Abram

If you’re following any Bible reading plan, you are surely reading Genesis in January.  (I do hope you’re following a plan—if not, January is a good time to start!)

Only a few pages in from the beginning of the Bible, we encounter Abraham.  Actually, when we first meet him, his name is still Abram.  If you’re familiar with the Bible, you know that this individual is a crucially important person in the development of God’s plan.  He is important enough to be named 65 times in the rest of the Old Testament after his death, and 74 times in the New Testament.

The promises God made to Abraham are at the core of our faith, a fact plain in all those New Testament passages.  If we share the faith of Abraham, we are heirs of the promises made to him—and this is the heart of the work of Jesus Christ, who is the promised seed of Abraham.  (See Romans 4, Galatians 3 and much of Hebrews 11 for extended explanation.)

All this is well known to most of us, and it’s there in our minds as we read Genesis.  In fact it can be so well known that we just sort of skim over the record of the promises made in chapters 12, 13, 15, 17, 22.  Knowing as we do how the promises work out, we are prone to not taking time to really understand things from Abraham’s own point of view.  The New Testament is emphatic:  Abraham’s faith is the pattern we are expected to emulate.  So we should slow down, and try to get into his mind.

Please open up your Bible and read again Genesis chapter 15, this time trying to see things as Abram saw them.  Many years back (we know from the end of chapter 11 and the beginning of 12), God had promised Abram a lot of offspring, and his offspring would be heir to the literal Promised Land.  Yet here Abram is, now a pretty old man, and he’s childless.

Abram has been uprooted from an urban life and has become a nomad.  Although he is considered wealthy, the wealth has created family problems.  He’s made some mistakes.  But we see God’s view of him in the opening verse of chapter 15.  God appears to him in a vision and says, “Don’t be afraid.”  Which tells us that Abram was afraid.  Then God goes on, “Your reward will be very great.”

Abram really struggles with this.  He knows what he’s been promised—a big family, whole nations, a dynasty of rulers, all the land he has traveled in, and because God has said they were “forever”, he knows that eternal life is part of it.  And he knows he hasn’t gotten any of it.

So he responds to God in this vision, “But I don’t get it.  What are you really going to give me?  It doesn’t seem like any kind of family—I have no kids.”

Don’t we know exactly how Abram feels here?  We too have been given tremendous promises.  And we too have yet to see their fulfillment.  (This is the main point in Hebrews 11.)  Like Abram, we look around and say, “Really, God?  I don’t see it.”

God doesn’t get mad at Abram.  Instead, he invites him outside.  It’s night, and God invites Abram to look up.  You may never have seen the night sky without light pollution, or perhaps you have been privileged to witness the awe-inspiring sight of all those stars.  God says, “That’s what your offspring will be like.” 

He lets Abram contemplate for a moment, then He says, “I’m the one who called you to leave the city, I’m the one who’s been telling you I will give you this whole land.”  I think we can identify with Abram very strongly when he replies, “But how can I know?”

Like Abram, we have the witness of the awesome creation, all those stars and more.  Like Abram we have had communication from God telling us of the promises He makes to us.  And like him, it still gnaws at us:  How can we know?

God’s response occupies the rest of Genesis 15.  God commits Himself in a solemn, binding covenant.  What more can He do?

We’re told that, even just looking at the night sky as God directed, Abram believes what God has promised.  But he still has the question.  “How can I know?”

We believe the promises, but we might still have the question too.  I think this is why (at least one reason why) this exchange is here for us to read and think about.  God’s response to us is much the same as His response to Abram.  He says to us, “I have bound myself in a covenant with you, sealed by the death of my Son.  I will keep my promises.  Raising Jesus is the proof.”

What more can He do?

So the question is, can it be said of us:  “He (She) believed the Lord, and it was counted to him (her) as righteousness.”

Love, Paul