Month: July 2022

Genesis 15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, love, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

When the Lord was in the process of ”cutting a covenant” with Abram, He showed up in an awesome presence of Power and Love, Judgment and Mercy. Abram responded with ”a deep sleep” (signifying Death) and with ”a horror of great darkness” (signifying Sin and Evil).

In this solemn covenant God was making with Abram, was experiencing what it feels like to be a sinner in the presence of a Holy God. He felt a horror of great darkness. He was able to see and feel his own sin and evil. We don’t usually experience the terrible horror of darkness that our sin causes, but that was Abram’s response in this pivotal meeting with the Lord. Abram also experienced death caused by his sin when a deep sleep fell upon him. We only die once, but the fear of death, the presence of death, the certainty of death, and the reminders of death are with us always.

After that experience, God made a unilateral covenant with him and repeated His promise of seed (Jesus) and land (kingdom). Grace is amazing after we are convicted of sin, evil, and death. For this reason we hear the Law with its judgment and death; then we appreciate the Gospel with lis salvation and life.

Genesis 15:8 And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

The Lord just reiterated His Covenant Promise by reaffirming who He is, what He did, and what He will do: ”I am the Lord. I brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees (Babylon, the World, the cursed life), I will give you this land to inherit (the kingdom of God, eternal life).” Abram’s response was once again typical of all humans: “How will I know?” He wanted a sign, a confirmation, some tangible evidence.

Even though Abram believed the Lord, he still asked for a visible sign to reinforce his already God-given faith. God responded. He was gracious to give a sign. He would make a unilateral covenant with Abram. ”Covenant cutting” was done by cutting animals in half and laying the pieces side by side. Then the two parties would walk together between animal halves, and thus each would bind himself to keep the terms of the covenant. This was a graphic way of shaking hands or signing a document. Thus each one was bound to keep his promise to the other.

However, in this case only one party passed through the pieces, and that was the Lord Himself only. The Lord was the smoking pot and the flaming torch. Abram did not pass through; he only watched. This was a unilateral covenant, an unconditional promise binding God to keep His Word, with no conditions placed upon mankind. Faith is the recipient of the guarantee. We do not make a promise; we watch.

God granted Abram’s request for a sign by graphically making this one-way covenant. That was “how he could know.” God keeps His promise to us at the cross and the empty tomb. He is gracious and kind to ”cut a covenant” with us in Baptism and Holy Communion. ”This is the blood of the new covenant shed for you.” We watch and we receive. This is how we can know that we will inherit the kingdom.

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him as righteousness.

The word of the Lord came to Abram in verse 1, but Abram questioned God and doubted. The Lord responded to Abram’s unbelief: ”the word of the Lord came unto him” a second time. He contradicted his doubt with the promise again: ”No, your servant is not your heir, but your heir shall come from your own body; indeed, your seed shall be as the number of the stars.” This time Abram’s response was faith: ”he believed in the Lord.” This was the response the Lord was seeking.

Through the very words of the Gospel Promise faith is engendered. This belief had to be a miraculous work of God the Holy Spirit. To the human mind what God promised was impossible: he and Sarai were old and barren and yet they were to have as many children as the stars! And Abram believed that! This kind of “impossible” faith could only have been worked in him by the Spirit of God.

This was now the third and fourth time the Lord appeared to Abram and spoke the Promise, He believed and obeyed the first and second time, doubted the third time, but believed unto righteousness the fourth time. Abram is righteous! Paul quotes this verse in the NT to make it clear that faith, not works, makes us righteous. Believe the Gospel: you are counted as righteous.

Why did Abram doubt God the first time He spoke in this chapter? And why did he believe the second time? Why? First, humans always doubt and misbelieve, and second, God’s Love overcomes unbelief and creates faith. And since faith and doubt are often mixed in our hearts, the persistent love of God comes to speak His Gospel to us again and again. For this reason we are moved to go to church every week, to hear again, to believe again, to be forgiven and saved again. Renewed faith keeps life going and growing.

Genesis 15:2, 3 And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, one born in my house mine heir.

Once again the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. The Lord told him, ”I am your shield and reward.” This Word from God was meant to strengthen his faith in God’s Covenant Promise and encourage him while he waits.

However, Abram’s response was doubt and unbelief, questioning God’s faithfulness and promise-keeping, ”How long, O Lord?” Abram was ready to take matters into his own hands and do in a worldly way what God wasn’t doing. ”You haven’t given me any kids, so I will have to make my servant my heir.” He was finding a fleshly, worldly solution to fulfill God’s promise by his own reason. In essence, he was blaming God and accusing the Lord of unfaithfulness.

Abraham believed God. That’s not in doubt. But impatience was causing him to doubt, for doubt is ever lurking underneath our faith. The Holy Spirit grants us pure faith through the Gospel, but our sinful, self-willed, human flesh remains alongside our God-given faith. Unbelief still wars against belief, impatience against patience, self-will against God’s will. If fulfillment, answers, comfort, and a good life still seems a long way off, doubt and unbelief rears its ugly head, Then the peace and joy of God’s life is diminished. Even Abraham, the paragon of faith, had his moments. But God is faithful to His Promise.

Genesis 14:20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies inti thine hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Four kings from the east had attacked five kings from the Sodom area, and they took Lot and his goods captive. When Abram heard this, he armed 318 of his servants, attacked the army, and rescued Lot and all the captives and plunder from the invading enemy army. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God, brought bread and wine, prayed for Abraham, and blessed Him. Abram’s response to this salvation miracle of God was to give the priest of God ten percent of all the goods he had plundered. The tithe was a way of giving thanks to God for His miraculous deliverance from his enemies. He could not give God physical goods, but he could give it to His priest, so the Lord can carry on His work in the world.

By the miracle of the substitutionary death and the violent resurrection of the Son of God, the Lord has rescued us, who were taken captive by our enemies, Sin, Death, and the Devil. Our proper human response to God’s great gift of deliverance is thanks and worship. And in thankfulness and praise we are more than happy to give a tithe of all our goods and blessings to the church for God’s work.

The tithe was not yet a law for Abram, nor is it a requirement for NT Christians. However, it is a good example of a tangible way to respond in faith to the Amazing Grace of our Lord’s Deliverance and Salvation. And when we really believe and see what we we have been saved from and saved for, we tithe.

Genesis13:18 Then removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.

After Abram and Lot separated, the Lord appeared again to him and Blessed him again by repeating The Promise of blessing and seed and land. Abram’s response to the Lord’s reaffirmation of His Covenant Promise was to believe God. He moved his tent to the center of the Land of Promise, and there he built an altar unto the Lord.

To build an altar means to thank God for His promise and to worship Him, but especially, to believe the Lord and receive His Word. He did not build the altar to try to please God and appease Him in order to get something from God, that is, to try and move the god to do something good for him. He did not use prayer and devotion, or even sacrifice, to manipulate God. Abram built the altar after the Lord appeared to him, spoke a word of promise, made a unilateral covenant, and did something good.

This is always our response to the Gospel: we believe: we receive the covenant blessings and the gift of eternal life; we worship: we praise Him as our only God and our only good; we thank: since the Lord does it all, the only thing left for us to do is live lives of thanksgiving in every attitude, word, thought, and behavior; we sacrifice: we gladly give up our own time, effort, resources, and lives in the service of others. (“God does need your service, but others do.” [Luther].)

We respond to the Gospel Promise by ”building an altar” wherever we are and wherever we go. John 4:23: ”True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”

Genesis 13:7-9 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

God had blessed Abram, and Lot. for he was with him. Verse 6 says,”Their substance was great.” The grace of God was with Abram, and He blessed him with and abundance. They had so much substance that the land was not able to bear them, so that they could not live together. Strife arose between the two households. Riches does not bring happiness and contentment, as the false promises of the world would tell us. (Peace with God does.)

The Lord had blessed Abram and Lot and and all their hired hands. Sinners, being sinners, respond to God’s grace and blessing by fighting and quarreling with one another, even (or maybe especially) within families. One self comes into conflict with another self in any human grouping. Sinners have a hard time defusing strife and conflict by giving, sharing, and sacrificing for others.

Abram responds to the strife by trying to be a peacemaker, since he has peace with God because he believes God. His offer is selfless, giving Lot the right to choose first which way to go, right or left. (As it turned out, Lot was tempted by the pleasures of the world and made a bad choice, ending up in the midst of the godlessness of Sodom.)

When God graciously grants material substance we may respond with peace in place of strife, with giving in place of taking, with thanks in place of complaining. Faith in Christ makes life better. Striving makes life bitter.

Genesis 13:4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on name of the Lord.

The Lord had once again blessed Abram with protection and provision during his sojourn in Egypt. In spite of Abram’s full trust in the Lord, the Lord showed His faithfulness to His Covenant Promise. God responds to His grace; He does not respond to our faith or lack thereof. God delivered Abram because of His faithfulness to His promise, not because Abram earned it or because he had great faith.

So also it is with us. The Lord saves us, delivers us, and answers our prayers because of Grace. It is because God is good, kind, merciful, loving, giving, and faithful to His Word that He hears us and meets our needs. It is not because we have a strong faith, a sincere confession, or a fervent prayer that He hears and saves. It is because God is faithful. God does not shut us out or stop His love because of our weak faith. His love is relentless because of Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord.

Faith is the response to Grace. Faith receives the free gift. Faith comes after God acts, saves, and delivers, not before. Abram responded to God’s grace, faithfulness, and deliverance by believing, worshiping and thanking the Lord. He returned to the altar at Bethel.

Genesis 12, 13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

When there was a famine in the land, Abram took Sarai to Egypt to sojourn there. He was afraid of the Egyptians: he feared that if they thought she was his wife they would kill Abram to take the beautiful (at the age of 70!) Sarai. So he told Sarai to lie and say she was his sister. ”Do this: lie to save my life.”

Abraham believed the Lord’s promise, provision, protection and blessing; he trusted God to provide during the famine. But he still had a lapse of faith. He was not able to believe that the Lord would keep His promise. His fear of God was replaced by a fear of man. He resorted to sin; he resorted to trusting in himself and his own worldly ways. He feared for himself, not for his wife, showing how self-centeredness leads to sin and to lies.

We ”believers” act the same way. We believe in God alright, but unbelief remains. So we take matters into our own hands, and sometimes that results in sin. It’s not easy or simple, or even natural, to ”fear, love, and trust in God above things.” Even the greatest heroes of faith can’t keep the First Commandment.

We recognize the problem, so we say like the man said to Jesus, ”Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” It’s OK to admit you have doubts, if you turn to the Lord for help instead of to yourself. As the story turns out, God’s grace took over; He was faithful to His promise. He sent plagues upon Pharaoh’s house for taking Abram’s wife, and He blessed Abram with protection and provision.

Can we trust the Lord to protect and provide for us according to His promise, and according to our prayers: ”Give us this day…” and ”Deliver us from evil.”?

Genesis 12:7, 8 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

Once Abram was in the land, the Lord appeared to him at Shechem, and He repeated His promise of seed and land. As of yet Abram had neither a son nor did he own any land, but he believed God’s Promise without seeing it. He responded to God’s appearance and promise by building an altar in faith for worship and thanksgiving.

Then Abram moved to Bethel and ”pitched his tent” there as a visible statement of faith. He was a sojourner (a person living in a foreign land not his own), for verse 6 says, ”The Canaanite was then in the land.” In faith he was staking a claim to the promise of God. He expressed his faith by building another altar and calling upon the name of the Lord.

And so for us. We don’t ”see” the promise of land (heaven, eternal life, the kingdom), but we believe, worship, and thank God for it. We are sojourners, not residents, in the world, where the Canaanite (unbeliever) lives, but we set aside holy places and times (build an altar) to worship in spirit and in truth. We respond like Abraham in Hebrews 11:9-10: ”By faith Abraham went (we go) to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents (our human bodies)….For he was ( we are) looking forward to the city that has foundations.” So we build an altar where we are sojourning and call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.