god confirms his promise - genesis 15:7- 21
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God Confirms His
Promise
The Abrahamic Covenant
Genesis 15: 7-21
When God Confirms His Word
Genesis 15:6 (NIV)
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to
him as righteousness.
Even the Man of Faith Needs a
ReminderGenesis 15:7-21 (NET)
7 The LORD said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
Genesis 12:1–3 (NET)1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”
Even the Man of Faith Needs a
ReminderGenesis 15:7-21 (NET)
7 The LORD said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
He needed a reminder:
Of who God is : Yaweh-God of promise and covenant
from where he was called
to what he has been promised
Without constant reminders we fall into doubt.
Even the Man of Faith Needs
Confirmation8 But Abram said, “O
sovereign LORD, by
what can I know that I
am to possess it?”
Has God not told him?
It has been over a
decade and Abram has
doubts.
Genesis 13:14–16 (NET) 14 After Lot had departed, the LORD
said to Abram, “Look from the place where you stand to the
north, south, east, and west. 15 I will give all the land that you
see to you and your descendants forever. 16 And I will make
your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone
is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants
also can be counted.
God’s Word is Made Binding
9 The LORD said to him,
“Take for me a heifer, a
goat, and a ram, each
three years old, along with
a dove and a young
pigeon.” 10 So Abram
took all these for him and
then cut them in two and
placed each half opposite
the other, but he did not
cut the birds in half.
God makes his Words
binding in a Covenant
(legal contract) with
Abram.
In Abram’s day, legal and binding agreements were not drafted
by attorneys and then signed by the parties involved. Instead,
legal agreements were formalized by means of a very graphic
covenant ceremony: the dividing of an animal sealed the
covenant. The animal was cut in half and the two parties would
pass between the halves while repeating the terms of the
covenant. By doing so, the two parties were stating, “If I fail to
fulfill my commitments to this covenant, may I suffer the same
fate as this animal” "Fear Factor" (Genesis 15:1-21)
By: Keith Krell from Bible.org
Jeremiah 34:18–20 (NET)18 I will punish those people who have violated their
covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they
cut in two and passed between its pieces. I will do so
because they did not keep the terms of the covenant they
made in my presence. 19 I will punish the leaders of
Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and
all the other people of the land who passed between the
pieces of the calf. 20 I will hand them over to their
enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will
become food for the birds and the wild animals.
They Oppose God’s Contracts
11 When birds of prey
came down on the
carcasses, Abram drove
them away.
The birds are an evil
Omen. They are a
symbol of those
opposing God’s
Covenant.
There is always
Opposition to God’s
Covenants.
Even the Faithful Fear
12 When the sun went
down, Abram fell sound
asleep, and great terror
overwhelmed him.
(ESV) 12 As the sun was
going down, a deep
sleep fell on Abram.
And behold, dreadful
and great darkness fell
upon him.
Terror:
Was is the darkness?
Was it the presence of
God?
Was it insight into
future?
Abram sleeps. God
writes and seals the
covenant.
God encourages Abram not to
Fear, but brings to Abram fear.
Genesis 15:1 After these things
the word of the LORD came to
Abram in a vision: “Fear not,
Abram! I am your shield and the
one who will reward you in great
abundance.”
God’s Covenant Promise
13 Then the LORD said to
Abram, “Know for
certain that your
descendants will be
strangers in a foreign
country. They will be
enslaved and oppressed
for four hundred years.
Abram Sees the future
and it’s not pretty.
The sevenfold prophecy
for the nation of Israel.
1. You will be strangers in
another country.
2. You will be slaves in
Egypt.
3. You will be oppressed
for 400 years.
God’s judgment is fair
14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.
The sevenfold prophecy for the nation Israel.
4. God will judge Egypt.
5. Israel will come out with many possessions.
6. Abram will not live through this period of slavery.
Why So Long To Fulfill
His Promise?16 In the fourth generation
your descendants will
return here, for the sin
of the Amorites has not
yet reached its limit.”
The sevenfold prophecy
for the nation of Israel.
7. The nation will return
to the land after the
fourth generation.
Why wait 400 years?
The sin of the Amorites
has not yet reached its
limit!
Amorites were
Abram’s allies, but
Deuteronomy 9:4–6 (NET) 4 Do not think to yourself after
the LORD your God has driven them out before you,
“Because of my own righteousness the LORD has brought me
here to possess this land.” It is because of the wickedness of
these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner
uprightness, that you have come here to possess their land.
Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD
your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to
confirm the promise he made on oath to your ancestors, to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Understand, therefore, that it is
not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is
about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are
a stubborn people!
It’s A One-sided Contract
17 When the sun had gone
down and it was dark, a
smoking firepot with a
flaming torch passed
between the animal
parts.
The smoking firepot and
flaming torch
represented the presence
of God, as the pillar of
fire did for Israel.
Point: The Lord passed
between the pieces. In
doing so, He obligated
Himself to fulfill this
covenant. It’s
unconditional
God Defines the Land Promise
18 That day the LORD made a covenant with Abram:
“To your descendants I give this land, from the river of
Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River – 19 the
land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20
Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites,
Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Land Promised to Abram
Israel Has never
possessed the land
promised to Abram. It
is still future.
Applications
Remember:
God is the God of Covenant – His promises are rock solid
Remember where you came from
Remember where God has promised to take you
Believers Sometimes have doubts. Take them to God.
The faithful fear. It’s not fear, but what we fear.
Watch out for the birds of pray that would rob you of the
covenant blessing.
God isn’t finished fulfilling his covenant promises.
Christ’s Covenant with us is founded on God’s Covenant with
Abram.
Believe God’s Promise
John 3:16 (NASB)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
It’s a Contract Made in Blood
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