Reading: Genesis 15, 17
Introduction
Two lessons ago we learned how God established a covenant relationship with all of his creatures. He promised to preserve his creation, and never again to use full scale destruction to destroy evil. Rather, God was going to start a counter-offensive by building his own Kingdom.
Then we saw how the biblical story presented two stories to show how (once again) humans messed up God’s work. First: a renewed outbreak of sexual perversity and selfishness, leading to God’s curse for Canaan. Next: another rebellious uprising against God’s government. God responded to it by scattering the people across the face of the earth. Both stories set the stage (provided an introduction) for God’s calling Abram, promising him great blessings in order to build the City of God!
From the start, however, we must realize two things:
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* The fulfillment of God’s promises to Abram is going to take a long time. His whole life Abram must learn to trust God and exercise patience. In fact, at the end of his life there is hardly any evidence that God actually fulfilled the things He promised. Yet, Abram had learned to appreciate God’s way that timing would be God’s decision. (Hebrews 11: 13 – 16)
* God promised Abram a great name, nation, and people. Yet, the ultimate purpose would not be to build a kingdom for Abram, but to restore the Kingdom of the God of Abraham!
God has patience
Notice the literary pattern of chapter 15. God comes to Abram with a restatement of his promises (first focusing on offspring, then focusing on the land). In both cases Abram wants to believe, but he expresses his difficulty to do so. God has patience with Abram; he hardly knows God. So, when Abram voices his concerns about offspring, God makes an astonishing confirmation: Look at the stars in the night sky! They provide a good picture of the millions-multitude that is to be your (Abram’s) offspring! If you live in China’s big cities or humid climates, you may never have been able to stand in awe when looking at the night sky, but residents of China’s western provinces will not be surprised that there are millions of stars that can be seen from the earth.
In a 2003 website (http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s910295.htm) we can read, “The universe contains about 70 sextillion - or 70 thousand million million million - observable stars, according to the most accurate estimate yet made of the number - a figure that far exceeds all previous estimates. The calculation was made by a team led by astronomer Dr Simon Driver of the Australian National University in Canberra and announced this week at the 25th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Sydney.” Although the unaided eye today can see less than 10,000 stars, it may well be that in Abram’s days people could see a million.
When Abram shares his doubts about inheriting the land (for his offspring), God initiates a covenant cutting ceremony as official confirmation of this covenant relationship.
Cutting and the Covenant
In the original (Hebrew) language, the Genesis text does not say that God made a covenant, but rather that God cut a covenant. In fact, these chapters about God’s covenant with Abram (and his offspring) are full of “cutting” language.
Look at the covenant ceremony: Abram has to cut three animals into halves. Apparently, this kind of ceremony was used in that place and time for important pacts or agreements between two parties. Together they would walk through the blood in the midst of the cut up animals. They promised to be blood-brothers in full commitment and faithfulness to each other. As they walked the path of blood, they would demonstrate this commitment: If I cut myself off from you (by breaking my promise), then my body may be cut up and my blood may flow like these animals!
In chapter 17 we read that God institutes a special sign that must remind Abram’s offspring of the God who cut a covenant with them. Every male was to have a small ring of flesh cut from his sexual organ. This circumcision ritual had to take place on the eighth day after birth, and it was to remind men of their bond with God, who would be their God through all generations!
The Cost of Covenant Breaking
As we read through chapters 12 – 17, we get an increasingly better understanding of the different aspects of God’s covenant. Slowly we begin to grasp the wide extent of this covenant;
first it focuses on Abram, but as we read on, it grows into much greater proportions. Through the son of Abraham God will make Abraham a father of many nations, a multitude of millions!
First we might have thought of a short-term fulfillment, but later we realize that this covenant has implications for the whole world and the full duration of world history!
First the covenant appears to be mostly one-sided. God takes the initiative as he approaches Abram with his promises. Yet, already in chapter 12 we know that Abram is called to respond in trust and obedience. This will, in fact, be a life-long lesson for Abraham! In chapter 17 God makes it clear that Abraham is not done with his side of the covenant. There is a life-long obligation to be blameless before God, and to walk with Him! Furthermore, all future generations of Abraham’s offspring must take care to “keep covenant” in trust and obedience and not to “break covenant” by following other gods.
The rest of the Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that Abraham’s offspring did break covenant most of the time. If it depended on Abraham’s offspring, nothing would have materialized of the great nation that God had promised to build. Yet, even though most of Abraham’s offspring cut themselves off, God made sure that his plan and promise could not fail!
In the covenant ceremony, described in chapter 15, we see how God cuts a covenant with Abraham and his offspring. If Abram’s children were to fail this relationship, clearly they would deserve to die! Yet, God himself secures the covenant when he does not let Abraham walk the path of blood! God himself - represented by fire and smoke- united yet separated, walks the path of blood. We now understand that
God would ultimately pay the price. God would send his Son to be the Son of Abraham, and this man would pay the price of guilt upon the children of Abram and all humankind. This man’s body would be broken, and his blood would have to flow! Today, millions remember how this has happened: “Christ’s body, broken for us... Christ’s blood, shed for us... “
Father of Many Nations
Abram received a new name. This was meant to signify God’s promise. Abram meant “exalted, honored father”, but Abraham means “father of many nations (or people groups)”! Notice that Abraham already had a son, Ishmael. Yet, although this son of Abraham would also be blessed, he would not be the source of ultimate blessing ‘for all nations’. Sarah herself, although biologically too old to have any children, would be the mother of the promised “son of Abraham”.
Abraham did become father of many people groups. Ishmael became the father of the Arabs, Isaac became the father of the Jews (from whom Jesus came forth), and still others are listed in the first verses of chapter 25. Even today we see three major people groups, claiming to be “the” children of Abraham: the Arabs (through Ishmael, whom they claim to be the true son of God’s promise); the Jews (through Isaac, according to the books of Moses); and the Christians through Jesus Christ (who is proclaimed by the New Testament as the true Son of Abraham) through whom all God’s promises are and will be fulfilled!
Only by knowing the Book of Genesis can we understand the root cause for so much unrest, warfare, and bloodshed in the Middle East! Only by reading Genesis can we understand the anger and frustration that is often shown by Jews when we claim that Jesus Christ (whom they had murdered for his blasphemous teaching that he was God) is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, and that through him God’s blessings are poured out on all nations (these ‘nations’ are the very foreigners whom they traditionally looked down upon as people who did not know God)!
Children of Abraham
Notice that Matthew’s Gospel starts by stating that Jesus is the Son of Abraham. In chapter 3:9 Jesus warns the Jews not to be proud of their Abraham-heritage. God can make stones into children of Abraham. Daniel J. Harrington in “The Gospel of Matthew” suggests that this is a play on rhyming words: God can make ‘bennaya’ (children) from ‘abmaya’ (stones). And in chapter 8: 11 Jesus links himself to the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that through him all people groups of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12: 3).
John 8: 31 – 59 describes a critical conflict between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. Again, the Jews are proud of their heritage: they are the (biological) children of Abraham. Yet, Jesus points out that they do not demonstrate the trust and obedience that Abraham displayed. If they were true children of Abraham, they would be like their father. They would most certainly recognize Jesus as the Son of Abraham and Son of God! Paul makes the same point in his letter to the Romans (chapter 2: 28, 29): A true Jew is not just circumcised in his body; he must be circumcised in his heart and soul. Circumcision and law keeping cannot save anybody, but those who are cut to the heart (see Acts 2:37) in recognition of their guilt before God and then cry out to Jesus as their Savior, they will be saved: they will live forever!
Read Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In chapter 3: 14 he reminds them that God’s promise to Abraham has –through Jesus’ sacrifice- come to the non-Jews (Gentiles: foreigners for the Jews). Paul claims they should not focus on being Jews in terms of circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, and strict adherence to the laws of Moses. Ultimately, there was meant to be only one true “seed” or “offspring, family” of Abraham, that is: those who are united by faith in Jesus Christ! (Galatians 3: 15, 16, 29).
Some churches argue that babies of Christian believers should be baptized too. They also belong to the flock of the Good Shepherd! Indeed, if the young boys in the old covenant received the sign (circumcision), why not the little ones in the new covenant in Jesus Christ? Baptism is no guarantee for salvation, just as many circumcised Jews never made it to the Promised Land. Even though they had been ‘baptized’ in the Red Sea, yet they perished in the desert.
Other churches emphasize that the nature of the covenant has changed. In Old Testament times all Jews were included in the covenant because they were Abraham’s offspring. Circumcision was commanded as a sign for all generations. Yet, in New Testament times nobody can claim to be part of the covenant just because some ancestor was a good Christian. A personal decision must first be made before it is a confirmed two-sided covenant.
Food for Thought
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1 Read Genesis 12: 1 – 5. Note that God’s call for Abram to follow him to a land of blessing implies that he must leave many things behind. Abram leaves land, people, and family in order to follow God. How does this relate to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19: 27 – 30?
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2 When Abram (finally) arrives in the land of God’s promise, a serious famine ravages the land. God uses this potentially frustrating and very disappointing experience to teach and train Abram in his life-long course in “Trust and Obedience”. How has God given you frustrating experiences to train and test your trust in Him?
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3 Do Christian men need to be circumcised? This was a serious debate in the young Christian churches, as described in the book of Acts.
Read the following passages before you give your answer: Acts 15:1 – 31.
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4 If the young Christian churches did not baptize their little ones (while they would have been circumcised under the old covenant) why don't we read about any discussions and disagreements going on in these churches on this issue of significant change?
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Caravaggio (1573-1610) The Sacrifice of Isaac
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