I woke up recently thinking about God and His covenant with Abraham, or at that time Abram.
The story is found in Genesis 15:1-21 (NASB1995). And it reads…
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
1 “Do not fear, Abram,
I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.”
2 Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8 He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?” 9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. 11 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,
“To your descendants I have given this land,
From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite 20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim 21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
So, I began to think about what I knew about this covenant and what God was trying to show me.
In this part of the word, culturally, when people made a covenant with each other, there was a covenant cutting ceremony. And it meant that each person must uphold their end of the covenant. If not, they would pay for it with their life.
In the Scripture, Abram never walked between the pieces. God walked both ends of the covenant, because He knew Abram could never fulfill his part.
The covenant was not contingent upon Abram’s faithfulness to God, but God’s faithfulness to Abram.
Likewise, Jesus said, “Yes,” to the cross because He knew that we, being born into sin, and now saved by grace, STILL couldn’t perfectly keep the covenant. He paid for it with His own Blood. He sacrificed Himself, so that we would be with Him.
Then I began to think.
Jesus walked between…
Light and darkness
Good and evil
Heaven and hell
Right and wrong
Life and death
Just for us…
He walked between that out-of-control oncoming car and yours
He walked between that abusive relationship and your physical safety
He walked between those unjust people and your reputation
He walked between that situation and your sanity
All for us…
After I had finished pondering why I was hearing about this covenant with Abram, I opened my email and saw a message by Robert Heidler, Living in Covenant with the Lord of the Universe.
Now, I really believe the Lord had them send that email.
I’ll leave the link below if you’d like to hear the message. Robert Heidler made the comment that we really don’t understand covenant and went on the explain it in simplistic detail.
So, we have to ask ourselves…
Are we still trying to be PERFECT for God?
Are we still PERFORMING to be acceptable to God?
Friend, if you know the Lord, we’re already accepted in the beloved.
Remember that God, Himself walked between the pieces for you and me. Staying in covenant with God now that’s the point of purpose. See you next time.
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