God's Covenant With Abram
1 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 and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
God made a covenant with Abram (later re-named Abraham) hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The covenant was a promise God made to Abram, that Abram’s family would grow to be more numerous than all the stars in the sky and that they would have land. And God sealed that promise. Sometimes we seal promises by shaking hands or signing our names. People in Abram’s day sealed promises by cutting up animals and walking through the pieces. Gross! But God sealed his promise to Abram that way. God, in the form of a smoking firepot and blazing torch walked through the pieces of animals Abram cut.
Jesus was part of God’s promise to Abram, because Jesus was one of Abram’s many descendants. When we put faith in Jesus we become part of his family. And then God’s promise to Abram is extended to us. God promises to bless us and be with us always.
Dear God, Thank you for making a promise to Abram, to bless him and be with him. Thank you for sending Jesus and bringing us into your family. Help us to put our faith in him. Remind us that you promise to bless us in many ways and that you are always with us. We love you. Amen.
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