The Covenant

What Makes You Anxious?

Genesis 15:1

1After this, Abram had a vision and heard the LORD say to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward.”

What did Abram have to fear?

God’s Word gives us reassurance:

Hebrews 13:5-6 (GNT)

5 …For God has said, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.” 6 Let us be bold, then, and say,“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.What can anyone do to me?”

Look at God’s promise to us in Genesis 15:1. “I am always your shield and protector.” (voice)

If God is our shield, we have nothing to fear.

Psalm 18:2-3 (GNT)

2 The LORD is my protector; he is my strong fortress.My God is my protection, and with him I am safe.He protects me like a shield; he defends me and keeps me safe.3 I call to the LORD, and he saves me from my enemies.Praise the LORD!

Genesis 15:2-3

1I will…give you a great reward. 2 But Abram answered, “Sovereign LORD, what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus. 3 You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property.”

God sometimes seems to take a long time to fulfill His promises and we can get discouraged and fearful. When fulfillment of God’s promises is delayed we think of lesser possibilities and are tempted to be content with less than God wants to give us.

Abraham did have his doubts from time to time. He got impatient with God and tried to take matters into his own hands, to get what he was looking for. Sound familiar? Do we ever do get tired of trusting in God to come through for us?

Genesis 15:4-6

4 Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: “This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir.” 5 The LORD took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that.”6 Abram put his trust in the LORD, and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him. --------6 And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith. (NLT)

Even the man of faith needed a reminder.

Genesis 15:7 (GNT)7 Then the LORD said to him, “I am the LORD, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”

Without constant reminders we fall into doubt.

Just another good reason to study God’s Word each day.

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)

7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Genesis 15:8

8 But Abram said, “O sovereign LORD, by what can I know that I am to possess it?”

God had told Abram, but it had been over 10 years, and now Abram had doubts.

So, God made his Words binding in a Covenant (legal contract) with Abram.

Genesis 15:9-10

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.

Jeremiah 34:18–20 (GNT)

18-19 The officials of Judah and of Jerusalem, together with the palace officials, the priests, and all the leaders, made a covenant with me by walking between the two halves of a bull that they had cut in two. But they broke the covenant and did not keep its terms. So I will do to these people what they did to the bull. 20 I will hand them over to their enemies, who want to kill them, and their corpses will be eaten by birds and wild animals.

The Covenant

Step 1: Exchange of Robes

Step 2: Exchange of Belts

Step 3: Exchange of Weapons

Step 4: Blood Sacrifice

Step 5: Walk of Death

Step 6: Mark on the Body

Step 7: Pronouncement of Blessings and Curses

Step 8: Covenant Meal

Step 9: Exchange of Names

AbrAHamYahweh

It Was 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.

Point: The Lord passed between the pieces. In doing so, He obligated Himself to fulfill this covenant. It’s unconditional

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

References

God Confirms His Promise-David TurnerAbram, Anxious for God’s Promise –David TurnerFear Factor-Keith Krell