halves voicing out their end of the covenant – the idea being that if either (or both) sides of the covenant violated the terms of their pact, they would share the fate of the animal sacrifices; they would be put to death.

Pretty extreme stuff – then again, it was before the days of the pinky promise…

It seems likely that Abram is preparing this ritual, all the while wondering what God’s expectations of him are going to be – what is Abram going to have to do so that God will uphold His end of the covenant? Abram prepares this covenant, then waits.

We don’t know when Abram starts preparing this ritual, but certainly a period of time passes before anything happens – so much so that Abram has to fend off birds of prey that start picking at the animal sacrifices. Eventually, the sun sets, and Abram falls into a deep sleep.

In this sleep, Abram has another vision. In it, God reiterates His promise to Abram, that his descendants will possess the land God has promised to them. And upon saying this, God proceeds to walk through the animal halves. Himself. Alone.

God doesn’t allow Abram to enter into a balanced covenant with Him – there are no terms and conditions that Abram has to agree to in order for God to be faithful to what He has promised. God puts His life on the line to make His covenant with Abram dependent not on Abram being able to do anything, but dependent only on God being eternally faithful to Abram.

So, what are the takeaways? Firstly, God is our reward. Everything else on top of that is an overflowing of His extravagant love for us. He calls us to be content in Him, not in that new job, or in that car we want – it’s not about looking forward to the next thing that’ll make us happy; instead, God calls us to find our joy and contentment in Him.

Secondly, God’s timing is perfect, and often He calls us to wait. God will always do everything He has promised He will do, but in an immediate world we tend to want everything immediately. Like, right now. In today’s society, we are so used to everything being instant. Deliveries come tomorrow, information is a phone-screen tap away, and if we have to wait longer than usual…well, we’re not happy. God waits till the sun sets before He does anything with Abram, and often we feel like He’s not doing anything because it’s all taking a bit too long. God calls us not to be ‘next-day-delivery Christians,’ but to wait on Him. He will do all He says He will, it’s just up to Him to decide when He’ll do it.

And finally, let’s rejoice! Give thanks to God that He freely and willingly enters into relationship with us, and that He doesn’t allow His love for us to be dependent on anything we could ever do. There’s no standard we have to live up to, no rigid law we need to live by, for God to love us and stay faithful to us. God loves us because that’s just who He is – and that will always be true, no matter what we do. Hallelujah!