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Luke 22:19-20 19 Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it .to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And he did ‘’the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Before the Bible reading I want to give you some background. Last week we covered the Creation and the Fall. This week we have moved forward, past Noah and the Flood. Genesis 10 starts out, “This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.” Genesis 11 starts out with the Tower of Babel and in verse 10 says, “This is the account of Shem.” From Noah’s son, Shem we move forward 8 generations to Abram’s father, Terah. Terah lived with his family in Ur of the Chaldeans which is in modern day Iraq. Terah took his son Abram and Abram’s wife Sarai along with his grandson, Lot, whose father had died and set out for Canaan from Ur. But, we are told when they came to Haran in modern day Turkey they settled there.
Next comes Genesis 12 when God first called Abraham, “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”. Abraham listens and obeys God. Abraham has many adventures throughout Genesis chapters 12, 13 and 14. Now we come to today’s reading.
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” 4 But the word of the LORD came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 Then he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
Gen. 15:17-18 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
God’s Covenant with Abraham
Where we live in Delaware County we can’t see many stars, even on the clearest night there is too much background light to see more than a few of them. I loved it when my family used to visit friends in Fulton County who lived way out in the country. No other houses around. They had a big field and we could go out in the field and look up and see so many stars. Have you ever gone out on a clear night and looked at the stars? I think most of us have. Ever try to count them? It’s impossible isn’t it? I think it must have been a clear, moonless night when God brought Abraham outside to look at the stars. Abraham, actually this is before God changes his name so he is still Abram, has been doubting God’s promise.
To understand what Abraham is doubting we need to go back to Genesis 12 when God first called him, “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
“Go from your country and your kindred.” That must have been a scary proposition for Abraham. Leave everything you know, leave your father and all your family except for your wife and your nephew. On top of leaving everything, Abraham was also venturing off into the unknown, to a land God would show him. He didn’t even know where he was going. No map, no GPS, God would let him know when he got to his destination.
That’s a lot to ask of anyone yet most of us face this at some point in our life. We leave our family and move off on our own. We marry and commit our lives to another person. We face old age and death. I remember when I helped my father move into a retirement home. He left his house of over thirty years, most of his possessions and moved into a single room. He went into an unknown future.
Abraham listened to God and he left. When Abraham reached Canaan God again promised the land to Abraham’s descendents. Listen to Genesis 13:14-16. 14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.”
Twice God has promised Abraham land and offspring. Abraham could see the land but he had a problem when God spoke of his offspring. Back in Genesis 12 we are told that Abraham took a wife and the name of his wife is Sarai. Verse 30 says, “Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.” Abraham was already 75 when he left Haran. A number of years have passed, he and Sarah are even older and still no child has come. How is God going to make a great nation of Abraham, how will his offspring be like the dust of the earth if there is not even one child yet? Can anyone blame Abraham for doubting God? Sarah’s barrenness mocked their hope of a future. Have any of us ever doubted God? Think of our own hopes and our fears. Has there been a time in our lives when promises have been broken? Where are our places of barrenness and disappointment? What present reality keeps us from being able to hope?
When everything is going well it is easy to believe God’s promises. It is in the struggles and trials of life that doubt creeps in. We face unknown futures. Will I lose my job? How long will I be able to stay in my home? Will my disease be cured? What is going to happen to my children, my grandchildren?
God said to Abraham, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your descendents be.” This is what God promised Abraham. Abraham believed God and God reckoned it to him as righteousness. God made a solemn covenant with Abraham. Now some of what happens in these verses is downright weird. What’s with cutting the animals in half? Why does the smoking fire pot and the flaming torch pass between the animals? Sounds very strange. Yet none of us would be at all surprised if the owner and the buyer of a house sat down and signed some papers and the buyer of the house became the owner. We are all familiar with sports stars who sign a contract. Well, strange as cutting animals in half and walking between them may sound to us that is how a covenant, a contract, a promise was made in Abraham’s time. God swore to Abraham that he would have descendents as numerous as the stars and his descendents would possess the land. God fulfilled His covenant with Abraham.
God made another covenant with Moses and the people after God rescued them from the Egyptians. God gave them the law to follow. Most of the rest of the Old Testament describes how time after time the people turned from God and broke the covenant. They were called back to God and would follow for a time but again and again they turned to idols. God sent the prophets to call the people back. It is in Jeremiah that we first hear of the new covenant to come.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 31 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt– a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The new covenant has been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Speaking of Jesus Hebrews 9:15 says, “15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.”
There are times when belief can be hard. We can struggle with unbelief. Listen to Mark chapter nine. A man brought his son to the disciples because the boy had a dangerous spirit but the disciples weren’t able to help him. Jesus said, “All things can be done for the one who believes.” “Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24) I know I can identify with that verse. I know I believe, I know I have faith but sometimes I just don’t think I have enough. Sometimes we need reassurances. This is what God gave to Abraham when he doubted; God reassured him that God’s promises were true; He made a covenant with Abraham. Yes, it seems strange to us with the cutting animals in half but that is how a covenant was made in those days. Abraham would have understood exactly what God was doing and it would have reassured him.
What about us? How do we receive reassurance? Sometimes God reassures us as we pray. We can turn to all the wonderful promises in scripture and be reassured. Our reading from Luke described the Last Supper. During it Jesus inaugurated communion, the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said, “This is my body which is given for you. This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” The new covenant comes to us through Jesus, through His sacrifice. Jesus was crucified, He died and God raised Him from the dead. Every time we participate in the Lord’s Supper we can be reassured that God has made a new covenant with us. Not a promise of land or descendents. No, something much better. God has shown us His love for us through the death and resurrection of His Son. God has promised to be with us in this life through the Holy Spirit and has promised us eternal life.
Yes, we all face an unknown future. Where is God calling us to go as individuals and as a church? What changes are coming? We don’t know for certain. This is a time to be like Abraham. Follow God into the unknown. Trust that God has a future for us and for our church. Let us pray.