Long Story Short 4 – Abraham and the Cutting of the Covenant

 

Redemption Church Plano, Tx

Here we are again! Back at Redemption Church in Plano, Tx.  We believe God can use anyone… My name is Chris Fluitt and I believe God has something for us today.

Long Story Short

In week 1 we talked about creation and how sin messed it all up.

In week 2 we talked about 2 brothers, Cain and Abel and how blood is necessary to cover our sin.

In week 3 we talked about Noah, a single man that God used to save the world.

 

There is a common thread that runs throughout your Bible. Do you know it?

John 5:39 (NIV) You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,

#LONGSTORYSHORT #ALLaboutJESUS

 

God used a single man to start fill the world. – Adam.

God used a single man to save the world from the judgment of the flood. – Noah.

Now God uses a single man to bless the world. – Abram.

 

Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV) The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Promise

2 focuses

1. What Abram will do – Go and trust me.
2. What God will do – I will bless you and the world through you.

 

God ALWAYS has a “call to action” and it ALWAYS includes FAITH.

God ALWAYS has a plan to bless you and to bless others through you.

Why Abram?

Why do you think God would approach this one guy and choose him to bless the world?

• Is He the smartest guy?
• Talented?
• Large Tik Tok following?
• Youthful potential?
• Is he perfect and sinless?

Genesis 12:4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

• 75 years old…
• Disobeys God immediately by bringing his nephew Lot.

THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY WHY GOD CHOSE ABRAM. (It is not about Abram as much as it is about God’s goodness.)

And even though Abram breaks the agreement (bringing his nephew) God remains faithful to His promise. God is faithful even when we are not.

Why would God choose you?

• Big brain?
• Talent
• Insta Famous?
• Young and good looking?
• Perfect and sinless?

Just like Abram’s story is all about God’s goodness… your story is all about God’s goodness.

 

Abram & Sarai

Abram and his beautiful wife Sarai begin to travel.

Both characters are important. Sarai is important. Men are not the only ones important to God.

2 quick stories that we don’t have time to fully cover.

1 – Sarai is so beautiful that 2 times Abram worries that someone will kill him and take Sarai because she was irresistibly beautiful. Abram does not do a great job of trusting God in these 2 episodes and ends up lying by telling the kings that he is not married to Sarai.

2 – Abram’s nephew is kidnapped, and the riches of Sodom and Gomorrah are stolen by an army. Abram acts as a general and raises an army of 318 men and goes to war. He defeats the army, rescues lot and all that were kidnapped, and returns all the riches to Sodom & Gomorrah. Abram is blessing…

Covenant Promise – ber-eeth’

God made an unconditional promise to Abram in Genesis 12.

In chapter 15 God makes a Covenant. Last time we talked about the covenant God made with Noah.

A covenant is an alliance, a pledge, agreement.

 

Genesis 15:1-2 (NIV) After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless…

God talks to Abram, and Abram talks back in a blunt way.  “What can you give me… I am childless.”

Abram and Saria have not been able to have children. Abram let’s God know that he is upset about this problem.

How do you think God will respond to such a blunt attitude?

Genesis 15:5 (NIV) He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

God told Abram, I am going to give you children like the stars in the heaven.

Let’s be real – this is impossible.
-Abram and Sarai are old.
-They have never had success in the past.
-They can’t have a single child… how are they to expect to believe a promise of more children than the stars in the sky?

Genesis 15:6 (NIV) Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Without any proof – Abram believed the Lord.  What is another word for believe? FAITH

Can you believe the Lord like Abram? Can you believe in things not seen? Can you believe the Lord when He promises to do the impossible?

Love, Peace, Joy, Salvation, Victory over death, Heaven…

Abram believed and the Lord credited it as RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Abram made mistakes… Abram disobeyed and lied… Abram was a sinner… but God saw his FAITH and credited him with RIGHTEOUSNESS. You can only have God’s Righteousness through faith.

We also make mistakes… disobedient… sinners… but when God sees our FAITH, righteousness is credited to us.

Genesis 15:7-9 (NIV) 7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

God promises Abraham the land of Israel.
Abraham says “How can I know…?”

God asks for these animals… this is how you can trust me?

Genesis 15:10 (NIV) Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other;

Why would God do this?  How does this show Abram that God’s promise is true? What is this supposed to teach us?

CUT in two.

Covenant Promise – ber-eeth’

Ber-eeth’ the Hebrew word for covenant means to CUT. This cutting is symbolic of covenant.

This was an ancient custom that God used to demonstrate his promise keeping. But how exactly does it demonstrate it?

In the ancient custom of “cutting a covenant” someone would make a promise and then cut the animal in half and walk between them.  It was a way of saying, IF I DO NOT KEEP MY PROMISE, MAY I BE LIKE THIS ANIMAL CUT IN HALF.

Genesis 15:17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

What is this?  Again, God is communicating through an ancient understanding. Sometimes we don’t understand the symbols and meaning of scripture, because we are not in the ancient mindset. This is why blood, sacrifice, and the death of animals, are a part of scripture and why it seems strange to us today.

Abram understood it, but we must search a little to understand it.

God himself appears as a smoking pot and a blazing torch and walked between the cut covenant.

The Smoking Pot – Provision
The Blazing Torch – His Presence

If I don’t prove to be a faithful provider – may I be like this cut animal.
If my presence does not walk with you – may I be like this cut animal.

Genesis 15:18 (NIV) On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram

 

Fast forward – God himself changes the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah.

Abraham & Sarah

God makes it clear that his covenant promise is with both Abraham and Sarah.

Fast forward some more and Sarah and Abraham finally have a son.

Sarah was 90!  Abraham was 100! They name the son Isaac.

Isaac the Son of Promise

This is a miracle and the fulfillment of God’s promise.

This is the continued promise of the offspring of Eve who would defeat the devil. (Genesis 3:15)

So, what does God tell Abraham to do next?

Genesis 22:2 (NIV) Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  Why would God do this?

This is hard to understand, but God is always trying to show us something.

Abraham and Isaac travel up the mountain…

 

Genesis 22:7-10 (NIV) 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

The same God who promised Abram was now asking him to climb a mountain.
The same God who covenanted with Abraham and promised him offspring, was asking him to trust him with the life of his only son.

Abraham lifted the knife…

Genesis 22 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Abraham’s son was saved by a ram/lamb who had thorns on his head. Who does this remind us of?

#LONGSTORYSHORT #ALLaboutJESUS

Jesus said these scriptures testified of him.

Jesus is the Father’s only son who offered himself as a sacrifice.
Jesus is that son who had thorns on his head and was our sacrifice.

Mount Moriah is at the city of Jerusalem… the same city where Jesus died on a cross on mount called Calvary/Golgotha.  Many people think that Calvary is the same location as Mount Moriah.

This whole story was meant to point us to the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus died in our place.

 

Covenant and Covenant Breakers

All the Bible can be seen through this idea of God’s Covenant and our inability to keep His covenant.

Adam & Eve could not keep the simple command… and they should have died… but God spared them and sacrificed an animal (CUTTING OF THE COVENANT) and covered their nakedness.

Adam & Eve were covenant breakers… But God remained true.

 

Mankind sinned so greatly that God sent a flood, but God found someone named Noah to make a covenant with, and when Noah got off the Ark he cut a covenant with God.

Noah and his family weren’t perfect, they made mistakes, but God remained true.

 

Abraham received a covenant but made mistakes. He made more mistakes than we had time to cover. But God remained true.

 

Remember that the CUTTING OF THE COVENANT is to point at that cut in half animal and declare, If I don’t keep this covenant may I be like this animal.

Did Adam and Eve keep the covenant or did they sin?  They should be doomed.
Did Noah keep his keep the covenant? He should have been doomed.
Did Abraham keep the covenant?  He and his son should have perished.

Did Jesus keep the covenant?  Yes. Only He has.

But what did Jesus do? Jesus became our sacrifice. He took on the punishment of the covenant breaker.

We should have been destroyed, but Jesus instead took on our destruction.

God always keeps his covenant, even when we do not keep His covenant.

God loves us enough to KEEP His covenant, and take on the punishment of covenant breakers.

 

How does that make you feel?

We should spend time thanking Jesus.
 

God ALWAYS has a “call to action” and it ALWAYS includes FAITH.

 

We should believe like Abram believed.
As you pray and worship let’s declare our belief in Jesus… his death, burial, and resurrection.

 

Come to faith today.