Genesis 15:1-6

(sermon note: 09-15 sermon note)

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.’ 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?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ 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.’ He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a 100-year-old man and his 98-year-old wife who were asked by a group of reporters for their secrets to such longevity. The old man responded, “Oh sure, I’ll tell you my secret. I’ve been married for 75 years and I promised my wife when we got married that whenever we got into a fight, the loser had to walk for 5 miles. So wouldn’t you know it, I’ve been walking 5 miles every day for the past 75 years!” All the reporters applauded and asked again, “But how come your wife is also very healthy?” The old man answered, “That’s another secret. For 75 years, every single day she’s been following me to make sure I really walk the full 5 miles!”

Now I don’t know what’s funnier: the idea that that man lost a daily fight for 75 years or the idea that that woman just couldn’t trust him enough to continually follow through on his promise for 75 years! Either way, old boy had a real problem of picking fights he couldn’t win and being trustworthy. I wonder why in heaven’s name she picked such a “winner” in the first place?! Yikes! I suppose her decision was a clever approach to staying fit her whole life long. So kudos to her I guess! Well, regardless of his rather poor character, old boy did have one redeeming quality: his persistence in keeping a promise. And that isn’t a worthless quality to have. Heck, an entire relationship can be built on that one quality alone! The ability of keeping promises is an important quality to have in any relationship. In fact, without that ability most relationships will fall apart. Keeping promises builds trust and without trust relationships inevitable fail. There are other qualities that are integral to healthy relationships, qualities like truthfulness and faithfulness and loyalty, but promise keeping certainly ranks among the essential qualities of healthy relationships.

We’re pressing along in the book of Genesis this morning having reflected on the temptation of Adam and Eve last week. Our passage exposed us to the 2nd of the 5 great covenants or promises of Scripture. Some years we reflect on the 1st covenant God made with Noah never to try and destroy the world again. But our lectionary jumped over that covenant to the covenant God made with Abram that through him would be a great nation. Recall that God promised Abram back in ch. 12, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (vv. 1-3) Sure enough, Abram took his wife, Sarai, into that foreign land in the hopes of being made into a great nation. Many years passed, and it dawned on Abram, “Wait a sec…God didn’t really explain how He’d make me into a great nation. Am I supposed to conquer this foreign land? Is this foreign land simply going to be given to me? Perhaps he meant that my offspring and I would somehow be entitled to reign over this foreign land. But wait a second, I don’t have any offspring! How is that going to work?!” Abram lived in a time when families and dynasties ruled over lands, and he didn’t have a family. More importantly, both he and Sarai were getting along in age, well beyond child-rearing ages. So naturally, Abram sought clarification on what exactly God meant when He promised to “make [him] into a great nation.” And boy, did Abram get a response! Not only was Abram to be given offspring but he was to be given generations of offspring in multitude like the stars of the sky. What a promise to give to Abram! What a seemingly impossible promise to give to Abram!

But our God is a God of promise. He makes promises and He keeps his promises with the same dogged tenacity as old boy did with his wife. Scripture reveals that our God makes promises, sometimes impossible promises, and tenaciously keeps them. I mentioned earlier that this promise God makes with Abram is the 2nd of five key promises of Scripture. God will go on to promise Moses that Israel, the people of freed Egyptian slaves, would also be a great nation. God then promises David that his descendants would forever reign on the throne over Israel. God finally promises a new reign through Jesus Christ, a descendent of David. Jesus takes the throne forever and ever and we are living under his reign today. So five key promises or covenants: the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the New covenant. Taken as a whole, they reveal our God is a God of promise. And you’ll notice how all five covenants took a considerable amount of time to be fulfilled. The great flood of Noah’s time, the mass exodus out of Egyptian slavery and the wilderness wanderings, the proliferation of Abraham and David’s descendants, the reign of Jesus…these all have taken many years to fulfill which goes to show the mighty magnitude of God and God’s timing. Our God makes promises, seemingly impossible promises, and He always keeps them over time. We can place our trust in God’s promises to us! God invariably keeps his promises!

Of course, we struggle with doubts all the time. We trust in Jesus’ reign, yet we live in a world of great sin and death. How is Jesus reigning today with such sin and death in the world? Again, we must remind ourselves that God keeps his promises and keeps them in his timing. Jesus has reigned for 2,000 years already, who knows what his reign will look like in the next 2,000 years?! God knows and God is faithful. Seek comfort in the assurances of Scripture. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians, “And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (4:19) Paul wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t believe it. Paul experienced it firsthand, God fully satisfying all his needs. Be assured that God provides for you and me! Our God is a good and gracious God who delights in providing for our needs. Peter tells us in his second letter, “Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participant in the divine nature.” (1:4) God promises us an escape from the sin and death of this world through his Son, Jesus Christ…the so-called New Covenant. Paul tells us in his second letter to the Corinthians, “For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God.” (1:20) Friends, Jesus fulfills all God’s promises. In him there is nothing but life and abundance!

So as we reflect on the Abrahamic covenant, let us rejoice that it is a further revelation of a promising God. Of a God who knows how to make promises, even hard promises, and always manages to keep his promises. Let us give thanks for God’s promises and seek to similarly give and keep promises with each other. Thanks be to God!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.