Saturday, October 08, 2005
Genesis 15
Genesis 15
“Just Believe”
Abram has just experience a mighty move of God as he defeated a very powerful army of multiple kings, and rescued his nephew Lot. Now Abram has a vision, and God speaks to him.
Vs. 1
"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." Honestly, it doesn’t get any better than this. God speaks from Heaven directly to Abram. He is going to continue to speak to Abram, but consider the words here.
“I am your shield” says God. I am the One who is your full protection. We so often think about God as the protection we get when we can’t do it ourselves. But that is not what is said here. God tells Abram that He alone is the protection for Abram. He starts off by saying “do not be afraid Abram”. If God is your shield, you have nothing to fear.
“I am…your very great reward.” God gives us great insight into the life of the believer in this statement to Abram. God tells Abram that He is the reward, the prize at the end of the race. I am the end result Abram. All you have to do is realize that I am the best thing that is offered, and I am yours!!!
Vs. 6
“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
This is the needed response from every follower of God, to believe. The early Protestants, as they separated from the Catholic Church, had a common saying, “Faith Alone”. It spoke to the needed response of the follower of Jesus. He/she was to believe, that was their response to all that God had already done for them.
Vs. 8-End
Just because Abram believed, didn’t mean he didn’t have questions, in fact he had many. So he asked God. And, God answered. He had Abram set up an altar, and place animals on the altar as a sacrifice, then God covenanted by walking through the middle of the animals. But the important part here is that God walked through the middle alone.
This is where we get our custom of the wedding seating arrangement. In our wedding ceremonies, we put one side of the family on one side of the church, and the other side of the family on the other. Then the bride and the groom walk through the middle to make a covenant before God and the entire family to be married. The difference is that two people walk through the middle, and two people are responsible for the covenant.
With God and Abram, just like the salvation covenant, only God can walk through the middle. He alone is able to make the covenant, and He alone is able to keep it. We are simply left to believe.
If God is the one who makes the covenant (as He alone walks through), and God is the reward (I am…your very great reward), and God is the protector of the covenant (I am your shield), then we can freely understand that all we can do, or need to do, is to believe, and it will be credited as righteousness to us.
“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
“Just Believe”
Abram has just experience a mighty move of God as he defeated a very powerful army of multiple kings, and rescued his nephew Lot. Now Abram has a vision, and God speaks to him.
Vs. 1
"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." Honestly, it doesn’t get any better than this. God speaks from Heaven directly to Abram. He is going to continue to speak to Abram, but consider the words here.
“I am your shield” says God. I am the One who is your full protection. We so often think about God as the protection we get when we can’t do it ourselves. But that is not what is said here. God tells Abram that He alone is the protection for Abram. He starts off by saying “do not be afraid Abram”. If God is your shield, you have nothing to fear.
“I am…your very great reward.” God gives us great insight into the life of the believer in this statement to Abram. God tells Abram that He is the reward, the prize at the end of the race. I am the end result Abram. All you have to do is realize that I am the best thing that is offered, and I am yours!!!
Vs. 6
“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
This is the needed response from every follower of God, to believe. The early Protestants, as they separated from the Catholic Church, had a common saying, “Faith Alone”. It spoke to the needed response of the follower of Jesus. He/she was to believe, that was their response to all that God had already done for them.
Vs. 8-End
Just because Abram believed, didn’t mean he didn’t have questions, in fact he had many. So he asked God. And, God answered. He had Abram set up an altar, and place animals on the altar as a sacrifice, then God covenanted by walking through the middle of the animals. But the important part here is that God walked through the middle alone.
This is where we get our custom of the wedding seating arrangement. In our wedding ceremonies, we put one side of the family on one side of the church, and the other side of the family on the other. Then the bride and the groom walk through the middle to make a covenant before God and the entire family to be married. The difference is that two people walk through the middle, and two people are responsible for the covenant.
With God and Abram, just like the salvation covenant, only God can walk through the middle. He alone is able to make the covenant, and He alone is able to keep it. We are simply left to believe.
If God is the one who makes the covenant (as He alone walks through), and God is the reward (I am…your very great reward), and God is the protector of the covenant (I am your shield), then we can freely understand that all we can do, or need to do, is to believe, and it will be credited as righteousness to us.
“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
